This is a new beginning for me; I used to write my diary on regular diaries. I have so many of them stacked here and also in Pune my hometown in India. I started writing a diary when I was in school and have most of my diaries with me telling some stories at different stages of my life and its always very interesting to go back and read a few chapters from your own life. My life has been a very incredible journey so far full of very interesting encounters and experiences.
Since the last few months, I have been reading a lot in the field of mythology. My aim is to understand the deeper meaning of life. What is religion? What is God? Why do people believe or don’t believe in God? What is Moksha? Why do different people or sects advise different ways to achieve Moksha? What are the incarnations of Vishnu? Why they were necessary? And many, many questions like this, I can’t list all of them, but I have many more questions and they keep on popping up in my mind so many times whenever I read a particular text or listen to some seminar on mythology, or attend any religious gathering. I see people around me and always think why do most people follow certain rituals without understanding the logic behind them? Most of these rituals when introduced did have some sort of reasoning or logic behind them, but rarely people try to understand it and analyze if it’s still a valid or reasonable thing to do. Why do they believe in scriptures blindly without even trying to understand their meaning? Why?? I also wonder why these doubts or questions, don’t come up in other people’s minds?…either they know the answer or they are ignorant or they don’t care or they are incapable of thinking like I can…but I am also a normal person like most people around me, born and brought up in a very humble atmosphere so why do these questions keep on coming to me? My parents didn’t force me to follow any particular belief, they were busy setting up their life as immigrants in Pune they tried to provide us (me and my two brothers) a decent life to the best of their ability and I am really grateful to them for that. They gave us a lot of freedom to choose our careers and also the way we want to live. I read many Marathi books during my college and school days maybe these books had a profound effect on my thinking and behavior, so I consider myself lucky in this aspect.
I am reading and thinking a lot these days and trying to find answers to these questions myself and I think I am heading somewhere, I am sure I will reach my destination and I am determined to walk until I reach there. This is not a road map or guide or mantra to achieve self-realization instantly, these are my thoughts and you have all the right to agree or totally disagree with them, debate about them, raise questions or concerns about them to me, and be sure that I will try to answer them to best of my ability.
I don't
promise to answer everything. I am here merely to help you seek the right
questions along with me. The answers lie within us. Wherever I interpret
the scriptures or any writing whether I understand their real meaning or
not is not my concern, if they help me and you uncover our minds and
discover our reality then this effort has served its purpose….Let the discovery
begin...let's enjoy this journey together.
(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)
This blog will surely add to people's everyday reading, so my best luck. Will follow and comment my views without getting into arguments.
ReplyDeleteHi Vinay, I have read your recent post and it seems very interesting. After reading this, it seems that your curiosities are very similar to mine. I live(d) quite similar life as yours. Interestingly, during my teen age and there after I had similar questions in my mind (mostly about religious rituals), which sometimes used to put me in argument with my parents (although they never argue back). Recently I have started thinking about religion more seriously. The more I think, the more interesting it becomes. In last few months I could able to get answers to some of my questions (obviously through expert's guidance and some thoughtful reading), however there are many to be answered. I guess that's why your blog attracted me. I really appreciate your initiative and I will certainly keep participating. I would suggest you to bring up a specific question one at a time for the discussion and we can share ideas that will benefit both of us.
ReplyDeleteHi Nitin, thanks a lot for your insights man, its really useful and the whole purpose of this blog is to initiate some discussion on this vast topic. I will try to bring one specific topic in each post and would like to have people's opinion about it. We seem to be traveling on similar path, your comments are very thought provoking, keep on posting them it will help me and all who will visit the blog.
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