Communal and Secular trap

Politics is a subject of my interest along with many other subjects, and as the major part of my life was spent in India I am interested in Indian politics more than American politics. As far as I remember Indian politics revolves around these two terms, "communal" and "secular." BJP was already an active player in Indian politics when I started taking an interest in it and the use of these two terms has been very common since then. The oldest and largest political party in India, the Indian National Congress or Congress (I) takes immense pride in calling itself a "secular" party and they (and many other parties with similar ideology) love to label BJP and most of its allies as "communal" mostly because of their involvement in Ayodhya Ram Mandir issue (which gave them chance to come in power) and pro-Hindu stance in general. This blame game has been going on for decades. Both sides try to fool voters by using these two labels that's why I call this a "communal and secular trap" for Indian voters and we all are badly trapped in it so badly that many other important issues like corruption, good governance, development, job creation, women empowerment, and social security, hardly come into discussion during elections. Secularism and communalism always become major electoral issues. Electoral battles are always fought on communal or secular grounds and voters are emotionally challenged and lured into one of these traps. Political parties also know that this strategy works very well and that's why they are using it again and again in every election. It will be interesting to see how long Indian voters keep on falling into the same trap.

Religion and caste are integral parts of Indian politics. Most parties select their candidates based on these two criteria, therefore, many times candidate's religion or caste becomes his/her biggest qualification. I have seen educated voters voting exclusively based on these things, they just vote for a particular candidate because he/she belongs to their caste, and don't even check the suitability of that candidate for that particular post. These people fail to understand that politics and religion are two different fields and should be treated separately, but because of so much clever blending of religion with politics, people fail to separate them. Both (political parties and religious institutes) like to control people by controlling their thought processes and they both use similar strategies that's why it's not surprising that they take the help of each other to keep their control over the masses. 

I wonder how a country where your caste and religion are asked on every official form, where a movie or a minor incident could trigger communal riots and ethnic violence can call itself secular? The spirit of secularism has been on the verge of dying by multiple cuts in the last many years. The word "secular" has become like an abuse and people ridicule anyone who dares to associate with this word. So-called secular parties blame communal parties for majority appeasement and accuse them of minority intimidation and in turn, so-called communal parties accuse secular parties of minority appeasement and blame them for the negligence of the majority community. This blame game has been going on for years and because of this, there is a polarization between the majority and minority communities. In reality, both the majority and minorities are struggling with neither of them getting any benefit. The real beneficiaries in this fight are the political parties, poor voters are still struggling with their day to day problems, still waiting for good governance, but as long as they don't come out of this deadly trap their wait will continue.

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

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

What is the material world?

Humans are often criticized for their attachment to the material world. It's considered some sort of trap where once you get stuck, it's difficult to get out. The reason for our spiritual and moral decline is often blamed on our desires and attachments associated with this material world. What is this material world after all? Is it our planet, our surroundings, our possessions, people around us? What is it?

If we assume God is the creator of all living beings, then this whole earth or universe is its creation, so how can it be a trap or a bad thing? If this material world is so bad, or it's a trap full of so many distractions and evil things, then why did God send us here?  For me, Earth is the best planet in the entire universe, and we are lucky to be on it; that's why we call it our mother planet/Earth. How can our mother be a distraction or a source of our downfall? We are still trying to find evidence of life on other planets, and it’s very much possible that we might find evidence on some of them, but still, our Earth will be the most beautiful planet for us.

Now let’s see why this planet, or material world, or attachment is often criticized in scriptures/religions. This is the place where we are born and live our entire life, and during that process, we get attached to many things, which is quite natural. Most religions believe either there is life after death or there is some other planet or world that is supposed to be better than ours, where one goes after death. It’s also believed that your attachments on this planet hinder your journey to that unknown destination. All religions paint different pictures of that promised land (heaven or hell, whatever you want to call it) and also prescribe different ways to qualify to go there. We use everything available on this planet to fulfill our needs and desires. After serving us so well and honestly, his poor material world gets blamed for our attachments and miseries.

The aim of religion was to replace all our attachments with only one attachment, God or whatever other entity that religion preaches. They see these material attachments as the biggest threat to them and want to eliminate their competitors; that's the only reason I see they criticize it. People many times use wrong ways to satisfy their desires or greed, but they don't do this only for their material desires; there are enough examples of religious extremism, forceful conversions, hatred of non-believers, communal riots, etc. All these are due to human attachment to religion/God. People think it's God's will to preach their religion, and they are serving/pleasing God by doing this. It is even said that “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction.” How come only material desires or attachments are blamed/criticized in scriptures, but not religious attachments? 

These so-called distractions and attractions around us are part of life, and life is interesting because of them. Running behind them is not the whole purpose of life; everything has its own importance and meaning in life. For example, eating is necessary for living, but if you only pay attention to eating and do nothing else, if you eat as much as you can without any control, then you know what will be the result, and it might become the cause of all your problems and destruction. Give importance to things as much as they deserve, and to know how to do this is to live a balanced life. Every person is different, and different things have different importance to different people.

This planet is our home for the rest of our lives, and we are privileged to have it. Whatever we learn, achieve, discover, and create is all from this so-called material world. It's the source of all our happiness, problems, and sorrows. There is a perfect world around us that provides us with everything we need; it has enough for our needs but not for greed. The real material world, its imperfections or attachments, or distractions are not outside, but they are inside our mind, and we need to control that; no point in blaming anyone for that. So-called heaven or hell, everything is here, and we experience it so many times during our life, but don't realize it. It's our duty to take care of this planet, as generations to come will be living here. We should try to make this place more beautiful than it was before we leave.

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

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