Abhijit Naskar's Blog - Posts Tagged "secularism"
To be an original human, you must die
This piece is meant for all conscientious humans, except for those who call themselves fundamentalists. No scientist in the world has the capacity to turn a fundamentalist into a conscientious human, because they possess the worst form of broken minds. And we scientists do have the power to fix a little bit of brokenness of the mind, but not the brokenness of the fundamentalist. We do though have the ability to play God and make that brokenness go worse, and make that fundamentalism ineffective, without killing the host, but that would also mean killing the soul of an individual, which if we commit, would make us the same kind of sectarian barbarians as the fundamentalists and their loyal slaves – the holy warriors.
The point is, even if a handful of scientists come together, we would easily outsmart and eliminate the so-called terrorism from the face of earth. But the scientific community has lost its original sense of responsibility. Innovators with resources and smartness, are more busy with pompous dreams of colonizing mars, while their own kind suffers on earth. If we really wanted, we could end terrorism once and forever, right at this very moment, but in reality, no one really cares – they only pretend to care! Those who have the sense of responsibility, do not have the resources, and the ones who have the resources are chasing their self-centered dreams. Seeing all this, what appears to me is the irony of being the smartest species on earth. We may be the smartest species on earth, which we undoubtedly are, yet at the same time, possessing all that smartness, we are also the most irresponsible species on earth, desperately chasing after instant gratifications. We are always running, from one gratification to another, never to really fathom the true beauty, value and gravitas of human existence.
And as for scientists, who are somewhat interested in religious issues harming the world, they are more obsessed with criticizing religion as a whole, than to go deeper into those issues and construct a solution. They are just plain old intellectuals discussing plans in a room, and going to the grave with those plans with them, with almost no practical impact upon the society. Religions, i.e. organized religions do indeed inflict harm to the world, not because fundamentalists bring out the worst of religion, rather because we the conscientious humans on the other side, don’t do anything of real significance above and beyond the petty old acts of criticisms. Criticisms are pure wastage of time and resources. Actions bring change, that change could be either good or bad. The holy warriors act on their dogmas, hence they are effective in bringing destruction upon the world – that destruction is nevertheless a substantial change, however, negative that may be. If only we the genuine humans had the real guts, and sense of real responsibility to act as the holy warriors on our own beliefs and ideals, then you wouldn’t see any trace of terrorism in the world whatsoever, religious or otherwise. The so-called holy warriors are driven by a cause, no matter how disgustingly barbarian that cause be. If only we the conscientious humans were as driven as them, by our urge for real peace and real harmony, then we could, for real, not in theory, live in a world of pure compassion and hatelessness.
Now here is the real question, that matters. Are you driven? You, the person in front of the screen. Are you driven enough to do something really original, really novel, and not just walk on the paths paved by your ancestors who were as narrow-minded and conditioned as you are. Can you break free from that condition? Or rather you should ask – why haven’t you broken free from those conditions? What prevents you to do so? Why do man-made labels matter and not human life? Why is it that, labels have gained more importance than the core values of a human being?
As a child, I truly believed that there was some blue alien-like god named vishnu looking after humanity, and when the time comes, another angry god, named shiva, would destroy everything, and then the god of creation with four heads, named brahma would create the world all over again. That’s what my environment conditioned me to believe. It wanted me to conform to its delusional thoughts and beliefs. But as I grew up, I discovered something rather remarkable. It was that, all those stories were mere means for an uncivilized and ignorant people to be content with their lack of real understanding of the world. These stories are mere delusions imposed upon the mind to stay cooped up in a ship-shape structure of illusive security. The whole world is filled with such stories. And once you conform to these stories, you start to live second-hands lives like your ancestors did, and my ancestors did. Fortunately, some are crazy and driven enough to tear apart all that conformity, and begin to live as original humans. Are you an original human? I am not judging you, neither should you. Simply ask without any prejudice.
To be an original human, you must die to all labels. This death brings the real vitality in life. Now one may ask, how can one achieve it? And there is the problem of the so-called modern humans. They all want somebody to tell them, how to achieve something. Here is a fact, calculus can be taught, quantum physics can be taught, molecular biology can be taught, but not freedom of mind. And why do you need a path in the first place? If there is a bottle labeled poison, on the shelf, you don’t just bring it down and drink the poison to know whether it will kill you. Likewise, once you really see the poisonous implications of the socio-culturally passed on labels, you simply tear them apart – throw them away as far as possible. Does one need to deceive oneself, to understand self-deception! If not, then why do you deceive yourself, by conforming to the social labels, be it a religious label, a non-religious label, a nationalist label, an intellectual label, or a gender label. You are a human – that’s it. And once you recognize the simple fact that labels only destroy the world and disrupt peace, you simply are no longer bothered with those labels and terms. And that’s the time that you are really born as an original human. An original human would never consciously hurt or kill another person, in the name of any book, institution, messiah or god. And this original living is real religion – it is not instructed by any book, by any institution, by any priest, prophet or messiah.
Why should any book have any authority over human life? Books are supposed to give a helping hand to humanity’s progress, not to instruct humanity how to progress. Plato wrote his books to help humanity understand knowledge and wisdom. Tolstoy wrote his books to help humanity understand morality. Einstein wrote his papers to help humanity understand the universe. Darwin wrote his books to help humanity understand the biological history of lifeforms. I write my books to unify humanity beyond all labels. But the point is, none of us ever said that our works are the ultimate measure for humanity to behave properly. None of us ever said that our books are the authority of human life and that only through us humanity can find salvation. Your life is a vehicle that is driven by you, and books can be the helper in the journey, but never the driver themselves. And the moment you let books to drive your existence, you inadvertently set yourself out on a course for imminent collision with other creatures whose lives are driven by their own books.
I must make it clear, I am not a teacher or a preacher or a messiah. I cannot teach you anything, for I know nothing. I have nothing to preach you either. I have only this one ultimate sense of responsibility to make you think, seeing all the disastrous incidents that are taking place in this world. Even before I was a scientist, I could not sit still and accept things as they were, so I thought being a monk would somehow solve the situation, since most prophets walked that path. Then as a monk, I experienced what the prophets experienced – I met God, I became one with God, I became God. But that’s the time when I really began to question the authenticity of such experience, and the significance of it in elevating conflicts and misery from this earth – an experience which apparently has been hailed throughout the world as the ultimate state of spiritual enlightenment. As I have stated in my book “The Film Testament”
“After I attained the Absolute Divine state of Unification with the Universe, I realized that the purpose of life is not renunciation of anything, but the realization of the purpose itself.”
These are all experiences that can happen to anyone, given either enough perseverance or enough hallucinogenics. But this experience does not in any world make a person an authority of humankind. Attaining god or nirvana or the so-called ultimate truth has nothing to do with everyday, ordinary, worldly problems. These worldly problems are to be solved by every single human being. These problems can only be really solved when you have freedom in your mind – freedom from all labels. And, you do not need to follow me or any other, in order to understand freedom or make it manifest yourself, because freedom does not come through me, or any other thinker, teacher or messiah. A human mind is born free, it is only the society that ties it up with the chains of bigotry, prejudices, biases and self-centrism.
Why do we need to hate anyone on earth, for whatever reason. What makes others lesser human than us! Nothing. To quote from my treatise on parenting
“No other being is lesser human than the one who thinks of others as such.”
So, if one thinks of others as lesser human, because one’s own so-called holy book says so, then that one is the real lesser human. And unfortunately this whole world is filled with these lesser humans. So, one wonders, how could we ever change this disastrous situation?
It begins with you, because from you a new generation of humans is to be born.You the human – the one being courageous enough to ask questions and not give in to conformities. If only you become free, then you, my dear sister or brother, will give a truly liberated family environment to your child, and that child will give the same free environment to his or her child – and it will go on, and eventually make the world filled with enough conscientious free original human souls to outweigh all the negativity of the remaining tiny portion of second-hand humans – the real lesser humans. Raise your kids and grand-kids not as strong men or strong women, not as good Christians, Jews, or Muslims, not as responsible Americans, Europeans or anything else, not as efficient professionals or smart academics, but as strong, good, responsible, efficient and wise human beings.
Further Reading
Human Making is Our Mission: A Treatise on Parenting
The Film Testament
The point is, even if a handful of scientists come together, we would easily outsmart and eliminate the so-called terrorism from the face of earth. But the scientific community has lost its original sense of responsibility. Innovators with resources and smartness, are more busy with pompous dreams of colonizing mars, while their own kind suffers on earth. If we really wanted, we could end terrorism once and forever, right at this very moment, but in reality, no one really cares – they only pretend to care! Those who have the sense of responsibility, do not have the resources, and the ones who have the resources are chasing their self-centered dreams. Seeing all this, what appears to me is the irony of being the smartest species on earth. We may be the smartest species on earth, which we undoubtedly are, yet at the same time, possessing all that smartness, we are also the most irresponsible species on earth, desperately chasing after instant gratifications. We are always running, from one gratification to another, never to really fathom the true beauty, value and gravitas of human existence.
And as for scientists, who are somewhat interested in religious issues harming the world, they are more obsessed with criticizing religion as a whole, than to go deeper into those issues and construct a solution. They are just plain old intellectuals discussing plans in a room, and going to the grave with those plans with them, with almost no practical impact upon the society. Religions, i.e. organized religions do indeed inflict harm to the world, not because fundamentalists bring out the worst of religion, rather because we the conscientious humans on the other side, don’t do anything of real significance above and beyond the petty old acts of criticisms. Criticisms are pure wastage of time and resources. Actions bring change, that change could be either good or bad. The holy warriors act on their dogmas, hence they are effective in bringing destruction upon the world – that destruction is nevertheless a substantial change, however, negative that may be. If only we the genuine humans had the real guts, and sense of real responsibility to act as the holy warriors on our own beliefs and ideals, then you wouldn’t see any trace of terrorism in the world whatsoever, religious or otherwise. The so-called holy warriors are driven by a cause, no matter how disgustingly barbarian that cause be. If only we the conscientious humans were as driven as them, by our urge for real peace and real harmony, then we could, for real, not in theory, live in a world of pure compassion and hatelessness.
Now here is the real question, that matters. Are you driven? You, the person in front of the screen. Are you driven enough to do something really original, really novel, and not just walk on the paths paved by your ancestors who were as narrow-minded and conditioned as you are. Can you break free from that condition? Or rather you should ask – why haven’t you broken free from those conditions? What prevents you to do so? Why do man-made labels matter and not human life? Why is it that, labels have gained more importance than the core values of a human being?
As a child, I truly believed that there was some blue alien-like god named vishnu looking after humanity, and when the time comes, another angry god, named shiva, would destroy everything, and then the god of creation with four heads, named brahma would create the world all over again. That’s what my environment conditioned me to believe. It wanted me to conform to its delusional thoughts and beliefs. But as I grew up, I discovered something rather remarkable. It was that, all those stories were mere means for an uncivilized and ignorant people to be content with their lack of real understanding of the world. These stories are mere delusions imposed upon the mind to stay cooped up in a ship-shape structure of illusive security. The whole world is filled with such stories. And once you conform to these stories, you start to live second-hands lives like your ancestors did, and my ancestors did. Fortunately, some are crazy and driven enough to tear apart all that conformity, and begin to live as original humans. Are you an original human? I am not judging you, neither should you. Simply ask without any prejudice.
To be an original human, you must die to all labels. This death brings the real vitality in life. Now one may ask, how can one achieve it? And there is the problem of the so-called modern humans. They all want somebody to tell them, how to achieve something. Here is a fact, calculus can be taught, quantum physics can be taught, molecular biology can be taught, but not freedom of mind. And why do you need a path in the first place? If there is a bottle labeled poison, on the shelf, you don’t just bring it down and drink the poison to know whether it will kill you. Likewise, once you really see the poisonous implications of the socio-culturally passed on labels, you simply tear them apart – throw them away as far as possible. Does one need to deceive oneself, to understand self-deception! If not, then why do you deceive yourself, by conforming to the social labels, be it a religious label, a non-religious label, a nationalist label, an intellectual label, or a gender label. You are a human – that’s it. And once you recognize the simple fact that labels only destroy the world and disrupt peace, you simply are no longer bothered with those labels and terms. And that’s the time that you are really born as an original human. An original human would never consciously hurt or kill another person, in the name of any book, institution, messiah or god. And this original living is real religion – it is not instructed by any book, by any institution, by any priest, prophet or messiah.
Why should any book have any authority over human life? Books are supposed to give a helping hand to humanity’s progress, not to instruct humanity how to progress. Plato wrote his books to help humanity understand knowledge and wisdom. Tolstoy wrote his books to help humanity understand morality. Einstein wrote his papers to help humanity understand the universe. Darwin wrote his books to help humanity understand the biological history of lifeforms. I write my books to unify humanity beyond all labels. But the point is, none of us ever said that our works are the ultimate measure for humanity to behave properly. None of us ever said that our books are the authority of human life and that only through us humanity can find salvation. Your life is a vehicle that is driven by you, and books can be the helper in the journey, but never the driver themselves. And the moment you let books to drive your existence, you inadvertently set yourself out on a course for imminent collision with other creatures whose lives are driven by their own books.
I must make it clear, I am not a teacher or a preacher or a messiah. I cannot teach you anything, for I know nothing. I have nothing to preach you either. I have only this one ultimate sense of responsibility to make you think, seeing all the disastrous incidents that are taking place in this world. Even before I was a scientist, I could not sit still and accept things as they were, so I thought being a monk would somehow solve the situation, since most prophets walked that path. Then as a monk, I experienced what the prophets experienced – I met God, I became one with God, I became God. But that’s the time when I really began to question the authenticity of such experience, and the significance of it in elevating conflicts and misery from this earth – an experience which apparently has been hailed throughout the world as the ultimate state of spiritual enlightenment. As I have stated in my book “The Film Testament”
“After I attained the Absolute Divine state of Unification with the Universe, I realized that the purpose of life is not renunciation of anything, but the realization of the purpose itself.”
These are all experiences that can happen to anyone, given either enough perseverance or enough hallucinogenics. But this experience does not in any world make a person an authority of humankind. Attaining god or nirvana or the so-called ultimate truth has nothing to do with everyday, ordinary, worldly problems. These worldly problems are to be solved by every single human being. These problems can only be really solved when you have freedom in your mind – freedom from all labels. And, you do not need to follow me or any other, in order to understand freedom or make it manifest yourself, because freedom does not come through me, or any other thinker, teacher or messiah. A human mind is born free, it is only the society that ties it up with the chains of bigotry, prejudices, biases and self-centrism.
Why do we need to hate anyone on earth, for whatever reason. What makes others lesser human than us! Nothing. To quote from my treatise on parenting
“No other being is lesser human than the one who thinks of others as such.”
So, if one thinks of others as lesser human, because one’s own so-called holy book says so, then that one is the real lesser human. And unfortunately this whole world is filled with these lesser humans. So, one wonders, how could we ever change this disastrous situation?
It begins with you, because from you a new generation of humans is to be born.You the human – the one being courageous enough to ask questions and not give in to conformities. If only you become free, then you, my dear sister or brother, will give a truly liberated family environment to your child, and that child will give the same free environment to his or her child – and it will go on, and eventually make the world filled with enough conscientious free original human souls to outweigh all the negativity of the remaining tiny portion of second-hand humans – the real lesser humans. Raise your kids and grand-kids not as strong men or strong women, not as good Christians, Jews, or Muslims, not as responsible Americans, Europeans or anything else, not as efficient professionals or smart academics, but as strong, good, responsible, efficient and wise human beings.
Further Reading
Human Making is Our Mission: A Treatise on Parenting
The Film Testament
The Distorted Humanism
You know what humanity is best at! It is best at distorting stuff - distorting thoughts, ideas, and more specifically words. Among these distorted words lie terms like religion, philosophy, science, faith, and others. But the one term that we are interested in, in this piece, is the term "humanism". Humanism is next in the line of distorted words, right after the word "religion". To be very articulate in brief - the terms "humanism" and "religion" are essentially one and the same thing, yet a whole so-called human lifetime is not enough for most humans to actually fathom this simple mortal revelation. Most humans neurotically perceive religion to be the system of following doctrines and humanism to be a pompous philosophy of the intellectuals.
In reality, religion is not a system of following doctrines at all. If anything, it is about not following any doctrine and finding out things for yourself. And, humanism is no more a philosophy than love is. Love is not a philosophy, neither is humanism. In fact, if we go underneath the layers of words and labels, we would see that love is essentially plain, ordinary, everyday humanism - it is as simple as that - there is nothing more for me to tell you about humanism. I don't really intend to tell you anything about humanism in this piece. Rather, let's find out together, what humanism is not.
For starters, it's not a pompous philosophy or an ideology for a bunch of people to discuss over a cup of coffee. As I have said in "Principia Humanitas":
“Humanism is not a pompous philosophy to be talked and debated about by a handful of intellectuals - it is the purest form of moral compass, which defines the civilized heart of thinking humanity.”
Humanism simply means to be human. Now you may wonder, what does "to be human" even mean! Does it mean you need to wear a specific sophisticated label that makes you appear as a smart and over-glorified intellectual! Does it mean, you need to talk sense all the time! Does it mean, you stop believing in anything that does not fit your ship-shape limited logical perception! Does it mean, that you have to be the smartest person in the group and make more sense somehow than all others around you! Does it mean, you have to be a so-called non-believer or atheist, and have to defend that atheism, at all costs, like the religious fundamentalists do with their own beliefs and delusions, above all humane fundamentals!
Let me go straight ahead and say it - No. You don't need to do any of it - as in, none of it - you don't even have to call yourself a so-called humanist - because most of the so-called humanists are not actually advocating actual qualities of being human, rather they are advocating radical rationalism - radical logicality. One recent incident comes to my mind in this context - it is their support for corporations that forbid their muslim employees to wear a hijab at work-place. Full-body burqa with niqab that covers the whole face of a woman, may surely be a sign of uncivilized cultural barbarianism, because it basically exudes a clear implication of segregation against all humans, but not a simple hijab, which is basically a scarf that one wears around the head. So, advocacy of banning basic cultural elements, is not a sign of progress or being human. This kind of radical attitude may not look as immediately dangerous as radical fundamentalism does, but, it is nevertheless, as harmful as that. In fact, radical rationalism is nothing but atheistic fundamentalism or logical fundamentalism. As I have said in "Principia Humanitas":
"Fundamentalism of any kind, be it religious, atheistic, political or educational, is the greatest threat to human excellence – it is a threat to progress – it is a threat to greatness."
The whole business of fundamentalism, which is basically an extreme sense of either romanticism or logicality, is unavoidably destructive and needs a bit of scolding from the real humans - by real humans I don't mean intellectually superior humans, for intellect has very little to do with this real human thing - it has to do with acceptance of weakness and rejection of hatred and extremism. This extremism as we see more and more today, does not always rise from the obvious so-called religious sides. It can rise from any side - and it will keep on rising, as long as sides appear to be more important to humans, than human life itself.
We have this remarkable thing called "life", yet somehow, quite disgracefully, it has become less glorious and significant, in front of the fake glory of labels and ideologies. This is what advancement without conscience does to a species. We have advanced externally, before we actually truly evolved internally. Biological evolution is a fact, and that very biological evolution led to our so-called psychological evolution - I am saying so-called not because it is false. We have evolved psychologically indeed and through this evolution we have gained extraordinary psychological capacities, that basically are not possessed by any other species on earth, yet those capacities are not utilized at their fullest and most productive potential. It's like having money and yet wasting it on unhealthy non-sense like alcohol and expensive cigars, while your neighbor is starving in front of your eyes.
Correct application of the mental faculties cannot be taught to a whole species - it automatically starts when the species gets an actual grip over its true necessities. Earth is necessity, not Mars. Food and water are necessities, not alcohol and cigarettes. To be human is necessity, not being a believer or non-believer. Now comes the real question - what are you?
Recommended Reading
Principia Humanitas
In reality, religion is not a system of following doctrines at all. If anything, it is about not following any doctrine and finding out things for yourself. And, humanism is no more a philosophy than love is. Love is not a philosophy, neither is humanism. In fact, if we go underneath the layers of words and labels, we would see that love is essentially plain, ordinary, everyday humanism - it is as simple as that - there is nothing more for me to tell you about humanism. I don't really intend to tell you anything about humanism in this piece. Rather, let's find out together, what humanism is not.
For starters, it's not a pompous philosophy or an ideology for a bunch of people to discuss over a cup of coffee. As I have said in "Principia Humanitas":
“Humanism is not a pompous philosophy to be talked and debated about by a handful of intellectuals - it is the purest form of moral compass, which defines the civilized heart of thinking humanity.”
Humanism simply means to be human. Now you may wonder, what does "to be human" even mean! Does it mean you need to wear a specific sophisticated label that makes you appear as a smart and over-glorified intellectual! Does it mean, you need to talk sense all the time! Does it mean, you stop believing in anything that does not fit your ship-shape limited logical perception! Does it mean, that you have to be the smartest person in the group and make more sense somehow than all others around you! Does it mean, you have to be a so-called non-believer or atheist, and have to defend that atheism, at all costs, like the religious fundamentalists do with their own beliefs and delusions, above all humane fundamentals!
Let me go straight ahead and say it - No. You don't need to do any of it - as in, none of it - you don't even have to call yourself a so-called humanist - because most of the so-called humanists are not actually advocating actual qualities of being human, rather they are advocating radical rationalism - radical logicality. One recent incident comes to my mind in this context - it is their support for corporations that forbid their muslim employees to wear a hijab at work-place. Full-body burqa with niqab that covers the whole face of a woman, may surely be a sign of uncivilized cultural barbarianism, because it basically exudes a clear implication of segregation against all humans, but not a simple hijab, which is basically a scarf that one wears around the head. So, advocacy of banning basic cultural elements, is not a sign of progress or being human. This kind of radical attitude may not look as immediately dangerous as radical fundamentalism does, but, it is nevertheless, as harmful as that. In fact, radical rationalism is nothing but atheistic fundamentalism or logical fundamentalism. As I have said in "Principia Humanitas":
"Fundamentalism of any kind, be it religious, atheistic, political or educational, is the greatest threat to human excellence – it is a threat to progress – it is a threat to greatness."
The whole business of fundamentalism, which is basically an extreme sense of either romanticism or logicality, is unavoidably destructive and needs a bit of scolding from the real humans - by real humans I don't mean intellectually superior humans, for intellect has very little to do with this real human thing - it has to do with acceptance of weakness and rejection of hatred and extremism. This extremism as we see more and more today, does not always rise from the obvious so-called religious sides. It can rise from any side - and it will keep on rising, as long as sides appear to be more important to humans, than human life itself.
We have this remarkable thing called "life", yet somehow, quite disgracefully, it has become less glorious and significant, in front of the fake glory of labels and ideologies. This is what advancement without conscience does to a species. We have advanced externally, before we actually truly evolved internally. Biological evolution is a fact, and that very biological evolution led to our so-called psychological evolution - I am saying so-called not because it is false. We have evolved psychologically indeed and through this evolution we have gained extraordinary psychological capacities, that basically are not possessed by any other species on earth, yet those capacities are not utilized at their fullest and most productive potential. It's like having money and yet wasting it on unhealthy non-sense like alcohol and expensive cigars, while your neighbor is starving in front of your eyes.
Correct application of the mental faculties cannot be taught to a whole species - it automatically starts when the species gets an actual grip over its true necessities. Earth is necessity, not Mars. Food and water are necessities, not alcohol and cigarettes. To be human is necessity, not being a believer or non-believer. Now comes the real question - what are you?
Recommended Reading
Principia Humanitas
What is Right Religion
Today we are going to talk about perhaps the most significant element of human existence - the most significant part of human life - that is religion. You know about religion - you have heard about religion - perhaps you have been taught by your traditions to be religious in a certain manner through various rituals and various methods - yet all those rituals and methods vary throughout the world - they are not exactly universal - yet they talk about something universal - they talk about something ultimate - they talk about reaching an ultimate truth. All of the so-called advocates of religion talk about different religions being different paths to the same truth. I'm afraid they are not exactly right on this - they are partially right. I wonder whether they have any idea of what religion really is!
Now before we continue I need to ask you something - I need to ask you to at least try to turn all those predominant ideas, notions and perceptions about religion off, because none of my statements is going to make sense if you try to find meaning in them by using your own predominant perceptions, notions, ideas, thoughts and opinions about religion. Traditions throughout the world have distorted religion - they have dismantled the very fundamental basis of religion - they have distorted it to such an extent that today's humans deem rituals, orthodoxy, dogmas, doctrines, set of ideals, beliefs, imaginations, illusions, prejudices and stereotypes to be synonymous with religion. As a result the whole world is being burnt in the fire of religious violence. Perhaps most of the terrible violence on planet earth are actually occurring in the name of religion - it's not my opinion - you know it as well as I do.
Now one wonders why? Let's go deeper into this why. It is because, apparently devout religious people think by standing true to their own dogmas, traditions, orthodoxy, beliefs, ideals and set of doctrines, they are actually walking on the path of right religion. But that's not right religion - that's precisely the wrong religion - be it Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or anything else. Any religion that has to do with dogmas and doctrines, and does not evolve with time is only the most immature form of religion - it's only the most barbarian form of religion. Now I'm not specifying any religion. I'm not going to say Christianity is barbarian - Islam is barbarian - Hinduism is barbarian. You can look at it yourself - we don't need to conclude anything - we don't need to belittle one religion and glorify another. All religions one way or another have committed great evils because they wanted to stand true to their doctrines - because they held their doctrines and dogmas to be more significant, valuable and holier than life itself. This has caused immense bloodshed.
So, now we must inquire - what is religion? The term religion means to unite - it refers to something that unites all of us. Now let's look at it - don't conclude - don't be hasty please! I urge to you - don't be hasty - let's think over it - what is it that makes us unite! Is it our dogmas! No - because various regions of the world have their own unique dogmas - they have their own doctrines - they have their own scriptures - and because all of those scriptures came from humans, (yes they came from humans - no God gave them to humans - humans created the scriptures) all those scriptures have both good and bad elements just like their creators the humans do - we all have good and bad elements in us.
So books, scriptures, dogmas and doctrines cannot - just cannot - unify humanity. They can unify the humans of a certain region, which was probably the feasible and productive thing to do in the ancient times when humanity was not a global species, but now we have advanced a lot - we have come a long way since our ancient times. When we were barbarians, we needed to stay in groups, but that's called "tribalism" which proved effective in the jungle - in the desert, but now is it necessary? Since, this tribalism is no longer necessary, why should we just give it a pompous name such as "religion" or "nationalism" and glorify it - and be proud of something like that - which is basically an over-glorified tribalism!
So what makes us unite - the whole humanity - not just a group of people thinking that they're modern yet in their mind they're so barbarian and foolish that they want to stay cooped up in their tiny little tribes! Humanism makes us unite - humanism as in the quality of being human - the fusion of all human elements - goodness, kindness, empathy, sympathy, love, compassion, strength of the mind and all these vivacious fundamental elements of civilized humanity - these are the elements that unify us - these are the elements that unite all humanity and these are the elements that can - that do - and that will - construct the foundation of right religion. That religion has no label - it's not a Christian religion - it's not a Jewish religion - it's not a Muslim religion - it's not a Hindu religion - it's just the religion of humanity - "humanity" which is defined and unified by one quality, that is being human. And being human is the right religion - it doesn't need any name - it doesn't need any label - it doesn't need any over-glorified title of an uncivilized barbarian tribalism. Being human is what makes us a civilized species and being human is our religion - the religion of whole humanity.
Recommended Reading
Illusion of Religion: A Treatise on Religious Fundamentalism
Now before we continue I need to ask you something - I need to ask you to at least try to turn all those predominant ideas, notions and perceptions about religion off, because none of my statements is going to make sense if you try to find meaning in them by using your own predominant perceptions, notions, ideas, thoughts and opinions about religion. Traditions throughout the world have distorted religion - they have dismantled the very fundamental basis of religion - they have distorted it to such an extent that today's humans deem rituals, orthodoxy, dogmas, doctrines, set of ideals, beliefs, imaginations, illusions, prejudices and stereotypes to be synonymous with religion. As a result the whole world is being burnt in the fire of religious violence. Perhaps most of the terrible violence on planet earth are actually occurring in the name of religion - it's not my opinion - you know it as well as I do.
Now one wonders why? Let's go deeper into this why. It is because, apparently devout religious people think by standing true to their own dogmas, traditions, orthodoxy, beliefs, ideals and set of doctrines, they are actually walking on the path of right religion. But that's not right religion - that's precisely the wrong religion - be it Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or anything else. Any religion that has to do with dogmas and doctrines, and does not evolve with time is only the most immature form of religion - it's only the most barbarian form of religion. Now I'm not specifying any religion. I'm not going to say Christianity is barbarian - Islam is barbarian - Hinduism is barbarian. You can look at it yourself - we don't need to conclude anything - we don't need to belittle one religion and glorify another. All religions one way or another have committed great evils because they wanted to stand true to their doctrines - because they held their doctrines and dogmas to be more significant, valuable and holier than life itself. This has caused immense bloodshed.
So, now we must inquire - what is religion? The term religion means to unite - it refers to something that unites all of us. Now let's look at it - don't conclude - don't be hasty please! I urge to you - don't be hasty - let's think over it - what is it that makes us unite! Is it our dogmas! No - because various regions of the world have their own unique dogmas - they have their own doctrines - they have their own scriptures - and because all of those scriptures came from humans, (yes they came from humans - no God gave them to humans - humans created the scriptures) all those scriptures have both good and bad elements just like their creators the humans do - we all have good and bad elements in us.
So books, scriptures, dogmas and doctrines cannot - just cannot - unify humanity. They can unify the humans of a certain region, which was probably the feasible and productive thing to do in the ancient times when humanity was not a global species, but now we have advanced a lot - we have come a long way since our ancient times. When we were barbarians, we needed to stay in groups, but that's called "tribalism" which proved effective in the jungle - in the desert, but now is it necessary? Since, this tribalism is no longer necessary, why should we just give it a pompous name such as "religion" or "nationalism" and glorify it - and be proud of something like that - which is basically an over-glorified tribalism!
So what makes us unite - the whole humanity - not just a group of people thinking that they're modern yet in their mind they're so barbarian and foolish that they want to stay cooped up in their tiny little tribes! Humanism makes us unite - humanism as in the quality of being human - the fusion of all human elements - goodness, kindness, empathy, sympathy, love, compassion, strength of the mind and all these vivacious fundamental elements of civilized humanity - these are the elements that unify us - these are the elements that unite all humanity and these are the elements that can - that do - and that will - construct the foundation of right religion. That religion has no label - it's not a Christian religion - it's not a Jewish religion - it's not a Muslim religion - it's not a Hindu religion - it's just the religion of humanity - "humanity" which is defined and unified by one quality, that is being human. And being human is the right religion - it doesn't need any name - it doesn't need any label - it doesn't need any over-glorified title of an uncivilized barbarian tribalism. Being human is what makes us a civilized species and being human is our religion - the religion of whole humanity.
Recommended Reading
Illusion of Religion: A Treatise on Religious Fundamentalism
One the Nature of Compassion
"Awake, O brave one! Arise, O lion-heart! Be the messenger that spreads compassion." Thus goes the statement in one of my works. Now, one of the close observers of my work mentioned the other day that one cannot spread compassion. And yes - "observer" - that's the word I choose to use in this context, nay, in all context of my work, because I distaste the word "follower", for the word "follower" indicates loyalty - and loyalty destroys the life in existence. I don't want loyalty from you - all I want is for you to think with me.
So, let's think together over the very nature of compassion and whether one can actually spread compassion. And I say think, not criticize or debate about - just think - as we always do - you and me thinking together, and perhaps learning some new things, about ourselves as well the world we live in.
What is compassion - is it kindness - is it sympathy - is it empathy! What is compassion! Bring your mind into action - bring all those thoughts out - make them work, right now and think. What makes us humans! We breathe air in from around us - we consume nutrition from mother nature, in the form of food and water - we copulate and reproduce to keep our genetic heritage alive through time - but is this enough to make us humans! Because, if breathing, eating, copulating and reproducing - these make us humans, then the dogs on the streets would be as much humans as we are - but surely we are not like the dogs - we are different from the dogs - and indeed from any other animal on earth. So, what does distinguish us, from other animals!
Technically we are animals, in terms of biological sciences - but we are not going into these technicalities - we are trying to go deep into the understanding of the very nature of compassion and what makes us humans. Think - why are we different from the animals! We are different from the animals because, unlike the animals we can recognize our errors - we can recognize our shortcomings - we can recognize our mistakes - and then think about them and act accordingly in order to eliminate them from our characteristics and become better (the animals do have traces of this trait but only enough to avoid danger and ensure survival). Now what would you call this very process of recognizing our shortcomings and mistakes and becoming better! Isn't this the thing we call "awareness" - "self-awareness". There is nothing mystical in all this - there's no mystical mumbo-jumbo is involved here - just plain ordinary awareness - awareness of ourselves - of our thoughts - of our emotions - of our behavior. And the more we are aware of ourselves - the more we get to be truly humans - because without that awareness, we are just the same as the animals.
That very awareness makes you think that when you are kind to others, it would create a humane world - perhaps not for yourselves, but for your children and their children. So, with awareness we begin - we take that first step towards eliminating the distance between two people - you and the other. So, in the truest sense of the term, when awareness rises from the human mind, the distance among the humans vanishes, thus rises oneness - in that oneness lies true compassion - in that oneness lies true union of all humanity. That union doesn't even need the word "compassion" to explain itself, because you would by your very nature, be kind to the other person, as you would not see that other person as a different person, but simply an image of yourself. All humans are images of your own self - once you recognize this simple fact, there would no longer be any hatred - there would no longer be any prejudice in the world - there will simply be compassion - there will simply be kindness. When that oneness rises - compassion will not need human efforts to be spread, because oneness is compassion - compassion is kindness - kindness is empathy - empathy is morality - morality is spirituality - and spirituality is religion - all these terms are created by humans without them even being aware of the fact that it all comes down to one simple sense of oneness.
So, let's think together over the very nature of compassion and whether one can actually spread compassion. And I say think, not criticize or debate about - just think - as we always do - you and me thinking together, and perhaps learning some new things, about ourselves as well the world we live in.
What is compassion - is it kindness - is it sympathy - is it empathy! What is compassion! Bring your mind into action - bring all those thoughts out - make them work, right now and think. What makes us humans! We breathe air in from around us - we consume nutrition from mother nature, in the form of food and water - we copulate and reproduce to keep our genetic heritage alive through time - but is this enough to make us humans! Because, if breathing, eating, copulating and reproducing - these make us humans, then the dogs on the streets would be as much humans as we are - but surely we are not like the dogs - we are different from the dogs - and indeed from any other animal on earth. So, what does distinguish us, from other animals!
Technically we are animals, in terms of biological sciences - but we are not going into these technicalities - we are trying to go deep into the understanding of the very nature of compassion and what makes us humans. Think - why are we different from the animals! We are different from the animals because, unlike the animals we can recognize our errors - we can recognize our shortcomings - we can recognize our mistakes - and then think about them and act accordingly in order to eliminate them from our characteristics and become better (the animals do have traces of this trait but only enough to avoid danger and ensure survival). Now what would you call this very process of recognizing our shortcomings and mistakes and becoming better! Isn't this the thing we call "awareness" - "self-awareness". There is nothing mystical in all this - there's no mystical mumbo-jumbo is involved here - just plain ordinary awareness - awareness of ourselves - of our thoughts - of our emotions - of our behavior. And the more we are aware of ourselves - the more we get to be truly humans - because without that awareness, we are just the same as the animals.
That very awareness makes you think that when you are kind to others, it would create a humane world - perhaps not for yourselves, but for your children and their children. So, with awareness we begin - we take that first step towards eliminating the distance between two people - you and the other. So, in the truest sense of the term, when awareness rises from the human mind, the distance among the humans vanishes, thus rises oneness - in that oneness lies true compassion - in that oneness lies true union of all humanity. That union doesn't even need the word "compassion" to explain itself, because you would by your very nature, be kind to the other person, as you would not see that other person as a different person, but simply an image of yourself. All humans are images of your own self - once you recognize this simple fact, there would no longer be any hatred - there would no longer be any prejudice in the world - there will simply be compassion - there will simply be kindness. When that oneness rises - compassion will not need human efforts to be spread, because oneness is compassion - compassion is kindness - kindness is empathy - empathy is morality - morality is spirituality - and spirituality is religion - all these terms are created by humans without them even being aware of the fact that it all comes down to one simple sense of oneness.
Sonnet of Human
I am but a human who's got no name,
Simply alive in the land of liberty,
I am but a human who talks no lame,
Simply communicates with utter serenity,
I am but a human who despises harming,
No matter what some books command,
I am but a human who loves not blaming,
No matter how much my peers demand,
I am but a human who lives not in history,
Simply breathes in the now and here,
I am but a human who's curious in mystery,
And loves to investigate forged with questionnaire,
I am but a human teeming with awareness beyond all race and clans,
I am but a human whose religion is liberty and god the humans.
Simply alive in the land of liberty,
I am but a human who talks no lame,
Simply communicates with utter serenity,
I am but a human who despises harming,
No matter what some books command,
I am but a human who loves not blaming,
No matter how much my peers demand,
I am but a human who lives not in history,
Simply breathes in the now and here,
I am but a human who's curious in mystery,
And loves to investigate forged with questionnaire,
I am but a human teeming with awareness beyond all race and clans,
I am but a human whose religion is liberty and god the humans.
Do something so radical
Do something so radical that the laws of nature are shaken,
Do something so radical that your very existence becomes someone's dream,
Do something so radical that it appears impossible to your brethren,
Do something so radical that others either hate you or worship you to the extreme,
Do something so radical that your breath becomes someone's mental essence,
Do something so radical that the intellectuals keep silent in front of you,
Do something so radical that the weak regains strength by your presence,
Do something so radical that no one can ever repay with all the I O U,
Do something so radical that no death can ever make you perish,
Do something so radical that all the sons and prophets pay you heed,
Do something so radical that your immortality makes history cherish,
Do something so radical that the meekest of slaves starts to lead,
Do something my friend that matters to humanity beyond the society's wildest imagination,
Thus you get to be the solution and not the problem like the rest of the population.
Do something so radical that your very existence becomes someone's dream,
Do something so radical that it appears impossible to your brethren,
Do something so radical that others either hate you or worship you to the extreme,
Do something so radical that your breath becomes someone's mental essence,
Do something so radical that the intellectuals keep silent in front of you,
Do something so radical that the weak regains strength by your presence,
Do something so radical that no one can ever repay with all the I O U,
Do something so radical that no death can ever make you perish,
Do something so radical that all the sons and prophets pay you heed,
Do something so radical that your immortality makes history cherish,
Do something so radical that the meekest of slaves starts to lead,
Do something my friend that matters to humanity beyond the society's wildest imagination,
Thus you get to be the solution and not the problem like the rest of the population.
Mess of Metaphysics: In Memory of My Teacher
The problem with metaphysics in the current mental stage of the human society, is that it often hinges on the borderline between sanity and insanity - and here by insanity, I am talking about all the mystical nonsense that the mind cooks up and holds on to, even amidst the rise of reasoning and evidence. And that's precisely where metaphysics loses its essence, for those who foster a mystical notion of metaphysics, only delude themselves with supernatural nonsense and therefore reject all sorts of scientific and philosophical arguments as well as evidence. And hard as it may sound, this cheap mystical notion of metaphysics has become the popular metaphysics of the so-called modern world.
And in the realm of popular metaphysics, the mind loses all its sanity in the name of non-conformity and takes nonsense to be a form of higher sense and supernatural insanity and fallacy to be spiritual sanity and truth. In an attempt to break free from the chains of religious orthodoxy as well as radical rationalism, these mysticism-obsessed beings end up bound in yet another form of orthodoxy or extremism, replete with the primal psychological poison of supernaturalism. Mark this my friend, breaking the conformity doesn't mean creating yet another supernatural conformity. Belief in the supernatural, doesn't make a person spiritual. The term "spiritual" might have come to existence in a supernatural manner, but time has changed, so should the definition of spirituality. And if we can't make our perception of spirituality evolve, then for the good of humanity, it would become an absolute necessity to get rid of such spirituality all together. An idea that doesn't evolve, either gets destroyed or destroys the world. And this very evolution is the life-force of metaphysics and spirituality.
If an understanding is found to be untrue, upon the rise of evidence, then the sane thing to do is to make that understanding evolve, based on the newly arisen evidence. However, the so-called believers in popular metaphysics have this delusional idea, that metaphysics is somehow beyond the bounds of evidence and reasoning. And that's precisely where metaphysics turns into metaphysical nonsense. Hence, arose my statement, in one of my earlier works - "I don’t do metaphysics. Neither do I have the luxury to talk about my beliefs." Here the term metaphysics refers to popular metaphysics, that is, the mystical and supernatural kind.
And as I have said countless times, I must rise whenever humanity is tormented by delusions and confusions - whenever they can't distinguish between natural sanity and plain supernatural insanity. So, this piece is my offering to you, my dear sisters and brothers, as a helping hand in your journey of life. None of my works is a gospel or instruction manual on how to live your life, for no one knows how to live your life, except for you - so, here I give you a diluted portion of my soul, to last with you, so long as you live, and hold your hand while you walk past the darkest of days. And never forget o brave one, no matter the age or origin, a text can never ever be the guardian angel of humanity, for humanity is its own guardian angel. And when they go astray from the path of love and conscience, they can also become their own ominous demon. And as for me, I am just your brother passing through time.
People have called me many things throughout the ages - saint, messiah, guru, divine incarnation and many more, but you know very well what I am - I am a plain ordinary human in the service of the humans - service is my oxygen, service is my water, service is my bread and service is my butter. And this service is no glorious altruistic deed, rather it is simple pure human existence, for I can't even dream of existing except for my seven billion sisters and brothers. Someone said to me the other day "you should have some fun in life, instead of just working all the time". I replied to the person "you may have the luxury to have fun, but I can't even dream of having fun while my own humanity is tormented with countless forms of misery." If humanity is in misery, it may not be my fault, but if I die leaving humanity with the same amount of misery, then it is my fault.
When I was a kid, my father stuck a little note on my reading lamp, that said "stop not till you reach your goal". At that time, I believe he wanted me to be successful in life, but what he could not comprehend, was that my goal was not like that of the most of the population. My goal - my purpose - the reason for my existence is only one - it is to ensure that humanity doesn't lose sight of its humanity, in the constant battle between beliefs - between ideologies - between opinions - between religious orthodoxy and radical reasoning. Fight, fight and fight - all they do is fight - they don't care about harmony or world peace, all they care about is to prove that they are right and others are wrong - the scientists, the philosophers, the preachers, the spiritualists - every single one of them (excluding the exceptions) just want to triumph over the other - and that's precisely what's wrong with this world - they all want victory to be their exclusive possession and defeat to be the possession of the others. This way, no amount of riches will ever bring happiness and harmony in this world, because to have happiness and harmony, we all must act together to rise triumphant as one species, and not as individuals or tiny groups.
From an insignificant bunch of apes in a corner of Africa we have become the masters of an entire planet - and still if we can't have the sense of unity, then what's the use of all this power and all the glorious intellect of which we are so proud of! Throw way such intellect that doesn’t bring people together - throw away such scriptures that create walls rather than bridges - throw away such institutions that proclaim exclusive authority over divinity - throw away such reasoning that barres you from accepting human weakness. Throw away every single trace of inhumanity, regardless of their intellectual or non-intellectual grounds. Intellect without humanity, is as dangerous as religious fundamentalism.
Similar to religious fundamentalism, unrestrained intellect can make a person blind to the psychological necessities of others, for physical necessities are much easier to notice than those of the psyche. That's why many sophisticated atheist intellectuals find it rather civilized and glorious to talk most boastfully about the harms of religion in the human society, while being completely unaware of the society's psychological reliance over religion and even when a few of them are aware of it, they somehow fail to realize in their bones, the existential significance of it all, because they talk with the force of intellect and not with the whole force of life. And that's where metaphysics comes in, for metaphysics is simply the realization of reality as it is, and not as how we believe it to be. And this belief beyond reality is prevalent, both on the side of religious fundamentalism and militant atheism or atheistic fundamentalism, for they both deny basic human necessity, if it doesn't suit their own perception.
There is no Lord Almighty up there with the divine concern for life on a tiny blue planet - that's a fact, but if we focus simply on this fact, then we shall never ever be able to diminish the differences between people. In the pursuit of proving one side to be right, humanity keeps on losing all together. So, the focus must shift - it must shift from argumentation to the solution of real problems of this planet. And we cannot do that, unless we first put aside our primal desire for petty victory as individuals or tiny groups. Remember, wise is not the one who wins, but the one who knows where to lose. So, it's time that we start thinking about collective victory over personal victory. And in fact, those who truly desire to make this world a better place for future generations, would never see collective victory to be separate from personal victory - so, if you are such a person, you would see your own victory in the victory of humanity.
Rise and realize my would be patriot, that personal defeat becomes bleak in front of the victory brought to humanity by you. Don't win as a person, do something to make humanity win. Take the steps beyond personal gain and personal pain, to bring victory upon humanity. Be the cause of humanity's joy - be the cause of humanity's cheer - be the cause of humanity's harmony - and above all be the cause of humanity's unification - even if it means walking on a road full of thorns every single day of your life. Help humanity be human again - make humanity human again, because right now, it's anything but human. Today's humans are Christians, Jews, Muslims, Atheists, Liberals, Republicans and so many other things - they are everything but the one thing that matters more than anything else. In pursuit of sustaining the illusions of man-made identities, the humans have forgotten to be humans. Amidst this crisis and chaos of identities, those who can realize their biological identity of being human, have more practical metaphysics in them than all the mystics, preachers and philosophers in the world.
So, here the real question is not which identity is the greatest and highest among them all - to screw or not to screw this world, that's the question. Because, by taking labels of identity to be more significant than human life, we would only make a mess of this world, like we have done so far. So, now is the time, that we move away from that self-destructive path. Now is the time that we walk as humans and not as labels. So, rise and walk, like did Rosa Parks, MLK, Madiba (Mandela), Honest Abe (Lincoln), Mevlana (Rumi) and many more. They did their part - I am doing mine - now it's your turn.
Highly Recommended Reading:
In Search of Divinity: Journey to The Kingdom of Conscience
Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost
And in the realm of popular metaphysics, the mind loses all its sanity in the name of non-conformity and takes nonsense to be a form of higher sense and supernatural insanity and fallacy to be spiritual sanity and truth. In an attempt to break free from the chains of religious orthodoxy as well as radical rationalism, these mysticism-obsessed beings end up bound in yet another form of orthodoxy or extremism, replete with the primal psychological poison of supernaturalism. Mark this my friend, breaking the conformity doesn't mean creating yet another supernatural conformity. Belief in the supernatural, doesn't make a person spiritual. The term "spiritual" might have come to existence in a supernatural manner, but time has changed, so should the definition of spirituality. And if we can't make our perception of spirituality evolve, then for the good of humanity, it would become an absolute necessity to get rid of such spirituality all together. An idea that doesn't evolve, either gets destroyed or destroys the world. And this very evolution is the life-force of metaphysics and spirituality.
If an understanding is found to be untrue, upon the rise of evidence, then the sane thing to do is to make that understanding evolve, based on the newly arisen evidence. However, the so-called believers in popular metaphysics have this delusional idea, that metaphysics is somehow beyond the bounds of evidence and reasoning. And that's precisely where metaphysics turns into metaphysical nonsense. Hence, arose my statement, in one of my earlier works - "I don’t do metaphysics. Neither do I have the luxury to talk about my beliefs." Here the term metaphysics refers to popular metaphysics, that is, the mystical and supernatural kind.
And as I have said countless times, I must rise whenever humanity is tormented by delusions and confusions - whenever they can't distinguish between natural sanity and plain supernatural insanity. So, this piece is my offering to you, my dear sisters and brothers, as a helping hand in your journey of life. None of my works is a gospel or instruction manual on how to live your life, for no one knows how to live your life, except for you - so, here I give you a diluted portion of my soul, to last with you, so long as you live, and hold your hand while you walk past the darkest of days. And never forget o brave one, no matter the age or origin, a text can never ever be the guardian angel of humanity, for humanity is its own guardian angel. And when they go astray from the path of love and conscience, they can also become their own ominous demon. And as for me, I am just your brother passing through time.
People have called me many things throughout the ages - saint, messiah, guru, divine incarnation and many more, but you know very well what I am - I am a plain ordinary human in the service of the humans - service is my oxygen, service is my water, service is my bread and service is my butter. And this service is no glorious altruistic deed, rather it is simple pure human existence, for I can't even dream of existing except for my seven billion sisters and brothers. Someone said to me the other day "you should have some fun in life, instead of just working all the time". I replied to the person "you may have the luxury to have fun, but I can't even dream of having fun while my own humanity is tormented with countless forms of misery." If humanity is in misery, it may not be my fault, but if I die leaving humanity with the same amount of misery, then it is my fault.
When I was a kid, my father stuck a little note on my reading lamp, that said "stop not till you reach your goal". At that time, I believe he wanted me to be successful in life, but what he could not comprehend, was that my goal was not like that of the most of the population. My goal - my purpose - the reason for my existence is only one - it is to ensure that humanity doesn't lose sight of its humanity, in the constant battle between beliefs - between ideologies - between opinions - between religious orthodoxy and radical reasoning. Fight, fight and fight - all they do is fight - they don't care about harmony or world peace, all they care about is to prove that they are right and others are wrong - the scientists, the philosophers, the preachers, the spiritualists - every single one of them (excluding the exceptions) just want to triumph over the other - and that's precisely what's wrong with this world - they all want victory to be their exclusive possession and defeat to be the possession of the others. This way, no amount of riches will ever bring happiness and harmony in this world, because to have happiness and harmony, we all must act together to rise triumphant as one species, and not as individuals or tiny groups.
From an insignificant bunch of apes in a corner of Africa we have become the masters of an entire planet - and still if we can't have the sense of unity, then what's the use of all this power and all the glorious intellect of which we are so proud of! Throw way such intellect that doesn’t bring people together - throw away such scriptures that create walls rather than bridges - throw away such institutions that proclaim exclusive authority over divinity - throw away such reasoning that barres you from accepting human weakness. Throw away every single trace of inhumanity, regardless of their intellectual or non-intellectual grounds. Intellect without humanity, is as dangerous as religious fundamentalism.
Similar to religious fundamentalism, unrestrained intellect can make a person blind to the psychological necessities of others, for physical necessities are much easier to notice than those of the psyche. That's why many sophisticated atheist intellectuals find it rather civilized and glorious to talk most boastfully about the harms of religion in the human society, while being completely unaware of the society's psychological reliance over religion and even when a few of them are aware of it, they somehow fail to realize in their bones, the existential significance of it all, because they talk with the force of intellect and not with the whole force of life. And that's where metaphysics comes in, for metaphysics is simply the realization of reality as it is, and not as how we believe it to be. And this belief beyond reality is prevalent, both on the side of religious fundamentalism and militant atheism or atheistic fundamentalism, for they both deny basic human necessity, if it doesn't suit their own perception.
There is no Lord Almighty up there with the divine concern for life on a tiny blue planet - that's a fact, but if we focus simply on this fact, then we shall never ever be able to diminish the differences between people. In the pursuit of proving one side to be right, humanity keeps on losing all together. So, the focus must shift - it must shift from argumentation to the solution of real problems of this planet. And we cannot do that, unless we first put aside our primal desire for petty victory as individuals or tiny groups. Remember, wise is not the one who wins, but the one who knows where to lose. So, it's time that we start thinking about collective victory over personal victory. And in fact, those who truly desire to make this world a better place for future generations, would never see collective victory to be separate from personal victory - so, if you are such a person, you would see your own victory in the victory of humanity.
Rise and realize my would be patriot, that personal defeat becomes bleak in front of the victory brought to humanity by you. Don't win as a person, do something to make humanity win. Take the steps beyond personal gain and personal pain, to bring victory upon humanity. Be the cause of humanity's joy - be the cause of humanity's cheer - be the cause of humanity's harmony - and above all be the cause of humanity's unification - even if it means walking on a road full of thorns every single day of your life. Help humanity be human again - make humanity human again, because right now, it's anything but human. Today's humans are Christians, Jews, Muslims, Atheists, Liberals, Republicans and so many other things - they are everything but the one thing that matters more than anything else. In pursuit of sustaining the illusions of man-made identities, the humans have forgotten to be humans. Amidst this crisis and chaos of identities, those who can realize their biological identity of being human, have more practical metaphysics in them than all the mystics, preachers and philosophers in the world.
So, here the real question is not which identity is the greatest and highest among them all - to screw or not to screw this world, that's the question. Because, by taking labels of identity to be more significant than human life, we would only make a mess of this world, like we have done so far. So, now is the time, that we move away from that self-destructive path. Now is the time that we walk as humans and not as labels. So, rise and walk, like did Rosa Parks, MLK, Madiba (Mandela), Honest Abe (Lincoln), Mevlana (Rumi) and many more. They did their part - I am doing mine - now it's your turn.
Highly Recommended Reading:
In Search of Divinity: Journey to The Kingdom of Conscience
Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost
Mainspring of Life (A Sonnet)
I have no nationality except humanity,
I have no tradition except compassion,
I have no religion except liberty,
I have no god except a family of 7 billion,
I have no belief but only awareness,
I have no creed but only acceptance,
I have no messiah except the self,
I have no scripture except my conscience,
I have no gospel except godliness,
I have no sermon except thought,
I have no philosophy except oneness,
I have nothing to give you except love a whole lot,
I demand no obedience, nor do I desire worship and offering,
For there is death in worship, and freedom is life's mainspring.
I have no tradition except compassion,
I have no religion except liberty,
I have no god except a family of 7 billion,
I have no belief but only awareness,
I have no creed but only acceptance,
I have no messiah except the self,
I have no scripture except my conscience,
I have no gospel except godliness,
I have no sermon except thought,
I have no philosophy except oneness,
I have nothing to give you except love a whole lot,
I demand no obedience, nor do I desire worship and offering,
For there is death in worship, and freedom is life's mainspring.
Salutation (The Sonnet)
My salutation to you O Human,
One who has broken the ties of creed.
The light was always within you,
Destroying the dogmas you set it free.
When your heart is labeled,
The world stays hypnotized in darkness.
The moment you rip them to pieces,
Tides of light awaken all synapses.
All separation is born of labels,
Tear those labels and there'll be light.
Once there is oneness in heart,
Oneness of humanity will manifest alright.
Emancipation lies in losing the I in Us,
Once you do, you will wake up the universe.
One who has broken the ties of creed.
The light was always within you,
Destroying the dogmas you set it free.
When your heart is labeled,
The world stays hypnotized in darkness.
The moment you rip them to pieces,
Tides of light awaken all synapses.
All separation is born of labels,
Tear those labels and there'll be light.
Once there is oneness in heart,
Oneness of humanity will manifest alright.
Emancipation lies in losing the I in Us,
Once you do, you will wake up the universe.
Humanity A to Z (The Poem)
A for assimilation is the way,
B for bigotry must be thrown away.
C for conscience when at play,
D for delusions all run away.
E for equality once brought to life,
F for fears can no longer survive.
G for greed when let not to thrive,
H for humility won't be caught in strife.
I for integrity mustn't be compromised,
J for justice will then prevail alright.
K for kindness must never run tight,
L for life can then be lived upright.
M for mercy can never be forgotten,
N for naivety keeps you from being rotten.
O for oppression when is begotten,
P for patience must be overridden.
Q for questions when let fly,
R for rigidity will weaken and die.
S for serenity will go awry,
T for tradition if obeyed dry.
U for unity is our supreme mission,
V for vanity leads only to destruction.
W for wholeness is our salvation,
X for xenophobia is no civilization.
Y for yield we must never to separation,
Z for zeal we mustn't lose for ascension.
B for bigotry must be thrown away.
C for conscience when at play,
D for delusions all run away.
E for equality once brought to life,
F for fears can no longer survive.
G for greed when let not to thrive,
H for humility won't be caught in strife.
I for integrity mustn't be compromised,
J for justice will then prevail alright.
K for kindness must never run tight,
L for life can then be lived upright.
M for mercy can never be forgotten,
N for naivety keeps you from being rotten.
O for oppression when is begotten,
P for patience must be overridden.
Q for questions when let fly,
R for rigidity will weaken and die.
S for serenity will go awry,
T for tradition if obeyed dry.
U for unity is our supreme mission,
V for vanity leads only to destruction.
W for wholeness is our salvation,
X for xenophobia is no civilization.
Y for yield we must never to separation,
Z for zeal we mustn't lose for ascension.
