Disclaimers:
This is NOT a copyright. Anyone can post any of this material anywhere without my permission. I want my thoughts to be spread, not my name. But before copying it, I request you to read it fully, think over it, and let me know how you find it.
One more thing. I don’t have much experience of writing. So there will be grammatical mistakes, and it won’t be rich in GRE words. So don’t pay much attention to it, just focus on the content, and comments and criticisms about the content are most welcome, but supported with proper explanation.
And the most important one. This text is full of my experiences and how I interpret them. So the people who don’t know me and don’t wish to know about me and what I think, KEEP AWAY!
Till about two years ago,
I believed in love,
I believed in God,
And I believed in myself.
But once I had been in tough time, and none of them worked for me.
As I was losing everything, I started losing faith in these beliefs also.
Then I realized, I have nothing to lose now except these beliefs, so why not give them one more chance?
I started working hard. I was walking in the dark. Whenever I felt low in hope, whenever people questioned whether I can do it, these three boosted my morale and I was up to my quest again.
After months, I am well out of my predicament, living very happily, and now
I believe in love,
I believe in God,
I believe in myself,
AND I believe in BELIEVING.
Believing:
Everything can’t be put in words of physics. If you stab someone, physics can tell you how the shear strain corresponding to stress developed by the knife exceeds the maximum strain the skin and the muscles can yield to, and how much will the rate of blood flow will be according to fluid dynamics and so on. But can it ever tell you whether what you did was good or bad? For such things you require to make a set of beliefs.
In day-to-day life, you believe in loads of things. When you wash your hands before eating something, you believe they have become sufficiently clean. But how much sufficient? When you climb down the stairs, you don’t calculate the effort you have to put to put your next foot on right place, do you? You just believe in your motor system. If you wouldn’t believe in your immune system, you would not be able to drink, eat or even breathe!
When you wish someone good luck for his or her task or exam or anything, you know it won’t do anything but only make that person feel good. But if that person thinks that good wish does not have any effect, there is no reason he or she will feel good and your purpose is not served. And if you think the person won’t feel good, you won’t wish him or her good luck either. So, for creating that psychological effect, both of you have to believe that good wishes result in good.
A belief is never wrong as long as it serves its purpose, or gives you the result. It is the purpose behind the belief or the result of the belief which is right or wrong. If it doesn’t serve the purpose, it needs amendment. But if the purpose itself is wrong, then only it needs to be discarded. Hate seeds in the watermelon if you want to… but don’t hate the watermelon for its seeds.
God:
Ethics should not vary from person to person. If they do, then stealing things will be ethical according to a thief, because it is his job, he has to work hard and take risk for it, and so it’s his ‘earning’ in its own way. So should we look at successful robberies as the reward for cunning thinking, planning, bravery and perhaps teamwork? No! Because this way of earning money is not ethical. Similarly smoking in public place is strictly not ethical as it imperils the health of people around. Smuggling, excessive drinking, domestic violence and many other things can also be categorized as unethical.
Religion is just a set of guidelines created by some people to make people do ethical things and refrain from unethical ones. After all, those were made by humans and so have to contain some mistakes. As I said, they are guidelines, not the rules. So everyone should have the freedom of choosing which set, i.e. which religion to follow and to what extent. Followership should be by choice, not by force. As far as I know, most of the major religions in the world have many good principles. One of such concepts is – the God.
One will say, only believing in yourself is enough. But every time everything doesn’t go as planned. There are many factors on which you don’t have control. And poorer you are, more are such factors. An average person in the world has to struggle really hard to get job, to sustain the business, to support family and many things. So most of the people need to believe there is a power which will recognize their hard work and take care of the uncertainties. They believe it to be the most powerful thing so that they are most happy to forget worrying about things not in their control and employ whatever they have in their own hands, their hard work, skill and talent. And they call that power – the God.
Science is about observing things, putting up theories and making predictions, right? Then why don’t you accept Astrology as a science? It involves perhaps the longest period of observation in any of the sciences, a theory relating the positions of the stars and planets at the person’s birth, their position at some time and the person’s fate, and predicts the person’s future. There is certainly a ‘luck factor’ associated with everything you do, but you don’t want to believe that celestial objects can control your success. So why not believe that God will take care of it?
Some day in future, if my son or daughter, some 3-4 years old, asks me about doing something bad, and whether he or she should do it or not, I will say, “Dear, if somebody catches you doing it, you will get punishment.” But then he or she will say, “But I will take care that nobody sees me doing it.” Then what can be the most convincing answer from me? I find it to be – God sees everything!
More matured people are harder to be convinced. They will say, many people do bad things. But most of them are not caught. They live comfortable lives. So why are they not punished by God? Many wise people across the world had a pretty effective solution to this. They developed the concepts of afterlife, sins, heaven, hell and reincarnation. Now they could say, if one does something good or bad for others, God keeps its account, and reward or punishment will be given in afterlife or reincarnation. I don’t find anything wrong with these beliefs because they serve their purpose, and it is a good purpose.
But there were also some people who, for the benefit of a few ones, said that if one performs some rituals, God will forgive his or her sins. According to me, such beliefs have to be discarded as its result is bad – to nullify the good purpose of the belief mentioned earlier.
The belief in the concept of the God always brings peace. Peace is in danger only when people think that their God is superior to others’ God. This thought is as baseless as two siblings fighting over whose father is better!
A person has to respect the things which make his or her life easier. If one is not grateful about such things, how can he or she be expected to be grateful about the people who helped him or her in hard times? But how will people be convinced to do so? So they are made to believe that the God resides in those things, and you have to recognize the importance of the role they play in your life. Hindus worship their gadgets, stationary items, kitchenwares, automobiles many times yearly. They decorate their new car or electronic equipment with garlands, tilaks and all because they believe that God has come to their home in its form to make their lives easier.
An average person has no time to think much about what is ethical and what is not. There, the concept of God comes very handy as it provides necessary mental framework for him or her about do’s and don’ts, in very simple terms of respect, rewards for doing good work, and fear of punishment for bad deeds.
I am not saying that everyone must believe in God. But if someone believes in God, there is nothing wrong with it; I feel it is a good thing to believe. If you accept nature to be your mother because she created you, why do you object people thinking God to be their father, who supports and provides with everything?
Love:
The only people that hate love are the ones who have never been in love, or have mistaken love for something else. If you ever accuse love for having broken your heart, I want to ask you to remember how you were feeling when you were in love. I bet it was the time you were happier than you were most of rest of your life. Your heart broke when you realized the person you loved cheated you, or never loved you. So it was your choice or your expectation which broke your heart, not love.
When I was not feeling comfortable with engineering, I expected the girl I loved to love me too, so that I would feel better, and I will get mental strength to force my rebelling mind back to engineering. But when I was dumped, I blamed love to worsen my condition. I was too dejected, angry with myself and did not apply anywhere for post graduation. Later I had to take drop for one year. I could do a one year project and apply next year for post graduation, but for two months I thought hard and realized, it wasn’t my love which betrayed me at very wrong time. Some people are made to love, they don’t have right to ask for it in return. I might be one of them. I was very happy when I was in love, and I want to have the same feeling for rest of my life. I decided to pursue my love for pure sciences, and not to do the project. So I had one whole year free and I could study in order to get admission for post graduation in physics. And now, I have done it!
Love is nothing but affection, trust and care. It is a thing to give and you can give it to whomever you want. If you are in love with someone special, whenever he or she is around, enjoy the presence and make your presence enjoyable to him or her. Capture the sweet moments, store them in the album of your heart, and whenever you feel sad or lonely, just go through that album. You will realize the power of love when you recognize yourself smiling even in that condition.
Sex and possessiveness are requirements for a relationship, not for love. Love is something like: simpler it is, broader it is. Love your friends, your family, your relatives, your job, mama nature, whole world, and of course, someone special; just don’t expect returns for it.
It feels good to be loved. And being in love makes you feel even better!
Smile:
I had been at my home for some days. My 3 month old nephew was also there. He did not understand a word when anyone talked to him. But he could quickly identify the smile on the face of the person talking to him, and replied it with a very cute, shy smile. I spent almost whole of everyday I was there with him, and found myself smiling so much as I hadn’t smiled in months, just to see him smiling. A smile is a universal language that has a power of crossing any barrier, it may be due to age, or due to language.
If you feel sad anytime, and if you carry that sorrow on your face everywhere you go, you will either spoil others’ moods or may even end up being neglected. Instead, try this. Pretend to be happy, put a smile on your face, crack some jokes (PJ’s will do!). You will surely notice that when people around you are happy, you feel much better. Agreed, it doesn’t solve your problem, but the sorry face couldn’t help either. In fact, this idea will give you some positiveness to find some way out of it… do try it!
