Hey PK, what's wrong with Idol worship?

The so called intellectuals call idol worship is wrong and say it is based on ignorance. Why? Because in their head they think that the man who bows to the idol is bowing to a stone - an inanimate object that can't listen and act. No doubt it is a stone, but if the academic elitist has risen above his limited thinking, he would understand it is an abstract way of connecting to the invisible divinity that is not within the ambit of human sensory perceptions. 

For the ever turbulent human mind to focus on something, it has to be within the ambit of sensory perceptions. Something to see, touch and feel helps him in gathering his aliveness to the moment. When one looks at the stone or the photo, the connectivity happens to one's own inner self. The more the senses that gets involved in the act of worship, the more aware you become of the moment you are in. That's why in temples you find idols to see, bells to hear, fire to feel, fragrances to smell and offerings to eat and corridors to contemplate. Idol worship focuses on bringing you to the moment, not promising goodies later in some imagined heaven.

In what way is a sculpted stone different from a photo, a cross, a tomb, a sacred place of worship, a holy book? Are they not inanimate objects too? Why is that cherry picked as good and the rest as bad? If God is omnipresent, how can one not show reverence to everything and anything? Either the so called intellects should say there is no God and therefore nothing to worship or realize that everything is omnipresent consciousness that can be worshiped. They just want to impose their mediocre understanding of life and consciousness on the masses?

When a lover looks at the photo of his beloved, it doesn't mean he is in love with the photo but it is his way of longing for the person who is not in his presence. When a mother looks at the photos of her child, it is to recollect memories. It is human nature to be emotional and it needs an expression. Movies abuse the freedom of expression to propagate their narrow minded motives under the pretext of awakening the society. Well if that's the case, in what way could the dumb movie be better than a stone? Why do they put posters with picture of the hero in it? Or why can't they make it an audio recording of the movie? When they want to bring about maximum expression, why can't the worshiper choose his way of expressing that devotion?

To the believer the stone kindles deep emotions. To the mother photos bring back fond memories. To the academicians certificates boost their ego. To the enlightened everything is an object of great reverence.

Of course the stone, the cross or the book can't listen, talk or consume the offerings, but to the person whose intellect has truly attained clarity, he would exhibit compassion to the evolving intellects and their modes of worships. So long the masses remain a spectator without deeper understanding as to why certain things are done, the ignorant misleading elitist league would thrive.

Why religious fanatics hate their God?

Every religious devout on this face of Earth believes that his / her God alone is true. They love their God and would go to any extent to prove their loyalty to that God. The stauncher his fanaticism the greater is his unflinching devotional practices. The books and prophets are revered as God. They kill and destroy in the name of absolute allegiance to that God. This planet has seen much bloodshed and would see lot more because man wants to write the ever merciful name in blood.

Ironically, it is the faithful who claim that God created the whole universe. They would vouch for God's creative prowess. They claim their God is all pervading and powerful, They declare their God is merciful and kind. 

Well the Greatness of God is indeed unlimited but they don't like that. He hates his God to create any other religion other than his own. He dislikes any other path to salvation. He hates his God to have a name other than the name that is known to him. It is man's dictum that God should adhere to? So it looks like. Man hates existence to explore with few experiments since it is beyond his understanding. It is man's inability to fathom the completeness that brings abiding books of rules. Any creation by the creator that is not to his liking belongs to the devil. The devout create an entity called devil which had been toying with the invincible and powerful almighty all these eons and he must rush to protect his God. God would wonder if his self declared army have really understood his invincibility. Is God so fragile that he should have a set of followers to keep praising his greatness and boost his ego? Did the compassionate God create a devil and expects his followers to die? No other creation of his can be this stupid than his creation that is capable of thinking.

Imagine a world where all colors are white, all flowers be rose, all animals lion, all trees as palms, all faces as yours, all humans of same race, height and weight, all weather winter, all shapes squares would you appreciate God's creativity. It would be a sickening world to be but that's exactly what the ultra religious expect their God to do. It has to be their religion and their way. They demean the very God they love. They belittle God thanks to their narrow mindedness. What gives them authority to judge the creativity of this creation, God only knows. Creativity is the nature of God and there will be no dearth of creativity in this existence. It is the diversity and the combination of diversity that creates further uniqueness. 

In the absence of the promised heaven and the so called goodies in after life would the devout still love their God? Do they think God really follows a stick and carrot corporate policy? Should there be a price for such a divine love? Should there be a tag for the merciful? How else can we make it cheaper and uglier in expressing our gratitude to this ever pervading divine love? 

P.S. The creation can't be complete without this fanatic absurdness anyway. It is just another creation in existence that would be destroyed like any other!

Why does one fail?

There could be any number of secondary factors but the primary factor that determines your success and failure is you.What your subconscious mind really wants decides the outcome and it overrides every hard slog and smart moves of yours.

One could consciously wish, pray and work for success but if you subconsciously carry a lingering doubt it would eventually play havoc. You could fall sick, run into unexpected situations, commit the unthinkable mistake or just about anything to make sure it is not favorable to you. The rules of destiny are simple. You always get what you want. Fortunately or unfortunately what you want subconsciously, that you had built over many many years from past actions and results, far outweighs what you want consciously ending in results that you may or not cherish.

The subconscious scar could be because of fear of failure, fear of success or strong desire for self deprecation and self pity or simple wishful thinking. Whatever the reason be it is enough to act as brakes to stop a success run. Though positive thinking may appear to alleviate self doubt in the short run, it only ends up colorfully clothing it. Self talks and loud expressions is not going to fool oneself for long. It would slowly begin to wither and drain you.

The simple solution is to take your legs of the brake instead of hard pressing the accelerator in the name of positive thinking. When you realize that you have created the brakes it would be lot easier to drop them. The momentum you would gain then would exceed your expectations and surpass many milestones.

Learning from Jealousy

Jealousy can be a sickening feeling. It is okay if it was just the reasons for jealousy without the disheartening feeling but it is like a double whammy where your friend has the cake and eats it too. All you can do is to gulp air down your throat seeing them eat it. Why does some of the successes and happiness of your friends cause jealousy while there are scores of successful celebrities faring much better than them don't? While successful celebrities can inspire why does the happiness of your friend cause heartburn? Jealousy is a peer group emotion. It is this group you use to evaluate yourself. You draw your strength, identity and most important your self-worth from this social setup. No one likes to look bad in their own eyes. 

Some feel jealous and crib. Some fight jealousy as a vice. Some suppress and party along. Just as much as one hides this jealousy the successful friend wants to flaunt it to be doubly assured that he indeed has done a worthy job. Many are disheartened if their social media posts don't get loads of likes. They want reassurance that they fit well. Both actions stem from the need to better their shaky self esteems. 

It is okay to be jealous. It is a natural human emotion that need not be seen as a negative energy to be slain. Shadow boxing would only tire you. It is important to understand what your heart is attempting to tell you. Listen to it as to why there is turbulence in the mind and what causes the low self esteem. Instead of feeling bad and fighting it you could use that to better understand yourself and work on your shortcomings. Befriending oneself is very essential. It holds the key to understand your real needs.

A content person who feels complete with oneself can never be jealous of another person. It is these doors of completeness that your heart wants to enter. Be complete and free yourself from clutches of jealousy.

Freewill is Destiny

Destiny is perceived as predetermined sequence of events where humans have no control, whereas freewill is perceived as giving that control to human to choose between options. In destiny he sees himself as a mere boat with no paddles, whereas in freewill he has the paddle to row anywhere he wishes. It is human nature that desires to be in control. The need for control arises due to the insecurity of the unknown and uncertainty. When everything is in control it gives a sense of security that life goes according to one's dream and the desired destination would be reached. It is this false hope that makes human less adventurous and more fearful. It makes him limited and makes him settle for less.

The key to understand whether it is destiny or freewill lies in how we think because our actions stem from thoughts. You don't foresee or plan a particular thought to occur. Thought happens by itself and you get to be aware of such a thought in your mind. Thousands of thoughts happen in your mind and it didn't wait for your permission before cropping up. This is randomness of thoughts occurring, it is not predestined but as it unfolds. Man hates to be puppet, but he has to realize no one is sitting above and controlling his life. There is no sadist out there but life blooms as it happens in the now. Just like a wind changes direction moment to moment so does your mind rattle with thoughts and the following actions. 

In fact it is because of this randomness of destiny it appears 'as if'' there is freewill. It is the randomness of the thoughts, the decisions and the following actions that makes life uncertain, colorful and vibrant. If it had been freewill all human actions are predictable as he would only choose and do what he already knows and likes, which is going to be limited and stagnant. Just like a computer program that performs an action for a given set of conditions so would the human behavior be. He would be a glorified robot picking up actions that is already predetermined and programmed. It is destiny that alters this predestined behavior and gives an illusion of freewill.

It is destiny that you are reading this although you can claim that you made a choice to read it. It is destiny that makes you say aye or nay for destiny. Freewill is part and parcel of destiny.

Selfishness

Why is one selfish? Selfishness arises from the feeling of incompleteness or insecurity. We are not content with what we have and thereby want more of it believing it would make us feel better. A bar of chocolate when broken into two would usually undergo the scrutiny as to the size and length. Among mature friends it would go with a smirk and among juveniles it could be a fight.

Whatever a human does he does it for his need. Without anything for him in it he wouldn't lift a finger to make that great sacrifice. The reward could be money, pleasure, recognition, self esteem - anything that boosts his ego. A casual meeting of friends is to have fun. A couple deciding to have a kid is for their need maybe to have a lineage in place. Some do charity to derive happiness out of giving. They can't give away things that are of utmost important to them but only part those they can be without. Most parents sacrifice to see their kids do well because their happiness is dependent on how well the kids fare in life. At the surface it would look selfless but if the acts of sacrifice or charity give them displeasure they wouldn't continue. This is how existence is. There is nothing wrong about it.

The same person could be selfish in some acts and may appear not so in some other acts. In some aspects of life they feel incomplete while content with some other aspects. They could be content having fed well that they may not fight for a meal but could show their inadequate self in a traffic jam by tailing another vehicle blocking the pedestrian space to cross. It is so hard wired that they do it so subtly so well without awareness.

When the self looks at itself it mostly sees its inadequacy. It sees what is not. It is this inadequate feeling that leads to sadness and acts of selfishness. From the way one fills his meal plate to the speed and way one eats that food. From the way people talk to the way people dress up would exhibit their inadequacy. It is just the level and degree of inadequacy that varies. Some are called as selfish while the subtler ones could end up as philanthropists. 

Selfishness would disappear when the self sees its abundant nature. When it realizes it is already complete and that ignorance of its abundance brought about the absurd behavior. When selfishness drops you would be a compassionate being.

Live Happy

You can be happy. The good news is it is easy and the bad news is one looks at the wrong place. There was once a man with his head bent crawling around the pole of a well lit streetlamp. A passerby wanting to help asks the man what you are looking for. The man said he was searching for his car keys that he had lost two streets away. The perplexed Samaritan asked why you are searching here if you lost the key somewhere else. That's because there are no lights there replied the man. This is what most of us do in search of happiness. To fill the void one seeks happiness in chasing wrong pursuits. They believe that more of something that they already have would make them happy for sure. If what they already have doesn't give them any satisfaction no more of the same is going to give them happiness. For example if a man has few thousand dollars in possession and he believes he can be happy with little more, when he gets that little more his wants grow so does the need for money but the constant worry for money remains. There are cases of the rich and the famous committing suicide anyways.

The legend tells when God created man he contemplated as to where to place his happiness. To make life interesting he wanted the key to abundance to be hid from man. He discounted hiding it in the distant galaxy or in the deep seas for he knew man would one day travel beyond the skies and explore the deepest of the oceans. He speculated stashing it in the material world around him but that didn't ring bell either. Burying it up in the heart of another person is futile as man is a social being and he would seek the company of others. So God finally thought that the best place to hide it is within the man himself. He was pretty sure that he would go about looking everywhere outside him but never find it until the day he starts to look within.

So how does one look within? What is to search within? It is not a tangible blob that is hidden inside that can be perceived by the five senses. It is beyond the senses but a genuine seeker would find it through meditation and contemplation. For a start one can calmly watch the subtle cycles of thoughts and emotions. It is thinking without awareness that causes the emotional roller-coasters. If one can realize that the one who is aware of the thought is different from the thought itself then glimpses of permanent bliss begin to permeate. Find yourself. Be Happy. 

Nourish the roots for effortless blooming

The focus had always been on the external. The bigger the cars the bigger the house the bigger is the superficial satisfaction and that too for a while. Most humans live for the attention of their friends, spouse, colleagues, family and neighbors. They hardly live for their oneself. The craving inner call is ignored to meet the demands of the social calls. Sadly their self esteem is too low that they have to rely on the support, approval and validation based on the number of likes and comments both in real life and social media. Their ego feels small and unimportant that they want to showcase themselves as important and how do they do it? They do it by sprucing up their external appearance - lifestyle, behavior, body language, high talks etc. They enjoy the envy as it ups their self esteem.

Right from childhood as humans we try to better our external life all the while ignoring the inner soul. We like to cover up the inner sadness by a glowing smile, we believe in cosmetic changes rather than nourishing the inner being. We work for the best of career, trophy worthy spouse, flashy cars, exotic holidays, flamboyant lifestyle, world fame and glory and when we achieve it we always find something amiss. So we look on bettering the external life not realizing the true permanent bliss in not on flimsy changing environment but it has to be something that is ever stable and unwavering. We constantly look for contentment at the wrong places.

There is nothing wrong in riches and a lavish lifestyle but if its roots are not well founded from within then it is clumsy show that gets the world's attention but fails to wake you up to the real bliss of life. It is more like a zombie that gets acknowledged.

When one discovers oneself that is when the roots are nourished. When the focus is inner than external true living can ever happen. When the roots are strong no painful efforts are required for the blooming to happen outside. The blooming is so natural and it is most beautiful. The external blooming is not important to that person but it happens anyways. Everything around that person has the sweet smelling fragrance of life. No external factors can uproot him. He is one with the whole cosmic energy. The best of external life come in search of that person. The search for contentment ends and life around him blooms in the brightest colors.