Pawan Kumar Pandey's Blog: Running Commentry
September 11, 2013
Two Thoughts
1) Vengeful God
I had a dream today, in it I saw a mortal challenging one of those Gods. It was all very Tolkiensque. The details do not matter but finally, the God ruthlessly killed the man. While thinking about it, two things came in my mind. One, that God is said to be infinitely kind and fatherly and two, that he is often portrayed as angry. So are these two things compatible? If a man is challenged by his son, what would he do? If the child is small, he will probably feign defeat, otherwise he will leave it to his devices thinking that the world will teach him. He may punish but will certainly not kill him (if the son or the father is not a monster!) So if an earthly father can be so kind with his limited kindness, how much patience could a heavenly father show?
I am an agnostic, so the purpose of this post is not religious, but to show that all religions that postulate an angry and at the same time a kind God are based on contradictions. This applies to Muslim, Jew, Christian and many sects of Hindu religion. Compare further and you will see that prayer, ritual, crusade/jihad cannot be the hallmarks of true religion.
2) Genetic memory
I read somewhere that Tolkien used to suffer nightmares in which he found himself amidst a deluge. He thought it to be a memory inherited from his ancestors. To everyone’s surprise, one of his sons used to suffer the same nightmare. Now is that possible? If we can inherit physical features from our ancestors, could it be possible to inherit memories too? I googled it and found out that this term exists and there has been much research on it in Biology and Psychology. Has anything like that happened to you ever?
I had a dream today, in it I saw a mortal challenging one of those Gods. It was all very Tolkiensque. The details do not matter but finally, the God ruthlessly killed the man. While thinking about it, two things came in my mind. One, that God is said to be infinitely kind and fatherly and two, that he is often portrayed as angry. So are these two things compatible? If a man is challenged by his son, what would he do? If the child is small, he will probably feign defeat, otherwise he will leave it to his devices thinking that the world will teach him. He may punish but will certainly not kill him (if the son or the father is not a monster!) So if an earthly father can be so kind with his limited kindness, how much patience could a heavenly father show?
I am an agnostic, so the purpose of this post is not religious, but to show that all religions that postulate an angry and at the same time a kind God are based on contradictions. This applies to Muslim, Jew, Christian and many sects of Hindu religion. Compare further and you will see that prayer, ritual, crusade/jihad cannot be the hallmarks of true religion.
2) Genetic memory
I read somewhere that Tolkien used to suffer nightmares in which he found himself amidst a deluge. He thought it to be a memory inherited from his ancestors. To everyone’s surprise, one of his sons used to suffer the same nightmare. Now is that possible? If we can inherit physical features from our ancestors, could it be possible to inherit memories too? I googled it and found out that this term exists and there has been much research on it in Biology and Psychology. Has anything like that happened to you ever?
September 1, 2013
A tale of two musicians
I had a hot debate last night about the loyalty of Muslims to India.(those who know Hindi can visit https://www.facebook.com/Bhartiya.Jan... ). The crux of what I said was that there are two kinds of Muslims, one, the internationalists and second, the nationalists. Almost all Jihadis are internationalists(their main contention being that Muslims are a single monolithic community and therefore their struggles are one). But I also cited examples of Brigadier Muhammad Usman, Abdul Hameed, Muhammad Yunus(Indian air force) and other personalities like Hasn Khan mewati, Hakim Khan Sur and Ibraheem Khan Gardi.
Here i wish to recite a tale of two musicians, which will clarify that religion has nothing to do with patriotism.
First is Pandit Ravi Shankar, the acclaimed sitar maestro. Born in Varanasi, the cultural capital of North India, he learnt music under Allaud-din Khan and finally married his talented daughter. Starting from 50s, he gained worldwide stardom often playing with the most famous of world musicians. He seperated from Annapurna Dewi(daughter of Allauddin Khan)and had at least three affairs at different points of time and fathered 3 children from 3 different women. He was nominated to Rajya Sabha. He lived his life mostly in United States since 1956. He was a Hindu and died in US in 2013.
Second is Ustad Bismillah Khan, the wizard of Shehnai. He was born in Dumraon, Bihar but moved to Varanasi when he was six. He learnt his craft under his uncle Ali Yavar, who was a shehnai player in Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi. A devotee of Saraswati, he played all over the world. On the eve of India's independence, he gave a famous performance at Red Fort. Since then he performed every year on Independence Day. He remained married to the same wife and after her death named her Shehnai as 'begum'(wife). He died in 2006 and government declared a day of national mourning. He was buried along with his Shehnai in Varanasi. Once when he got an offer to settle in US, he said "If you can bring Ganga Maiya(Mother) and Vishwanath Temple here, only then I can live here." He was a Muslim.
No doubt Ravi Shankar played vital role in spreading Indian Music worldwide(and got eternal fame), but the question is : "Who was emotionally more attached to India? Who can be called a better patriot?"
I await your comments.
Here i wish to recite a tale of two musicians, which will clarify that religion has nothing to do with patriotism.
First is Pandit Ravi Shankar, the acclaimed sitar maestro. Born in Varanasi, the cultural capital of North India, he learnt music under Allaud-din Khan and finally married his talented daughter. Starting from 50s, he gained worldwide stardom often playing with the most famous of world musicians. He seperated from Annapurna Dewi(daughter of Allauddin Khan)and had at least three affairs at different points of time and fathered 3 children from 3 different women. He was nominated to Rajya Sabha. He lived his life mostly in United States since 1956. He was a Hindu and died in US in 2013.
Second is Ustad Bismillah Khan, the wizard of Shehnai. He was born in Dumraon, Bihar but moved to Varanasi when he was six. He learnt his craft under his uncle Ali Yavar, who was a shehnai player in Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi. A devotee of Saraswati, he played all over the world. On the eve of India's independence, he gave a famous performance at Red Fort. Since then he performed every year on Independence Day. He remained married to the same wife and after her death named her Shehnai as 'begum'(wife). He died in 2006 and government declared a day of national mourning. He was buried along with his Shehnai in Varanasi. Once when he got an offer to settle in US, he said "If you can bring Ganga Maiya(Mother) and Vishwanath Temple here, only then I can live here." He was a Muslim.
No doubt Ravi Shankar played vital role in spreading Indian Music worldwide(and got eternal fame), but the question is : "Who was emotionally more attached to India? Who can be called a better patriot?"
I await your comments.
