Testify: cruel thirst for worship

O Lord, grant me to greet the coming day in peace.
Help me in all things to rely upon your holy will.
In every hour of the day reveal your will to me.Bless my dealings with all who surround me.
Teach me to treat all that comes to me throughout the day with peace of soul,
and with firm conviction that your will governs all.
In all my deeds and words guide my thoughts and feelings.
In unforeseen events let me not forget that all are sent by you.
Teach me to act firmly and wisely,
Without embittering and embarrassing others.
Give me the strength to bear the fatigue of the coming day
with all that it shall bring.
Direct my will, teach me to pray,pray yourself in me.

I still remember the prayer I use to recite in the morning assembly. The sole motive of the prayer was to make the budding children spiritually alive. For some time we use to meditate and concentrate on one word: “the almighty” who created this world.

My grandma use to say if I will pray to god I will be able to fulfill all my dreams and if I do bad activities, I will be punished for the same.I use to wonder “Was it like, God like himself to be called as leader. God will fulfill my wishes only if I will pray n kneel down before him?”

Brought up in a theist family I use to visit Jain temples very frequently. We need to take care of each n every minute thing while visiting the temples. Taking bath before going to the temple was must.

At this point of discussion I want to add one anecdote from my life. Here it goes:-

When I was in standard five, my father took me to a village where we have a well known Jain temple. Fortunately I got to meet one of the famous jain monks. Meeting a person so great, who could bear all the cold without any clothes and who can walk on the heat scotched road without slippers and can remain mute for weeks just to save the living organisms present in the air, I was more than happy. I crouched down and touched his feet to respect him and his reaction filled my eyes with tears. He shouted as if an untouchable touched him.

According to him gals (not even a 12 yr small girl) were not supposed to touch him otherwise his purity will get affected.

Taking a closer look into the idea of this monk I realized how vast must be the database of the god to keep record of all the temples, all the visitors, all deeds (good or bad) of people. Say if a follower “A” asked god on date xx/yy/zzzz for “good result in his exams” the factors that would be taken into account will be:-

Whether he offer his prayers daily, he donate large amount at holy pilgrims, he take shower daily n visit nearby temple etc.

And visit at temples also have to have their sub table into the database in which the weight (degree of importance)of each temple

is stored .If he is visiting a famous temple (say one like veshnodevi) expectations are that the wish will be granted for sure and if he had put a condition(the culture of bribe) like to donate “Q”amount of money then he is more eligible for that wish to be in his favor than to a person who is working on the wish like hell.

Have you ever given a thought to what it needs to maintain such a big, stupid and biased database?

I am consistently amazed by the ways that factions present around manipulate the feelings of an innocent child n mend it the way they perceive their culture /religion and hats off to them, they are successful to carry forward their stupid perceptions:-“though god make our wishes come true ,god can be so cruel that he can punish u badly if you don’t take care of the holy affairs, the sanctity and purity of all that is sacred.”

The sanctity of the idol is maintained by no

t letting the gals touch the idol of god.

This I realized when I saw a 5 yr gal touching lord Mahavira’s feet n getting scolded by the people present out there at the temple.

If any God were to be so cruel to punish children by condemning them to dwell a brutal fate, I would inveigh against that God.

Don’t let the convention break hearts of innocent buds.

How our ancestors perceived God is far different from the way it has transcended to us.

While opening up the gift of religion/culture/values that our ancestors gifted us, the germs like greed, taboo, and superstitions got added up to the package and we think that the germs were wrapped inside it.

All this universe work on one principle:-the goodness in us. Our thoughts good or bad are reflected sooner or later and take us to the path we chose. No one else but we ourselves decide our destiny..

When we can’t bear the cruelty of political leader than how can we accept to follow the deity whose image is just so cruel and egoistic .We not only accepts it indeed, it might even become part of the standards for morality and justice.

How bad the God will feel to be blamed like this by his children.

At the end I want to add my poem which says all:-

Since I got up late, I rushed to the college,

I failed to take advantage of orison,

The whole day i was busy lik bee, can’t take out time to crouch before thee,

The meal time was to convince my parents "I vouch.."

Then at night tired and exhausted went to the couch.

Again and again i left the holy book unheeded

The final day came

To the court of god I proceeded

"Anushka" was called

And I stepped into like a clod

Balled over

I saw a billet @ quad

I read the final words of god

"You never talked to me, why should I talk to u?"

To which I answered (with a smile): U were always within me, Is there anything I need to tell you?:)

Illiteracy: A matter of concern

“Illiteracy- The inability to read and write a simple message in any language” (as per the UN’s definition) Let’s first analyze this definition closely. An illiterate person is like a handicapped person who is unfamiliar with the happenings in his surroundings, cant even drive because of his lack of ability to understand the basic symbols and traffic signs, cant read menus and the list goes on. It’s like you can’t be independent.

The illiteracy rates vary from region to region depending on the factors like w

ealth and urbanization. One common thing to be pointed out in the countries with high illiteracy rates is the social custom which curbs the education of females. The main reason I find behind the progress of developed countries is their high literacy rates. This is because high literacy rates mean more knowledgeable and skilled people in the country (what we call human capital). Literate people can understand and learn the things more easily, so they enjoy a higher socio-economic status as well as catalyze the development of the country as a whole. Even if we look into the history, we will find that literacy is the pre requisite for development of the country. The countries like Burkina Faso, Afghanistan, Niger, Guinea, Benin, Somalia, which have low literacy rates also hav

e lower developing rates in comparison to countries with high literacy rates. ( see: illiteracy rate graphs at www.nationmaster.com).

Its hard to figure out whether the issues like child labor, population growth etc are cause for high illiteracy rate or whether the situation is other way round (i.e. its illiteracy which is the mother of all such problems). The query is same as whether the egg came first or the hen. Whatever may be the answer, one thing is for sure that there is a cycle of issues, all interconnected, and fighting against one will definitely affect the chain.

Due to the lack of the ability to read the newspaper, many people remain unaware about the inside story of different elected parties and they take the wrong decisions while casting their votes (in case of democratic countries), which leads to bad governance and problems like unemployment, poverty, etc never taking a back seat. To liberate ourselves from the shackles of ignorance, poverty etc, we need to get out of this vicious circle.

The measures taken so far includes free teaching sessions, educational seminars, programmes and workshops conducted by different organizations. Involving people in different works to create leadership opportunities for youth, learn the acts of fellowship ,.Building up of new schools, colleges etc in all parts of the country is yet another step taken in this regard.

The major reason behind the failure of these programs and actions is the non – participation of people living in rural areas, lack of awareness, corruption involved while utilizing the money donated for building of the schools and colleges. Also the government puts more emphasis on deficit models rather than analyzing the situation properly and making people learn the things they are good at. People are forced to learn the things in which they are least interested and thus it hinders the development of their personality as a whole.

People should be allowed to choose their area of interest and then the respective teaching sessions should be conducted. Moreover the capital donated for building up of educational institutes should be kept under check by vigilance department. Moreover the illegal practices can be stopped by keeping a track on the whole development process, from construction to management of the educational organizations. The practices like paper leakage, lack of staff and mismanagement at the educational institutes should be checked. We,the youth have got the freedom of speech. Lets join hands and enlighten the world.

(nice video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD1Er8sXkTQ&feature=related)