R.N. Prasher > Quotes

“The restless spirit never loses its wings. If sometimes it cannot fly, it is because during those moments the sky vanishes.”
― R.N. Prasher

“Like everything else, we know the futility of money only when we have more than enough of it.”
― R. N. Prasher

“If I do not agree with something or do not like something, it will be wrong to presume that I hate it. Presuming disagreement or dislike to be the same as hatred is stifling engagement. Disengagement leads to otherness, which leads to fear, which in turn leads to real hatred. Either we tolerate disagreement and dislike or we have to tolerate real hatred. The intolerance of disagreement is filling civil society lexicon with phobias each of which is leading to a disconnect, to another closed door. It may sound odd but only tolerance of disagreement demolishes walls. Doors and windows, open or closed, presume that there exists a wall, a wall created by intolerance. And doors and windows, if they exist, are closed too easily, at the slightest of pretexts.”
― R. N. Prasher

“I am willing to contribute for a grand tombstone for Political Correctness (PC). This mouthplug has made us cowards, afraid to exercise our freedom of expression. It has stifled frank exchange of ideas and has made debates one-sided and pre-concluded. It has given strength to ideas which cannot defend themselves in an open debate. PC may be acceptable in private space but it is diastrous in public space as it makes that public space an oxymoron by making it restricted to only the "acceptable". Democracy is about competitive ideas and PC is undemocratic as it discounts the possibility of a level playing field. All growth of ideas is through cross fertilisation and PC leads to degeneration of ideas by restricting the process to inbreeding. Only those who use weakness as leverage to gain advantage without effort or have an hidden agenda will root for PC. It is the tool of the lazy and the devious. My offer for its tombstone stands.”
― R. N. Prasher

“As long as one can think as an outsider, an observer apart from the conflict, there is hope for a resolving thought.”
― R. N. Prasher

“Of all creatures on earth, in proportion to their size and weight, humans have the smallest footprint on the ground and the largest on the environment.”
― R. N. Prasher

“When happiness rides on the wings of art, it transcends time.”
― R. N. Prasher

“Pleasure and pain are on the same side of the coin of human experience. The opposite is indifference or numbness.”
― R. N. Prasher

“The Sun would have wasted its life but for the evolution of life on earth. The one who gives should be grateful to the one who receives.”
― R. N. Prasher

“When we lose the world, we find ourselves. When we lose ourselves, we find God. When we lose God, we find liberation.The trick is to learn to lose.”
― R. N. Prasher

“As you look up to see the stars,keep watching the ground with your feet.”
― R. N. Prasher

“My Ten Commandments:
1. God is a verb, not a noun.
2. Prayers are important only if they lead to corresponding actions.
3. Creation is an art. Science provides the tools for the artist. Anybody with the tools is not necessarily an artist.
4. Religion involves exclusivity and superiority. Divinity is inclusive and involves humility.
5. God by definition should be omnipotent. He should not require intermediation by priests and prophets.
6. All prophets have displayed exclusivity and superiority. (Refer to #4 above)
7. Rituals involve intermediation and often cruelty towards other fellows of creation.
8. Inclusivity and humility towards all creations of God is divine.
9. Rituals are antithesis of the divine. Rituals indicate a god and his intermediaries who are greedy, arrogant, revengeful and cruel.
10. God exists only for increasing happiness of all creatures.”
― R. N. Prasher

“The desire that I may have no desire is itself a desire.”
― R. N. Prasher

“In some languages (Hindi is one), every perception is called "seeing". Maybe, the trick is to rely on the eyes less and less as one perceives more and more.”
― R. N. Prasher

“Young children have no past. The old have no future. The rest are too busy with present. This time-tripod holds up the world. You ignore the importance of this interdependence of the three, the world as you know it is in danger of collapsing”
― R. N. Prasher

“Whatever time mother goes to heaven, it is always too soon. Fortunately, she is forever.”
― R. N. Prasher

“Optimism is the young boy who notices that a girl notices that he notices her.”
― R N Prasher

“If we play but not games, all will be well with the world.”
― R N Prasher

“Flame is the lamp; rest is borrowed.”
― R. N. Prasher

“Education should liberate. If it imprisons, it is indoctrination.”
― R.N. Prasher

“What is knowledge but a lucid enunciation of ignorance of yesterday. If there is no darkness to dispel, there can be no light.”
― R. N. Prasher

“A smile is merely a symptom of the human condition called happiness. Animals are affected by that condition more often though the symptoms are not so obvious.”
― R.N. Prasher

“If it is a thought, it has to be different from what already exists. Else, it is memory.”
― R.N. Prasher

“To rule your mind, mind your rules.”
― R. N. Prasher

“Life is a tie. Just think of it. It always ends in a draw.”
― R N Prasher

“We convince ourselves that happiness is an effect; that there has to be cause for it. That makes happiness so dependent on the external environment and makes us a puppet. Happiness without a cause is sui generis, in a class of its own. If we learn the art of being happy without a reason, then we can be happy even when there is a reason to be unhappy.”
― R. N. Prasher

“Earth" is not too long an address. It is the parts which make us forget the way.”
― R. N. Prasher

“The real help victims of injustice need is to get the will, skill and resources to fight back. There may or may not be a hell in afterlife but suffering injustice quietly is a sin, punishment for which is a living hell here and now.”
― R.N. Prasher

“When a lie makes a soft bed for everyone, may the truth lie low. God as commonly understood appears to be one such lie. God as non-existence is not everyone's cup of tea and He better remain so.”
― R. N. Prasher

“Life may be lived with a veil vainly attempting to hide its truth. The Painted Veil, as Somerset Maugham called it, does fade with time, if not raised earlier. If anything is more pathetic than its former self, it is the faded veil.”
― R. N. Prasher