Capital and Religion

It amazes me to see the interplay between capitalism and religion. Though I intend to talk about religion in general, I draw my own conclusions from my seemingly Hindu experiences.

Visit any moderately popular Hindu temple, and you will most likely see the menu prices for different religious services. One thing that defies my understanding of religion is separate and faster queue systems for a premium. It defies my understanding as this arrangement implies that God is easily accessible to people with enough capital. But aren't all of God's pupils equal..?

It fascinates me more to see people continuously jostling and competing in the inner sanctums while trying to get a glimpse of the deity. Even if god is a public good, these actions imply that God is not Non-rivalrous. You can counter my arguments by saying that differential access based on capital and rivalrous nature results from human constructs surrounding God and, hence, should not be attributed to the true God. Then, you should stop going to any organized religious places.

An economic argument that can explain these actions is the Labor-Leisure choice. In layman's terms, humans optimize their time spent, given their opportunity costs elsewhere. People with capital pay the premium to reduce their waiting time, and everyone competes to make it out first, resulting in jostling. It makes sense, given that our time is finite, even if God is infinite. But should you be religious if your actions result from logical optimization...?

A recent billboard in Shiridi has wordplay with popular preachings of the place

I conclude by saying organized religion is not a true representation as it does not uphold the equality God considers his/her subjects. And if you are religious, you should give away your logical instincts.

 

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Poems, Prayers & Promises

 Life is all about Poems, Prayers & Promises

Poems are all about the moments and the feelings you experience with various other people, places, and objects. These are expressed outward as art, music, literature, etc. Sadly, the modern world stores these moments through various digital methods but only a little expression from within. Poems are what you live for and probably die for. It is best said in the words of John Keating from Dead Poets Society - "But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for."  

Prayers are neither holy nor spiritual. Our prayers are all our actions in dedication to pursue our heartening moments. One can only pray for the fulfillment of their goals but cannot be deterministic about the score.

Promises are the sacrifices you give up for yourself and others. This is about the responsibility you shoulder unconditionally. It is only a promise if it is hard to keep. These promises could also be part of your prayers for which the score is not deterministic.

Poems inspire you to live and give you the courage to Pray while keeping hard Promises.

I don't know what John Denver meant, but I see this in Poems, Prayers & Promises.

जिंदगी में

 

जिंदगी में 

मैं गुजर रहा हु 

नहीं पता कब रुकू 

मैं गुजर रहा हु 

नहीं पता कहा  रुकू 

जिंदगी में 

मैं गुजर रहा हु 

मंजिल की खोज में 

मैं गुजर रहा हु 

यादों की होश में 

Religion, Pride & Logic

  What truly is logic? Who decides reason? [...] It is only in the mysterious equations of love that any logic or reason can be found. 

- John Nash (Fictional - A Beautiful Mind) 

Of all the religious beliefs, only atheists can claim to be proud of their religiosity and different from others. They can attain any good, bad, worse, evil traits of a religious person without compromising their own logic, rational and religious integrity. There is no gold standard religion that sits well with logic.

I see two different types of people who are proud of their religion. 1.) Proud due to its values & morals; 2.) Proud as it made them achievers in their field. I have arguments against both of these types.

For the people who are proud of their religion for its implied morals and values, religion undermines human capability by not letting the individuals discover those said morals and merely imparting the values upon them. Religion is simply the teacher giving the answers without reason & self-learning.

For the second type, we cannot simply conclude that religious practice is what made them successful. They could have been successful even if they failed to uphold religion in their lives. At the same time, we can readily see abound number of examples of not successful individuals despite being religious. Simply, there is no counterfactual present that would have proved that one's religion made the said individual successful. 

In both the above cases an individual may have discovered the morals & values of religion and be successful without explicitly following a certain religion.

 

I am not against religion or religious beliefs; I am against the idea of religious pride, which has found its way into the mainstream and causing tensions. I feel that religious pride is one of the reasons that is calling people to arms in the name of protecting their religion. 

Suppose an individual is proud of his/her own religion and believes it to be the saviour of the world; does their religion truly warrant protection from other religions and puny humans?

Happiness !

 Happiness increases in value when shared with others and similarly, sadness decreases in strength when shared.

This dialogue is uttered by Babu Bhaiyya in the Bollywood comedy Hera Pheri.

I am here to express my feelings about the former part of the dialogue and hope to revisit the latter part in the future.

Though science and I, in general, agree with this phenomenon, I witnessed an interesting and peculiar observation.

Many negative things came packed with the years 2020 & 2021 and generally have been years of isolation. And isolation leads to inwards thinking of self, I noticed something opposite to the above statement with regards to happiness.

I was all at home locked up due to COVID and nothing seemed to be moving in my direction, I was restless and sleep-deprived at times due to my anxiety towards my future. These tough times also India witnessed a painful migrant crisis (2020 first wave). 

Some of my friends were experiencing new and beautiful things in their lives at the same time. And I was meant to be happy, but I could not. Their sense of joy and happiness seemed to be out of reach for me and I was not able to share their joy and enthusiasm. I agree this has something to do with my state of being, but I was startled as I was not happy enough for them.

Again in  May 2021, I feel I have a genuine reason to be happy about my career and future (all anxiety from before vanished). But seeing the negative and sad state of affairs surrounding numerous deaths and dire health crisis, I am not able to share my good news on a public forum. I genuinely think that amid all the distress signals my positive news will be inappropriate. 

I don't know how to term my feelings. But all my inward thinking led to me believe that

Happiness is an exclusive club and its benefits can be shared with people happy enough to begin with.

What did I learn?

 

What did I learn......?

just to feel the difference between hot & warmth

what did I learn........?

to tell the difference between cold and chill

.

what did I learn?

what did I learn?

.

In the greatest crisis of my lifetime,

that I miss the chills and warmth of pals

what did I learn?

that isolation feels like hell

what did I learn?

that freedom to explore feels like heaven

A nascent attempt. It took almost a year to move from the first four lines and complete the last few lines.

The last few lines are in the context of the corona crisis.

Birthdays & (Non)Sense

       Birthday's are non-sensical and deserve no human attention of mere celebrations. And in extension, no particular anniversary of human beings (birthday, marriage particularly comes to my mind) ought to be a celebration. These days are as good & same as any other days and one should not be beating drums on these days. A day (anniversary) should only be celebrated only when it is an achievement of considerable importance. A birthday is only a result of one's parents and hardships (joy) they endured. If at all anyone deserves applause on your birthday should be your mother and father.

        These were the thoughts I used to hold until my recent birthday. It all changed when my friends who are miles away made me feel special in the best way they could. The effort they took, which I believe is not because I was just their friend, but my existence would have made some difference to them in the past. Though a person may have countless friends on social media only a handful of them would wish. The more people you engage and make a difference the more messages you receive on your birthday. No wonder many great people who lived on this earth and contributed to the development of humankind are celebrated by millions. The difference you make to other's life is the very reason you are celebrated on birthday. 

Birthdays are a celebration of life, not the act of being born and continuing to live

Thank you guys for making me feel special