Anti-Hindu Blog?

Recently I found out that some Yahoo group called"'hinduinfo" listed my blogs in their section of anti-Hindu blogs, websites, books, etc. See the link below to check the posting,

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hinduinfo/message/3908

Honestly speaking, I was not shocked to read this as I never expected any so-called religious groups or organizations to like or even appreciate my blog. However, I am glad that after reading it some people are feeling uncomfortable. I know that they don't like even a tiny bit of criticism or uncomfortable questions directed at them. This particular comment has mentioned a couple of my posts related to Ram and Krishna as an attempt by me to demonize these characters.

http://selfrealization-vinay.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/when-yash-called-krishna-thief-and.html

http://selfrealization-vinay.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/ram-great-king-and-bad-husband.html

The first post is not at all related to Krishna. First, I don't know why some people think that this post is about Krishna. The post is about one particular incident where two people with totally different perceptions or understandings about the same person thought that they both were right. They both have their own reasons for their beliefs and it's their choice the way they want to look at a particular situation or person. Many times, there is not a single right or wrong answer to some questions, but many people don't like to believe this. Many of us have totally different opinions about many things and that is why we discuss and argue over many points. That's why life is fun, that's why we read, learn, and educate ourselves so that we can get more information and form our opinions based on that information. We can have different opinions and still live peacefully and love each other, and we can agree to disagree without having any effect on our relationships. This was the main intention behind sharing that incident, but as usual, some people only read what they want to read, they consider that post as an attack on Krishna and Hinduism. They are free to derive their own meaning from this. This is also a perfect example of two people deriving totally different meanings from the same article.

The second post is about some incidents in Ram's life where I feel that he failed to perform his duties as a husband. In those times one of the duties of the husband was to protect his wife and stand by her whenever she needed his support and I feel Ram didn't do that on some important occasions where his wife needed his support. Maybe he excelled as a King on all levels and was a very good and obedient son but according to me, he failed as husband and father. This is what I wrote in my post. There was no mention of any religion or no attack on any faith, but as I said some people read whatever they want to read.

I choose the topics which I feel are socially or personally relevant to me. The topics cover a vast range from movies to spirituality and politics. The blog is not about any specific religion or any specific subject, it's about my thoughts and views. I share some posts from my blog on the Speakingtree forum on the Times of India website and there also many people from different religions like Christianity or Islam comment on many of these posts and try to defend their religion or their customs based on the subject of my post. I am surprised that most of these religions feel offended by some of these posts. These people try to defend each and everything mentioned or practiced (past and present) in their religion. The core belief system and basic foundation of all religions are the same. All present-day organized religions work on similar principles and that's why they all feel threatened by any doubts or uncomfortable questions. 

I am actually thankful to all these people for their help and encouragement. This means that I am hitting the right targets. The aim of these posts was to attack or criticize some of these customs and rituals that target particular genders or sections of society and discriminate against them. Believe it or not, some people want to preserve these discriminatory customs and rituals in the name of religion, culture, or traditions. We need to deal with these people. Question wherever we see an attempt to justify any of these discriminatory rituals. Such groups are part of our society and I don't mind interacting with them. This particular group warns its members to protect their children from such blogs and books, but I encourage readers of my blog to go and visit such groups and read their posts, and check how scared these groups are about anything that doesn't match with their line of thinking. I don't moderate any comments on my blog, whether comments agree with my views or not doesn't matter, all of them are published and welcomed. To date, I deleted only one comment because it was totally unrelated to the post and was an attempt to advertise some drug. Except for this one comment all of them are on the blog for anyone to read. I don't believe in filtering the knowledge or information and showing only one side of any issue to my readers, this is not the purpose of my blog. It is an anti-ignorance blog, not anti-religion or anything else.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

(Copyright : Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)

धर्म और विद्न्यान

धर्म और विदन्यान में आखिर क्या फर्क है? इन दोनों क्षेत्रोंको एक दुसरे का दुश्मन क्यों माना जाता है? क्या वाकेही यह दोनो एकदम अलग है?

YouTube Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwgdKOJoR7k

Marriage with HIV positive groom/bride - A Knot of Sorrow

Marriage is a very special occasion in everyone's life. It's the beginning of a new and exciting chapter in life full of excitement and new challenges. Two people tie the knot of marriage (a Hindu ritual) or make a promise to spend the rest of their lives together with a lot of hopes and dreams. However, all these hopes and dreams vanish when one realizes that another is HIV+ and now for no fault of her or his she or he is also HIV+. This ruins all the excitement and happiness of married life for both of them. AIDS is still one of the most stigmatized and dreaded diseases in many parts of the world. Many people still don't know full details about it, they don't know all modes of infection, don't even know how infectious it is, and don't know much about various treatment options available to control this disease. There are many misconceptions about this disease. There is no cure for this disease so far but due to tremendous development in antiretroviral therapy HIV infection is very manageable if proper treatment, sanitation, and diet are provided. Many developed countries managed very well to control the problem of HIV infection and its spread. Apart from the availability of medicines, education, and awareness campaigns played a major role in handling this problem. But the same is not true with many developing nations or undeveloped countries. HIV is still a very major social and medical problem in most of these countries, especially among low-income groups.

Even today arranged marriage is the most popular system for marriage in India. The situation is changing slowly but still arranged marriage is dominant. While selecting a proper match people check everything starting from horoscopes, the financial situation of the family, educational qualifications, physical appearance, and many more external attributes. But normally no one bothers to check the medical records of the bride or groom. I am sure many families will find it offensive if an opposite party (bride or groom's side) asks for a blood test report of their child along with an HIV test. This demand might put an entire process in jeopardy or even abruptly end marriage talks. This demand makes perfect sense when one family is dealing with a totally new family with very little personal information about the prospective bride or groom. Even when they know many things about the other family very little is known about the medical history of prospective son or daughter-in-law. The most important people in this whole process, the bride and groom, also know very little about each other in most cases of arranged marriage. Additionally, the conservative nature of society also limits their interaction and normally they don't share their past life experiences with each other. So, this whole process looks like shooting in the dark and expecting to hit the right target. The process worked very well when there were no other alternatives and there were not so many grey areas and uncertainties. However, in the presence of so many risk factors, it makes perfect sense to ask for a blood test just to make sure that things are fine from both sides and that neither bride nor groom gets HIV or any other unwanted infection from their partner. But this thing is not as simple as it sounds. Marriage discussions and negotiations are very complex in India. People are very sensitive about their family's image and their social status and because of the social stigma attached to HIV and AIDS almost no family feels comfortable when asked about this question. They are very reluctant to produce the test results of their son or daughter. They take such requests very personally and treat them as a direct attack on honor and the reputation of their family's esteem and honor. Also, the main characters, the bride and groom are not involved in any of these discussions.

Many things like this prevent the use of simple things like a blood test to remove the risk of HIV infection in the case of arranged marriages. This results in many marriages, especially in rural or low-income neighborhoods where the wife gets HIV infection from her husband and then it is passed on to their children. Failure to make use of blood tests brings in so much suffering and pain for so many people. A beautiful thing like marriage turns into a curse for some people and the damage done to health is not reversible. Of course, one can break the marriage, and leave that person but the acquired HIV infection stays with them forever. Right now there is no cure for HIV infection and many of these people have to depend on government assistance for their treatment. It puts a lot of financial burden on the government health care system. The system itself is not perfect and this additional burden makes it more messy. But this system is all most of these people have and they depend on it heavily, therefore, it should keep running otherwise many people will die because of lack of treatment.

Some simple steps, like making HIV testing free and easily available to all adults, making sure that brides and grooms are HIV negative, proper sex education in high schools and colleges, availability, and distribution of condoms, and awareness programs to remove the stigma attached to AIDS, should help to control the spread of this infection. People need to know more about this disease, they need to get correct information, and we need to attack this problem from all directions just making medicines available alone won't solve this problem. Counseling should be provided to all HIV-infected people so that they don't lose all hope and interest in their lives. Counseling could help them to live their life normally. They should feel accepted in society so that they are not forced to hide their disease. They don't need our sympathy but need our support. We need to treat them with respect like we treat people with other diseases. They should not be expelled from schools, workplaces, or communities just because of this infection. They should get equal opportunity and fair treatment like all of us. I feel we have enough information about HIV and AIDS. This should help us to remove the social stigma attached to it. If necessary government can make suitable laws to prevent any discrimination because of this disease. Even taking this simple step of a blood test during arranged marriages can protect many innocent brides or grooms from getting this infection and disease. This can save thousands of lives and will prevent them from turning beautiful occasions like marriage into the most unfortunate incident of their life.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)

References:
1. HIV infection data
2. UN-AIDS: data and analysis
3. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/visakhapatnam/HIV-grooms-tying-knots-of-sorrow/articleshow/17435687.cms
4. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bangalore/HIV-man-shows-way-to-fight-stigma/articleshow/17436500.cms
5. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/World-AIDS-Day-Education-is-vaccine-against-HIV/AIDS/articleshow/17433255.cms
6. http://www.who.int/hiv/data/en/
7. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-16/scientists-hail-potential-cure-for-aids/4466766

Let's redefine concept of Manhood and Womanhood

Recently I heard a very interesting talk on TED which was shared by one of my Facebook friends. The talk was by Colin Stokes and it was about how movies teach manhood? I loved the talk for so many reasons, one of them was the way he explained in very simple terms how opinions and thinking of kids (both boys and girls) are shaped by watching these movies. Most of these movies (including many classics like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, etc.) project women as helpless characters who can't even fight simple injustice done to them and are always waiting for some prince Charming to rescue them. In all these stories finally the Prince Charming comes, performs all the heroic acts, rescues the poor princess, gets his reward, and then both live together happily ever after. A nice and simple storyline for almost every romantic movie of our era, only a few things change here and there. The names of characters may change but the central storyline is the same (even today). In most children's movies or even love stories, a woman is projected as a "trophy." Something man has to win by rescuing her from trouble. Most female characters cannot come out of difficulties on their own, they always need to be rescued.

The beauty of all these movies is that they are so well made that we don't see anything wrong with them. They are classics. I agree that they are just for the purpose of entertainment and one should look for anything else in them. However, is it as simple as this? Directly or indirectly don't these movies shape our thinking also? Do these movies teach the wrong concept of manhood and womanhood to us and our kids? I think they do. This is the message Colin Stokes wants to give us from his talk. Honestly, I never thought about this issue (the impact of these types of movies on our thinking) but after listening to this talk I thought about this and found how correct he is about his assessment. I love many of these movies, watched them many times, and read most of these stories in my childhood. My kids also love many of them and when I look back I clearly see that many of these movies consciously or unconsciously shape our thinking.  They can stereotype a particular gender or class in our society. Boys can start looking at girls as their "victory trophies," something that they have to win. Girls start dreaming about some prince charming who can rescue them. I know that all this sounds a little too exaggerated and over the top but there is an element of truth in this TED talk. I highly recommend it. 

Another example of this that I see today is many taunts and poor jokes purposely targeted toward gay people in many Hindi movies. These jokes are many times totally unnecessary and are in bad taste but it seems no one is bothered about these things. It seems people don't find anything wrong in poking fun at gays for no reason. Targeting that community and making them objects of ridicule is considered comic. Superficially it looks very harmless and just for entertainment which should not be taken too seriously but any such comment on any other sensitive issue is not taken in the same spirit. A couple of jokes here and there are fine but when only a particular gender or group is targeted continuously and consistently then definitely there is some problem and we need to address it. Movies are a very strong medium they affect many people and in some way, they also reflect our society's mindset. 

Movie making is a business and they try to sell what people want to buy. A lot of money is at stake and they need to make a profit, actually, a lot of profit. We can not expect the film industry to reform society but at least we can play our part and try to nullify any negative effects produced by some of these movies. After all, we all know that some things are not as harmless as they look. Already we can see the effect of these types of stories and movies on our own minds and our society. I am not saying to discard all these movies or to dump these stories. We should tell them with a clear "disclaimer" that these are products of pure fiction, they are gender biased, and don't have any relationship with real life. We also need to tell some stories with powerful female characters so that children don't get some stereotyped one-sided impression about their gender roles. It's not only our responsibility but it is the need of our society. Let's try to redefine manhood and womanhood. Let's give these terms some balanced meaning. 

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic. 

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing) 

References:
1. http://www.ted.com/talks/colin_stokes_how_movies_teach_manhood.html

Hate politics - let's not encourage it anymore

MIM (Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen) leader Akbaruddin Owaisi is in the news for his arrest because of the hate speech he delivered in a town near Hyderabad. His arrest can be called a very brave and much-needed step to counter the evil of hate politics. The case is already in court and we have to wait and see what will be the outcome of this case. At least some action has been taken about the hate speech, so let's wait and watch.

This is not the first incident where a political leader has delivered such a speech. We have a long history of speeches like this, and many names can be mentioned. We can argue about who started it, how many people got away, why Mr. Akbaruddin should be punished, and things like that. One can take many names apart from Owaisi like Late Balasaheb Thackeray, Praveen Togadia, Uma Bharati, Sadhvi Ritambara, Varun Gandhi, Digvijay Singh, Narendra Modi, and many more. The list is huge, and they all delivered some type of speech against some community or group that created controversy and communal unrest. There can be many arguments and counterarguments. One can justify some speeches as a need of time, as a reaction to a certain incident, or just as provocative speech rather than hate speech. The fact is that these speeches created some disturbance in society, and were used to get some political mileage. Our system failed miserably to punish these people or sometimes protected and encouraged such speeches. We have to start somewhere, so why not now, and why not with Owaisi? 

Owaisi's speech has all the characteristics of hate speech and it demands to be punished. It spreads venom against Hindus, calls for civil war, and includes many things that are regularly used in these types of speeches. For example, talking about some tragic incidents from the past to challenge people's emotions and incite them to take revenge for the past incident that is no longer relevant today. Normally these speeches try to spread perceptions like the majority is trying to suppress or exploit the minority (if it's delivered by some minority leader) or the minority is getting an unfair advantage and crossing their line (if delivered by some majority leader) and things like this. Political parties and leaders use some of these theories, and some incidents to sensationalize some issues and challenge people's emotions. They bring caste, religion, region, state, or whatever can help them to divide and rule. Their intention is to create a polarized society and a loyal vote bank, which can vote for them no matter what. Many times, they are successful in creating their own brand in state or national politics and this success encourages more people to try this formula, that's why we need to stop this somewhere.

People like Akbaruddin Owaisi are not present only in a particular religion or belong only to certain political parties, they are present in every party. Every party needs people like him to appease their vote bank, they deliver some controversial statements from time to time to keep the fire of tension burning. They keep the media busy and try to be in the news. We need to put an end to this type of politics. Such politicians need to know that people are not going to get fooled by these statements anymore. I know that many of these issues or incidents they mention in their speeches require serious investigation, and culprits need to be punished. Various governments at the state or national levels failed to address many of these problems in a timely manner which allowed such leaders to flourish and prosper. These types of leaders claim to express the feelings of people who feel marginalized in their own country or state. In some cases the current establishment allows these types of leaders or parties to grow purposely for short-term political gains. 

Any single political party can not be solely blamed for this type of politics. Some are more vicious compared to others, but the blame has to be on the entire system, including regulators. They are all in this game together and we are also playing this game with them. We are also responsible for this mess. They are not going to stop on their own. We need to put an end to such hate politics. We need to tell them that they are not going to get our votes based on hate politics. We are not going to listen to this crap anymore, we need to be loud and we need to be very clear. Let's not encourage this anymore. After all, the choice is ours because this country is ours and these leaders are also our own leaders, and we have the power to make them as well as fix them if they are not functioning properly.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

References:
1. Owaisi sent to 14 day judicial custody
2. YouTube link for Owaisi's speech

Please stop this nonsense

Last few days it seems there is a competition among leaders from various political parties, religious organizations, or cult movements to give statements about the Delhi gang rape or related to the status and role of women in changing socioeconomic environment of India. The statements cover a very wide range. I will just mention a few here. Some are telling women to cover up themselves from head to toe to avoid sexual assault. Some say they should remain indoors after dark for their safety. Some are a little kind towards women and say if they can't cover up totally then at least avoid those so-called provocative clothing like skirts etc. Some self-proclaimed Gurus advise that they should beg for safety by calling the rapist a brother so that the rapist will change his mind. Some of them are blaming immigrants for the problem of rape or sexual assault incidents. I don't want to list all of them here but one can get the idea of what these people want to say. One thing is very clear all of them don't make any sense. They all project very conservative and outdated mindsets. They all show a disconnect with reality and at the same time display a pathetic attempt to blame victims for every crime involving sexual assault.

In all these statements there is nothing new. They are not saying anything that was not being said before. These statements were used at some time in our history, maybe 100 years or even 1000s of years ago to justify crime against women. To put the blame on victims of sexual harassment in a male-dominated society. They were used to suppress women, to make them realize that they need protection which can only be provided by men because they are the weaker sex. Surprisingly this false propaganda is still going on. Some people still believe in these things and after reading all these statements and interviews I am wondering whether we are moving forward or backward towards medieval times. I believe men of this world need to get rid of some of these false beliefs like women require their protection and it's their duty to protect them, they are the weaker sex, etc. Men should get over their superiority complex.

Whenever any such unsolicited comment is directed towards women instead of them feeling bad men should feel offended and ashamed. All these suggestions assume that most men are not able to control their sexual desires. It also brands them as a very uncivilized species that need extraordinary help from a potential victim to help them control themselves to avoid raping anyone. This assumption is utterly shameful and humiliating. People who offer these suggestions and advice (including many religions and so-called holy books) don't even realize that they are assuming the entire male population to be natural rapists, and they try to blame women for this. They use terms like "men will be men" or "boys are always boys," to justify such disgusting behavior.

Women are capable of making their own decisions. They can protect themselves very well if men just learn to behave properly and treat them as equals. Women are capable of doing everything that any man can do. So, men should stop offering unsolicited pieces of advice to women. If at all anyone needs advice it's the men and they need it very badly. I hope all these people have the courage and wisdom to offer these pieces of advice to men who really need it otherwise they should just stop this nonsense. It's getting too much. Women already listened too much and for too long, please don't test their patience anymore.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Reference:
1. Defendant's lawyer blames victim
2. Reactions to Asaram Bapu's comments
3. Raj Thackeray's comment
4. Abu Azmi's comment- Mid Day
5. Excellent article about stigma related with rape and related issues, a must read

India and Bharat - are they different?

Recent remarks by RSS chief Mr. Mohanrao Bhagwat that rapes are prevalent in India (by this he means a more liberal and modern population), not in Bharat (a rural, more conservative, or traditional part of India) created a lot of controversy in the media. Many people found it very controversial. Even Asaram Bapu said something very stupid in this regard. Personally, I was not very surprised after reading this comment as this type of mindset is still prevalent in even educated people in India and Mr. Bhagvat is representative of that conservative mindset. I have seen a lot of good work done by RSS, they try to instill a feeling of patriotism among people at the same time they are heavily biased toward Hinduism and are instrumental in spreading communal divide based on religion. They don't hide their close association with Hinduism. This is one of their major handicaps like many other organizations that associate themselves exclusively with a particular religion and feel the compulsion to defend each and everything mentioned in their scriptures and try to reinforce their traditions and culture. This particular comment comes from that mindset, where they believe a traditional, conservative society is better for women. Women should stay indoors, they are supposed to take care of their homes and families and cover themselves. Earning or doing a job is not considered a woman's responsibility. 

This statement by Mr. Bhagwat clearly doesn't make any sense. Actually, this shows that he is totally out of touch with reality. Every society has rich (more affluent) and poor sections, in India the difference is more contrast. Very often rich people follow a more liberal lifestyle, and this is somehow blamed on the Western influence. There is no logic behind this, it's a pathetic attempt to blame some outsider for things that one can not avoid or control. In today's world with modern and sophisticated modes of communication interaction between different cultures and societies is more common. People adopt whatever suits them. The exchange of ideas, traditions, and customs is very easy and common and no one can stop this. Whatever is good and relevant to people's needs will survive and other things will go away. Some bad elements will also creep in and will stay, but this was the case all the time. At every point in time in every society in our history, we had good customs and traditions and also bad ones. Today's society is not very different in that way. We are much more well equipped as far as technology and resources are concerned and it can do wonders if we can use it to our advantage.

This logic of India and Bharat is an indirect attempt to criticize the more affluent section of Indian society for their more liberal lifestyle. Women are generally more independent in these societies and also more outgoing. This criticism is mainly directed towards these independent women. According to his statement, such independent women only live in India but not in Bharat. It sounds very illogical and weird but it seems this is how Mr. Bhagwat thinks. While making this comment I wonder how Mr. Bhagwat conveniently forgot the situation of women in his so-called Bharat, where they are raped, molested, burned, and killed every day. Their situation is not very different than other parts of the country. The law and order situation is even worse in these places compared to cities. Just because women stay mostly indoors, do conventional jobs, they don't wear Western clothes doesn't mean they are safer and well-protected or well-cultured than women who do these things. I really wonder how people still believe and live with these types of illusions.

What type of world do they want to live in? Why are they so against independent and strong women? Why do they feel that women are supposed to do only certain types of work? Why are they not willing to give them equal treatment and the respect they deserve? There are many questions like this and I know what answers these people will give to most of these questions, but even then we need to ask these questions and argue with them because these people who think like this are part of our society and we can not neglect or ignore them. We need to question them. We need to argue with them and try to convince them. We should share our views about equality and women's empowerment with them. We all need to pay our part in bringing this change, unless the whole society is transformed this change will not come and our job is not done. If we brand them as conservatives and backward, ignore or neglect them, then we will be making the same mistake that organized religion did with nonbelievers. We need to talk with them, understand their views, and show them the other side of the coin, sounds very tough but there is no other way.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

References:
1. Rapes prevalent in India not in Bharat- The Hindu
2. Rapes occur in India not Bharat-Bhagwat-TOI
3. Marriage is like contract between husband wife-Mohan Bhagwat (TOI)
4. Delhi gang rape victim as guilty as her rapists-Asaram Bapu (TOI)

Spirituality - real or hoax?

A few days ago Chnadu uncle shared a video with me on Facebook. This video was from THiNK 2012, on its website it says that "THiNK is designed to be India’s most eclectic, thought-provoking and egalitarian platform for ideas from across the globe." I didn't know about this initiative, but I am very glad to know that something like this has already started in India and people are willing to discuss these issues on an open forum. This particular session was about Faith, Reason, and Inner Engineering which featured Jaggi Vasudev and Javed Akhtar, the session was moderated by Shoma Choudhary, here is the YouTube link for that session

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpL_kSEHOco&feature=youtu.be

I enjoyed watching the video, both speakers are very passionate about what they believe and put their arguments very assertively. I found Mr. Akhtar very aggressive and passionate about his beliefs. It clearly shows the way he answers questions in this video. I think he should tone down his aggression a little bit, this aggressive tone might switch off many people. He is trying to convey some very good ideas and raising some very valid questions. These are the questions that most people don't like to answer or try to ignore conveniently and his tone might make their job easy. Religion and spirituality are very complex subjects and both of them are heavily commercialized. It's a big business and in both fields, there are big institutes and they function like big corporate houses. These people try to protect their interests, get new customers, and market their products very aggressively and Mr. Akhtar throws light on all these things. He also raises a very important point that they are all (religion, spirituality, and things related to them) products of our minds. Our mind is the thing that differentiates us from other animals and is the main reason for our progress as well as problems. He also acknowledges that religion can encourage people to do some extremely good things (charity, social service, etc.) and also shows the other side that at the same time it can incite people to do extremely bad things (communal riots, terrorism). His argument sounds very valid when he says that the use of common sense and rational thinking can produce better results than extremist views propagated by organized religions.

Jaggi Vasudev also tries his best in his video. He maintains his calm and gets most of the time in this video. He used his time nicely to tell about his approach towards religion and spirituality but for some reason, he doesn't try to confront Mr. Akhtar directly and doesn't even bother to answer many of his questions. He is very diplomatic in his approach and delivers what his devotees expect from him. But as I said he conveniently dodges all the difficult questions for example when he and many others claim that mind and body are different then how come anyone who experiences divine intervention always gets a message in the language he/she knows (which is in their mind) not in some totally different language? Why do they always blame our "imperfect senses" and then use the same senses for their divine experience? Do we have other tools other than these imperfect senses to experience and understand the world around us?

I found another link where again Javed Akhtar expresses similar views about spirituality at the India Today conclave session,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZnQ159u-iE 

In this video also he is raising the same questions and questioning the attitude of the whole spirituality industry.  Sri Sri Ravishankar (who was also part of this discussion) posted his reply to Mr. Akhtar's questions on his blog. I like Sri Sri, he never gets into arguments, never loses his patience, avoids confrontation, and is very polite in his approach. He always goes back to his own place and then replies to allegations or questions directed to him. He did the same when Dr. Zakir Naik tried to put him in a difficult position and he did the same thing with Mr. Akhtar. Sri Sri's politeness is something that everyone should learn from him but at the same time he also never tries to answer any of the questions directly and whenever he answers them uses the same words which are used millions of times, like there is no point in arguing with ignorant, spirituality is a matter of the heart not head, how something can be a hoax if millions of people are practicing it, and things like that. Unfortunately, this is the same regular response given by many people before him. I expected much more from him and we need much more from these spiritual leaders. They need to come up with something better than this to prove their point that they are selling something genuine.

There is nothing wrong with marketing and selling your product. Nothing wrong with earning money, creating big spiritual organizations, and spreading your message but then what's wrong with accepting that this is what I do for a living, this is my occupation. Why give a label of divinity to it? Why to say that it's not a business? Doing business is not a crime, that too a non-profit business that does a lot of social work along with earning money. What's wrong with making money legally using your talent and knowledge.  Why are they so hesitant to accept it? Why all these gurus and their followers are so hesitant to accept that their movements are cult movements?  Do they fear that accepting some of these things will make some dent in their image, hurt the feelings of their devotees, or make it somewhat less divine and godly? Are they scared of losing their devotees (or customers)? There are many questions like this and I hope that they show some courage in accepting some of these things or offer some reasonable and logical explanations, and answer some of these questions. Many people need religion, God, or spirituality. For many there is absolutely no alternative to these things and many of these Gurus and cult movements fulfill this need. These things are very important for many people and Mr. Akhtar's comments might sound totally insensitive towards their needs but the questions he is asking are very important. Just dismissing his questions and objections or ignoring them only proves him right.

These questions and objections need serious consideration. At the same time, one should not trash all these Gurus or movements, most of them do this thing for their living. It's their job or business. I am sure there are few who are genuinely interested in spreading the message of peace and love and don't care at all about money. Hopefully, people from both sides (who criticize and who support these movements) find some balance in their approach because we need balance in every section of our lives otherwise things get very complicated. Many people need such gurus for their survival and mental peace, at the same time people who question them are very necessary to keep check on these Guru's activities. I feel that both these groups are required in the current scenario and the right balance between both these groups will allow us to run the system efficiently with minimum side effects. 

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright (only for text, videos are from YouTube): Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

References:

1. http://thinkworks.in/about/

2. Link for text of Javed Akhtar's speech at India Today conclave

3. Sri Sri's response to Mr. Akhtar's speech

What and how to teach kids?

Recently, I wrote a post about one incident in my home where my son called Krishna a thief and murderer. He had his own justifications for his statement and we both discussed in detail how this can be true or false, and how the same incident or a person can be looked at from different angles and each angle or view can yield a totally different conclusion. My discussion with him was very interesting. This post generated some passionate comments on my Facebook page as well as on my blog where some people expressed concern about how we should train our kids so that they should be able to think properly and understand the real meaning of mythological texts rather than commenting something stupid like this. Actually, I expected these types of comments, so these reactions were not surprising to me. Today's children are more evolved than their previous generations, they are more informed, intelligent, and better equipped to find answers to their questions than we were. This is true at least in my case, I never had all the tools and resources that my kids have to educate themselves.

Every parent or guardian feels it's their moral responsibility to educate and train their kids. We all believe that we should teach good things to our kids. it's a very noble thought but the only slight problem is that the definition of "Good" changes from person to person, religion to religion, and culture to culture. There is no universal guidebook for these things. Based on our upbringing, culture, and many other factors we decide what is good and what is bad. We form our opinions based on our own experience and then try to pass the same things to our kids. We want them to follow our religion and beliefs and also expect them to follow our culture and our advice.

If we look at this entire process most parent's emphasis is not on teaching their kids how to think but they focus more on teaching what to think. We like to teach them everything that we believe in. I was fortunate that I was born and raised in one of the most progressive states in India, Maharashtra, and that too in the most progressive city of that state, Pune. Maharashtra has a long history and tradition of producing very progressive thinkers and philosophers who introduced revolutionary ideas and challenged very well-established customs and traditions which they thought were outdated or harmful to certain sections of society. People like Jyotiba and Savitribai Phule, Dhodo Keshave Karve, Gopal Ganesh Agarkar, Lokamanya Tilak, Lady Ramabai, Dr. Ambedkar, and many others played a very important part in initiating many social movements and introducing social reforms. There is a vast amount of literature available in Marathi that documents a detailed history of all these events and also tells stories about all the hardships and opposition these and many other reformers faced in fighting against well-established rituals and customs. I was lucky to read many books related to these people and incidents in their lives and they all inspired me on many levels. All those Marathi books (some of them were translations of books from other languages) that I read during my school and college days shaped my thinking. The English language came very late in my life. I started speaking and reading English only when I came to the USA in 2003, before that most of my reading was in Marathi. My parents never really forced me to follow any particular regimental lifestyle where they dictated everything, they were strict but only in the case of my studies because they knew that only education could save me from poverty. As long as I was doing fine with my studies I was allowed to read whatever I wanted and these books became my teachers and guide. I consider myself very lucky in this regard. Many of these books are responsible for the way I think today and I am grateful to them.

I want my kids to develop their own thinking, to have their own vision and this is only possible when I don't force my own vision or thinking on them. As a parent, I guide them whenever necessary. I make sure that they get all the help whenever needed and get exposed to all cultures and customs. I take care that knowingly or unknowingly I don't force my prejudices and assumptions on them. This is the way I deal with my kids, maybe it's not the perfect way. Maybe some people will think that kids don't need to be given so much freedom as they are too young and immature to decide what is good or bad for them. Maybe, but as per my personal experience, today's kids are very well-informed and can deal with many complex issues. And when I say that I won't dictate or force them that doesn't mean that they have total freedom to do whatever they want. When I say "no" to them I explain why my answer is no, and also listen to their opinion, if they convince me that I was wrong then I change my decision and it does happen in certain cases, and I feel happy most of the time when this happens. For me it's a great feeling when I learn certain things from my own kids or for that matter any kid, this has taught me not to underestimate their intelligence just because they are younger than me.

In my home everything can be discussed, everything can be argued, and nothing is sacred and unquestionable. Kids are allowed to bring any topic to the table for discussion and I assure them that every question will be given full consideration. If I don't know the answer we try to find out the answers together and we all enjoy this whole process. Many of my friends also play a very important part in this process and my kids have total freedom to ask them their questions and take their suggestions on issues they think that my friends can help. So far it's working great and I am sure there will be many parents who may not agree with this method of parenting, but as I say this is my way, and it works for me. I found this method myself and I am sure every parent can find their own way to train their kids. Every kid is different and there is no universal parenting way or method that can be used to train all kids, but one thing is sure we need to train them so that they become responsible and capable citizens of this world. So, please find a method that works best for you and your kids. Good luck.

Thanks for reading and please share your views about this topic.

References:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyotirao_Phule; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savitribai_Phule
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhondo_Keshav_Karve
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopal_Ganesh_Agarkar
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bal_Gangadhar_Tilak
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandita_Ramabai

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)