A question of life and death

The visit to Haridwar and Rishikesh has opened up a Pandora’s Box of questions and confusions in my mind. Who are we, where have we come from, where will we go? Matter can neither be created nor destroyed; it can only be transformed from one form to another. That’s the basic in physics. Then where did this entire universe with countless galaxies come from.

That’s what so many people thought about, and they made some very logical conclusions about karma, janma and so on, but none of them is very convincing until we are too religious to question anything. The Bhagwat Gita answers many things, but then the concept of atma or soul is a very convenient and soothing assumption according to me. It gives us so much relief that if we do good our soul may find bliss and merge with god, or we may take another human janma or we may go to heaven etc. there are so many good options available after death if we do good, so we try to be good, but then what happens after death is still a mystery.

I personally think chir nidra or eternal sleep is the best description of death, without dreams, when time flows infinitely fast. Souls form out of chemicals on the earth, and they vanish when the physical forms cease to exist, not a very comfortable thought for us, but better than being born and facing some horrible conditions many of the living creatures face on earth. Where is god when innocent living beings die long painful untimely deaths? The learned have tried to explain it by karmas of previous births that are the only logical conclusion that comes to mind if god is to be considered just and all powerful. But what if god is a vast unknown.


The various rituals of all the religions give us a lot of continuity and comfort; it ends the confusion on how to behave in certain situations, like manners and etiquettes. Sometimes we follow them too far, like flocking to places considered auspicious, kundalis, mahurats etc. If we go too deep there will be further contradictions that I myself went to a place considered auspicious, and I don’t believe in it, but I found it comforting. We ignore science and facts at our own peril. Ganga is not a goddess, it is not flowing out of lord Shiva’s hairs, it is melting out of a glacier that is shrinking fast. There are estimates based on satellite photos that it may dry up completely in the next hundred years. We may keep chanting bhajans at the top of our voice, but the Ganga will dry up, sooner than we think. That’s what happens when vast masses refuse to see anything else than what is written in ancient books.

It is ridiculous that even the highly educated amongst us believe in some things which have no scientific background, no logic whatsoever. Even today most families match kundalies for marriages, advertise under headings like “manglik”(gross), wear different stones on different fingers, “mujhe monga suite nahi karta” “to ashtadhaatu me neelam pahan lo”. People have become millionaires by writing books on star signs. I have seen close family members changing names, and saying things like “9 number mere liye shubh hai”. The latest to hit us is vastu. To hell with all the fools who toil so hard studying math, science, medicine, engineering, history, architecture. We will follow frauds, semi or uneducated thugs. We will never ask questions.

I was once waiting for a train at pathankot station. The train had to come from somewhere and take us to Delhi. I had been in situation like that before, but it dawned on me on that day. That’s what life is. Staying at a station for an infinitely small time. The difference is we don’t know from where the train came, or where it will go. Don’t think too much about any damn thing, don’t feel too much attachment for worldly things, relax and enjoy your stay. Our forward journey reservation is confirmed and it is not in our hand to miss the train. I had typed your forward journey when I realized that I was also included. That’s how we are, always thinking unconsciously that we are immortal. I remember the lines of David Attenborough in one of his shows on nature about life in a jungle. “Those who are lucky will die of natural causes”. I don’t believe in astrology (star signs etc.) and kundalis but there is one thing I can forecast with conviction that will happen to all of us, you know what.

LOST AT CHARLES DE GAULLE AIRPORT

It was all very nice to see the chivalry of the French people when the conditions were ideal. We developed a severe complex seeing cars stopping for us to cross the road. People smiling and letting you go in front of them. I noticed it was all very well when there were more empty seats in the bus than people waiting outside and none was in any particular hurry. The real test of the system was on the morning we had to catch the flight to Delhi. There were a couple of passengers with a little luggage waiting for the hotel shuttle before us. A few more joined soon after and I was curious to see if they will maintain the same decorum as we had seen earlier. The shuttle bus arrived and we could see that it was almost full, just a couple of seats were empty. Chivalry could wait, but the flight wont. It was plain common sense and I should have guessed it right. Even the elderly showed remarkable agility and with our heavy large bag to pull us back, we were second last. A last second surge and loads of experience under such conditions prevented us from being the last one to board the bus. The bus driver was an expert. He hardly slowed down on turns. We were standing with both hands on the overhead bars and desperately trying to support our huge bag with our swaying body so that the last courteous man in this world who boarded the bus after us won't be crushed under it. I thanked god that I had a glance at the ticket before boarding the bus, at least we knew we had to get down at terminal 2E. With all our limbs occupied it was impossible to look at the tickets in the bus. All we could do was to crane our necks and shout 2E to the driver and people around us every time the bus slowed down. Anupama added to the confusion by saying that E may be pronounced A or I in French. So much for her French training classes. Terminals 2A and 2B could be seen, I thought I saw 2C too. A helpful gentleman in guided us to get down at 2D. 2D and 2E the driver shouted. Sure enough, we could see 2D and 2F written on the gates. I desperately searched for 2E and finally after some running around I found it. The arrow on the board suggested we take a curving ascending road to darkness to reach 2E. It seemed a long uphill path. It was then that god sent an angel in the form of a taxi driver to help us. Maybe divine intervention was needed to reunite us with our kids back home. Seeing me preparing to take the road to nowhere he signaled back with his thumb as he passed. A policewoman who had come out to smoke confirmed that this unmarked door was indeed one of the many unmarked entrances to 2E. Now we know why they don't allow smoking inside the terminals. Take the lift on your right and go to the second floor, the man at the enquiry told us helpfully as he eyed the huge bag. We obviously won't be taking the escalator with that piece of luggage, he thought. We went to the lifts and found they were just the designs on the wall, looking like doors with metal finish. There are the lifts, said Anupama, they were on the left. We entered one of the lifts and pressed the 2nd floor button, it lit up for a split second and then turned off. I pressed it harder with same result. Another family was waiting outside. They went in as we moved out of the lift, we saw them moving out too as we entered the adjacent lift. Here the 2 button was rock hard. It showed an uncanny determination not to be pushed around. Maybe it is -2. It was Anupama again. -2 worked perfectly and the lift stopped at -2. I could see a wall in front of the glass door. Panic gripped me, we are stuck between floors. The door opened behind my back, it was the underground car park. It was then that I noticed a message camouflaged on the lift, written in a way that would easily pass of as matching design, inscribed above the push buttons, " for 2nd floor go to door number 7". Coming out of the lift I found .14 written on the door. My Indian mathematics told me that door number 7 will be 7.00. we raced ahead and found doors 0.15, 0.16 and we knew something was wrong. Then common sense prevailed. The pieces of the jigsaw puzzle began falling in place in my mind. I took a 180 degrees turn and went past the enquiry counter to its right and sure enough I could see 0.07, it was gate number seven. I had previously thought that inefficient clerks were exclusive to the third world government offices. That was till I found myself in the line at Air France check in counter. There were two counters. One was occupied by an extended family of more than 10. That left one counter operational. There were two young ladies in it. What they conversed with the passengers for so long is still a mystery. The discussion was very animated though. A lot of laughing and various exaggerated expressions on face, while the line kept growing. We were fairly ahead but my heart went out to those who were joining the tail of the rapidly growing serpentine line

GOD AND RELIGION

My blog on questioning ram seems to have hurt some religious sentiments. It has been in ourminds for so long that anything that remotely questions the established doctrines is bound to be viewed with suspicion and caution. I feel that all religions have built in safety mechanisms that discourage any debate or any hint of dissidence. Many religions want god to be prayed in a certain way, called a certain name, they want certain procedures to be followed. We are made to believe in heaven and hell, swarg and nark, jannat and whatever. I would like to quote the famous urdu shayar Mirza Ghalib
“humko maloom hai jannat ki haqueeqat lekindil ke khush rakhne ko ghalib ye khayal accha hai” All religions think they are the best and supreme. People following the religion too unconsciouslythink the same. We all have a built in superiority complex. For example we all think our regional lineage is the best. Great thinkers and philosophers thought a lot about life, death, religion and god and wrote about it, it was their hardcore followers that refused to apply any further thinkingand any reference that is even an iota different from the original writings or popular beliefs is still considered blasphemous. This idea of superiority of race or religion can be disastrous. Hitlerwas convinced of the superiority of the Aryan race. Many religions still consider themselves to be supreme, no questions can be asked, no logic can be applied, we are forced to believe what was written or believed hundreds or even thousands of years ago, when mortals or even fictionalcharacters were considered as gods.I am not against the preachings of the great minds, they show us true values of life, but we all have the right to apply our minds in the light of what we know, to accept what we think is rightand more importantly to reject what we think was originally wrong or has lost relevance in the modern world.My own humble thoughts are as follows. I have tried to put in some logic into it, but that according to those who know me is not my strongest point. So be prepared to be confused.Ø What we don’t know is god.Ø The more we know, the more we know what we don’t know.So, the more knowledge we gain, we come to know how little we know of what we need to know. We cant survive without god. All our logic and science goes for a tailspin if we don’t assume that there is an unknown so great, that we cant even comprehend it. We are so insignificant in this universe, nobody knows it better than a space scientist. The deeper we go into any subject, it becomes clear how little we know. There are facts and laws of science, there is a certain logic and set of rules that god has set, we do know a lot of them, that’s why I can type my ideas and all of you can see in all corners of the world, but what we don’t know is so much that it is beyond our imagination and capabilities. Talking in corporate terms, its time we think out of the box.Do send in your comments, and wait for my ideas on astrology, kundalis, mahurats, wearing different stones on rings, pendants etc. Any guesses.