God

The other day there was a little talk about religion among a small group of my classmates. One was explaining about Christianity to another two Hindus. Well, one of them is some kind of non believer, so yeah. So the preacher started of with Lucifer's introduction and moved on about who god really is and what's Christianity is all about. Well, he invited me into the discussion but I passed off the offer. It wasn't because I've got anything against the religion, it's just because.. I've already known everything I need to know about Christianity. =)

Frankly speaking, I'm not personally bound to any specific religion. I'm called a Hindu because I was born a Hindu and most certainly raised as one. Well, back in the good old days, I was a very pious and god-fearing child. My basic understanding of the religion was mostly gained through my parents guidance and sometimes, Tamil movies which involves god triumphing over the evil is the most gruesome way possible ( I guess the idea was to show that if you do bad, you die bad and ugly). As I grew older and a lil more mature, I begin to look/understand Hinduism in a more different perspective. I noticed it has multiple versions of the same religion. I guess it has been around for a very long time, long enough for it to have different version of it. One corner you have people worshipping Lord Krshna as the supreme Godhead while in another corner you have people worshipping Lord Shiva as the super soul or supreme god. Honestly, I really don't know who is who or what is what. There was one time, I really liked Lord Shiva. He seem to be very calm and at peace all the time and all of the mythology/history that accompanies Him sounds very interesting.

Then, during a visit to India, there was this Krshna temple in Bangalore called the ISKCON Temple. International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Frankly speaking, I've never seen a Hindu temple so clean, so beautiful and so peaceful anywhere before in my life! Lord Krshna looked so... beautiful and amazing at the same time.

They had this book where they sold in the temple which talked about Krshna and his philosophies. Most, in not all of the philosophies seems to be relateable to life. Well, my life. So, Lord Krshna became another god of choice. Each time I can relate myself to a certain god through His/Her myths or stories, I find that god appealing. In a way, I suppose that's how religion works. You stick to one religion where you can relate to or at least find peace in to help you move on with life. You just place your life's burden onto god and move one hoping for the best while you find extra courage to fix you problem. I guess that's what god is all about. But some people just don't get it and gets carried away and become fanatics. Well, I guess they just believe too much and you always can't blame them. We don't know what they have been through.

Then, what about spiritual enlightenment you may ask. That is beyond my understanding. One thing I've been coming across in Hindu myths is that each and everyone of us are somehow related to god. You know like how in the Bible its said that god made man in his own image? I guess if that's true, our ultimate goal is to find the god within and achieve spiritual enlightenment which is to be one with God. Then again, like I said. My understanding of spiritual enlightenment is beyond me. There are things and events in life you just can't explain. One of those things are god. It will always be a debated, sensitive and universal subject for all to try understand. It may look complicated but look beyond the complex and multiple version of religions out there, and you'll only see one thing. God is one and everywhere.  

Class time past

Sometimes but not always, when the class gets boring, my imagination runs wild. So wild that I start drawing comics and stuff on my notes. All this just to keep myself awake in class. Being tall in the class is a terrible disadvantage since you can't freaking sleep or hide. *sigh*

Bought the notebook to jot down notes but instead its filled with drawings..

Blog to Journal

Was cleaning the book rack the other day when I bumped into a lost treasure. My old brand new journal. I think I bought it like ages ago but miss placed it somehow (well knowing me, that's what I usually do) and I'm thinking that it would be a good time to start writing a journal or something since that was the plan many years back. Besides, my handwriting has gone beyond the point of recognisable handwriting. So, this journal would be doing me two favours. One, repair my already damaged handwriting so the examiners wouldn't crack their head trying to figure out whether I've written in English or Swahili. Two, try keeping me offline. Well not really, but at least something to keep me doing stuff old school.

Well that's about it. So maybe, just maybe, I'll might put up some snapshots of the journal once I get started with it. And some occasional drop by over here. After all, first blog dies hard. Or was it first love? 

Change

I need to change. Fin.

Bad timing?

Is it a bad timing to reconsider what I'm doing with my life now? I'm in second year of my degree course but I just don't feel like I belong there. It's like I don't like what I'm doing. In matter of fact, I don't know what I want to do. Too many changes have just made my mind too confused till it doesn't know what it wants. Well, I know it's kinda too late and expensive to change my mind now but it's just taking its toll on me now. I feel like some kind of ticking time bomb ready to explode. The only thing is, I'm afraid it's gonna be ugly. Too many stuffs in my head. Too difficult to let it out. *sigh*

Untitled

How would you define a person as good or bad?

Here a scenario. There's this guy... let's call him Alex. Alex knows a guy named David who is philanthropist, does charities, build schools and hospitals and sounds and moves like Mr nice guy. One day, he finds out that this David is actually a hardcore criminal. You know the type that smuggles drugs and alcohols and sells arms to third world countries and does all the nasty stuff known and unknown to a common man. So, how would should Alex define David? Good guy or bad guy?

Here's scenario number two. There's another guy name Bob. He's a member of David organisation. He does all the dirty stuff for David and know him as a ruthless boss. Then, one day he stumble upon David's charities and all the good stuff he does and hears the people telling that David is all good and nice. So, how should Bob define David? Bad or good?

If we know a person for his wrong doing, let's say... we are in Bob's shoes, we might interpret that David is trying to balance off the bad stuff by doing the good stuff. So, Bob might define him as the bad guy with a soft spot but Alex might defines him as the good guy with a dark secret.

So, does the first impression defines the person? Or do we define a person based on what we think we know about the person?

Anyway, is it fair to judge a person for what he does or for what he is? I'm might be a bad guy but I do what good guys do. So am I good or bad? =/

Thieves get richer, Saints get shot. Be a hypocrite.

There's one thing in life that one must understand and that is one can never be nice to everyone. The world doesn't work that way. In fact, you can never be nice to everyone even if you try to. They wouldn't let you. Think about it. Could you think of anyone who has been nice to everyone? When I meant everyone, I really meant.. Ev-ery-one. Right. You can't. Because there aren't any and even if there is any, people just don't like them. They don't acknowledge such people. Everyone loves Gandhi for the actions he took to bring independence to India. But eventually he was assassinated. Why? He was trying to be nice to everyone. Trying to make all parties happy. Unfortunately, he couldn't. Made some enemies there and here aaand they he shot him. 

Having born and growing up as in Hindu, I was exposed to all type of Hindu epics. You know, the usual Ramayana and other tales. And you know one thing, even the gods aren't nice to everyone. They are only nice to those who worships them or respect them or at least to those who are nice to others all while being dictated by dharma (righteous). Thinking of it, if god were nice to those who worships them, then Ravan wouldn't have gotten killed for he is a lifelong devotee of Lord Shiva. But he was killed because he failed to go by the books or in this case, dharma. So being nice to god but not to others wouldn't safe you from a war and painful death. Same thing goes on in Mahabaratha, another Hindu mythology. All comes to one conclusion. If gods aren't nice to everyone, why should I, a mere mortal be? Simple. I don't. In Christianity, it says that god created man in his own image. So, why shouldn't we do what god would do? Be good to those who are good to you only if they go by the books. But then again, to the believers, Ramayana and Mahabaratha is a great epic mythology. For the non-believers, it's just another fairytale story. It's not about what is written. It's about the message in it.

Lets put it this way. If you're good to the good guys, the good guys would love you and maybe some of the bad guys might hate you. If you're good to the bad guys, the bad guys would love you and sure enough the good guys would ignore you and some if not most of the bad guys would hate you. After all, they are the bad guys. Who you are counts but what you do that matters. 

Think about it. We evolved into what we are today from a primate. We are build to adapt.
So adapt.
Live as a hypocrite. Die as a saint.
If not a saint, let it be a human.