Dharma is not religion

Are the terms religion and dharma synonyms, as we perceive them to be?

The term religion can be understood as ‘the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God’ whereas dharma is ‘the eternal law of the cosmos, inherent in the very nature of things.’ It can be also interpreted as ‘the righteous way to live life’ or ‘the law that orders universe and conduct that conforms with this.’ The two are concerned with completely different aspects of human life. One validates the concept of God, other endeavors to strike a rhythm with the universe, to be a part of it and live in accordance with it. Therefore, dharma cannot be translated as religion so it should not be interpreted as.

The dharma never preaches of God, it is the universal way of life which is true in all times ‘saarva-kaalik’, at all places ‘saarva-bhaumik’ and for all people ‘saarva-janik’. ‘Dharma-parivartan’ or ‘change of faith’ becomes impossible, as there is only one universe and only one universal way that encompass all. It confesses the oneness of being with this universe. However, there can be a ‘change of faith’ in context of religion.

Religion is recognized to instill a belief of the existence of a superhuman, who is attainable by diligently practicing a prescribed way of life. Practices can be different and pragmatically are different that culminate as differences in faith. Therefore, giving a way to the inevitable comparisons amongst religions with fatal repercussions. However, this prescription also receives challenges with time, place and followers who are rarely interpreters. The situation aggravates when many such religions compete for space and people in the given time frame. Often, a ‘change of faith’ unleashes a cascade of responses that have the potential of transforming the divine to a beast.

‘All religions lead to one God’ is a delusional vision, which is propagated to dilute the friction, but has failed to do so. This demands introspection where one needs to dissect and meticulously untangle dharma from religion, tread the chosen path believing not to loose our divinity.

Let me learn - I

Indian education system prepares students known for their perseverance and hard work. They are revered for their in-depth knowledge and self-designed solutions to problems. Still what bothers me is the rigidity of the system that limits the inventive imagination.

In this system, a child has to opt for the discipline that he wants to pursue when he is class 11. From this time onwards he has to study either mathematics, biology, economics or arts. The specialization becomes focused as he graduates, then masters and if desires can further go for a philosophy degree. Now he knows a lot about few things. Besides doing a degree student can also opt for a technical course. But what if he wants to study subjects that fall in categorically separate disciplines?

It is a high time that the system should mature to incorporate the wider perception. Efforts should be made to resolve the individuality of the disciplines and integrate them in a more meaningful manner. Students with diverse knowledge will make illustrious contributions to the research and development programs. As a popular trend, students do a MBA after doing B.Tech and invest extra time, money and resources. This shifting of profession leads to a decrease in the number of trained individuals in the concerned discipline too.

This has steered into a problem where choice of subject is symbolically related to the individual's intellect. The worst hit of this are the students studying arts as it is presumed that they are incapable of studying the other high priority subjects. What if a mathematics student wants to learn painting? He will have to take some time out and look for some other source to learn it from or rather the preferable route is to drop the idea, as it is not going to garner him a career.

All these various disciplines help us to visualize a bigger picture. The amenability of the system will allow them to evolve multidimensionally and study anything under the sun. As a genius like Leonardo da Vinci an avid painter, sculpture, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer if born in today's India will succumb to the system's rigidness.

Individuality

Most of the time it happens to me, I buy footwear and then suffer a shoe bite. I am a shoe fetish so often end up victimising myself. I often find people complaining about shoe bites mostly women. Why does this happen?

I think it's due to categorization, which is believed to make life a lot easier. All of us are categorized according to foot size, indifferent to the fact that our feet are different. Categorization makes shoe manufacturing for masses easier.

This happens to all of us, we are often categorized as being male or female, rich or poor, developed or developing, black or white, genius or idiot, atheist or theist and so forth for the ease of differentiation. All of us love to believe that we are different from the rest of the others but still somewhere get lured into being categorized, thereby loosing our individuality.

I deliberately want to stay aloof from this; sometimes I don't want to be a feminist or an Indian. I simply want to be human retain my sensibility and sensitivity even to most feeble and strangest of emotion and behave globally. This sometimes puts me in the dilemma; I remember when Ajmal Kasab was hanged. I felt he was an ordinary unfortunate boy who paid for being born to unfortunate parents. Had he been given the choice he would have never chosen that life. So, when I think like this am I not being Indian. Or simply, when I keep an eye on what my young sisters' are wearing when they are leaving for college. Then am I being conservative or a chauvinist who wants women to be presented in a certain prescribed way.

All I want is to be a modest naive human free from all generalizations that reduce us to being clones, ripping us from our individuality.

But, what about my shoe problem?

In my early years, I often visited my village where once I was being taken to a cobbler's shop. The cobbler took the measurement of my foot. After two days, my new sandals were ready they were comfortable but not fancy and later I found them bore as they were quite sturdy so lasted long.

So, should I once again try for those cobbler made plane and comfortable sandals?

Evolution led to perfection !

One of my teachers during post-graduation classes said, "Something that took million of years to evolve, must have been perfect as we see them now." This statement was made in reference to the adaptations that plants make in different climatic conditions, which are inevitable for their survival.

However, the statement adhered to me as I could see the universal ramifications of it. I truly started admiring the perfection of nature around us; but what baffles me is the age-old lines that I have practised to write since my school days, "to make earth a better place to live in." Do we really need to make earth a better place to live in? My answer to this question stays to be a question.

My mother fondly recalls her childhood days where people had humble earnings, as the agricultural production was low owing to use of organic manures. Then came, the era of chemical fertilisers, which revolutionarised the scenario and scaled the production. Then I tell her, "Maa, organic farming is same, but now it is costlier so one can earn well." So are we just reinventing the wheel? The process was natural we developed it chemically then reverted back to it citing it to be good for health.

Similarly, in the grocery store the desi vegetables are costlier than the genetically modified ones. So does this means that we travel distance but show no displacement. Today, amongst the top selling drugs 50% are being sold to cure lifestyle related diseases. Does this again indicate that first we develop to make human life luxurious and then develop to cure the offshoot of luxury.

So, stop struggling to make life luxurious, take a break, think and enjoy the perfection of evolution. Embrace all that you believe imperfect and underdeveloped because it is perfect, as it has survived the struggle of life.

Earth is already a beautiful place to live in, the sooner we realise the better it is......

We love God, but does God love rituals?

The meaning of ritual is 'a religious or solemn ceremony consisting of a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order'. The question is why are we expected to follow rituals? Do they bring us any closer to God?

Sometimes I think a ritual makes life easy as it helps you avoid unnecessary delays, questions and makes work faster. However, on the contrary it makes you stick to the ritual and if it yield results then it might lead you being superstitious, possessive or rigid about it. Thus, limiting the degree of inquiry and evolution.

Why do people react when a ritual is not practised? Is it their fear of disrespecting God or the discipline being ignored. If the reaction is founded because of the loss of the regard for the ritual, even then I receive it with humility as the spirit was to maintain discipline. However, if the reaction originated because God was disrespected then I object to it as never ever in human history has God incarnated to defend rituals. 

Each one of us have our own little Gods, lets free them from rituals and imbibe the emancipation and felicity exuding out of it!

To know who I am

Whenever we start something new we have a tendency of remembering almighty.
However, I am yet to discover what is that done for? For me it's easier to remember people and thank them as they they give me feedback, but to involve god in this is totally incomprehensible to me as he would never tell me he liked it or not?
By saying this do I categorise myself of being an atheist? No, I don't think so. I certainly do refuse to the idea of being atheist but I also don't acquaint myself with the supposed and proposed definition of almighty.
Even after being mesmerised by nature for long 31 years I am still accepting and refuting the proposed theories when juxtaposed with the elemental strength of nature.
The journey is enormous winding its ways through me, you and who! I am thrilled and intimidated and want to walk, walk, walk.............