Posts
Dear Karen,
Thanks for the comment....I hardly get any comments….I am not replying as a comment, and I think you don’t mind it…..
Yes, I had something in my mind to write…but I was going through a different mental stage for the past two days….painful days….. I write stuffs like this but understand that I too am a human…do you think Jesus enjoyed the crucification? Nope.. (Heard about Psalm 22?)…....and I was thinking about ‘is there anything called virtual friends?’ and not about meeting the God, I am very sorry about it..….you might think I am telling some stupidity…. I don’t know you and you don’t know me, but are we for real or virtual? ….and you might not understand why I thought about ‘virtual friends’ and what was my pain….. (just coz I am not telling and I am not questioning your brains)
If virtual is ‘not tangible’, what is God? Many believers in this world believe that God exists, though they can not see him…..you ate a very spicy and hot dish, and there comes water from your eyes…..your nose starts running……how did that happen? Some signals (sort of electric ) reached our brain and the result was your experience….. what if we pass a signal of the very same nature to the brain, using some equipments? We feel the same and we get watery eyes and runny nose…..but is that real? Did we take any hot dish?, though our body feels so (virtual reality)….virtual friends are somewhat similar to these electric signals which came from that equipment…
Sorry I did not answer you…I am still not in a mood to describe HIM….but I don’t want to ditch you…..
What is the nature of a black- hole? Do you know what will happen if you enter into a black-hole?
In the beginning of our journey, you feel that weightlessness stuff….don’t worry…you will be alright…you wont feel any gravitational pull since you and things around you are pulled in the same way. When you get closer to the black-hole, you start getting a pull…if you are ‘heading’ towards the hole, your head will feel more pull than your feet….and you will start feeling stretched…..(scientifically, the causing force is called tidal force) …you travel again…..and you can not see much interesting things coz, even light can not escape a black-hole…..then when you are almost there (still thousands of kilometers away from the center) your body get torn into pieces, if you were heading towards it, your head goes first, each part of the body will be sucked away (no way you will go as a single piece). horrible no?....but it happens in a fraction of second, so dont worry, you wont get any time to get panic.......and then you don’t exist…..
So, is God like a black-hole? NO and yes…..he wont do the tearing thing….he is all Love but when you meet God, YOU don’t exist !!!!!! BUT HE REMAINS!!!!!!
- Jay
PS: I used the word, 'you' in the travel....but if you got scared, rephrase it and use 'I' (yup, Jay) so that you wont get torn.....you can consider me as your 'punching bag' hahaha (you wont understand, sorry, once again....)
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Me and Religions IV
What is religion in the first place?
It is an institution (usually established by somebody) to express belief in God, in simple words. We can define a religion in many different ways.
What is the base of all the religion?
It is belief in God.
How many Gods are there?
Only One
How many religions are there in this world?
About 6-7 major ones and hundreds of different faith groups (even within a single religion)
Do we need this many religions?
We can have any number or religion as long as there is no physical clash between them. Or, no religion at all (two of my friends don’t believe in any religion).
So, do we need more religions?
Well, no, we already have enough.
So, what exactly is the purpose of a religion?
Simple, to make every human a better human. Religion is there to make a man righteous and loving.
(plants and animals are born ‘learnt’….every weaver bird is an architect, every spider know how to make a web, ant nests are architectural wonders………; they know what is their job and how to do it, no need to acquire anything. But a human always can acquire/has to acquire, can learn a lot from his environment, if he want to – he has a choice)
No particular religion issues a special pass to meet the God (meeting the God something interesting, I might write about it later). If some believes so, they are absolutely wrong.
Is religion a personal matter?
Of course it is. One can even stay out of all religions and still believe in God, if one wants so.
So, what is the big issue here?
Well, the issue is some people believing that only their path is the right path to God, which is foolish.
Look at the earth, filled with humans. Let’s start thousands of years ago, may be ten thousand or twenty thousand years ago till now.
How was/is it? There were people living in different parts. They had their own culture, they had their own language, they had their own eating habit (nature provided them with the best according to the geography), they had their own ….they had so many ‘their owns’ and likewise, they had their own style of faith in God.
Can we say some country’s culture is ‘wrong’? Can we say some language is ‘wrong’? Nope. In the same way, we can not say somebody else’s faith in God is ‘wrong’ coz, its their faith and it has a history (let us forget abt the new and new faith groups coming day by day like mushrooms with some vested interests)
So, if one religion is right, others are also right. If one religion is wrong, all are wrong(I am talking about the essence of religion, ie, God exists). Coz, ultimately, all religion believes in a supernatural force. So, either it is there (the existence of God or all religions are right) or there is no supernatural force like that (God does not exist, all religions are wrong). There cant be a third level of understanding looking from this angle.
Different faith groups within a religion got created due to different interpretation of (mostly) single Holy book. But all of them believes in ‘God’, though faith groups might say ours is the right one.
And majority of the 'religious' people don’t understand the very purpose of religion and they just follow some rituals. And in the present day, religion is a big business. Yes, it is a multi million business!
Many of the conversion acts and well organized miracle crusades are to give it a boost and are just business. The Times of India once cracked one Benny Hinn show that happened in my city. I never thought that I will be writing something like this; else I would have preserved those papers. He just escaped without commenting on many of the questions and he did not even donate the sum he promised that he will be donating for the Tsunami relief, after that crack. His approach is creating a mass hysteria. And he said he can not perform any miracle on a one to one basis, as he first need to create the ‘atmosphere’.
(Mass prayer has a different effect, I agree but that’s a different issue)
Miracles should happen as a miracle and one can not perform a miracle as and when one wish to do so. Then how can it be called a miracle?. But these days miracles are readily available. It can be organized like any consumer fair. And those people who go there don’t even ask, ‘then why do we need hospitals and docs, if this person can always (their service is fully booked for many years, usually) do miracles?’
One of my cousins who is a deaf attended many of such miracle crusades and still remains as a deaf! He went there with full faith coz, he hadn’t anything to lose.
What do religious people do in common, irrespective of their religions?
They all Pray.
Where do all these prayers go?
All the prayers in this world have got only one address. (Static IP address…lol)
In which language we should pray?
God understand all languages, though His mother tongue is Love.
So, Getting converted wont help?
To be frank, it won’t help. Coz, again your prayer goes to the same direction. Just changing a name from Jayaram to Joseph wont make any change. Name is one of the physical attribute of a man and it has nothing to do with a prayer.
But there are lots of people who experienced a change in their life after changing their religion.
That can be true. There are many reasons for it. One is just psychological. Its like treating a psychosomatic disease with a ‘method’ rather than a medicine (sometimes the doc even injects distilled water to convince a patient, but it works). In such cases, yes, it works. Coz, its all a mind game, this prayer, its effects and all.
And the second most important thing is the ‘intensity of the prayer’. Intensity of the prayer is directly proportional to effect. When a person changes his faith, usually, in the beginning stage, his intensity of the prayer will be more/high. And this gives him a better result - here I presume that a prayer works
Assume that one person got ‘better results’ with his brand new religion. Had he did his prayers with the same intensity, even his old religion was able to deliver the new result he got. It is a fact.
I will share one of my personal experience related to religious conversion. The one I saw was an interesting inter-Christian conversion. That person was my close friend then. Was very ‘religious’, in the sense, regular with church and its activities, reading Bible regularly, attending the mass, service, choir etc.
Family was a happy family. Then the family faced some serious financial problems when one of the business partners cheated them (he too was a Christian and later on moved to the U.S). They believed in C.S.I (Church of South India). I don’t know who it is, but somebody convinced them to change their faith into Pentecost. The family head remained in C.S.I and his wife and two children (one was my friend) changed their faith to Pentecost.
Then my friend started attending a new place of worship where no idol of Jesus or Mary was present. But the Bible remained the same. Jesus remained the same. All the prayers before and after the conversion went into the very same ears!! But finally, the new faith helped that person to get a decent marriage proposal and settle abroad.
Had that person stuck to the old faith, would that person have gone abroad and settled? Sorry, here my answer is ‘ I don’t think so or may be I don’t know’. I am not discussing the physical or material change a religion can offer. In that way, changing a religion has its benefits.
Where do all these conversions happen?
Most of the missionaries travel to third world. That too if a country doesn’t have a good Christian population, they target such countries. India satisfies both and this is a heaven for missionaries.
Is all the missionaries fake and business minded ones?
I don’t think so. But I know a couple of them who gathered wealth using ‘divine’ job. There is another guy (a Christian priest/brother) who ‘used’ his Christian status to get a religious visa (there is something like that) to another country. He married a local woman and now prepares to settle there, who is a neighbor of one of my cousins.
Some people say ‘God spoke to me and asked me to do this’. Is that true?
Yes and NO.
Yes is because, many “religious” people get this sort of feeling.
And NO, coz, its their own consciousness which split into two and one acts as a God and another acts as a he/she or the mind. A good psychiatrist/psychologist can sort out this issue. But from that person’s perspective, he/she 'really' hears the talk from within. The nature of God is something different (which is off topic and I might write later)
What happens after a conversion?
I don’t have any personal experience. But naturally, he/she lives in the same house, he/she might change the photos/pics he/she had kept before and prays in a new style to a ‘new God’.
But my point is not that. Lets assume that all Indians got converted into Christianity/or at least 80% . What happens? India becomes a Christian Nation or at least a nation with majority of Christians. Then what happens? What is the major change that will happen to India after that ‘mass conversion’?
To understand this, one need to look into those nations who already attained that status.
Let us take two prominent nations, one form the west and one from the east. The U.S. and Republic of the Philippines, the only Asian country with a majority of Christians.
The United States has got 76 % of Christians (Protestants 52% and Roman Catholic 24%) as per 2002 census and Philippines has got 92.5 % (Roman Catholic 80.9%, Evangelical 2.8%, Iglesia ni Kristo - 2.3%, Aglipayan 2%, Other Christians 4.5%) – as per 2000 census. Now it is said that Aglipayan is the second largest Christian community in Philippines)
(Iglesia ni Kristo/Christo or INC - which means ‘Church of Christ’ originated in Philippines; founded by Felix Y Manalo on July 27 1914 and he claimed that this is the reestablishment of the original church founded by Jesus himself. This community has great political influence in Philippines.
Aglipayan – founded by Gregorio Aglipay. Official name is ‘Iglesia Filipina Independiente’ or Philippine Independent Church.)
And what is special about these two nations compared to the rest of the world. I am not talking about the culture or people. What is their achievement ‘just coz countrymen are Christians? ‘
Nothing at all. In both countries you can see crimes of all sorts, why should I tell one by one? Whatever ‘bad’ things you see in the rest of the world can be seen in these two nations. These two Christian dominated countries are just two another countries with their own problems like rest of the countries and Christian status did not help them, though a nation is formed by people and religion has got something to do with people. Same with Islamic, Buddhist (or anyother religion) countries.
The U.S is the largest consumer of cocaine, in the world. World’s one of the top illicit producer of cannabis, marijuana, depressants, stimulants, hallucinogens, and methamphetamine.
And what is Philippines known for in the world? Its very well known for Sex Tourism. There is another Asian country where a religion has domination, Thailand, filled with Buddhists. It also is known for Sex Tourism.
Production of illicit methamphetamine in Philippines is a big problem even now for the government. A big consumer of amphetamines, producer of marijuana (mainly in rural areas).
No offence meant to anybody from these countries. I have great respect for these countries and the people (more than that, most of my friends are from Philippines, as on today, and hence I love that country and will visit one day)
My point is just changing the religion is totally meaningless….My point is, these countries are just like any other country… After one or two months, you are in the same stage. (and in India, there was a case where a group of converted people approached Arya Samaj and changed their religion back to Hindu)
So, what should a religious person do?
Stick to your religion, be a better Christian, be a better Muslim, be a better Jew, be a better Hindu, be a better Buddhist……… and be a good human, and if possible, leave the atheists and non-believers alone, coz, they too have a place in this world.
It is an institution (usually established by somebody) to express belief in God, in simple words. We can define a religion in many different ways.
What is the base of all the religion?
It is belief in God.
How many Gods are there?
Only One
How many religions are there in this world?
About 6-7 major ones and hundreds of different faith groups (even within a single religion)
Do we need this many religions?
We can have any number or religion as long as there is no physical clash between them. Or, no religion at all (two of my friends don’t believe in any religion).
So, do we need more religions?
Well, no, we already have enough.
So, what exactly is the purpose of a religion?
Simple, to make every human a better human. Religion is there to make a man righteous and loving.
(plants and animals are born ‘learnt’….every weaver bird is an architect, every spider know how to make a web, ant nests are architectural wonders………; they know what is their job and how to do it, no need to acquire anything. But a human always can acquire/has to acquire, can learn a lot from his environment, if he want to – he has a choice)
No particular religion issues a special pass to meet the God (meeting the God something interesting, I might write about it later). If some believes so, they are absolutely wrong.
Is religion a personal matter?
Of course it is. One can even stay out of all religions and still believe in God, if one wants so.
So, what is the big issue here?
Well, the issue is some people believing that only their path is the right path to God, which is foolish.
Look at the earth, filled with humans. Let’s start thousands of years ago, may be ten thousand or twenty thousand years ago till now.
How was/is it? There were people living in different parts. They had their own culture, they had their own language, they had their own eating habit (nature provided them with the best according to the geography), they had their own ….they had so many ‘their owns’ and likewise, they had their own style of faith in God.
Can we say some country’s culture is ‘wrong’? Can we say some language is ‘wrong’? Nope. In the same way, we can not say somebody else’s faith in God is ‘wrong’ coz, its their faith and it has a history (let us forget abt the new and new faith groups coming day by day like mushrooms with some vested interests)
So, if one religion is right, others are also right. If one religion is wrong, all are wrong(I am talking about the essence of religion, ie, God exists). Coz, ultimately, all religion believes in a supernatural force. So, either it is there (the existence of God or all religions are right) or there is no supernatural force like that (God does not exist, all religions are wrong). There cant be a third level of understanding looking from this angle.
Different faith groups within a religion got created due to different interpretation of (mostly) single Holy book. But all of them believes in ‘God’, though faith groups might say ours is the right one.
And majority of the 'religious' people don’t understand the very purpose of religion and they just follow some rituals. And in the present day, religion is a big business. Yes, it is a multi million business!
Many of the conversion acts and well organized miracle crusades are to give it a boost and are just business. The Times of India once cracked one Benny Hinn show that happened in my city. I never thought that I will be writing something like this; else I would have preserved those papers. He just escaped without commenting on many of the questions and he did not even donate the sum he promised that he will be donating for the Tsunami relief, after that crack. His approach is creating a mass hysteria. And he said he can not perform any miracle on a one to one basis, as he first need to create the ‘atmosphere’.
(Mass prayer has a different effect, I agree but that’s a different issue)
Miracles should happen as a miracle and one can not perform a miracle as and when one wish to do so. Then how can it be called a miracle?. But these days miracles are readily available. It can be organized like any consumer fair. And those people who go there don’t even ask, ‘then why do we need hospitals and docs, if this person can always (their service is fully booked for many years, usually) do miracles?’
One of my cousins who is a deaf attended many of such miracle crusades and still remains as a deaf! He went there with full faith coz, he hadn’t anything to lose.
What do religious people do in common, irrespective of their religions?
They all Pray.
Where do all these prayers go?
All the prayers in this world have got only one address. (Static IP address…lol)
In which language we should pray?
God understand all languages, though His mother tongue is Love.
So, Getting converted wont help?
To be frank, it won’t help. Coz, again your prayer goes to the same direction. Just changing a name from Jayaram to Joseph wont make any change. Name is one of the physical attribute of a man and it has nothing to do with a prayer.
But there are lots of people who experienced a change in their life after changing their religion.
That can be true. There are many reasons for it. One is just psychological. Its like treating a psychosomatic disease with a ‘method’ rather than a medicine (sometimes the doc even injects distilled water to convince a patient, but it works). In such cases, yes, it works. Coz, its all a mind game, this prayer, its effects and all.
And the second most important thing is the ‘intensity of the prayer’. Intensity of the prayer is directly proportional to effect. When a person changes his faith, usually, in the beginning stage, his intensity of the prayer will be more/high. And this gives him a better result - here I presume that a prayer works
Assume that one person got ‘better results’ with his brand new religion. Had he did his prayers with the same intensity, even his old religion was able to deliver the new result he got. It is a fact.
I will share one of my personal experience related to religious conversion. The one I saw was an interesting inter-Christian conversion. That person was my close friend then. Was very ‘religious’, in the sense, regular with church and its activities, reading Bible regularly, attending the mass, service, choir etc.
Family was a happy family. Then the family faced some serious financial problems when one of the business partners cheated them (he too was a Christian and later on moved to the U.S). They believed in C.S.I (Church of South India). I don’t know who it is, but somebody convinced them to change their faith into Pentecost. The family head remained in C.S.I and his wife and two children (one was my friend) changed their faith to Pentecost.
Then my friend started attending a new place of worship where no idol of Jesus or Mary was present. But the Bible remained the same. Jesus remained the same. All the prayers before and after the conversion went into the very same ears!! But finally, the new faith helped that person to get a decent marriage proposal and settle abroad.
Had that person stuck to the old faith, would that person have gone abroad and settled? Sorry, here my answer is ‘ I don’t think so or may be I don’t know’. I am not discussing the physical or material change a religion can offer. In that way, changing a religion has its benefits.
Where do all these conversions happen?
Most of the missionaries travel to third world. That too if a country doesn’t have a good Christian population, they target such countries. India satisfies both and this is a heaven for missionaries.
Is all the missionaries fake and business minded ones?
I don’t think so. But I know a couple of them who gathered wealth using ‘divine’ job. There is another guy (a Christian priest/brother) who ‘used’ his Christian status to get a religious visa (there is something like that) to another country. He married a local woman and now prepares to settle there, who is a neighbor of one of my cousins.
Some people say ‘God spoke to me and asked me to do this’. Is that true?
Yes and NO.
Yes is because, many “religious” people get this sort of feeling.
And NO, coz, its their own consciousness which split into two and one acts as a God and another acts as a he/she or the mind. A good psychiatrist/psychologist can sort out this issue. But from that person’s perspective, he/she 'really' hears the talk from within. The nature of God is something different (which is off topic and I might write later)
What happens after a conversion?
I don’t have any personal experience. But naturally, he/she lives in the same house, he/she might change the photos/pics he/she had kept before and prays in a new style to a ‘new God’.
But my point is not that. Lets assume that all Indians got converted into Christianity/or at least 80% . What happens? India becomes a Christian Nation or at least a nation with majority of Christians. Then what happens? What is the major change that will happen to India after that ‘mass conversion’?
To understand this, one need to look into those nations who already attained that status.
Let us take two prominent nations, one form the west and one from the east. The U.S. and Republic of the Philippines, the only Asian country with a majority of Christians.
The United States has got 76 % of Christians (Protestants 52% and Roman Catholic 24%) as per 2002 census and Philippines has got 92.5 % (Roman Catholic 80.9%, Evangelical 2.8%, Iglesia ni Kristo - 2.3%, Aglipayan 2%, Other Christians 4.5%) – as per 2000 census. Now it is said that Aglipayan is the second largest Christian community in Philippines)
(Iglesia ni Kristo/Christo or INC - which means ‘Church of Christ’ originated in Philippines; founded by Felix Y Manalo on July 27 1914 and he claimed that this is the reestablishment of the original church founded by Jesus himself. This community has great political influence in Philippines.
Aglipayan – founded by Gregorio Aglipay. Official name is ‘Iglesia Filipina Independiente’ or Philippine Independent Church.)
And what is special about these two nations compared to the rest of the world. I am not talking about the culture or people. What is their achievement ‘just coz countrymen are Christians? ‘
Nothing at all. In both countries you can see crimes of all sorts, why should I tell one by one? Whatever ‘bad’ things you see in the rest of the world can be seen in these two nations. These two Christian dominated countries are just two another countries with their own problems like rest of the countries and Christian status did not help them, though a nation is formed by people and religion has got something to do with people. Same with Islamic, Buddhist (or anyother religion) countries.
The U.S is the largest consumer of cocaine, in the world. World’s one of the top illicit producer of cannabis, marijuana, depressants, stimulants, hallucinogens, and methamphetamine.
And what is Philippines known for in the world? Its very well known for Sex Tourism. There is another Asian country where a religion has domination, Thailand, filled with Buddhists. It also is known for Sex Tourism.
Production of illicit methamphetamine in Philippines is a big problem even now for the government. A big consumer of amphetamines, producer of marijuana (mainly in rural areas).
No offence meant to anybody from these countries. I have great respect for these countries and the people (more than that, most of my friends are from Philippines, as on today, and hence I love that country and will visit one day)
My point is just changing the religion is totally meaningless….My point is, these countries are just like any other country… After one or two months, you are in the same stage. (and in India, there was a case where a group of converted people approached Arya Samaj and changed their religion back to Hindu)
So, what should a religious person do?
Stick to your religion, be a better Christian, be a better Muslim, be a better Jew, be a better Hindu, be a better Buddhist……… and be a good human, and if possible, leave the atheists and non-believers alone, coz, they too have a place in this world.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Me and Religions III
He said ‘ I don’t have any issue publishing this ad, since it is my job. But I tell you, you won’t get not even a single response from a decent Christian family for sure. It also is my job to make sure that our customers get maximum response, so, I suggest you to change the wordings. Thus I changed it into ‘Religion is not a criterion’. He accepted it and said, but don’t expect good proposals. I said, its OK.
He was absolutely right, not even a single decent proposal!!!.
I also replied to some of the ads given by Christians, but no response. I even responded to a Christian girl’s proposal who can’t bear child, no response. ... I replied to an Christian orphan…I got a reply from her guardian ‘ I liked you very much, but her patron is an Italian lady and she rejected your proposal’
To tell the truth, I felt hurt, coz, my intention was good. Did I feel like Jesus ditched me? And did I dump Jesus from my life? The answer is, NO!
For a year or so, I did not even think about a marriage.
Any regrets now for not marrying a Christian girl? No.
I had affiliation with an Islam group who used to provide me Islamic books free of cost for reading purpose. I had read some Buddhism related things and am reading a book by Sogyal Rinpoche. I have some basic idea about Judaism too.
So, what does it mean? It can mean many things but among that one thing is, before one comment on any other religion, or propagate one’s religion/belief, the first step one need to do is understand the counterparts.
I will try to comment on most of these things one by one…..when? I don’t know depending upon my mood.
He was absolutely right, not even a single decent proposal!!!.
I also replied to some of the ads given by Christians, but no response. I even responded to a Christian girl’s proposal who can’t bear child, no response. ... I replied to an Christian orphan…I got a reply from her guardian ‘ I liked you very much, but her patron is an Italian lady and she rejected your proposal’
To tell the truth, I felt hurt, coz, my intention was good. Did I feel like Jesus ditched me? And did I dump Jesus from my life? The answer is, NO!
For a year or so, I did not even think about a marriage.
Any regrets now for not marrying a Christian girl? No.
I had affiliation with an Islam group who used to provide me Islamic books free of cost for reading purpose. I had read some Buddhism related things and am reading a book by Sogyal Rinpoche. I have some basic idea about Judaism too.
So, what does it mean? It can mean many things but among that one thing is, before one comment on any other religion, or propagate one’s religion/belief, the first step one need to do is understand the counterparts.
I will try to comment on most of these things one by one…..when? I don’t know depending upon my mood.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Me and Religions II
I had taken up a Bible course (well two in fact) and lived like a Christian during and sometime after that course. I wasn’t testing Jesus but I believed in him as an incarnation of love and offered all my prayers only to Jesus. My desk was filled with Christian literatures, and pamphlets. One was from an international Bible school from the U.S and other one was from a Kerala (my native State in India) based Bible school.
(Did any person influence me to turn my head towards Christianity? Some people asked me who is behind you….and one of my cousins suspected my then Guitar tutor who used to play guitar in many gospel bands (local ones)…he taught me chords for some popular gospel songs and was ready to introduce me to some gospel band. He was like a brother to me and I called him adding ‘ichayan’ with his name, which means elder brother and that’s the way the Christians in my State used to address their elder brothers. But was he the man behind me? Nope, then who was it? It’s a secret…lol)
The international course did not provide me any personal attention. They did not clear my doubts directly but provided me some Indian address and asked me to contact them and insisted me to get baptized. Their business was over!
The other one was carried out by a humble man who really believed in Jesus, it seems. He too made a living by selling so many books on Christianity written by him, and I bought whatever books he suggested (I bought about 8-10 books). He gave me replies in his own handwriting (I was touched that time) for whatever I asked. And when the course was over, he just sent blessings and asked me to keep Christian values in my life and he did not ask me to get baptized.
That time, I was 27-28 years of age. I decided to marry a Christian girl. In India, even now, matrimonial ads are quite popular. I drafted an ad which read I am a Hindu but invites proposals from Christian girls. And went to the matrimonial section of the “Malayala Manorama’ daily, which is considered as a Christian news paper but read also by many secular people like me. When the clerk saw my ad (who was a Christian), he smiled at me and asked what is wrong with me!!!
(Did any person influence me to turn my head towards Christianity? Some people asked me who is behind you….and one of my cousins suspected my then Guitar tutor who used to play guitar in many gospel bands (local ones)…he taught me chords for some popular gospel songs and was ready to introduce me to some gospel band. He was like a brother to me and I called him adding ‘ichayan’ with his name, which means elder brother and that’s the way the Christians in my State used to address their elder brothers. But was he the man behind me? Nope, then who was it? It’s a secret…lol)
The international course did not provide me any personal attention. They did not clear my doubts directly but provided me some Indian address and asked me to contact them and insisted me to get baptized. Their business was over!
The other one was carried out by a humble man who really believed in Jesus, it seems. He too made a living by selling so many books on Christianity written by him, and I bought whatever books he suggested (I bought about 8-10 books). He gave me replies in his own handwriting (I was touched that time) for whatever I asked. And when the course was over, he just sent blessings and asked me to keep Christian values in my life and he did not ask me to get baptized.
That time, I was 27-28 years of age. I decided to marry a Christian girl. In India, even now, matrimonial ads are quite popular. I drafted an ad which read I am a Hindu but invites proposals from Christian girls. And went to the matrimonial section of the “Malayala Manorama’ daily, which is considered as a Christian news paper but read also by many secular people like me. When the clerk saw my ad (who was a Christian), he smiled at me and asked what is wrong with me!!!
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Me and Religions I
The headline of ‘The Times of India’, was ‘Christian activity banned in Tirumala’. (This is a Bennett, Coleman & Co. MNC paper), two days ago.
As per the new Government Order no other religion (than Hindu) shall be allowed to be propagated in Tirumala area.
Do I agree to that Government Order? Yes I do.
Though religion is not a thing which I discuss with people, usually, that too often, I was asked to comment on it, many times by many of my friends. One person asked my opinion when a close relative changed religion from Hindu to Christian. Another one when a Christian by birth person embraced Hinduism then there was one incident where a famous poet/writer changed her religion from Hinduism to Islam (the funny part is a Muslim writer changed his religion from Islam to Buddhism, sarcastically). And some others asked me to tell something about religion. Both about Hinduism and then the conversion part too. Then somebody asked what you mean by spiritual and not religious?
And why some of my friends asked me to comment on it? Well it’s a good question..................
As per the new Government Order no other religion (than Hindu) shall be allowed to be propagated in Tirumala area.
Do I agree to that Government Order? Yes I do.
Though religion is not a thing which I discuss with people, usually, that too often, I was asked to comment on it, many times by many of my friends. One person asked my opinion when a close relative changed religion from Hindu to Christian. Another one when a Christian by birth person embraced Hinduism then there was one incident where a famous poet/writer changed her religion from Hinduism to Islam (the funny part is a Muslim writer changed his religion from Islam to Buddhism, sarcastically). And some others asked me to tell something about religion. Both about Hinduism and then the conversion part too. Then somebody asked what you mean by spiritual and not religious?
And why some of my friends asked me to comment on it? Well it’s a good question..................
Thursday, June 07, 2007
She
She liked his company
He liked her company too
She loved him for sure
He loved her like sugar
She did not tell him that she loves him
He too did the same
She thought he will tell
He thought she will tell
She waited for long time
He too waited for long time
There came another she and
She said to him
He walked out
Holding her hand
She remained in pain
Pain, its pain
Tell it, tell it
Tell it when you want to tell it.
He liked her company too
She loved him for sure
He loved her like sugar
She did not tell him that she loves him
He too did the same
She thought he will tell
He thought she will tell
She waited for long time
He too waited for long time
There came another she and
She said to him
He walked out
Holding her hand
She remained in pain
Pain, its pain
Tell it, tell it
Tell it when you want to tell it.
HE
I looked at HIM
HE looked at me too
‘Don’t you care for me’ I asked
HE just stared at me
‘Yup, I know you don’t care’
HE smiled at me
‘Do you love me?’ I asked HIM
The smile again
‘Really?’
HE giggled, like a teenage girl.
Yes, HE loves YOU!
HE looked at me too
‘Don’t you care for me’ I asked
HE just stared at me
‘Yup, I know you don’t care’
HE smiled at me
‘Do you love me?’ I asked HIM
The smile again
‘Really?’
HE giggled, like a teenage girl.
Yes, HE loves YOU!
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Two Shames
During my college days, I used to watch Amitabh Bachchen’s movies and he was one of my fav actor in Hindi movies. He mostly played the angry young man. My admiration towards him wasn’t coz of his high quality acting. But when he become old, he showed lots of maturity and my level of appreciation changed from what it was to his acting skills. And today he is one of the Top Bolliwood actors. I developed a sort of respect also towards him. He is a multi millionaire now.
There is one actress (mostly item number) who all of a sudden became ‘popular’ or better say grabbed attention by a kiss episode, Rakhi Sawant. I never had any respect for her for her cheap tricks to gain popularity (she went to one of her friends’ party (a popular singer) and then lodged a complaint with the police saying the guy who organized the party, her friend, forcefully kissed her).
Amitabh bought 24 acres of farmland (which is to be bought by a farmer and used for farming purpose by law) by declaring himself as a farmer. Now the authorities have found that out. And he is in trouble. Shame on him.
Rakhi said (when she was 13) she ‘used her body’ to pay the hospital bills when her mother was admitted in a hospital and she left penniless. If it was any doc or hospital authorities that ‘used’ her body to settle the accounts, when she was in trouble, SHAME ON HIM/THEM
There is one actress (mostly item number) who all of a sudden became ‘popular’ or better say grabbed attention by a kiss episode, Rakhi Sawant. I never had any respect for her for her cheap tricks to gain popularity (she went to one of her friends’ party (a popular singer) and then lodged a complaint with the police saying the guy who organized the party, her friend, forcefully kissed her).
Amitabh bought 24 acres of farmland (which is to be bought by a farmer and used for farming purpose by law) by declaring himself as a farmer. Now the authorities have found that out. And he is in trouble. Shame on him.
Rakhi said (when she was 13) she ‘used her body’ to pay the hospital bills when her mother was admitted in a hospital and she left penniless. If it was any doc or hospital authorities that ‘used’ her body to settle the accounts, when she was in trouble, SHAME ON HIM/THEM
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