Religious Differences-We Need To Think All Over Again…

With all the arguments and  dissents that are pervasive in our democracy these days, what is most perceptible  to me is the general nature of the people of India to trust what have been taught to them since centuries in a particular geographic region. What I mean with the above statement is that our nature and innate tendency to believe what is right or wrong or to demarcate right from wrong  with the help of widely held belief without judging any issue ourself is one reason why most of the sects of the biggest democracy of world are at loggerheads with each other these days. Without knowing why we are following anything, the nature to question other’s drawback has become our basic disposition. Many personalities holding many important posts have been doing it since ages to make Indians think how different they are from each other irrespective of the fact that all of them are actually Indians. We, the people of India, on the other hand believe that we take decisions on the basis of how we perceive the world. If we ask ourself this question I believe we’ll get to know that most of the knowledge that we have is based on what we have been taught and is not based on our own knowledge.
So what I reckon we must do is to think and ask ourselves-without being judgemental about other sects-the question as to why we think anything the way we do. Is it something that we know with the evidence or we believe it because we have been witnessing it all our lives or we are having a notion about other sects just because we have been taught to think about them in that particular way. This question if asked to ourselves honestly can give all the answers to our problems regarding sectarian disharmony and can make the society a great place to live in.

God is watching us! Part 1

I’ll start with a short story. Once a blind beggar was begging in a train and when he passed by; a man on upper seat wished to give him some coins but was far so asked the man sitting beneath to pass the beggar the coins he wished to give. The man sitting beneath did so and passed the coins to the beggar. The beggar took it happily and said, “bhagwan apka bhala kare” ( may god bless you). Hearing this, the man sitting beneath who had just passed the coins to the beggar mocked at the man who actually gave the coins saying- “paise diye aapne aur dua mujhe mil gai”(money was given by you and blessings came to me)to the man. To this, the blind beggar said-“saahab andha Mai hun uparwala nahi”(sir it is I who is blind, not the God). To this the man got speechless. This is not just a story but the truth of the world today. These days, it has become very common thing that whatever we do in life or whatever action we take; many of those actions are taken by two reasons- either we want to impress someone or make them happy to get blessings(for our own benefit in return)or we do it to portray ourselves in a particular manner. This trait of humans has become not less than a fashion trend these days to do something and show or prove the world what we are and how we do what we do or what kind of person we are.Many people today do charities and post the pictures while doing so on social media platform. Many of them say that if we are doing charity or helping others then why can’t we expect some admiration and praise from others. Some of them say that if no one will witness us doing something for the welfare of others, then how will they get to know how humanitarian we actually are. Here comes the topic which I have dedicated this blog post of mine to. Actually someone always witness what we do and how we do it and besides all this what is the intention that we are having in our mind while doing anything. That being is known to us as the god almighty.

 

No matter what we do, or if we do it for someone else or ourselves, or we do it in seclusion or in front of thousands of people; someone always keeps a close watch on us and witness all our deeds and that being is god. Here some can argue that what about those who do not believe in god? The answer is that god always doesn’t mean that a superpower being is looking at you; this god has a deeper meaning. That god sometimes is our conscience-our mind’s power to tell what is right and what is wrong. No matter how secluded we are, this self conscience always keeps a close watch on us and not only does it tells us what is right or wrong but it also enables us to feel extremely powerful while getting involved in philanthropy. Similarly if we are taking any action to make someone happy or just to impress someone or to portray ourselves in a particular manner, this self conscience tells us that it is wrong no matter how desperately we want to do it. But all this realization happens with us only when we are self aware and know how to demarcate wrong from right. The gist is that our actions should not be based on our desire to portray ourselves in specific way or to take it just to impress others for their happiness and blessing or favors by them in return. It also should not be just for getting the desired result from the god. It solely should be based after analytic scrutiny that whatever we are doing is justified and good and in case of charity or philanthropy, whatever we are doing is for other person’s welfare who is concerned and not for “our” benefit. If the inner self tells us that yes this is right then do it and if no, then don’t do it. There is no need to show or prove it to someone all this while because our god always watches us and our conscience knows whether our actions are right or wrong and it is our god who blesses us for our deeds and not the people concerned or other spectators.

 

By-Shekhar Srivastava

Thin or fat! What is better?

Farah, 22 ,is a girl who is obese. She is quite active and plays badminton very well and walks every morning and evening. She eats healthily and doesn’t believe in dieting or starving. When asked by some of her friends, she said that she loves everything about her body and doesn’t think that she needs to starve and diet to change her body’s appearance. A classmate of Fatima, Vinita, 21, on the other hand is a girl with slender waist and slim appearance and is an aspiring model. She looks beautiful but she feels week almost all the time. She does not feel well and always seems to be very dull. Asked about her diet and fitness regime, she told that she doesn’t like playing any sport and keeps her body in shape by strict dieting and avoiding eating anything for hours or sometimes eats only once in a day

This is not the story of only these two girls but it is the very common phenomenon in the youngsters these days to starve to keep themselves in shape and look good. Actually the misconception in the minds these days that being slim means being fit and being fat means unfit is the reason behind this notion. Applying this ideology in life, we fail to realize that our body needs nutrients which make us fit and nourished and only then we can feel fit. If we do not get these nutrients or our body is not active in our diurnal activities then no matter how slim and slender we look or how beautiful our appearance is, we can never feel fit and fresh.

 

Being fit not only is related with our physical appearance but also how fresh and satisfied we feel with ourselves and how comfortable we are in our body. That is probably the reason why an obese girl feels fresh and healthy while a thin girl doesn’t even feel normally fresh and active in her daily activities in the real stories mentioned above. But this is only one side of the story, because being an obese or fat or not having control over what you eat cannot always help you to be healthy and being slim doesn’t always mean that you are weak or unfit or unhealthy. Our fitness is directly connected with the nutrients we get and the activities we get involved in. It correctly proves the famous quote that “it is better to be fat and fit than to be thin and dying” because metabolism being the main reason behind it, sometimes make a person fat even with less amount of food intake whereas this very same phenomenon makes some people maintain their slim and thin appearance with more food intake.

All that we can conclude from these factors involved in our fitness is that being fit and healthy should be our priority and not just our beautiful thin appearance. And to be fit and healthy we can afford to look fat rather than thin because that fat look would give us much satisfaction and joy in our life than the thin look we wish to get.

 

By-Shekhar Srivastava