Death != Big Deal

Saw something i had seen before today while going towards the office. It was a street dog after being hit by a vehicle breathing its last breaths. Had seen such a thing before too - but this experience was different from the last ones that i had. This time as i moved across that writhing body - half in blood in the middle of the road - something inside me churned. Cant explain the feeling exactly - was it pain, sadness, helplessness? i dont know - but i do know i was damned confused.

I saw that dog there on the street i knew he was alive then - and it was obvious that he was suffering. The question in front of me was - can i do anything for that poor thing suffering? then i thought how? can i take him to a vet? do i know any vet around? will any clinic be open at this time (it was a bit early in the morning)? What after i take it to the vet? Can i afford to spend? Will my clothes get stained? What if the dog has an infection? what if my hands get all bloody? Can i go to the office with soiled clothes? The more i thought about it - the more negative thoughts about doing something about it came to the mind. After a while i was disgusted by my own thoughts. By this time i was 500 meters ahead from where the accident had taken place.

Someone in pain is dying in the middle of the road and i could just move past it without a thought. And now i was thinking how not to get dirty..... What if it was a human? Wont i have jumped up right at it and tried to take him/her to the hospital. If yes about the human - then why am i hesitating now? Is it that a human life is more important that a dog's - how do i decide that - there is such a huge bias because i too am a human. Then is my bias the truth - how do i justify this?

Simply i tried to put into perspective the activities of the dog and human - what humans do ----- and what the dogs do ----- from a neutral standpoint - if i forget for sometime that i am human - and try to see the earth as a affected entity - then it is pretty obvious that human life is much more detrimental to the system than the dog's. So logic stands to give more importance to the life of a dog than a human. But still i was thinking ................ the thing was suffering........

I turned back to the dog - i waited on the side of the road so as to let the traffic situation allow me to go to the dog - there i felt maybe what the dog might be at that moment - the monster which had hit it, was coming again and again at his face swooshing past him - unsure if the next one coming will hit him again just as the other one did - the agony he must have been going through along with the pain - i can only imagine.

I went up to it - tried to lift up - the only thing i thought i could do for it then was to lift and keep him on the side of the road - because i saw that the injury was very severe - and i doubted if it could be saved - maybe it was my selfishness which was prompting me to think that way - to give up hope and not take responsibility - i felt coward. It made grunts of pain as i lifted it up i took it to the side in the shade. I was feeling pathetic - helpless - guilty - sad. I patted it on the head - that was my only attempt to ease the pain it was going through - and i knew that was all i was going to do....... i didnt do anything else i left it there to wait for death .........

Creatures live - creatures die everyday - i have no illusions or reservations about this one. Humans live - humans die. But after this event i feel if that dog's death was no big deal - then no human death is a big deal either - its just the part of the cycle.

I am not God ...... so what?

"Lets go to the temple today, pay our respects to the god"

Well i have come across this statement a lot of number of times. And everytime i have heard this i have been surrounded by a host of different questions - one of which i would like to discuss.

The basic axiom which i take for this discussion is that GOD - is a single entity - same for one and all. Not at all an unreasonable statement.

So when i say it is equal for all - that automatically means all the activities that we do in the place of worship have to be equal in their meaning. So to say - the joining of hands of the hindus, or kneeling down of the muslims or bowing of the christian are done to achieve the same ends i.e. to show respect to the god.

But since god is the same - so obviously the action that we perform to show respects cannot matter - because different people do different things to achieve the same effect. So in effect action is not the primary concern - if i want to show god i respect it.

The same can be thought about words - and so too about the rituals.

So now i ask - what is it that really matters in this context? Actions - words - rituals cannot be the absolute. And so i think there is something other which is common between all - which is actually the important part. And thinking about it 'FAITH' seems to be the answer.

So to say 'FAITH' that the action we do shows respect to god, is a more fundamental feeling.

So then if i take the next step - of separating 'FAITH' from the action, words, rituals etc and putting it in something else. The question comes to me - will i be doing something heretic?

Then what can i put faith in or rather what should i put faith in (to put faith or not is a question for another time but if we assume that it is needed to have faith then) - should it be a stone carved in shape of a mythological entity - should it be a tomb of a saint - should it be words in Sanskrit which i donot understand fully or should it be the pictures and photos of godly figures or should it be a cross on which the son of the god was supposedly crucified.

I find the best thing i can put faith - is something that helps me in all situations - is with me all the time - effects my life more than anything else - may not be magically powerfull - but its all that i have - MYSELF.

Yes i may not be magically powerful, may not move rivers, may not hold a mountain on one finger or create bread out of nothing. But between objects - that cant move and ME - who can think and move and act and feel - i prefer ME. You might say i am concieted and this is self important behaviour - but i am not asking anyone else to put 'FAITH' in me. They better put it in themselves is what i am saying.

Its the 'FAITH' that matters.

To a place where blind man sees ....

God i love you - God 'I WANT' to make you happy by making you 'LOOK' good. So what will i do you know - i will take few of your beautiful creations - not allow them to do what 'YOU' made them for - but 'I' think 'MY' requirement is more important than yours - so i will take them from their place and put them all around you - although for you it could be loss of purpose of 'YOUR' creations but that is not important to 'ME'. What matters to 'ME' - is that this object which looks a bit like 'ME' - which 'I' believe is what you look like - should look beautiful to 'ME'. Hope you like it. :)

PS : If you say that is what they were made for - you dont even have the idea who decides what is for what. Your decision is what you want - not the reality.

PS1 : The point here is not - What makes god look good, but how we are limited by what 'we' think.

Aliens in the outfields . . . . [0v0]

"How could he do that?"
"What the hell were you thinking?"
"Whats wrong with them?"

We look around and find these contradictions at every step of the way. All of us looking into each other's worlds. Some we understand; most we dont - simply because the rules and the laws in that world are different from yours. You like some - you find some similiar to yours but not the exact same. We all are aliens for each other- each living in their own different worlds. Everything that they come across passes through the filters of the laws in their worlds. The same thing is source of pleasure for one and disgust for other.

We are the creators and rulers of this world we create for ourselves. And though most of the things are not directly under our control - they are definitely done by us only. We create reasons to be happy, purpose to work for, events to get angry upon, decisions regarding success and failure, we create the difference between the right and the wrong. Most processes we are give to the part in us which works on its own. Particular person gets angry for a particular reason - attributing the anger to the external stimuli but not to his internal reasons for which he gets angry. Here i am not discussing the reason to be angry - the reason might be correct or wrong - but the origin of anger.

And so goes for each and every of the object in this world of ours - love, hate, happiness, sadness, guilt, inspiration, zeal, passion, anger. We are the only ones who have a choice - a choice to decide our response - none of the other creatures have this liberty and it a waste when we donot use this capacity. Lets make a better "World of Our Own".

Happy Half - Bday to U

It was time again to go to bed, when something just rang a bell in my mind. There was this program on discovery channel that i had seen about how the body works. In one of their episodes they had analysed the phenomena of sleep and what a person goes through when he/she is sleeping.

They told something very interesting - they said that the state of sleep is extremely similiar to dying. That the body is almost in a state of half death where it is not able to percieve anything - time being one of the things (i always wondered about how the 6 hours of sleep just slip away unnoticed).

So using all their equipments and electrodes the scientists deduced that sleep is same as death - with only a little difference that we come back from it. The mind and body are absent during this phase.

So my point is if sleeping is half death - then waking up is half birth --- Yo - today is my Half Bday :D and so too yours. Enjoy today atleast half as much as your Bday. and EVERYDAY :D

PS : Dont let the law of marginal utility get you :P - there is always a reason to be happy for.