The happiest man in the world

“The happiest man in the world” — that’s what this Tibetan Buddhist spiritual teacher was dubbed after his brain was studied by scientists. We explore his provocative thoughts on the meaning of happiness, as well as his insights into the nature of human consciousness, spirituality as “contemplative science,” and the relationship between humor and wisdom. Listen to the podcast.

Beauty is NOT skin deep.

Beauty is not skin deep; in fact it is not even on your skin. It is five inch AWAY from your skin.  Your beauty, your charisma, your attraction, your aura is not your physical looks; it is love in you, compassion in you. 

 It is not the size of your eyes; it is the water in your eyes.

I am not underestimating the value of physical beauty, good body and nice figure is good to have but it is not all, there is much more to the beauty.

When you see someone with a good physique, you actually see the physical manifestation of their good habits, their resolve, discipline, and their will power. The love in you for others, the compassion in you, the desire of selfless sacrifice for others, the innocence, and the kindness make you beautiful.  The discipline in you, the self-control comes out as the glow on your face.

Your perfect nose, big eyes, your skin color, your hair does not make you the most beautiful person. Look around, see why you like someone. You will find numerous cases where you will find someone more beautiful than the person who has all the right physical attributes.  To this unknown attraction, often we call chemistry; this chemistry is nothing but you feeling the warmth of his or her love and compassion.   This fact is very evident in today’s media, see people in TV and movies, often you may find the most likeable person is not really the most physically beautiful person. I heard Oprah talking with Trump in a show, that in screen test they know the person is hit or not within a fraction of second, the inner beauty heat can be felt thru the camera and thru screen.  Beauty is much more than the looks you possess.

I have this childhood habit of occasionally rebelling and not doing what the world expects of me. In child hood (3rd grade to be precise), I used to skip school and wonder around in jungle of Assam in India, and steal fruits from trees of callous neighbors,  now I skip office and sit in coffee shops  and watch people walking by (Yes, I miss cigarettes dearly). It is here it hit me hard, that people beauty is not their physical attribute, it is their inner peace and balance . I was watching this beautiful girl walking by, I can literally see her beauty, her aura, her good chi walking few inches ahead of her, she has this immense amount of peace on her face, tranquility was emanating from her, I was just mesmerized with the peace and harmony she was carrying with herself. I noticed her heavy body which may be categorized as obese just before she took the turn and gone away forever.  Your inner beauty wraps you like a cashmere shawl and you will look good no matter what your physical self looks like.

When I was in college, I used to have a friend, who was not the best looking person, people used to jokingly say- Rafat, you have a body guard. But this person was purest at heart, he was saint in his heart, he helped me numerous times, without him I couldn’t have completed my college, he not only paid  for my movie tickets, dinner bills, rent  but school fees too.  Once, I knew him, I never noticed his physical self, I just see this good friend of mine, the kind and gentle person. I used to wonder when someone talks about his physical attributes, because I never see it, I was his roommate but I never used to notice his physical scars. 

People don’t see you, but they see the image they made of you.  Seriously, you are not seen, but your image is seen. 

Have you notice, the people whom you know for long, you don’t notice their baldness, their weight or their wrinkles, and it is amusing to notice that they themselves may be worried about their baldness and weight etc. Khalil Gibran describes beauty in ‘the prophet’   -

It is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear,
But rather an image you see though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears.

For external physical appearance you can do many things, but you have nothing for your inner self, other than your pure thoughts, love, compassion and kindness for others, you cannot fake it, forget evolved animal like humans, but less evolved animal like dog, cat and horses smell your intentions and inner self.  So be pure, and step outside of your selfish self, break the shackles of greed, feel the fresh breeze of selflessness.  Develop empathy for your fellow human beings.

How to climb up

While cleaning my digital attic, came across this old note of Buffet from some TV show – Advice on how to climb up in professional world

• Master the art of (public) speaking
• Have a good Attitude – Get the best out in people.
• Have the right heroes.
• Invest in yourself.
• Follow the passion, find out what turns you on.
• Learn to read fast

So, who is your hero?

Paradox of life

There are many paradoxes in life and we must understand them to be successful. Many of these paradoxes, I realized by the hard knocks of world. It would have been nice if I would have understood them earlier in life, like any average intelligence person I missed lot of opportunities to learn them earlier. However, I think I got some of them now and would like to share them  with you …

First paradox is our question, how can I look good? This big question is in everyone’s mind, and this is what everyone is consumed with. We are constantly thinking about ourselves, how can I look good in others eyes?  Most of things we do are driven out of this selfish motive. We buy classy clothes, expensive shoes, and big houses, posh cars and costly diamonds to look good. Unfortunately, we are trying to find the answer of a wrong question. How can there be a right answer of wrong question? If we flip the question and ask ourselves “how I can make others look good” then you will see, that your first question is automatically taken care of and it will eventually vanish. If you think about others good, then others will worry for you. If you put your energy in finding out the good in others and try to spread their good deeds, you will soon realize that others will try to do the same with you. They will make sure that you are around, they will try to protect you, defend you and you will look good automatically. In place of just you working for yourself, you will find many working with you.

Do not focus on how I can look good but focus on how I can make others look good.  

Get in the business of being  the source of strength to others, and you will never be out of business.

Now, all the above wisdom can lose its value if you will try to use it for your own selfish reasons. Do not be selfish, be authentic, be truthful, and be genuine in praising others and finding the good in them.  It reminds me the poem of Charles Bukowski  ‘The genius of crowd’, in it he says – “…beware those quick to praise …  for they need praise in return…”. Honesty is portal to all wisdom. Remember, your pretentiousness is seen from miles.  Don’t praise others, so they praise in return. Do not fake, be genuine and honest in praising others.

Some time others goodness is covered under the dust of your own prejudice, help clean that dust.

Second paradox is similar to first one. Often we want to make a good impression on someone, want to impress people with our intelligence, and show off our knowledge, and for that, often we give a speech, we try to dump all our knowledge in a hurry. Moreover, here is the paradox of life, if you want to impress someone then speak less.

Silence will help you more than words. Knowledge speaks. Wisdom listens.

Curb the desire to show people how much you know. Being silent is more tougher than speaking. You need to have self-discipline and self-awareness to be quiet. You need to be in control of yourself to be silent. When you are silent, then you may be exercising lot of restrain on your natural tendencies of offering advice, and this is real power, you need more strength to be quiet than your four hundred pound bench press.

When you are silent, the other person will be talking, and believe me he will like you for this.

You have more chance of learning when you are listening, listening give you a bigger advantage as you augment your knowledge and know the others position before you speak. Hold your silence and speak only when you think the other person is ready to listen to you, which may be rare or you may get the opportunity after a long wait.

Often it happens your ideas and thoughts falls like drop of water on a hot steel plate. Same drop of water can be a pearl if it will fall on desiring shell.

Wait for people to become receptive for your opinion; else, your words will be valued like sand particles valued in Sahara desert. Galileo spent his last day’s in house arrest and Socrates had to drink poison because they spoke to people who did not have the same context, framework or understanding like them. There is a saying – When the student is ready, master appears. This actually means that when the student is ready he will see the master; he will listen to master and understand him. Master is always there, student has to realize that he is a student.

Do not try to be a master to a student who does not consider oneself as a student.

Look for right opportunity and right time to speak. Many times people do not have context to understand your thoughts or ideas. With people who still believe in seven skies and a heaven, you have to show patience and in place of being upset and angry you should help them in gaining the different perspective, nudge them slowly and gently move them to get the right direction by asking some thought provoking questions. Best is, leave them with some stimulating questions like burning coal, if they will keep  it burning  with their own inquisitiveness and intelligence they will get the fire of wisdom which will burn the weed of ignorance in them, else do not repent, this world need few ignorant also to function with right equilibrium.

Third paradox of life is if you want to be cool, do not try to be cool. You only become cool when you really do not care about being cool. So how you don’t care? This I guess has no easy answer. You do not care about others opinions when you are confident in yourself. Once you are confident, and be yourself you become cool, for this you don’t have to put black lipstick, and pierce your face and color your hair yellow. How to increase confidence?  Go and accumulate knowledge, and in the end when you realize that you do not need all this knowledge and you toss your kindle out of window then your learning is complete. The realization of self is the seed of confidence.

Next paradox, I’ve seen is about money. If you want money, and want to be rich, then stop running after money, and focus on your work, focus on study, work on increasing the knowledge, and then you suddenly realize that the money is following you.

You get the money by not chasing it but by chasing the knowledge.  

Money plays a cruel game with you, when you chase it, it runs faster than you do, and in the end, if you catch it then you realize that you have come too far from home, and there is no one left with you to enjoy your money. However, if you do not worry about money and enjoy your work, live a day to its fullest, have the love of labor then you will see that money is following you.

One last  paradox, I am seeing lately around me, people are spending enormous amount of money to increase their kids IQ, where as in this era of globalization, flat earth, multi culture, multi ethnics working environment, your success depend upon your EQ more than your IQ. But no one spend any time or effort to increase his or her kids EQ. In fact, the pampered upbringing, life seen from tainted glass of Mercedes hurt their EQ. Don’t get me wrong, I know, IQ is important, but you cannot differentiate much only on IQ when everyone around you has a high IQ and Ivy league degree.

OK, this blog post is crossing the limit of length; I must end this post.

Casino

Last night, for a birthday party, I visited the most talked about brand new casino in the city. I simply could not believe that there will be so many dumb people ready to loose their money sitting in a smoke filled room (gas chambers). I had the sad realization, that businesses build on human vices can be extremely successful. Felt sad for the people having zero control on themselves, sitting in front of machines, multiplying their problems by minutes.

I know, few of them are casual visitors, and some are landed there for the dance club or restaurants, but I was amazed to see so many people sitting and playing the slot machine, a game required zero intelligence, in fact the pre-requisite is to have zero intelligence. Putting your dollar in machine, some numbers scrolls on screen, and you losing the dollar in few seconds is called enjoyment. I was wondering, if these people ever thought to collect these one dollar bills and put it to some better use. Just one night collection of these slot machines can solve couple of African villages water, food and education problem forever. But this can happen only if every of these slot players think about others and get over of their own addiction and weakness.

I know about this addiction first hand. Long, long ago, I used to shuffle cards, I was good at it, and used to make so much money, that my rich friends used to give me money to play for them on profit share basis. This activity used to bankroll my college lavish life style. But I could not fool myself long enough, before nature decided to throw water on my face and made me smell the coffee. I remember the day very vividly, it was a hot afternoon in Bhopal, and we were playing cards in one of my friends smelly, smoke filled hostel room and I kept loosing, I lost every penny of mine and then I lost money of my other friends who were foolish enough to lend me any money. I lost everything, but I was dead sure that I will get all back and then some more as always. But now I did not have any money to continue on. I was desperate, I picked up a bike and went on asking money from my other friends, I was dead sure, If I can play once, I will get all the money back. Fortunately, that day I went to three friends, and they all said no. I guess they knew that I am asking money for gambling, they sensed my desperation and said they have no money. After hearing the third no, I was sitting in scorching sun on the bike and thinking who else I can go to ask for a loan, and then it hit me, what the hell I am doing, why I am doing it and it’s been almost more than twenty years I never played cards with money. It’s an addiction, for which people may need medical help.

The grandeur of casinos being built betting on the self-indulgent and selfish decadent genes of humans. When you see the glitter of any casino, remember every light bulb was lit by putting off inner candle of ethics and compassion of a human being, and behind this glitter there are dark houses, young kids sitting on windows, eyes filled with tears, waiting for their dad to come back. Bigger the casino the smaller the humans sitting in them …

Thought detector

With Age, the buzzing of simultaneous multiple thoughts in mind is slowing down, uncontrolled chaos is settling down and each and every thought is much thicker and deeper. Less fleeting, but deeper thoughts. I noticed recently, that if I have to read or write something serious, my hand automatically reaches to radio to shut it off. I lived whole of my life with music in background, prepare for all the exams with music and other distractions in background. But, now I started cherishing the silence, often found myself to be in singular thoughts and much more focused, other thoughts are becoming distractions and fleeting nature of them is no more comforting.

I am not implying that I have become a profound thinker or more intelligent, but I have become a calmer in my thoughts, thoughts comes and flow slowly, I can see their effect on my physiology, I can see how suddenly they appear and affect my mood, my feelings, my emotions. I can clearly see their pull on my happiness and sadness. Often they bring the future wrapped in white sheet of despair and hopelessness. However, now I am aware of these thoughts and they are very visible to me, they don’t affect me so much, I am no more oblivion to them, like the motion detector, now I have thought detectors, any strong thought trigger my watchfulness, and I see cause of my emotional state. This watching surely breaks the claw of gloomy and despair thoughts, they have not gone away but now I am aware of their destructive nature, like a hurricane they come and go and leave you in the emotional devastated state for some time.

Because it is written in the book

So if God made everything, then who created God?
My well educated, smart friend answers – No this is wrong question, you are not suppose to ask this?
Why?
Because God said so.
What do you mean, God said so.

He looks at me with pity and says, If only you have read something, you wouldn’t be so stupid and dumb, didn’t you read our holy book, and it is clearly written in the book that there is no creator of God, he has no shape, no form.

He had smile on his face, which you will have if someone argue with you that word is flat. He Tells me, go get some education, read the book of God, you are illiterate and not worthy of discussion as you know nothing and you read nothing.

I persist, Why you have to believe the book?
His eyes widens in disbelief on my question,  answers me in agitated manner – because the book is from God.

What proof you have, why you belief that the book is from God?

Ooph! man, you know nothing, BECAUSE it is written in the book.

Oh Ok, I get it, the book is from God, because the book says so.
My friend sign with relieve and says yes, stop with your stupid blogs and thought experiments, go read some books, you will learn and stop making fool of yourself.

Remodeling hell

I gave them books and messengers, gave them enough knowledge and brain to choose what is good and what is bad. I gave them lot of theory, messages and text.  Yes, that’s right; I told them what is right and what is wrong.

He chuckles, but I did wire them at very fundamental level, on the physical level with powerful and potent desires like hunger, greed, lust and love.

To check their faith, I did give them extreme sadness, poor or rich, every breath has a cost of many tears, I packed their heart with ocean of sorrow, I will take away from them everything, he smiles and says, I do it very slowly, they don’t even realize they lose everything they love about themselves, their innocence, their youth, their parents, their kids, their health, their wealth everything slips slowly away and they die old and ugly …

Then he murmurs to himself, and yes, I spawn these humans hundreds per minute, thousands per hours for millions and trillions of years. He shakes his head in affirmative and says, most of them don’t have any hope, no education, no food, no love, nothing …it is actually called ‘living hell’.

Suddenly, he becomes very stern, and says – Too much sin in my world, I must remodel the hell and increase its size; I must increase the fire too … I must make some more boilers and furnace …more lynches are needed …

Tell me who is the sadist here? What he wants to know by making gazillions of human for millions of years and why? Why he will do it?

Who is he?

He walked in the room with the aplomb which generally you see with in short people. Somehow short people exude more confidence than the normal height people, unconsciously making up for the natures shortcoming. He was wearing a golf hat, and long red scarf hanging from his neck, black pant and a white small T-shirt which has lot of writing on it. He had a slight paunch, which a sedentary life style pushes out but the young age works in his favor and does not allow it to be prominent. His small frame was rested on his flat and thin legs. He was wearing a black sports shoe in a dance party, telling me he has not muster enough finesse to choose a right shoe for the right occasion. His pugnacious looks were shallow; there was no vigor and muscle to support it.

Happy birthday to you

We gave and received many birthday gifts over the years, It bothered me every time I bought a huge $25 plastic toy for a kids birthday. First, why such a big plastic truck is so cheap? I really did not like the low price, making this truck must have added to pollution. Second, for the low price we must have exploited some poor country, unfortunate labor, who must have toiled hours in inhuman condition. Because of low price, we are able to buy more, we are able to pollute more.

In every American home with children, I see room full of toys, so much plastic, so much labor, so much pollution, so much metal, paint, battery is created for a child who is really not interested in all those toys. Most of them any way break in few hours, and then we have those broken toys in our dust bin. We wash our self from all the guilt by simply throwing it in a recycle bin.

Whenever, we buy cheap toys, we participate in increasing the pollution. Because of pollution, child birth defects has increased by 40% since 2001 in china, 145 children’s are born with physical defect out of 10,000. Read more here

Every 30 seconds, a child is born with physical defects because of the degrading environment.

I know, a child needs a toy, and there is no harm in having few toys for your kid, I am talking about people who have one child with 25-50 toys. I also know, most of the parents don’t go and buy those toys for their children, most of the times, you get these toys as birthday gifts. Every of your busy guest, who has to have a gift, stops at a toy shop on his way to your birthday party.

When you buy a birthday gift for some fat, over fed, pampered child, please think about the other hungry, weak, crippled kid who in on the other side of this earth.

Let’s think about gifts which don’t add to the pollution. Give people option that they get the satisfaction of giving gifts and don’t add the clutter in your home. One idea is to tell them please donate to Cry, CARE, World Vision, Red Cross etc or any of your favorite charity for your cheese stuffed kid.

I am all for the toys, Children MUST have some toys. However, as a host I can ask the guest not to bring gifts and donate for the kids if they insist on the gift, and as a parent I can buy one or two toys for my child. Child should not scarifice for charity, he should get his toy but be reasonable, don’t over do it.

I know, I am guilty of this, It always nagged me, but going forward, I will try my best to not give gift which will add to pollution. More ideas are welcome, tell me how else we can reduce the pollution….

Veggie Please.

You can make a huge impact on our environment, just change your food habit, reduce your meat consumption. I don’t mean by this that you become a complete Vegetarian but just reduce meat in your food.

Just think about it, many years a cow is raised and then cut for few pounds of meat. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, livestock account for 18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Meat and dairy production also contributes to biodiversity loss and water scarcity. These pressures will grow as global meat demand rises.

Eating one kilogram of beef produces more greenhouse gas emissions than driving for three hours while leaving the lights on at home, according to a new study that examines the CO2 emissions resulting from bringing an average beef cow to market.

Just eat less burgers; it will be good for your health and good for the environment too.

Few more links:

http://www.foodethicscouncil.org/node/329

http://www.foemalta.org/home/index.php/meat-consumption

Food Matters – by Mark Bittman

Podcast

Came across very interesting Podcast on entrepreneurship, highly recommended, check it out http://ecorner.stanford.edu/podcasts.html.

TED – ideas worth spreading  http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks

Ganges

As Ganges enter Varanasi, it contains 60,000 faecal coliform bacteria per 100 millimeters, 120 times more than is considered safe for bathing. Four miles downstream with input from 24 gushing sewers and 60,000 pilgrim-bathers, the concentration is 3,000 times over the safety limit. In places, Ganges becomes black and septic, Corpses, of semi cremated adults or enshrouded babies, drift slowly. – The Economist Dec. 13th 2008.

Should I still believe my elders and books which says – “I must take a bath in holy sacred Ganges”, or should I defy my thousand year old religious doctrine, priest and my wise elders?

Hey Millionaire – Wish you a Merry Christmas!!!

This is a holiday season, good time to catch up on all the good shows waiting in your DVR. Last night,  I was watching all the episodes of secret millionaire (http://www.fox.com/secretmillionaire/). I love the concept, It is simply life altering. It shakes you up and wring out every ounce of dissatisfaction out of your own cry, demanding, self-centered and selfish self. makes you humble and greatfull for what you have, re kindle the empathy in you. A must watch! You will see the America which you have never seen, the extreme of rich and poor.

I was watching this show with my son, and he moved me when he wanted to give all his birthday gift money to someone really needy. Made me realize, with my limited means, and with little money, I can play a millionaire for someone. Your few dollars can make a huge impact on someone in dire situation. Let’s go out and play our own Secret Millionaire game … try it out you will love it… it is better than shopping …

You can start now, at this very instant. Go to http://www.kiva.org/ , be a Santa for some one. I am working with Kiva for long time and got all my loaned money back, try it, Please.

Estimated cost of eliminating hunger and malnutrition: 19 Billion
Amount Americans spend annually on ice cream: 21.6 Billion

Wish you all a merry Christmas!!!

Differentiating men from boys

Now, I know how and why I was injured. I was trying to differntiate men from boys. I started taking the Pre workout supplement naNo Vapor. It has Caffeine, Nitric oxide and who knows what else. This thing really awaken the animal in you, you are pumped with the energy of ten people, you get so pumped up that you simply don’t want to leave the Gym. That’s what exactly happend with me, I got so excited, charged and pumped that I think I kept on working out for almost three hours. I finished all my regular workout and then looked at the new machines, new exercises as I was still left with some more energy and pushed the weight beyond my limit and then some more.

Felt great, but when the artificial excitement and caffeine wore off, by next day, I cannot lift my hand and for almost two months I was in pain, and now I think I permanently damage my left hand, as it still gets numb in certain position. So please take the supplements in responsible manner, be careful, your little over confidence, artificial energy can push you beyond your limits and you can hurt yourself and live rest of life in real pain.

Forgive, Forget and Move on …..

We  suffer more because of our own anger and resentment, than the  injustice and unfairness of others.  We give too much power to others to control us. Often our mood, our behavior and our life is controlled by others.

Justifiable or unjustifiable, often someone throws some FIRE at you, in the form of saying something which agitates  you, or doing something  which violates your sense of justice and you become angry, upset, irritated etc . Something which you don’t agree with,  something completely inappropriate, the clump of fire,  you take and with the help of your own ego  you start a big  fire in you. Fire of resentment, fire of revenge, and then you start roasting yourself in it.
 

Seattle hikes

Here is a list of seattle hikes.

Change your brain, Change your life

Just watched “Change your brain, Change your Life” on TV. Psychiatrist Daniel G. Amen offers advice for optimizing mental performance and eliminating negative behaviors. Highly recommend the book, better if you can get the DVD of his program.

Heaven – just for $3

We all know, if we can cherish our present situation, if we can enjoy the small things in life, very basic things in life, then we will be much happier. But the big question is how you can cherish simple thing? how you can cherish the usual simple day, like yesterday? We are bored with still waters of our life, small ripples in lake  make it interesting. No matter who you are,  poor or rich, white or black, you are never happy with your stillness, you are  looking for ripples, anticipating, desiring.  We think this looking itself makes life  interesting, we give different name to this looking – ambition, progress, change, development, growth, advancement or evolution. 

You never stop to pick up those million pennies of small happiness  on your way but you keep walking and exhaust yourself for that elusive three dollar note of ultimate happiness. We completely forget that sum of these pennies will be much bigger than dollar, but we never stop and pick them up and hope three dollar note is just around the corner.

Fortunately or unfortunately, couple of times,  I had near death experience, and that made me realize how important, good, and vibrant is your simple, boring life is. Look around, every moment gives you opportunity to pick  these small shinny pennies of happiness and content. 

Hey – Is anybody up there?

Small children, abused, tortured, raped and killed in orphanage, Haut de la Garenne on the Isle of Jersey in the English channel. So far one hundred sixty former boys and girls have come forward with absolutely horrific tales of what happened with them. This did not happened one day, week or month, this happened year after year for total twenty six years. Police is digging up the children bones from the backyard.

Victims’ descriptions of being “led away from their beds in middle night, taken down in the cellar to a large, concrete bath filled with cold water and abused by the people who should have been caring for them,”.

When you read this and your heart does not tremble with sorrow then you must be piece of wood, stone or GOD.

When you hear this, don’t you wonder for a second, what your Almighty, All knowing, All-Powerful, Supreme, Omnipresence, Omnipotent, The Merciful , loving God was doing? Didn’t  he hear small orphan children cries, their prayer for help, didn’t he see  tear in their eyes? Or the children were not praying sincerely enough?  If the creator of universe, all powerful, the mighty cannot come to help for small orphan children, then why you think he will be there for you? or may be he is not there, may be he does not exist ….

Learn Buddhist meditation techniques

Go to http://arobuddhism.org/meditation/learn-buddhist-meditation.html and sign up.

Belief

City was burning,  walls were red with human blood, shops and cars were blazing in the fire. Dead human bodies were lying around, some not so lucky were still withering with pain, and carrying the burden of breath.  A crowd  of ten or so people were chanting loudly and beating two feeble women with sticks and stones. Cries of women were  interrupted by the loud chanting, in praise of god.

Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens discusses his book “God Is Great” as a part of the Authors@Google series.

Surgery

12/5

Preparation of Sleep Apnea surgery, No food or drink 12 hours prior. Like any other surgery, this may have 1% boundary case probability , that I may not come back. Meditation and continuously watching my thoughts helped me a lot, I  am amazed how calm and quite I am from inside.  There is a very slight possibility that I many not come back to my house,  my wife and my son.  I am quite like a  floating clouds. This is not because, I am trying something, I am just calm at the core, there is no fear, no fear of death. If you are a leaf, and flying like a piece of debris in violent hurricane, and you give up  controlling your surroundings, I think then you can also enjoy the flight without violently shaking on your failures.  

12/6

Check-in at the hospital is same like chek-in  in a hotel. Very nice reception,a huge waterfall next to check in counter. I am amazed why i am not least worried about any thing. May be i am exteremly dumb and foolish, nothing worris me. But i can see Azan and Afrin are  worried from inside, and hiding it with the fake exterior calmness.

 

Surgery started by 1 PM. They have big monitors showing status of my surgery outside to my family, I was just wondering why it cannot be on web so my parents can see the status too, this is the last thought I had before the drugs hit me.

Back in the recovery room by 3 PM.  And all the hell break loose, there is excruciating pain in my throat. They drugged me good, so  I am dosing off and on with the pain in my throat. Want to be with the pain, want to win over it with my meditation, it is so intense that I can feel the area in throat vibrating, I feel as if I am trying to swallow a lump of burning coal, I am with the pain but I cannot push it in background. 

People say religion is good, In hospital science and logic does not come to visit you, you are left with your god, your religion and your people. But the pain is so much, so bad that no amount of prayer will help, the whole humanity can pray for me,   but nothing will help me  like few drops of narcotics … When you need science, you need science.

12/12

It’s been seven days, I am still on liquid diet. As soon as the medicine wears out pain starts in throat. I need to go to narcotics like a drug addicts. Still having problem in speaking. Like any other thing, there is silver lining to this whole thing, I am losing weight,  almost a pound per day. Today after noon, after drugging myself I tried to eat plain rice but could not go beyond few spoons …

12/14

Still feeling like a fish on a hook. Pain in throat is exactly as a fish may be feeling when a hook is on her throat and she is pulled with it. Now, I am delaying the medicine till the point of unbearable pain, I want to get off the medicine as soon as possible. With the medicine, you are so drowsy that you are useless and without it you are a withering fish. Tomorrow, I am seeing the doctor, let’s see how long this torment is going to last …

12/15

Splinters from nose is removed. Doctors says this is the last week for my pain, from next week onwards I may not need any pain killer. Lets see how it goes. Today tried to eat some rice, but pain was too much, tried to eat some ice cream, but could not enjoy it. Funny side effect of Narcotics, no more hunger … and now the pain is assosiated with eating so I am no more interested in eating. I hope this aversion to food continues on ….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12/18

Much better, solid food started since yestrerday, but there is no taste yet, most probably because of fever. Still having slight fever all day long.

 

 

Kindle

This is the first time in my life, technology made me sad and happy at the same time. I am talking about kindle from Amazon. A convenient, portable reading device with the ability to wirelessly download books, blogs, magazines, and newspapers. It can hold 1500 books, holds dictionary, connected with Wikipedia etc. Read more about it on Amazon.

I am proud of my library. Arduously, slowly and deliberately, I was building my library. Over the years, I was collecting books, which I wanted my sons to read when they will grow up. Often, I find myself standing in my library and scanning the shelf to choose a book for my mood of the moment. Since childhood, I am an avid reader and I liked the books and magazines scattered around in every corner of my house. I had many heated arguments with my wife on my need to have magazines and books to be around and should be in sight. I was of belief, if you will see the books then you will pick it up and read, where as my wife always wanted them to be stacked neatly on the bookshelf.

If I Had my Child to Raise Over Again

If I had my child to raise over again
I’d build self-esteem first and the house later
I’d finger paint more and point the finger less
I would do less correcting and more connecting
I’d take my eyes off my watch and watch with my eyes
I would care to know less and know to care more
I’d take more hikes and fly more kites
I’d stop playing serious and seriously play
I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars
I’d do more hugging and less tugging
I’d see the oak tree in the acorn more often
I would be firm less often and affirm much more
I’d model less about the love of power
And more about the power of love. 
 by

Diane Loomans

Moving on, Last lecture of Randy Paush….

Randy Pausch, a 46-year-old computer-science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, has terminal cancer and expects to live for just a few more months.

This week, he said goodbye to his students and the Pittsburgh college with one last lecture called “How to Live Your Childhood Dreams,” on his life’s journey and the lessons he’s learned. The Wall Street Journal called it “the lecture of a lifetime” and those who have seen it have more than agreed.

I wish, I can die so gracefully. Here is the link for video. Don’t miss last 20 minutes of his lecture.

Bibliotherapy

Interesting article in wsj. If you are suffering from mild depression, stress etc you can cure yourself by reading a books. This phenomena is called Bibliotherapy. I always believed in it, in fact often I find myself in book store searching for the comfort of books.

Every weekend, this is my Saturday ritual, In morning, I hike or exercise, and after lunch, I close my room and cut-off myself from the real world, draw the curtains on my problems and on window, darken the room, blast the air condition, make the room really cool, have a soft instrumental music, and read a new book. The charm of new book, smell of new pages takes me to memory lane of my carefree childhood, nothing is more exciting then learning and going thru some one’s life time wisdom condensed in few pages. Some where I read ‘ the bigger the island of knowledge, the broader the shore line of your amazement’. I am always amazed by the intelligence of people, the beauty of language and the art of expression. I relish nothing more than my moments of reading a good book. I pity people who don’t read, and I feel as they miss on big part of enjoyment and fun in life. The best and most peaceful moments of my life is when the hummingbird of my curiosity drinks the nectar of a book.

Here’s a look at the books prescribed in Denbighshire County, in Wales, for patients seeking nonemergency mental-health services via the U.K.’s national health system.

Happiness is …

People tell me why you discuss your thoughts, you should keep them private as others may not agree with you and they may dislike you for what you say … my answer is this quote from Mahatama Gandhi -

“Happiness is – What you think, What you say, and What you do are in harmony.”

You are in Heaven!

I often see people complaining about life, for sure life is not perfect, you sure don’t have many things, but do you realize that you live in heaven?

No matter what is your physical or financial condition, you are in someone’s heaven.

There are people in this world, for them your exact condition is a heaven. Look around, open your eyes, and look in others situation with little empathy and give them an extra  second before you flip the channel. You will realize that your situation is heavenly for many people in this world. I don’t want to give sad examples here and make you sad, but I hope you realize and understand what I mean. This is the secret of content in life. If you can see your current situation from the eyes of others then you can be very content and happy with your current situation.

Everyone is living in someone’s heaven.

I know, some of you ambitious one may be thinking ‘Why I lower my standard and consider my situation heavenly in comparison to an amputed, ten year old orphan in Darfur refugee camp who did not eat anything for last two days and suffering from malaria, languishing in an unsanitary condition with excruciating pain.” For them I have one answer, No you don’t have to lower your standard, you can yearn for your heaven and be unhappy in someone else heaven till you get your heaven.

Just let me know if you ever meet someone who is in their own heaven.

Life biggest tragedy is, you will never recognize your heaven. But, you can always be in someone’s heaven. If you be content and happy in others heaven then you will realize that you are in your heaven.  Others heaven and your heaven are same. The road to your heaven goes thru others heaven. Do you realize this?

Show me my blind spot

Came across very interesting site: http://www.Curious2know.com 

This site let your friends give you anonymous feedback. An opportunity to know about your blind spot. Check it out.

Red, Blue and Green Pill

Red Pill
Religion is morphine; it is a red pill of opium. Humans are fragile; life is as stable and strong as a bubble. Humans are certain about their future as much as a flying piece of paper is certain about its path in a twister. Ocean of sorrow is packed in every human heart. Humans are aware of their physical decay and final demise. Humans are helped by a red pill; it soothes them and promises a heaven. It provides more comfort to a lonely sick old man on dark cold night than a blanket.

Red pill peddlers’ balkanize the world; they all have conflicting claims. Every one claims their pill is authentic and others are a placebo. There are hundreds of small manufactures claiming their own authenticity.

The secret of Red pill popularity is making everything a whim of God. Red pill addicts every sentence starts with ‘If God willing…’ This transfer of responsibility from the individual to God brings a lot of peace to humankind.

I am not getting a job, because my God is not happy. My life is falling apart, God must be angry with me. I was wronged, God will take my revenge. I am weak, but my prayers are going to be strong. This thinking mushrooms a culture of worship.

Religion and Science

Listen to Sam Harris on Religion and belief.

Checkout some other interesting talks at http://beyondbelief2006.org/Watch/ . Thanks to Bhanu for pointing this link to me.

Dream On

After many years, I went back to India for my vacation. One of the high light of my trip was my meeting with my childhood friend Shakeel. He always amazed me with his intelligence, he was a gold medalist student and a topper on the state level, which is a very big deal in India, because you have to be one in millions.

Ten years back he landed in Bombay, with no place to live, and hardly money enough to survive for a week. Fast forward 10 years, and today he has a readymade garment export business, offices in many countries, and employ around 2000 people, maintaining a growth rate of 30% years after years, In short he is a multi multi millionaire. He is a perfect example of what a person can do with his brain and hard work. In my couple of hours meeting with him he dropped many hints of his wisdom, here it is :

• Know everything about your business, inside out. You should be aware of minutest details of all aspect of your business. He has thousand of people working for him, and he says he know exactly at any moment who is doing what and why. He know more than the floor supervisor.
• You should continuously be able to zoom in and out of every aspect of your business.
• Believe in openness – He has his office designed as such that all four partners sit in one room just next to each other, no partitions. All the partners know all the issues. Openness breads trust, and trust is the most important ingredient of any successful team.
• If there is a bad news, get it out. Let others know about it, there are many benefit of early warnings. First, your stress reduces and you don’t toss whole night wondering about how others going to react on this bad news. You will know now itself how they are going to react. Second, some time it is not as bad as you were thinking. The other party will suggest you the remedies, work around etc. Sharing bad news early will let you know others tolerance level and your clients become your partner and help you solving the situation. If you keep the bad news only to yourself, you will take all the stress and you may delay the solution too. Share the bad news as soon as possible.
• Stop worrying and start living. If you will stop worrying and start acting on the remedy quickly, 99% of time you will find your worries are exaggerated.
• There is no short cut in life, You have to WORK HARD.
• Dream big. Most of the dreamers achieve their dream if they truly believe in themselves and work hard towards it.
• Every morning, before getting up he lies down in the bed and plan his day and priorities, Planning the day and early thinking on the problems prepares him well for the day.
• There is no substitution for your knowledge.
  Have confidence in yourself, confidence comes only with the knowledge.
• Pay forward. Do the good deeds and right things happen to you.
• Be honest. He been in situation when everything was going wrong and he salvage his company by being honest and open with his clients. Because of his openness, Clients had enough confidence in him that they gave him a second chance.
• If you are too proud then sure you are not aware of others achievements in this world, take for granted you are a frog in a well. Be humble.
• Know yourself. Know your niche’, know your strength and play with that, focus on the strengths don’t waste too much energy in fixing the weakness. Get a partner who can cover up for your weakness.
• Become such a person that you are missed once you leave a gathering.

Starbucks experience

We have a Starbucks experience, Borders experience or a Ritz-Carlton experience. We like visiting these places, because when we are there, we feel good, the pleasant experience linger for long and we would like to visit them again. These brand names are successful because of the experience they give you.

In today’s world you are brand of your own, and you need to create your own experience, people have your experience when they meet you. Think, with what experience you leave them?

As a man thinkth

Lot of people asked me what is the meaning of ‘Watch your thoughts’ and I was thinking to write about it.

Today I came back from office with splitting headache and was so tired that I can not keep my eyes open and read any thing, I was trotting internet for some audible, and I stumble to http://www.learnoutloud.com. I opened the account and they gave me a free book ‘As a man Thinketh’ by James Allen.

I strongly encourage you to please get this book and read/Listen to it, you may get glimpse of the meaning of ‘Watch your thoughts’.

How to save time?

Life is so hectic, that we need to be very careful with every minutes we spend. Here are some tricks to save time:

• Multi tasking is the key – Brush your teeth in shower, Help you save 5 min.

• Have a electric shaver, shave in car, there is no need to waste 5 min in front of mirror. Just these two tricks gives you 65 min a week. Why not 70? because on Sunday I don’t shave.

• Subscribe to Wall street Journal in audible, listen the news paper while driving to office, and listen to a book while coming back.

• Never in your life watch a advt. on TV, save 15 min per show. Buy a DVR, If you don’t have it, you are living in dark ages, you will agree with me when you will have one.

• Never eat lunch alone, Always eat with someone, use that time to catch up with friends. Lunch is especially good, as you will busy eating and you will talk less, the other person will talk more and he will like you for that.

• Drive fast, but be safe.

• Don’t waste time praying long hours, I know people spending many hours doing that, Why you think God need repetition and he need to hear your request again and again. Ignore this advice if praying is your therapy. We don’t want you roaming around without your therapy.

• Wear jeans and T-shirt, both does not require ironing, this tip alone makes west coast geeks ahead of east coast lawyers and bankers.

• Have two monitors on computer. Yes, even in home you should have two monitors. Have the fastest internet connection.

• Never switch off your computer, always put it in hibernation, save 10 min a day.

• Learn how to use MS Office.

• Never play game on monitors, never watch games on TV, If you have this much time then get out and play a real game.

• Plan ahead, be very organized.

• Be very focused – I noticed I waste lot of time reading the same information again and again. You should have a razor sharp memory, be focused in what you do, understand in one sitting, cut down lot of repetition and waste of time.

• Don’t make friends in gym, you waste lot of time chatting in place of exercising.

• Don’t waste time writing this kind of blog entries.

With all these tips to save time, don’t get too carried away in being very efficient, ruthlessly time conscious, a rigid, selfish, career minded person. Don’t let the fun go out of your life. Goofing off is very important, you must read some fiction and meet people without any agenda, have some friends with whom you can waste time.

Kiva

Last night, I saw a very powerfull documentry about small business in Kenya on frontline. How people are struggling for little money, and your few dollars can make big difference in some ones life. You can also take part in helping other needy people. Check Kiva , here is the description from there site …

Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can “sponsor a business” and help the world’s working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates from the business you’ve sponsored. As loans are repaid, you get your loan money back.

Be here, now!

Beautiful stream singing,
flowers dancing,
Majestic hills, kissing clouds for
Heavenly rain.
Merrily butterfly, whirling with joy
Asks mountain, why you grim?

Mountain sighs,
I know what time will bring.

Butterfly giggles, flapping her wings
Glides on the air, whispers in mountain ear
Don’t ruin the beautiful present,
With the dark sheet of gloomy future.
Let not, thoughts spoil your present
See ‘As is’, and let bliss caresses you.

bumper sticker

Saw a very intresting bumper sticker -

Pro life is only concerned with conception to birth, then you are of your own.

Why God? Why?

Oh! God, How come John drinks, listen to music whole day, and party whole night, dances with girls, always having fun, looks like he does not fear you at all and still his life is good, everything seems to be working out right for him.

And here, I am a religious person, I am a God fearing person, I pray daily, In fact many time in a day, I fast, burn incenses, I chant religious scripts all day, and never look at any women, although i would like to, but still looks like I am not doing better than John, why?

God replies – I saw so many people faking the prayers, that I don’t pay much attention to it anymore, and any way they all pray for their own selfish reasons. Out of fear they keep telling me – I am great, and the greed of heaven is very obvious in many of their senseless religious act. Praying, chanting is all selfish act, Isn’t it? When you are praying what exactly are you doing for this world? Anything which begin with fear and greed, how good it is going to be.

So, now I pay more attention to the way people actually live, how they act when they are out of church, temple and mosque. It is not what you say, but what you think, because saying can be pretending. I see how is your heart, I see your kindness towards other human beings, Do you love others? Do you sympathizes with others? Do you care for others even if they are not of your religion? How much you hate others? You cannot come near me with hate in your heart, no matter how much love you profess in your prayer.

if you are a queen bee ….

Some people got confused by my Queen bee post. In no way, I am recommending that you sit inactive, I don’t want you to wait ideally for fate to help you. You got to work hard, you cannot depend upon your luck.

What I simply meant is – there are lot of other external factors work on you, and you have no control over it. Some time they work against you and some time they work for you. The only thing I want to convey is when you fail don’t be despondent and when you win don’t be too proud and arrogant, realize many other factors contributed to your success, I hope this realization may bring some humility to us…

Some interesting videos

Get some interesting videos from MIT.

Just watched Thomas Friedman.

What is in it for me?

I was walking on this trail, where few people come as it is beyond regular recreational hiker target. More often I like to get away on hikes which are secluded and has very less chance of a “tourist” crowed of north west.Walking, Looking at flowers, all around these beautiful flowers are blooming. They all look so happy, dancing on the wind, and showing there multi color faces with big smiles, you cannot help but get enamored in their beauty and be in wonderment of their symmetrical color pattern and fill with the reverence for the creational force of nature and the order in it.

These flower grow and bloom with their full force without any regard that they will be acknowledged by anyone or not, someone will look at them or not, some one will appreciate them or not, no selfish motives, no desire and hope of returns, no expectations of any kind of return for the happiness and beauty they bring to this world, they are equally beautiful and vibrant even if they are in some ones garland or on someone grave. How beautiful nature is, Isn’t the nature self less act of doing the right thing brings so much beauty to this world.

I wonder, is this deviation of humans from the selfless natural way of doing the right thing is reason for their degradation?

Queen bee

Continuing discussion from my previous post (boot polish) ….So you don’t believe that you are born with your destiny planned and wired from birth for your future.

Like all the scientist study rats and flies to understand human workings. So let’s start from there and see how the nature does the similar things with bees.

Queen bees lives longer than all other bees, they never work in their life, they only mate with other drones.

When the queen bee is suppose to be born, the mother goes to a special cell in the hives, which is larger than the cells of normal brood comb, and is oriented vertically instead of horizontally. Somehow mother knows queen is about to be born.

Boot Polish

Please first read from where it comes.

There are people who excel in their field, they are experts in certain things; they are too good a player, too good an engineer or too good a singer. Of course they worked hard and they excelled in there field. What makes me wonder is when their justifiable pride turn into arrogance and downright contempt for others who don’t reach to their standards, and many of times, I see these people dismiss others saying – oh! They are lazy and did not try hard enough.

I wonder, how the intelligent people can miss the point that their 90% of excellence has come to them without any of their efforts, they are born with the good genes, born with the brain and born with the skills, they already had the required ingredient and to refine it they worked hard, which is just 10%. I know, as soon as you will read it, you will go in this automatic response of yours that this is wrong as you know and you believe that everything you do is the result of your hard work.

You did everything to develop skills in you and you always heard wise people, your parents, your teachers and coaches tell you 10% is luck and 90% is hard work. I think this is wrong and our this shallow understanding turn us in arrogant fools.

Realization

Everyone knows that they will die one day. Knowing and realizing it, is two different things, the intimate understanding of it, the realization that you are dying in near future, and if you are not afraid of this fact, brings a blissful and calm feeling.

Every day, is a page from your book of life. And pages are turned rather quickly and if you can see this book is finishing soon and if you are not scared of the fact then every day gets a new meaning, you want to turn every page slowly and enjoy it.

You cherish everything, you start enjoying everything, big or small, you enjoy things which you have ignored before. Smell of fresh cut grass, a sun shine, a flower waving in air, a breeze on your face, a kids laugh, you start enjoying everything. Everything bring lot of joy to you, even people around you, with their eccentric ideas, with their fear, their arrogance, there brooding, their success, their failures, their happiness, everything you watch with amazement and content. Somehow you feel disconnected with everything, you feel nothing is effecting you with the same intensity, the way it effects you before. Now you know and understand the permanent end and the temporary life.

When you already know the final end, a thriller does not thrill you much. You see the transient nature of things, you suddenly see how temporary all this is, you see your bubble you live in, and I think this understanding beings tremendous amount of calmness and happiness.

I don’t know how someone can teach this to any one, This realization you have to get of your own. No one can teach this, but some can explain it in much better way. One of them was Jiddu.

Unfortunately, I see people are very afraid of end, the idea and concept of death is very dreadful.

Religion with their ideas of hell and heaven made it more scary, religious books are full with the story of God’s wrath, and very gory description of hell. I see lot of unaware, so called religious people, who are not truly religious try to scare people into doing things which according to them is right thing to do. And all this religious description instill more fear in humans, and this fear of death don’t let people come near to this understanding.

But if you will live intensely, enjoy every moment and read ferociously, then maybe one day you will reach to this comfortable understanding and blissful living.

Where you want to go today?

If ever you are bogged down by feeling inadequate, and think you were not dealt good cards, think about Holman.

Here is the snippet from time magazine … James Holman was a prodigiously restless world traveler in the early 19th century, a time before Ambien and JetBlue when the world was a dangerous, miserably uncomfortable place to travel. He circled the earth, traversed Siberia, roamed the Australian outback and the Brazilian rain forest, climbed Vesuvius during an eruption, hunted elephants in Ceylon and slave ships in the Atlantic and wrote best-selling books about it all. He did all this despite a grave handicap: he was blind.

Read more about him in ‘A Sense of the world’

tobacco-n-cancer.com

Here is a site, I and few of my friend made to deter people from tobacco. A very sad, heart wrentching story, I hope Mubin story will help others. If you smoke please visit the site (http:\\tobacco-n-cancer.com), if you know some one please sit with the person and make him watch the video, if you will forward a link, a tobacco user will never see the video it is too depresing and scary. God bless Mubin and his family.

Compassion

Just finished reading Karen Armstrong book, ‘The spiral staircase – My climb out of darkness’. Her spiritual life story resonant with my search. Her quest, though much deeper then mine, was similar to my pursuit and may be thousands of other human beings like me. She did swing from organized religion, being a nun to completely an atheist, then back to discovering the true meaning of spirituality.

She explained very well what religion should means –

The one and only test of a valid religious idea, doctrinal statement, spiritual experience, or devotional practice was that it must lead directly to practical compassion.

If your understanding of the divine made you kinder, more empathetic, and impelled you to express this sympathy in concrete act of loving-kindness, this was good theology.”
She writes, about the essence of religious life – “Every single one of the major traditions – Confucianism, Buddhism, and Hinduism as well as the monotheism – teaches a spirituality of empathy, by means of which you relate your own suffering to that of others. Hyam had quoted Hillal’s golden rule, which tells you to look into your own heart, find out what distresses you, and then refrain from inflicting similar pain on other people. That, Hillel has insisted, was the Torah and every thing else was commentary. This, I was to discover, was the essence of the religious life.”

She discovered –

“That the religious quest is not about discovering “the truth” or “the meaning of life” but about living as intensely as possible here and now. The idea is not to latch on to some superhuman personality or to “get to heaven” but to discover how to be fully human.”

This brings me to say, you need not be a member of church or mosque to be a good person, it is not necessary for you to believe in one of the organized religion to be a nice and a good spiritual human being. This fact, we of course, see all the time, I meet with people on daily basis who are from Russia and china and from the generation who never went to any prayer room, never went to any church and mosque and never prostrated in front of any god, made up of stone or invisible and they are perfectly good and very nice, kind human being. In fact, I found them nicer then other so called religious people.

On the same note I found Bertrand Russell more compassionate and kind and more near to god, who is so called an apostate, atheist and agnostic. Lets see why I think so, Russell says you should be kind with criminals, they should be punished, of course they should be put in jail, which should be less comfortable then freedom, but there is no need to cut some ones hand if he caught stealing*, there is no need to behead or stone to death if some one is found promiscuous. Let’s see what our other religious people say.

Dr. Zakir Naik ** (Again, he is not representative of all the Muslims in world, but I am quoting him here as he is on net and I was referred to him by my friends who thinks he is a smart, educated,  religious  and open minded person) argues on his web site – Why we should not kill a rapist?***, and then to justify his view he counters ‘what if your family member goes thru the same ordeal what you will do’. Then he gives example of people that they would like to kill the rapist and in fact some of them would like to torture the rapist and then kill him slowly.

How our religions have completely failed in arousing any compassion in human beings, and unfortunately this is from a so called liberal, modern and educated religious person of today age and time.

Forget rape, you can be killed even if you want to change or leave your religion – The Hadith (the body of quotes attributed to Muhammad) includes statements taken as supporting the death penalty for apostasy, such as:
Kill whoever changes his religion (Sahih Bukhari Vol. 9, book 84, number 57, narrated via Ibn Abbas source wikipedia).

I must add, this above quoted Hadith is not accepted by all the different Muslim sects, nor all the Muslims believe in this kind of severe punishment.

Religions of thousand years, preachers, teachers did not do good job of putting compassion, kindness and love as the most important aspect of human spirituality. The messages got lost in senseless rituals and myths. Praying, chanting is considered as a key to heaven not sympathy, kindness and love towards other human beings.

If you can cross the chasm of ego, you can be in the divine presence, but unfortunately religions made this chasm wider and deeper.

People held on the finger, which was showing them moon, they never looked at moon, but kept praying at the finger. Thanks to Karen and Jay Krishnamurti like people who tried to show humans what is the meaning of being religious.

—

*
Snippets from Zakir Naik web site
Islam prescribes chopping off the hands of the convicted robber. The Glorious Qur’an says in Surah Maidah:

“As to the thief, male or female, cut off his or her hands:a punishment by way
of example, from Allah, for their crime: and Allah is Exalted in power, full of wisdom.” [ Al-Qur’an 5:38]

Naik referred the above sura from Qur’an, and half way stops! Another perfect example, of human err. But if only you will open the Qur’an and read further then you will see the very next sura talks about forgiveness and repent. Now tell me, what I will do after cutting some one hand and later realizing the God him self talks about forgiveness. Here is the next sura[ Al-Qur’an 5:39]:

But if the thief repents
After his crime,
And amends his conduct,
Allah turneth to him
In forgiveness; for Allah
Is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.

**
Click here to goto Zakir Naik web site.
Then click on the question – All religions basically teach followers to do good deeds. Why should a person only follow Islam? Can he not follow any of the religions?

***
Snippets from Zakir Naik web site
6. Capital punishment for rapist
The Islamic shariah prescribes capital punishment for a convicted rapist. The non-Muslim may be horrified at such a stringent punishment in this age. Many accuse Islam of being ruthless and barbaric. I have asked a common question to hundreds of non-Muslim men. Suppose God-forbid, some one rapes your wife, your mother or your sister and you are made the judge. The rapist is brought in front of you. What punishment would you give him? All of them said, “we would put him to death.” Some went to the extent of saying, “we would torture him to death”, If your wife or your mother is raped you want the rapist to be put to death. But if someone else’s wife or mother is raped, capital punishment is a barbaric law. Why the double standards?