WHY DO WE NOT EMPATHISE ANY MORE?

I was travelling in a train from Mangalore to Chennai.There was a big group of youngsters who boarded the train along with me.They told me with an air of cultivated importance that they are from MIT.It is not Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but Manipal Institute! As soon as they boarded the train at 12.30 Noon, they spread their beadings and started occupying the berths, without even waiting for other passengers to board.There was not an inch of luggage space left for other passengers to use because they were keeping the luggage of their friends who were not fortunate to get a seat in the AC coach.I managed to find an empty side seat as mine was occupied by a youngster one third my age and managed to find a space for my small handbag which would have been too humble in size even in an aircraft cabin.Then the high volume banter started, destroying every possibility for anyone else in the compartment to read, sleep or enter into any civilised verbal interaction.The topics of discussion were certainly nowhere near MIT class ! I was hoping against hope even after 8 hours of torture, mercifully punctured by bouts of daytime sleep of the youngsters, that will enhance the quality of their topics of concern, but I was not that fortunate.I wondered, if I were to interview these youngsters for my company, how many would have got 2 digit scores?

When it came to sleeping time, our young friends who already had their quota of sleep during daytime, did not want to sleep, because they would have simply missed the thrill of keeping all the conservatives awake.I saw two elderly men trying to throw most sophisticated hints at the brigade that they are too old and tired to be awake at that time.Nothing worked.Then I thought it is time to give them a taste of their own lack of empathy.I simply got up , asked everyone in the seat to get up ,pulled the seats up and allowed the elderly gentlemen to sleep.Perhaps the menacing look on my aggrieved face did the trick and the brigade froze and allowed the rest to continue the journey in peace.

In Kerala I distinctly felt an air of indifference, rejection of serious contemplation of anything, and an aptitude for easy life and pointless entertainment.Keralites have become a plastic society that projects material well being as the ultimate goal in life.It would have been fine if people were willing to sweat for this.No.

There is too much of baseless EGO everywhere and institutions like family and Marriage are taking a beating.People are not willing to see the other point of view and accommodate.Identities are watertight and most people simply lack the skill to manage multiple identities.

Any amount of Godmen and Women who are a dime a dozen in Kerala have not made a difference to the psychic health of Malayali minds.The formula is nauseatingly the same.The Ashram locates wealthy but soft people and target them by offering some vague solace to confused and wavery minds-for a hefty price of course.You cannot see even one distant clone of a Sreenarayanaguru or Ramanamaharshi there.If they are not criminals, they are either illiterate crowd pullers being exploited by corporate Ashrams, or quacks who make money from desperate ill informed common man, or business Swamys and preachers , who have discovered profitable business models based on the superstition market.

I want to link our lack of empathy to the irrational plastic religiosity that our people have accepted as a life model.We have become inward, keep out rational knowledge and are not worried about the society as long as the Vibhoothi given by the family Godman is there to save us from all difficulties.

This must change and the starting point is our children and grand children.

A..Jayanthram

Rituals and Routines
Why do we follow them?

RITUALS AND ROUTINES.WHY DO WE FOLLOW THEM.
{My explanations to the points raised in the TAMILNATION website.)


1. Why do we light a lamp?
For light. It can be done by a bulb or candle as well. The explanation that oil symbolizes Vasanas and wick the EGO is just poetry.
Wax in the candle can also symbolize Vasanas and the thread in the candle can represent EGO. But how many oil lamp lighting people or candle offering people think of such noble ideals and practice them in life and thoughts- 2%? I would any day prefer an environmental friendly non polluting CFL lamp.
2. Why do we have a prayer room?

I never needed one, because our mind is our Prayer Room. If you need such an external stimulus to pray, that means the mind is not strong enough.

3. Why we do Namaste?
Spiritual significance of negating the EGO? Again how many will think this way while saying Namaste? I always remember the corrupt politician when anyone tells me NAMASTE.A warm shake hand is just fine.

4. Why do we prostate before elders?
Touching anyone’s feet is a symbol of sycophancy. Respect is in the mind and should reflect in thoughts and words, which can be expressed in other civilized ways. Never touch anyone’s feet even if he is GOD.Touching parent’s feet and ill treating and disregarding them goes together in most Indian homes. The rules were obviously drafted by Priests who wanted to make even Kings prostrate before them.
5. Why do we mark Tilak on the forehead?
They simply decided on different colors to identify lower casts and segregate them. There is no scientific basis for the story that POTTU cools the forehead, because they are mostly made of harmful chemicals. May be Sandal paste has some cooling effect if you spread it all over the head and forehead. A beach or AC room can do better.
6. Why do we not touch book or paper with feet?
Agreed. But unfortunately this remained only in symbols. We remained the most illiterate country in the world. It is time to grow beyond symbolic faith.
7. To touch another with feet is wrong

Agreed. I think this is true in all cultures of the world.
8. Why do we apply Holy Ash?
Bhasma is nothing but Carbon. Our Godmen used to make it as if he creates it from nothing. When this fraud was they stopped doing it. Spreading ash all over the body is barbaric and primitive. Like most other silly things, we Hindus have a philosophic sounding explanation for this also.
9. Why do we offer Food to the lord before eating it?
This is only to conceal the guilt that we are not sharing it with those who are less fortunate than us, like the beggar passing through the road or a poor neighbor.
10. Why do we fast?
Most religious people fast to curry some favor from their lord. Fasting is good for stomach, if done occasionally.
11. Why we do Pradakshina?
If it is to remind that Lord is at the centre, why not take an instrument box and draw 100 circles everyday?
12. Why Pradakhina is done clockwise?
There is no auspiciousness for the Right Hand. My brother is a left hander and for him I am sure left is auspicious. Do we always keep our wives on the left because they are inauspicious?
13. Why do we regard trees and plants as sacred?
Reasons for protecting trees are universal and scientific and no religion has any monopoly over it. By the way, why do we still burn our dead bodies with firewood? Why not electric burning?(Incidentally, I would like to be burnt in an electric crematorium after my death without any rituals)
14, why do we ring the bell in a temple?
I think bells are rung in churches and temples. It is only to alert.
15. Why do we worship Kalasha?
Lord Brahma or Moses never created anything. We created Lord Brahma. Universe was created by a cosmic big bang and life was created by biological evolution and natural selection as explained beautifully by Charles Darwin.
16. Why do we consider LOTUS as special?
Lotus has no special status and is as beautiful as any other flower
17. Why we worship Tulasi?
Tulasi has only some stories associated with it. There are thousands of other medicinal plants in our country and abroad. No need to worship any plant or tree. We only have to protect and make good use of them.
18. Why do we blow the conch?
Simply because it makes loud and pleasant sound which can be used to call people and is available free in nature.
19. Why do we say “SHANTHI” thrice?
We say Shanti thrice and still kill adversaries. Where is the real peace?
20. Why do we offer a coconut?
Because Coconut is available plenty in coastal areas.
Because it can be carried easily without spoiling.
Because it can be eaten after the offering.
There are temples where eggs and dried fish are also offered.
21. Why do we chant OM?
All the symbolism of OM is just imagination. If it is sacred, OM Shivpuri’s Home should be a pilgrim centre by now.
22. Why we do Arathi?
If the flame in the hand symbolizes illumination of the mind, it would have been great. But unfortunately over the ages, it has just remained another pointless ritual.


HUMAN MIND IS JUST WONDERFUL.BUT WE HAVE TO GET RID OF THE NONSENSICAL BAGGAGE THAT OUR BRAHMIN PRIESTHOOD HAS BRAZED INTO OUR SLAVISH COMPLIANT MINDS>QUESTION EVERYTHING AND WE CAN LIVE A LIFE OF ENLIGHTENMENT ON OUR OWN TERMS.
JAYANTH

IDEAS FROM THE BOOK "GOD DELUSION" by Prof:RICHARD DAWKINS

You can be an Atheist who is happy, balanced, moral and intellectually fulfilled.

If you want to say, "God is energy", then you can find GOD in a lump of coal.

Dawkins is not in favour of offending or hurting anyone just for the sake of it.But he is intrigued and mystified by the disproportionate privileging of Religion in our otherwise secular societies.

Life is too short to bother with the distinction between one figment of imagination and many.

NEHRU-"The spectacle of what is called religion, or at any rate organised religion, in India and elsewhere, has filled me with horror and I have frequently condemned it and wished to make a clean sweep of it.Almost always, it seemed to stand for blind belief and reaction, dogma and begotry, superstition, exploitation and the preservation of vested interests,"

MIRACLES by definition, violate the principles of science.

There are athlets who believe GOD helps them win-against opponents who would seem on the face of it, no less worthy of his favouritism.There are motorists who believe that God saves them a parking space-thereby presumably depriving somebody else.

Every Sunday, in churches throughout Britain, entire congregations prayed publicly for the health of the Royal family.Shouldn't they therefore, be unusually fit, compared with the rest of us who are prayed for, only by the nearest and dearest.?

George W Bush says that God told him to invade Iraque(a pity that God didn't vouchsafe him a revelation that there were no weapons of mass destruction!)

The only difference between "The Da Vinci Code" and the Gospels is that The Gospels are ancient fiction while The Da Vinci Code is modern fiction.

Why do we so readily accept the idea that the one thing you must do to please God is to BELIEVE in him?What is so special about believing?Isn't it just as likely thatGod would reward KINDNESS,GENEROSITY or HUMILITY??

Design is not the only alternative to chance.Natural selection is the better alternative.

Predators seem beautifully "designed" to catch prey animals, while the prey animals seem equally beautifully "designed" to escape them/.Whose side is GOD on?

Darwin ansd his successors have shown how living creatures, with their spectacular statistical improbability and appearance of design, have evolved by slow gradual degrees from simple beginings.We can now safely say that the illusion of design in living creaturers is just that-An illusion.

George Bernard Shaw:'The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.

Natural selection builds child brains with a tendency to believe whatever their parents and elders tell them.Flip side of trusting obedience is slavish gullibility.

Quite a lot of religious people do think religion is what motivate them to be good, especially if they belong a faith that exploits personal guilt.

Morality, in the absense of policing is somehow more truly moral than the kind of false morality that vanishes as soon as the police go on strike.

"Religion is an insult to human dignity.With or without it, you'd have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things.But, for good people to do evil things, it takes religion." Nobel prize winning Physicist Steven Weinberg.

Religion teaches us not to change our minds!

Children have a human right not to have their minds crippled by exposure to other people's bad ideas. and we as a society have a duty to protect them from it.

Children should be taught how to think rather than what to think.

Individuals who are most afraid of Death, are the religious ones.

Our life is as meaningful as we choose to make it.

The knowledge that wev have only one life, should make it all the more precious.

Be thrilled to be alive at a time when humanity is pushing against the limits of understanding.Even better, we may eventually understand that THERE ARE NO LIMITS.