Monologues on God, Religion, Identity etc. - 3

How was it decided that God is above us? Why cant God be beside us? I guess he or she can not be below us as having to look up all the time would obviously cause him or her a major pain in the neck. How far above us is God anyways? Stratospheric levels or a mere 3 feet above head height like Lord Krishna was in Doordarshan's Mahabharata when Draupadi was being stripped.

And since God is watching us all, does he/she ever get biased? Which IPL team would God support? Are Jesus Christ and Allah neighbours? Would the Hindu Gods invite Zeus for dinner?

I have lost the plot of this thread... truth is, I do not really mind if God existed. To be honest, it would be quite nice if God existed but just one God. Not different manifestations or different religions and different identities.

Speaking of identity, over the last one year or so the circumstances have been such that I sometimes wonder what my identity is and what the relevance of an individual's identity is in the grander scheme of things. In Bangalore, I am a Chennai guy who has to be mocked when the Super Kings lose. When I go to Chennai I am a Bengalooru guy. In Kerala, I am a Tamilian as my Malayalam sucks. In Chennai, I am a Malayali as my Tamil sucks. In any state above the Vindhyas, I am a Madrasi as my Hindi sucks and also that for some reason the North tend to be poor in Geography and think Madras is the name of all the South Indian states.

I also cant quite fathom astrology and horoscopes. How can one's time and day of birth be an indicator of what will happen in his life or what kind of job he should be in, what name he should have, whom he should marry etc. A learned man once told me that if you are ignorant about Astrology and you do not know what goes into it you should not comment on it. He proceeded to tell me that there are numerous mathematical calculations that are done to come to a result in astrology and hence its not just mumbo-jumbo being told by men wearing 3 rings on each finger. My take on this is that no matter how many calculations are made the answer would still be wrong if the base of it is the time and date of birth as this is decided by when an individual was conceived and these days in most cases the doctor decides when the baby should come out into this world. Even the whole conception of the child could be induced by excess liquor and a faulty condom. There are too many stupid reasons that cause conception and a person's entire life can not be based on the time of birth. Right?

I am not quite the eloquent one and I fear that I have not put my point across quite clearly and convincingly but I just like to wonder why one needs to complicate life further with all the permutations and combinations. Live for your needs and wants and be happy... wishful thinking for a life more ordinary!

Monologues on God, Religion, Identity etc. - 2

Things started to change and transition was almost sudden but in truth it must have been gradual. I am not sure if anyone can change his/her principles and beliefs ingrained over years of existence in a matter of days or weeks or months.

I guess the truth is that I was never really convinced about religion in general and the interpretation of religion and God that I had grown up adhering to. I never understood why we had to walk around the Sanctum Sanctorum only an odd number of times and never even number. I never really got a convincing explanation. My mother didn't really know the answers to these questions. I was perplexed as to why one had to break coconuts or promise to break coconuts if something turned out the way they had wanted. This seemed like a bribe to me and bribing to me was a crime.

For me God and Religion were means to keep Man humble and accountable to the society at large so it seemed quite an anomaly when I read that the Tirupathi temple was getting a large amount of black money. Could God be appeased by black money?

Monologues on God, Religion, Identity etc. - 1

Been meaning to be more regular with my blog posts. I wonder if its a testament to the direction the world is moving towards... the testament being how I am more regular on Twitter than I am with my blogs. There is no creativity in me. There is nothing new that I feel like contributing. Truth is there is not much I can contribute to the world at large.

A man asked me a couple of weeks back if we are consumers or we are contributors... I told him we are both. But that isn't why this man has been brought up in this post. I will tell you why he has been brought up. This same man, thanks to the seat he was occupying at the time, proceeded to ask a few of us are take on religion and God. I told him what I have told quite a few people and bored many others with... "I dont believe in Religion and I am yet to find God!"

The question that followed was, so you dont believe in religion and does that mean the millions of others who do are idiots and who are wasting their time... the only reply I could come up with was that I am the idiot who has not been able to find a religion that I can believe in.

I was not always like this... I have to confess... I used to be the one who lit the lamp everyday... took a bath, lit the lamp, said my prayers and off I went to school. This was a daily routine till some 5 years back. My dad was an atheist ( his line was - I believe in God, but I dont believe there is God. I was confused too when I first heard this line. To make it easier for me to understand he said - Communism exists, there is communism in the world, but I dont believe in Communism... and along these lines I believe in God, but I dont believe there is God... how I wished he hadn't tried to make it easier for me to understand ) and so was my brother, I think.

Needless to say, my daily routines and my weekly visits to the temple made my devout mother really really really really happy. Then things started to change....

C'est la vie

Who is the better one? He who is extra sweet, out of pity, to a person suffering from AIDS... or he who insults and treats the person suffering from AIDS just the same way as he used to before being in the know.

Is the one who is proud of himself for sharing a bus seat with a leper as prejudiced as the one who loathes the leper?

If God exists and is watching us all, what matters to him more - the money that goes into the temple's coffers or the money that goes into the beggar's bowl?

If the Holy Koran could be changed during the time of the crusades to include Polygamy and let one man have more than one wife to ensure that there are successors to carry Islam forward, why cant it be modified again, now that the crusades are over?

If Indians and Hinduism gave the world the Kama Sutra and Khajuraho, why do Ram Sena make war when they can make love?

2008 - a retrospective tag cloud

Seiyur, rockets firing on the ground, sun rise over the backwaters, Star Vijay, racism at Sydney?, India win at Perth, resignation, out of first job, hunt for second job, whiling away time in Jah's room, kicking Jah and Perusu's ass in go-karting, Djokovic and Sharapova lift Oz Open, bro turns 20, Valentine's day with Shankar Mahadevan at Techofes 2008 and a few good souls from college, Castro resigns, Castro comes to power, Musharaf loses election, Democracy in Pakistan?, India wins tri-series, Gold Medal, Sup's wedding, Second Job, Bangalore, Bengaluru, Channa gideeni, Als' wedding, hyderabad, Concord, Analytics, Indya.com, Starboxoffice.com, IPL, Chennai Superkings, Rajasthan Royals, Mak's bro's wedding, Munnar, Wimbledon finals, Nadal, Bangalore blasts, Ahmedabad blasts, turn 24, Beijing, Phelps, Dark Knight, Bolt, ABHINAV BINDRA, India's first Individual gold, Vijender Singh, Sushil Kumar, auto rides, diagrams, Harry's wedding, big bang, project management, Yuva and Nit's wedding, Barack Obama, recession, examinations, Kiki and Sandhu and Castrol thread, Lewis Hamilton, VISHY ANAND, Chandrayaan, mom and dad turn 25, Sachin 12000, Jumbo retires, Dada retires, India beats Oz, Mumbai attacked, Basle, Yercaud, Erode, Bakrid, India win at Chepauk, SA beat Oz, Train to Chennai which starts at 11