The athiest within a theist

The author has tried to put forward all possible arguments and did not come to any conclusion. The beliefs of author have not been disclosed. Article does not support atheism either. It is left to the reader what conclusion he wants to come to

No , No, No exclaimed my mother. If we don't perform the daily rituals(god related: puja, naivedya and all rituals performed during festivals), god wont spare us. We must perform the rites.
I was brought up a in an (over)religious family. So never thought about the god, but blindly followed the beliefs(actually culture). God comes to help in need of people doing punya(pious deeds) and punish those who do paap(wrong doing) is the notion followed in all religions. My conscience too never allowed me to contrast this belief. But does god punish if you don't worship too? That question left me confounded and unanswered. I had hell lot of questions storming in mind with no clues.
Doubt 1: Does god exists?does he protect good?
->God punishes those doing paap and protects those doing punya. But if you take a survey, this theory of paap and punya will definitely fail. Its works only in hindi movies where the villain always get punished and hero wins. Real life works on the principles of survival of fittest and not punya and paap, and no shaktimaan comes to save the poor and weak.
->If god does not/cannot punish paapi(bad) people, will he punish just because you don't worship him?
If you go to the forest in africa or even the kond tribe in niyamgiri hills in orissa who worship nature, hills and the forest.Will god punish them because they dont worship him? Or what if i was born in that tribe? would god have punished me because of my ignorance of his existence?
->

But there are another doubts which kill the atheist within me.
1> River saraswati one of the revered rivers after ganga and yamuna was unknown for centuries. But excavations in the places as defined in our holy books showed that the river did exists during so and so period. How can i deny the thing defined in our holy book which our science too reinforces? If i believe this fact from the holy book, how can i deny the other stories in my holy book?
2>Ram setu(bridge), built by lord Rama between india and sri lanka is well known in our mythology. NASA satellite images too showed that some kind of bridge did exist. So if i believe this fact, it makes me believe it was built by rama only and therefore god(rama) did exist!
3>Hinduism beieved in Navagraha(9 planets)from centuries, but we had 10 planets (including pluto) according to our science. All of a sudden in 2007 scientists declared pluto not as a planet. How did our ancestors know that there are only nine planets thousands of years back when there was no telescope or science, whereas our science proved it only 3 years back??
Are all these coincidences between the scriptures(science fiction novels??) written by ancestors thousands of years back and the present day science? or were these ancestors geniuses who wanted to pass this knowledge to future generations and wrapped this knowledge with idea of religion?

The lasting impression Part 3: Bangalored

This is one of the posts in my "Lasting Impressions" series where i write some unusual things that happen to me or which i notice in everyday life and unknowingly happen to make lasting impressions on my mind.

When i had come to bangalore i always used to say as the city grows bigger humanity become rare.
This is one of the unexpected events that happened to me that changed my perception.
I had gone to BigBazar Jayanagar on bike after coming from office to buy some household goods.
The next day morning i was amazed to see that the wallet in my jacket was missing.
Ohh god! so many things missing! my driving licence , PAN Card, 2 ATM cards and some amount.
Making new driving licence and PAN would have been a big problem.
ATM cards anyway i blocked temporarily, instead of blocking permanently. I do not know
whether it was careless-ness from my side or the pocket of my pant was loose.
There were only 2 options either the wallet was stolen or it had fallen off. In either case the chances of
getting the lost wallet were almost nil. I went to office but could not concentrate and came back home to
search for it once again. Suddenly the bell rang, a guy was holding some licence and called my name.
I was stunned, he looked at my photo in licence and then took out a plastic cover from his bag. My wallet,
cards and money everything intact. I had least expected that people will come searching for me to return
my wallet that had fallen on the main road. The worst thing was they got my address from the bike insurance
that i had in the wallet and the address on it was misprinted as 28th main intsead of 29th main. They found
my home inspite of the wrong address. Even i would have said f**off in such case and left, but they dint give up. Hats off to such rare breed which still exists today, and leave a lasting impression on immature minds like mine.

Lasting Impression : Part2

It was a sunny day, when my father was on his way to Ponda from Mardol on Kinetic Scooter, on the national Highway near GVM's College. The declivity of the road usually inspires many people to drive faster. But my father was in his standard 40kmph.Just half the way on the downward slope he saw to men chasing him on motorbike. He wondered why they chased him...and still continued to ride his scooter.But a moment later they stopped him and showed two nuts and bolts in their hands!.
After they checked the rear wheel of the scooter indeed two of the nuts were missing! The wheel was attached b y just one nut and bolt, ready to fall anytime! My father was horrified at the thought of what would have happened if they dint stop him, that too on a highway and on a steep slope!. Not only did they collected the nuts and bolts which they saw falling from behind, they put the wheel back in to its position.
I dont know whether god exists or not..but i am sure some unknown people like this do come to help and vanish, but leave a lasting impressions on our mind.

Lasting Impressions(Part1) : The Old Man and His Son

      "Nani",a  quiet old, probably 70 years old person, used to visit my home to meet my father for Homeopathic treatment, for almost a decade. He had become almost a regular patient naturally because of his old-age problems. His son sometimes used to accompany him. He used to reside in Kunkoliem village on the foothills of Kundaim, a place famous for its "pineapples", huge, fresh, juicy pineapples, not available anywhere else. Anytime if u have been traveling on the ponda-panjim highway during rainy season, u would see vendors sitting with heaps  of pineapples along the national highway. Nani too was one of the owners of pineapple gardens.
Nani was the oldest person in that village and was also a famous quack. People used to visit him for treatment of Rabies, but don't know how much it was effective.
Every year during the rains, mostly in July-Aug,when the pineapple production is at its peak, Nani used to give us a cluster of 7-8 pineapples. My grandma used to prepare jam from those pineapples. I still get nostalgic when i see any jam. I used to love it!. This tradition continued until one day we heard somewhere in September that "Nani", passed away.I was  barely 8 years that time.
Days passed and rainy days were back again, and whenever i used pass by the highway, seeing the  piled up pineapples used to remind me of "Nani".It was almost 10months since Nani passed away. I used to go home and ask my mother, when will "Nani", bring pineapples?, reply used to be "Now Nani is dead, we won't get anymore pineapples now".
One day it was raining heavily in the afternoon, and the bell rang. I opened the door guess who was he? Nani's son!. And what what in his hand..... ? You r right! I took the huge cluster of pineapples tied to-gather and  ran inside!, Shouting "Aaiii"(mamaa)....

P.S. Sometimes in life something extraordinary happens to us or we meet people who rise above the normal, because of their different way of thinking and doing. I don't know if Nani told his son to give pineapples even after his death and his son fulfilled his wishes, or his son thought it on his own to do so. In either case Nani and his son (Whose name i don't remember now), are among the those extraordinary people who keep humanity alive and leave a lasting impression on those involved, who are sensitive enough to apprehend it!. 

The Goans Pain !

When any non-goan meets me(“Any Goan friends”), the first thing that comes to their mind is “Party, Drinks, Pub Culture(???) of goa”. Before you tell them anything about goa, they will start telling about the culture of goa, how forward the people are (some even start  arguing that its not possible to find “vir***” goans), and they will never  forget to ask about that famous “Nude Beach” of Goa. My family has been in Goa from atleast last 7 generations, but I never heard about such “Nude Beach Stories!”.

While many people feel that goans must have been holidaying in goa 365 days ssitting on beach and drinking feni. They will be taken aback if you tell that you are a Hindu, or if you talk about any temple, while once someone went to the extent of asking “Are your father and mother Indians?”, he din’t even know that “Indians” too  stay in Goa!.(Its different issues that many “Russians” already have bought land and settled in Goa, recently..).

 And worse if u tell them u don’t drink or that you are a vegetarian, they will refuse to accept it completely.  I know so many goans who don’t drink, and any way everyone has his own life. 

The identity of this misconstrued  goan, a “cool-dude” who knows only  “party”, who  hardly lives with family, who lives in very “open” society, who is supposed to enjoy the trans music(at least rock), and attend Rave-Parties on every weekends on beaches. If you don’t subscribe to any of their imagination of their (misconstrued ) Goans “, you might  be called a “Farji(Fake) Goan”.

Go to any village and ask any goan how many beaches are there in Goa(forget about those nude beaches) you will hardly find anybody giving correct answer. In my village itself, you can count so many people who had never been to the beach, while some know that there is only one beach (That is Miramar). Ask how many people go for movies (how frequently)  and how many people do go to temples(and how frequently) , you will surely get disappointed. Go to any goan village and count how many women wear only “sari” and how many college girls still don’t wear “Jeans”. 

 As far as “Openness” of goa is concerned I never found any difference between areas  of coastal states of Karnataka or Kerala from Trivendrum to Ratnagiri, like Mangalore(Karnnataka) or Kasargod(Kerala) and goa. 

Whenever I go home… I still check if my “goa” has changed … and I still don’t forget to search for that mysterious “Nude Beach” of Goa whenever i am at home…

Size Matters!!

 

Damu my childhood friend met me after a decade, while I was going home from Bangalore.  He studied with me for a decade right from 1^st standard. He was a simple guy, always helpful and my great friend.  Although good in studies he never got a chance to go for higher education, but had to drop out by chance.  I believe  he was much  better than me in many respects. I remember him walking almost 2 km from his home .early morning to our government primary school..mostly with his mother.Being from a poor family I  used to see him selling bananas, and “niro” (cashew juice) in summer on the ponda-panjim highway. 

I can’t recall meeting him after our  10^th standard.  I even failed to recognize him when I was sitting just next to him in the bus while going from Ponda to Mardol(my home), but he din’t.  He kept quite for a while, then said “chinmay”,  I stared at him. “valkhata?”, do u recognize me?, he asked.  I must have forgotten his face but not his voice, “Damu” I said. I could even recall his handwriting and the punishment he used to get because of his bad handwriting. Though I felt proud that time because everyone praised me because of my beautiful handwriting..and sometimes laugh at such people for not “writing beautifully”, I think I was  wrong so did the teachers.  Handwriting does not at all reflect the person.. its just inborn..i have never seen someone with more than one handwriting..it comes from birth. Gandhijis handwrting was so bad but that did not deter his progress.

I was one of the brightest kid in my school..but I remember on day when in the maths class he solved the “venn diagram” problem when no one else could!. The day when I felt it was the circumstances which made him belong to the “dull” students in the class, else he must have achieved much more than me.  His father was a farmer and they had a “gado”, petty shop near our school. His mother died when he was 8, he had a younger brother  who was 2 yrs younger to us.

His father had a petty shop near our school.. We used to go there with 25 and 50 paise to buy chocolates during the school interval... Some used to buy biscuits and some “manikchand”. After the school, always he used to be seen sitting in his “gado” selling the petty items.. mostly sitting idle, but still one customer was great for him.

He used to be very simple and humble, never saw him fighting with anyone… May be that was the reason everyone used to make fun of him, when he used to come to play with us, every one used to say “aaj gadyaar vachuna?” , dint u go to the shop today?. or "business kaso challa?", how is your business going? While the other children would play he used to look after his fathers “gado”.  But other children used to make fun of him because of his “gado”, I saw similar attitude in almost 99% of the  people,  I have met or seen so far, that makes me believe that “size does matter”.

When we do something big people will praise you, but when you do same thing at a smaller magnitude people will make fun of you. 

When "Siddhartha" left his palace and the affluence in which be was brought up,  he was said to be a fool, but the same "fool"("Gautam buddha") and his principles has 400million followers("buddhism") today after some 2500yrs the world over!!!(But are not called fools!).

All businessman will be essentially doing the same: “ sell the product”, but when “Damu” sells chocolates on his “gado” people make fun of him, but when the same chocolate is sold in a “Reliance Mall” people call him businessman and praise him.

In olden times and still the “chambhar”(shoe maker) used to be looked down, but when the same shoe is sold under the brand “Bata” its called business. 

Esssentially both do the same thing but the magnitude differs, so does people’s perception!.

Whenver I go to my village, I have a haircut  at “Ramakant’s” shop at bus stand in Mardol, an old fellow who cut my hair from childhood, but his shop now is in a dilapidated state, just like his health in this old age. Ones I showed my college friend the place where I have haircut, the shop without the comfortable chair, no big mirror, no floor tiles, ceiling leaking during rains and no shaving cream(may be he doesn't know  what is shaving cream.. Liril soap has been his shaving cream from the day he started his profession!,). My friend just laughed at me, and asked dint you find any better barber shop? But even  today whenever I go home, I still go to the same “Ramakant’s” shop for a haircut, The world might have changed, people prefer to go to the “posh” saloons…. but Ramakant has not changed so do I.

All these thoughts came to my mind on the way while chatting with damu…and when the bus stopped  near "paatyer", damu got up to get down…when he got down and waved his hand to say goodye.. I asked him what I forgot to ask " kaamak bin khai vata?”, “where r u working”?,  He just smiled and walked away, may be  he remembered those childhood days when children made fun of him..He might have thought  I might make fun of him for his “gado”, so walked away without speaking a word…

*[Later I came to know that his father passed way and he is still running his childhood “gado” after his father(petty shop).]

My Experiences

Some of my Views based on my experiences:

These ideas are based on my views while trying to understand the world, my experiences with people, my views about purpose of human life; ones duties towards family, society or living creatures, and my experiments with different things. These ideas are an attempt give you insight in to me and reflect my thoughts and my way of life.


1) Education improves a person’s aptitude, but not attitude. It can never make a person good human being, it’s up to the persons conscience whether to be good or bad.
Explanation: Education improves the ability of person to think of new problems, to find new solutions, ability to solve problems faster and more efficiently, gives approach to think in the right directions (All come under aptitude). It never teaches humanity, morals or ethics. These things cannot be taught! They are all influenced by the way of persons thinking, introspection, and experience.

2) I am a vegetarian, i can justify killing for survival, but not killing of an innocent creature (god creates we people find pleasure in destroying) just to satisfy your taste buds. What we eat is secondary... What we do is more important… I too believe that god has given human beings more power than other living creatures, not to show off their power by slaughtering /killing weaker living creatures (sometimes suppressing of weaker human beings) but to protect them (bible).

3)Some people think being spiritual person is of no use, better to do something practical, but i don’t think so, every person has some spiritual ethos imbibed in him over a period of time which he does not realize himself; but reflect in his day to day life.

4) Intelligence is not enough; one needs self control, ability to think what’s bad and what’s good, morality and humanity.

5) Education never makes a person "great,” neither his intelligence, nor his smartness. It’s his work that makes the person great.
Explanation: Generally when we find an intelligent person we say “oh, he is gr8, he is so intelligent”, but that hardly makes sense. Intelligence is a gods (Natures – who are atheist) gift which comes from birth. At micro-level i can say it depends on the cells and neurons in your brain and the chemicals generated by them which determine intelligence, memory etc. Further I can say it depends on a single strand of DNA inherited by you which contains most of the information about your life (From beauty, color and height to intelligence, memory and diseases). So a person need not be called “great,” just because the cells in his brain produce right amount of chemicals, or he inherited the right DNA. He cannot be called “great” unless his deeds are great. Obviously his deeds should be proportional to his intelligence, which requires”hard work”, otherwise there is no point in his being intelligent.

6)99.9 % people live in virtual world, society in which everyone(including himself) tries to conceal their actual identity and create a public image of themselves which is different from what they really are and the society knows them with their public image as long as their actual identity is not revealed.
Explanation: I know a few people who are well respected in society, people know them for their pious deeds, but very few people know the story behind cover, very few know their actual character and what they do or have done behind their mask. It’s like a thief does not become a thief unless he is caught stealing. Not being caught doesn’t mean he is a “good guy”. A person who steals may not be known as thief unless he is accused ; whereas a person falsely implicated in a criminal case will turn a criminal in the eyes of society, though he is a “good guy”.

7)99% problems are created by human beings for when the nature is calm and there are no natural calamities, Human beings tend to start creating problems for themselves.
Explanation: Human beings are responsible for creating most of the problems; problems created by nature are not even 1%, Murders, Corruption, Rapes, Terrorism, Sufferings due to addiction, crimes are deliberately done by human beings. Very few will happen by errors like rail accidents. And still less by natural calamities. It’s the human beings who like to create problems when they don’t exist.

8) Every person should live the way he wants. People need not have problem unless his actions affect them...so live life in your own way but see that it doesn’t affect others.
Explanation: Sometimes we will criticize or make fun of people even if we don’t know them, or even when we should not be really considered, but most people have this tendency. Unless some one does anything wrong to you or society, you need not be bothered, you too can live life the way you want unless it affects others.

9) Some people think animals are not intelligent, so do not feel pain, but i believe some of their senses are far more developed then humans and share most traits of human beings; they have emotions, helpfulness, pain, friendship and sacrifice.
When they forget the statement of Charles Darwin "the Lower animals, like man, manifestly feel pleasure, pain, happiness and misery”. ~Charles Darwin

10) Every person thinks that he is always correct; whatever he does & thinks is the right way. He wants others to be exactly like him: think, work, eat, talk, behave like him; and will not like when "some1" is too diff from him, but very few have the cogitating power to think and understand why "some1" is "different", what made "some1" different...or think y he (himself) is different from that "some1" rather than y "some1" is diff then him, very few will try to introspect (Introspect: Reflect on one's own thoughts and feelings) and "think" whether his own "thinking" is correct.

11) Happiness is relative for human beings and absolute for animals.
Explanation: animals will be happy when they get food; they won’t bother about what other animals are eating or how much they have got. Most Human beings live a comparative life. They will see what others have got before feeling happy or sad. The criterion of their happiness is, they want to get more than what others have got (relative) and not whether they have got exactly what they wanted to get (absolute).

12) Do what u want in life, its ur life; live it the way you want, but don’t trouble others.

13) Don’t comment on someone u don’t know properly, If u really want to comment try to know him/her first.

14) What is moral may not be legal, what is legal may not be moral, prostitution can be made legal but can it be moral?

15) Sometimes i wonder why is it that some illiterates are far better than some highly educated ppl with respect to attitude, ethics, and morality and are very logical too.

16) Being Intelligent by itself is never great thing; its not necessary either that intelligent people should reach gr8 heights; some intelligent people have used their intelligence for wrong things; some have even become terrorists; whereas we can see some not so intelligent have reached gr8 heights in their professional, social and moral and humanitarian ways.

17) Money, Power and Beauty are all transient.

18) Sometimes in life I meet people who trouble me a lot, who find happiness in someone’s pain; they might trouble you too a lot, but you don’t need to leave your goodness, u don’t need to treat them the way they treat you, be patient and keep good things going on...one day they will realize their mistake, will get influenced by your attitude and become your best friends.

19)Conversion(proselytism) is one of the evil things in this modern society; i don’t see it serves any purpose, if u want to make a difference in this world change the peoples attitude not there religion; for no religion can good or bad, its the attitude of ppl which can be bad.

20) I feel bad when people say that "i speak less", i don’t think so!, ("talking less or more is perceived in wrong way by most people"). Relatively i might be talking less compared to others, but i don’t think "speaking less" has anything to do with what you are!!!, people who talk more doesn’t mean they have "big" heart, and those talking less have some "ego problems"(as most people perceive it that way), "enmity" or some "discrimination feelings", I speak what comes to my mind, what I think is right according to me {I try to avoid commenting on someone’s personal life, avoid criticism on individual or community}, I love my friends I love all good people( I don’t hate others).

21)I think there are not really any "Bad people" in this world, its because they have not met good people, they behave like that, but i have seen the same so called "bad people" helping others in times of difficulty.

22) Its very difficult to find people who are really "Understanding", normally people will talk what they see, they will comment on you based on what you talk, how you look, how you talk etc, what they see you doing. But very few people will have the thinking power and will try to understand you and think about why actually u are like “that", and not like them.

23) Sometimes, i got series of bad experiences with "bad people", and I started thinking that everyone else too is like them; world is full of only such type of people; i feel that “one day i will be like them and treat them the way they treat me and and they will understand!!!!” or “i will teach them a good lesson!!” , until i met saw some people who are much more stronger have much more patience, who do not loose their temper and who did not leave their "goodness", in spite of having tougher times than me.

24)"As long as you believe in Humanity you need not believe in God.

25)“It is very difficult to find two people with similar thoughts and action, similar ambitions, or interests. Every person will be unique and it is quite natural if you are different from the crowd. We need to understand this and respect each others uniqueness."

26)“Some times some of the best people (good people or people who may be most similar to you) are among/around us and we fail to identify such people, just because most of the times we go by persons look, and similar things, and tend to have assumptions about such people when we do not know them properly. Sometimes we even make conclusions based on those assumptions, which are just opposite of reality. We need to come out of such assumptions and know others better before commenting on them”.

27)“A person always likes or gets associated with people who are most similar to them, but that does not mean that he doesn't like other people.

Explanation: Sometimes we see groups of people who always stay to-gather, and and its either difficult to enter in their group or difficult for you to accommodate someone else in your group, because we do not share common interests. But that does not mean that we do not like such outside people or something. Its just that we are more comfortable being with people most similar to us than someone who has different views”--My experience especially in college days.

28)“Body language or looks may no reflect what the person “really” is; some people behave differently in different environment (depending upon people around them or how comfortable/secure they feel). Human beings express themselves properly when they feel most comfortable and get encouragement; that time their “real” personality/character is being expressed / exposed."

Explanation: Many a times we see people who are seem to be passive, but that depends on where they are and how comfortable they are in that environment . In reality they are not at all passive but just they feel insecure to express themselves in that environment.