Neil Armstrong, R.I.P.

 (Written on 26 August 2012, after Neil Armstrong passed away at the age of 82)

You had captured the imagination & aspiration of millions of students who ever looked up towards the unknown galaxies and applauded your feat. How during my childhood I wished I could one day become you! Your phenomenal achievement of having walked on the surface of the moon used to immensely inspire me, and I would close my eyes and imagine how you would have felt looking 'down' to the earth from up above! But as I gradually stepped out of my fantasy world, I realized no lesser man could ever come even close to who you were. 

Science shall make steady progress and humans would keep leaving their mark on the face of the moon; but yours will always remain the first ever love story with her :) And we along with her shall remember you for as long as time ticks. Nobody knows how far from the moon your new abode is going to be, but I can promise you'll be missed on the earth!

 

Neil Armstrong, R.I.P. 

We love a few 'relations'

(18 Oct 2006)

As a kid I had learnt “charity begins at home”. And I, like any other kid, was taught to love my parents, my siblings, my neighbors, my relatives. May be because my parents wanted me to realize that charity had to begin at home. May be that was the first step towards developing love for humanity as a whole.

Recently I had a different thought though. In the process of teaching the lesson of charity beginning at home, we fail to help our children love humans as humans. We teach them to love humans as fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts. Naturally, the kids grow up with love and affection for a few ‘relations’, and not for human beings.

On my way to office, if I find a man, lying by the side of the road, with an injury on his naked shoulder, I don’t stop my vehicle, to enquire what happened to him; nor do I take him to the hospital. The consoling reason I give to myself is: “He is a stranger, why should I accept this headache?” It’s ridiculous. Even after recognizing a man as a human, I call him a stranger. Could there be a bigger recognition than that he is a human?

We love a few ‘relations’, because we can expect some favors in return. That gives a reason to love. And love dies.

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Love, God and Religion

(19 Oct 2006)

Love is supposed to be the solution for a lot of human problems. By human problems, I mean man-made problems (we can’t stop or solve the problem of a tsunami with love!). It’s strange that love is the most talked about, yet the least practiced form of emotion.

We are waging wars everyday, in the name of love, god and religion. These three are so intensely interlinked, that a little emphasis on god or religion, at the cost of attention to love, would mean more complication, and less peace.

What are we fighting for, by rising to new heights of fanatic recklessness? Every fight is devoid of love, and we claim, we are fighting for a cause, for peace! When was human being more insane? Bloodshed only means, and leads to more bloodshed.

The underlying message of every religion in the world is: love humanity. Rest is all unnecessary. The first step towards loving people is to be sensitive to others. Forget sensitivity, we are up to converting people, and bringing them under the banner of a ‘more-liberal’ religion. Changing religions would only give a new name to the religion that we’ve practiced all our life. Escape is an illusion.

Sensitivity would pave the way for better understanding of people, and of the self. Love will follow. And love is the only way to peace. If we can scale this height, the ritual-centric religions would lose their relevance. When we know how to love people, we do not need any more religion. Love is the religion.

Beginning of the Questionning!

A lot is being spoken about yoga these days. Our so-called celebrities are promoting yoga. The western parts of the world are taking a very keen commercial interest in this product which many do not know was born in India. But I at times wonder if it is more of being 'cool' that is attached to this form of well-being than its original aura.

It seems that the world has suddenly woken up to this natural, no-side-effect lifestyle, helping a host of yoga institutions to spring up around the globe. In the society many believe I live in, it is seen as 'cool' to say, 'I have my yoga class from 6 in the evening today'! But am I overreacting in my refusal to participate in the celebration of the ever-growing popularity of this ancient Indian art? How much of it is real yoga, and how much is spirituality, anyway? I do not know for I've never been to any of those centers!

It may be the chauvinist Indian in me who wants a slice of the recognition from the outside world that yoga was conceived in India. 'What does the West anyway know of spirituality' is the doubt-syndrome some of us suffer from, especially when we see most yoga teachers preaching shades of spirituality along with their yoga lessons. They talk about how one should connect to the inner self in a world where our inner world is constantly being challenged and then invaded by an ever-increasing fear of lack of privacy. Hence the whole understanding of spirituality has gone through twists and spins over the last few decades, and a contemporary way of realizing the same has come into being. An impressive number of people are these days able to relate to this twenty first century form of spirituality. Which is just good!