New Year Resolutions

I know the calendar shows 9th January, but hey, I was thinking what resolutions to make. After 9 days of brainstorming I decided not to make resolutions though I do have some goals that I want to reach. My mind is very fickle and I know I hate it when I make a resolution that is not so resolute.

I do not like 'eventful' because the word is like a double-edged sword. Similarly, I do not like 'surprise' (especially the unpleasant ones) and adventurous (adventures can be disastrous). I have noticed that I sometimes get what I want and I have learnt- "Beware of what you ask for lest you get it." So instead of making resolutions and continuously hankering after them, I have decided to simply live life, do the right thing, help myself a lot and help others to whatever extent I can. Why 'help myself' a lot? Because God helps those who help themselves. The better I am, the more I can do for others.

So now you know my resolutions. Ciao!

addendum to previous post

Apart from showering love and compassion to our fellow beings so that none of them turns into a monster, each one of us has the responsibility to be strong- physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually, so that no monster dares to attack us. If each one of us is strong then the whole nation is strong. So go run the soles off your shoes, pump iron, learn a martial art, maintain a healthy lifestyle, become educated and literate and most importantly nurture your conscience as this conscience is your guide.

terrorists and the rest of us

The whole nation and countries beyond our borders are focussed on eliminating terrorism and terrorists. However, I doubt if anyone has pondered- Why are these people turning into terrorists? Why are these people ready to give up their lives to disrupt life? Why are these people ready to live like recluses only to end their lives being shot or dismembered? Until the real cause is not looked into, we will not make any progress in bettering our current state.

Almost all of us have made mistakes in our lives- some big and some small, some ready to make us wince and cower and some to make us laugh at our foolishness. The mistakes that these terrorists have made are not pardonable. Taking a life is equivalent to 'brahma hatya' (killing the self) and no one has the right to do so. This is also the reason why the courts of law rarely hand out the death sentence. However those that indulge in killing and violating a woman's chastity should be handed the death sentence and life imprisonment respectively. The faulty have to be punished but at the same time all the nations need to come together to educate the humankind. No power in the world can bring back the dead and no power can console those who have lost their dear and near. I know I cannot feel their pain but I can understand it to some extent.

Don't we all know the story of 'Angulimala' who under the guidance of Buddha abandoned the path of 'Himsa' and embraced 'Ahimsa' and this huge feat was accomplished by 'Love'. Love and Compassion for humanity is what is missing today in our decadent world. Most countries have weapons that can kill humankind many times over but...

The terrorist once, was a cute baby and an innocent child before he/she turned into a monster. Why? Until we understand that there will be killings and mournings. Educating humankind about the basic values is the only way we can prevent some of us turning into monsters. So the rest of us are partly responsible for the creation of these monsters. With our indifferent and callous behaviour we are creating many Hannibal Lecters. 

I have raised the question but what do we do to prevent such a catastrophe in future? We all know what should be done but we just do not spend time and energy. Trust me, this solution will take a few centuries since the conditioning that we have in our minds is difficult to cast off.

Spread love and compassion, through our thoughts, words and actions. Over a looooooooong period of time, there will be peace. Sounds impossible? Well, we have had weapons for quite some time and that has not solved the problem so why not give love a shot.

By the way, if we do not like a politician who is in power then the people of the country have, the responsibility and power, to impeach and remove that politician. As V said, "People should not be afraid of their government, governments should be afraid of their people."

thinking- a rarity?

The phenomenon is just a season old and when I read about this 'banana diet in Japan' triggered off by a pharmacist losing weight by following a simple organic diet based on bananas; I chuckled to myself. This diet had resulted in huge sales of bananas and a book; sending the price of bananas upwards.

This reminds me of a blog I had written, a month ago, about 'soft-drinks' and how people blindly follow a fad and if it is being endorsed by a popular celebrity then the sales counters work overtime.

All this is pointing to one thing- Have we stopped thinking? We seem to have either lost our ability to reason and question. The category of people who like to follow blindly is huge. I may be neither exaggerating nor denigrating the human race when I say that the percentage of people in this category might be on the rise as time goes by. This mob-mentality is life-threatening to the intelligentsia and impedes development of societies. This trend is dangerous as clever people with malicious intentions can sway large masses and create unrest in the nation. Digging deeper, I think most people find it easy to follow others and are afraid to follow their own heart and mind, reflecting poorly on our awareness of our self.

Eye-opening, article and interview on Christianity by Christians

Interview of Dr. David Frawley, Director of American Institute of Vedic Studies

Article by Francois Gautier