Showing posts with label humanity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label humanity. Show all posts

May 11, 2012

satyamev jayate!!

Aamir is an amazing man! I think, I missed the word 'actor' in the last sentence. Obviously, that was for a reason. He could have lived his life without thinking about creating a TV program named 'satyamev jayate'! But, he did. More than that, he didn't just restrict his act by thinking. I am not in the right position to judge his activities, but I see 'greatness' in him. Not a lot of people at his position, would do something he did. I would like to address him as a very 'determined responsible human being'! I'm inspired by what he has done as a social commitment to the country. There might be people who had sacrificed more than he did, there might be people who is still working much harder than what he is doing, but the kind of influence he can make in areas like this will be tremendous. 

I think, there is a reason for such a big praise from my side. Let me expose some personal secrets. I was almost thinking the same thing he is doing right now. 'Make the people see the world!'. It looks like he is doing what I have imagined in my life. When I am at a very high level of ego,self-respect and pride, I used to imagine of things I could have done. That thoughts had a lot of 'what ifs'!( What if I could hire an auditorium and invite people to hear my speech, in which I could explode my thoughts on life, ethics,self-righteousness  and selflessness. ) What Aamir is doing is much more effective( Yeah, no one can survive my ego and pride, as what others call!!). As a citizen of this country, I was disappointed by the way many people and things move around here. I was disappointed by many things I have seen and more than that, I have seen people who are desperately trying hard to hide from those realities. I wouldn't say that being a selfish man is a crime or a little unethical behavior is going to be a crime, but does it really hurt me if I choose to do things which might not come under my responsibilities, but still  I choose to be responsible(obviously, if I could). 


I am not always right and when I watched the first episode of 'satyamev jayate' TV show, I was stunned by hearing the stories of female foeticide in India. I couldn't think of how immature and selfish those people are. I do not think that they can just remove those people from our country, our only choice is to educate them on 'how to love and feel'. I feel pity about them and it must change by any cost. They do not need punishment, they need help. Help to save themselves from their own blind eyes. I honestly, believe that a lot of areas requires this kind of help to get motivated. May be, this program can bring some differences.

I know, there are people who would say that 'we should adapt to our situations'. But, I believe that we are the cause of these situations and sometimes, getting adapted is more like avoiding responsibilities. We have our choice and I believe that Aamir has chosen his. I do not know whether this initiative is going to be a grand success, but I honestly wish if it could. I seriously doubt whether this video will receive as much views as the "kolaveri" song had received. This is not entertainment, an entertainer doing some serious stuff. Life is not always about entertainment, accept it! support it!

Sincerely,

Raghu

January 16, 2012

The god delusion of Richard Dawkins

Recently, I happened to watch a documentary film named "The root of all evil?(The god delusion)" by Richard Dawkins which provoked me to do some criticism on his views of God. I consider myself agnostic because of a fact that I couldn't completely agree with idea of evolution. It is hard to believe that everything we see around are created from some random events. I partially agree with Richard Dawkins for the fact that the today's concept of religion is somehow an evil. Richard Dawkins is actually talking a lot about what a religion has done to our society, but I looked into what a religion could have done to our society. I'm still not sure whether he has thought about what could have happened if there were no religions in this world. Let me take an example from your documentary itself. The example of the kid who accept what he is taught without logical reasoning. Even if we say that we are matured and smart enough to make logical decisions, there is an incompleteness in our knowledge and wisdom. You, me and most of our people might be generous enough to accept the truth that we are somehow ignorant and sometimes, we make illogical decisions. Compared to the ultimate knowledge, we are still ignorant like a child. Religion was trying to make some sense over the chaos of the world, by controlling the children(us). As these controls are implemented by humans, it might tend to have some human philosophies and views(issue of homosexuality can be taken as an example).

In this world, people are different. They have different IQ, attitude, behavior and dreams, but every one of us are supposed to be fair to the one another. We are supposed to have some rules to follow, some order to maintain. The ultimate aim of religions must be something like this. Richard Dawkins were trying too hard to find evidence from religious books. I guarantee you that you won't find any, because there is a possibility that there are much higher intentions for religions in this world. Actually, I want to ask a very simple question. Who are you afraid of the most? If I could live a life with my selfishness and ego, I am pretty sure that I wouldn't be caring anyone else in this world for sure. Religion was just a tool to bring a belief that we are not beyond everything. In my life, I wouldn't do a lot of things because of my belief of self-righteousness. I have faced some criticisms from my surroundings, but I believe that I've almost survived them and not everyone in this world can be like me. There is a huge possibility that my belief of 'self-righteousness' is simply a stupid idea. I might be hurting a lot of people which can't be a good thing. Sometimes, it is easier to hide truth than to explain the complex philosophies and teach what is fair and what is not fair. I support Richard Dawkins, but I couldn't unless all the people in this world start to act fair and logical.. That is why we need to trust in faith.

I'm a hindu by birth. I know hinduism better than any other religion. I haven't purposefully learned any books regarding Hinduism, but I had to hear them as my family is strictly religious. I do not oppose them, but I wish if they were extracting the essence rather than the story. I used to think about the origin of the religion. If I was born in a prehistoric period where there is no concept of god, there is a possibility that I could purposefully introduce the concept of god for a good purpose, which is not true though. I can live with that lie and my followers might forget the reality and slip into a made up story. But, my intention was good and genuine, which is not a bad thing so does the religions of our world. In my land, there were untouchability and many other rituals and beliefs. But, even the man who has learned this thing would accept the fact that those beliefs were implemented by the rulers of the countries.People are blind when it comes to god, so it is very simple to implement such rules. The beliefs and ideas have changed lately and at the present condition, I wouldn't say that they are healthy. The interesting thing is that those books in Hinduism would certainly outsmart my ideas of a religion. I mean, if I had to make up a story of my own to make a belief in people, I would never think of a god, who would loose his temper and do some unfair violence. There is a character called 'karna', who has lived a perfect life but had to suffer hard in his life. These are more like some puzzles. I might see people with the qualities of 'karna' and 'krishna' in my life and I believe that those writings were an almost failed attempt to implement a very vast, complex idea. Quite recently, I happened to see a report of a man,who is the best in teaching hinduism, has told that none of the events were happened in real. People are criticizing him and I believe that he is right!

Let me consider my own experience in my life. For the entire time, I tried to convince myself that I'm atheist, but at a moment, I was quite surprised to see an astrologer's note(printed material). I saw 3 facts of my life, which I thought no one other than me could know. I couldn't write it off as a coincidence for any reason. Sometimes, I feel like the logic of 'God' is not known to any human in this world and in some other time, I believe that there could be a scientific base for it. Till that time, I am going to stay agnostic. I am confused for sure. Richard Dawkins said that there were no evidence of god, but our inability to prove the existence of something doesn't mean that it is not there. It is possible that I would change my views about god in my future, but it is less probable that I would completely deny god's existence.

May be Richard Dawkins was right, but I'm still a man who believe that 'No one at his sane mind would think of being an atheist'. I saw the frustration when he is debating to people who accepts god. I admire the way you handled a muslim who consider women different from men(about wearing clothes).But, do you really think that they would change their mind and introduce equality just by your words? What we call 'wrong' is not 'wrong' in everywhere in this world.  I admire the idea that everybody have the right to choose his own religion, which I have said to some people in my life. You are never wrong, but sometimes, it is not all about what is wrong or what is right. It is rather a conflict between your 'right' and my 'right'.

I know, I am not a professional in this subject but it doesn't mean that I couldn't think about it. May be, you can find better justifications regarding this subject from others.

Sincerely,

Raghu

November 7, 2011

Getting uncivilized and saving earth

I've already talked about the idea of getting uncivilized and saving earth here. I'm a little concerned about the subject as I'm a bit more enthusiastic and disappointed about the destruction of the mother earth. Honestly, I didn't do a research to see what is happening on our earth but, I have watched some documentaries which made me believe that I have no other choice other than believing it. Humans are the most intellectual creatures on this earth for sure, but my analysis (supposed to be unbiased) on the human intellect is not on how smart we are but it is on how effective we are. We have computers, technology, space explorations etc in our list of achievements, but deep down in our achievements and exploration there is a story of disappointment( at least for some people). We are destroying the planet! A lot of essential things we use, a lot of essential technologies we implemented, there are some incurable disasters hidden inside. I have a belief that there is nothing to negotiate about these facts, these are real facts.



Nothing is really special about us, except the brain. We are good at inventing tools and machinery, but do we outsmart everything we see on this earth. This earth is a beautiful thing and it does have a perfectly balanced algorithm to allow things to stay how they are. This is the real reason why I believe that there is no valid reason to be an atheist. A computer is really complex, it is hard to believe that what I am seeing right now is just a unique combination of 0s and 1s, which obviously makes an illusion that we are looking at actual facts and figures. But, deep down inside, they are just 0s and 1s and the combination of those 0s and 1s is the existence of a computer. When I looked at myself, I see a much complex algorithm. I'm just a combination of molecules. Just as we see a computer as 0s and 1s, we could look at ourselves as molecules. Not everything in our human body is explained or proved. The defense mechanism, reproduction, brain, energy utilization etc are truly a miracle. If we are still proud of what we did, just realize how smart our nature is.

Consider a movie, with all the things that have happened on earth of length 24hours( its a lengthy movie, I am bad at maths and I couldn't find anything better than this). Human race evolved at the last 4 seconds of the 24 hours. Which means for the majority of the earth's age, earth survived without humans. But, in the last 4 seconds we have a list of achievements. No!! Consider the last second (which means 50000 years. I'm bad with fractions too. I would like to take the example with 200 years), in the last second, we made tremendous changes on the face of the earth. We made a lot of animals to disappear and increased our participation to our maximum. We covered land with chemicals and plastics. We destroyed the ecology by provoking global warming. Actually, it is not really hard to see the after effects of what we are seeing right now. It is an indisputable fact that our average temperature is rising year by year in a dramatic way. But, still we are running behind luxuries. People advice to save energy and save life. We are not doing it. Even if we do, I do not believe that we are going to make a dramatic change without reducing the population(Usage of energy is more dependent on population rather than the level of usage of each person on the planet). We are blaming our government for not providing energy(sometimes, clean energy) and there will be a time when we could not blame our government for not providing enough facilities. We are running behind solutions, but I doubt whether they are actually solutions or just an attempt to reduce the effect of a disaster.

When we were at our stone age, we had nothing to be proud of but we could live a life without affecting the other creatures on this earth. I am not saying that we wouldn't survive, but I am thinking about a 'fair survival'. Some economists says that the earth is still healthy and safe and I believe that there is no reason to believe it. Some others says that economy is fragile and I believe that the entire economy is built on a much fragile environment (Can you build a building without a ground?).We hear what we want to hear and we can find reasons to neglect if that is what we like to do with our lives. Any one can break an argument and that is what we are seeing right now. I have watched some documentaries regarding the subjects and I am truly inspired by a video "The yes men, we fix the world"(It is quite interesting also, if you are not a passionate economist). I do not believe that we own anything in this world, it is better to think that we rented some place to live in though we are not paying any rent. It is better to avoid destroying the rented place. The time has come to outsmart ourselves. 

Sincerely,

Raghu

NB: I feel like I have re-written my previous post. I will be happy if you could recommend some sources for this subject.

September 18, 2011

Is it too good to be not human?

Sometimes, humans believe that they outsmart everything in this world. Recently, I searched in the web for a word 'humane' and found something like this:

hu·mane  (hy-mn)
adj.
1. Characterized by kindness, mercy, or compassion: a humane judge.
2. Marked by an emphasis on humanistic values and concerns: a humane education.



I believe that the word has came from the much more sophisticated definition of 'being human'!! It definitely shows that the words kindness, mercy, compassion, etc are supposed to be there in a human. In every situations of life, we analyze and find a solution for our problems in life. What would happen we were able to think of a non-human humane thought? What if I were an alien from outer-space? I do not support the concept that we outsmart every living thing in this world.We are just an animal with a better brain. We could have found some fairer conclusions if we could think like a non human. If I(the alien) come here for a visit, what would I see? "A very large number of animals in a specific species(human) is destroying the entire planet". 


This can be seen in many other aspects as well. We come to our conclusion or decisions by our human brain and I would like to remind you that there are some other horizons which are to be taken to our considerations before we take our decisions. A day might come when we realize that everything we were so proud of were not as good as it seems. A day might come when we realize that the earth and all the living things were so safe when we were not here. Even though we believe that we were fair to everything in this world, our civilization might have changed the entire concept of being fair (Using detergents can cause pollution, will you stop washing your clothes because of that reason?). We are just too addicted to our weaknesses. Making our lives easier is just one example of our tendency to get lazy. We might say that technology has changed the speed of our lives but, have you ever thought of a condition in which you ask yourself a simple question 'Why did I change the speed of my life?'. It is an unanswerable question for me. If there is an answer, I do not believe that the answer will worth enough for what we have done. We changed the course of the earth by doing inhumane methods, but the word 'humane' means kindness, mercy etc!!

Sincerely,

Raghu 

May 10, 2011

Vegetarianism

What is the difference between a vegetarian and a non-vegetarian? In my view, conceptually there is no difference in being a vegetarian or a non-vegetarian! Both are taking lives! If you cut an onion, you are taking the life of that onion and if you cut the neck of a chicken, you are taking the life of that chicken. So, what is the real difference that could possibly make by being a vegetarian? I'm almost a vegetarian and in my life, I've seen some eyes of astonishment when I say that I have tried to be a vegetarian. All the animals in this world is in need of food for their survival. It is nearly impossible to live a life without killing anything on this earth. But, there is  huge difference between killing an onion and a chicken in my life.

I'm a man who can almost justify every single thing in my life. So, this blog is going to reveal the reason behind my vegetarianism. First of all, I am brought up as a vegetarian in my life. None of my family members are known to take non-vegetarian food (I can't assure anything about the 'new generation' as they are not expected to reveal everything they do in their lives. Life is supposed to have some sort of secrecy, I accept!!). In the past, taking non-vegetarian was a mistake among us! At this stage, there are people who comfortably take non-vegetarian food as a part of modernizing their attitudes and lives. As I am not good enough in adopting and modernizing my life without a valid reason, I almost remained to be  a vegetarian in my life. But, this is not the real reason behind my vegetarianism. I can comfortably tell that I should have tried to be a vegetarian even if I am born in a non-vegetarian environment (like a butcher's family).



Recently, I came to know about the 'butchering process' of my area. It is said that the cattle are butchered in a very inhumane method. They use a hammer to hit the cattle on its head to kill it. It surprised me, because I was never heard of any issue regarding this subject as I used to give a little better priorities to issues like this than rapists or politics. I have seen the head of cattle in public places where butchering is supposed to be a common scene in places like Malappuram in Kerala and people like Maneka Gandhi were supposed to be active against such issues. Or is it just me who have a wrong feeling about doing such things? (I purposefully removed the words 'in public' with the last sentence. If you can't do it in public, nothing is different when you do it in private as well). For those who do not know much about slaughtering house, I would like to share a video which shows the pathetic 'slaughtering process' in some foreign countries and unfortunately, our condition is far more worse than this.



It feels like I have a solid reason for being a vegetarian. But, there can be a reason for me to be a non-vegetarian as well. If I am stuck in a place where there is no vegetarian food, may be I would become a non-vegetarian as it can be a matter of my own survival. But, if you ask me to take a choice between vegetarian food and non-vegetarian food, I will choose vegetarian. I cannot support this injustice just for the taste that will fade away in a few minutes. I remember the findings of a friend who expressed his astonishment when I said that I am a vegetarian ' I do not survive just because I want to eat, I eat because I want to survive'. That is not completely right about me but, it is possibly the best justification for any vegetarian.

Sincerely,

Raghu

NB: 'God created all the animals to meet the human food requirements*!'

*This is a joke because some people are still not laughing :).