Wednesday, August 30, 2006

GOD - the almighty???

Is it true that god loves us soo much that he always thinks and does everything that is right for us? If he alwayz knows what is right and what is wrong for all of us, then why on earth should we learn good and bad always the hard way??

Look at what the bible says - god created beautiful world, nature, man and women.. loved them equally protected them under his wings!!!... ok so wat if the serpant was created by satan... why did god put the man and women close to the serpant? where was he when they choose to eat the apple??

Today I had a conversation with one of my blogger friend about Bhagawat Gita. He was trying to throw some light about the divinity of god and how he always guides us and gives us the best we deserve.

I disagree. I see the entire war in "Mahabharatha" as a cause of unjustifiable pride, ego, greed, sarcasm, disrespect and more unsatisfied humanly desires. Just becoz there was a symbolization of god (Krishna) taking the pandavas side, doesn't mean that pandavas were the "GOOD" and the kauravas were "BAD"!!

Was god even neutral here? Not to mention the tricks he played on Karna and Thuriyodana to make them most vulnerable to death!!! No matter what the cause was, is it "dharma" to kill ur own family to win a war??

Let us examine this part of the whole mahabharath a lil more explicitly. What was the reason behind pandavas accepting a lavish gift like the mayamahal? what gave panjali the right to humiliate a man for a reason as silly as tripping over an illusion!! what gave her that much of pride and sarcasm? what made pandava irresitable to a game of gambling? what made dharmar bid his wife on the game? what made the rest of the pandavas resist questioning dharmar then? why did that respect for elders fail when they faced their previous generation on the battle field??

My friend also said that Krishna came to guide the pandavas through the difficulties when he saw them make soo many mistakes. Where was he till then?? why did he not choose to take side by the Kauravas?

If everything that pandavas did were humanly mistakes, is a man seeking revenue for the humiliation and all the isolation he went through from his youth make him vulnerable to similar mistakes as well. Why is that pandavars mistakes forgiven and kauravars not!! who gave krishna the right to choose sides? Wasn't he suppose to be neutral!!??

Then my friend said, no krishna gave kauravas a fair chance?? Really?? how many times did Krishna tricked pandavars as he tricked kauravas?? what was all this prejudice about??

I remember reading somewhere that "Mahabharatha" is an epic to tell you how you should not live and "Ramayana" is an epic that tells you how one should live. The irony is both of these are being dominated with soo much of the then cultural hypocrazy that it is hard for me to believe that this is what I want to narrate as bed time stories to my kids as they grow up.

There was a joke sometime back -

Grandma: "beta.. u know Kamsan killed 7 kids b'coz he belived the 8 kid of his sister would kill him and he waited to kill the 8th born child too"

Grandson: "dhadhi... he is an idiot... he should have kept the parents in different jails... then there wudn't have been even a single kid rite!!"

Now who would logically answer this qtn?? but if our future generation is that smart, this may not remain a joke for long. If I happen to tell my kids stories like Ramayanam, Mahabharatham, Silappathikaram.. then they would grow up with similar conflicts as some of us do.

If killing ur own kith and kin on a ego clash that started with a mayamahal is dharma, then we would have to accept one of us killing one of their distance brother for their grandparent's property as dharma too. Is shooting Vaali from back is ethical then I will have to accept my kid throwing stone at his senior from his back as ethical too. If destroying an entire city of Madurai, unjustice was done to kanaki, then when our youth destroy public property b'coz their professors did not correct their papers properly should be looked upon as seeking justice!!!

Should we need to reconsider our ways of living now??

I am not a god-hater.. but when I look behind in my life, there were people who came in my life for a very short period of time, made an impact on me - as if their whole purpose of life is to come into my life at the right moment and help me, and then they vanished leaving a deep hurt!! I sometimes truely belived that god sent these people in my life only b'coz he had to help me at that point of time and he choose to do it through them.

But what gave him the right to take these people away from my life once his purpose was done? Is he making choices for me? what gives him the right to do so? when he created human beings as a bundle of complex emotions ... did he not have a FAQ and technical support document prepared?? Did he not know it was going to hurt me worst when he is going to take away something from me?? or is he going to blame that on Satan and say even I have a satan on my back!!??

That brings us to my starting question... Is god really an almighty.. does he always make the right choices for all of us. It is not just about my or your emotions but as a bigger picture too. Why are there soo much negativity in the world.. no matter how positive we want to think, we still see bad in the world. I can understand certain things like volcano or earth quake... why is there rape, child abuse, killing, hunger and disease? why din't god make good choices for these criminals?

Is it true that all these are called "BAD KARMA"... but every thing freezes at the starting point. Why did god not make a choice to protect adam and eve from eating the filthy apple!!!

Another joke -

two kids sit outside a grave yard, under a tree and count their marbles.

Kid1: white ones are for me and the black ones are for you...

Kid2: ok

Both kids: one for u; one for me; two for u.. two for me...

two men walk by the other side of the grave yard and hear this conversation. They think that god and satan are counting their souls. They whisper abt it and plan to run..

Kid1: he look two of these are trying to run... catch them

and these two run back to their village scared to death!!!

Is there a remote possibility that we are just somekind of chess points and the good (god) and the bad (Evil-satan) are entertaining themselves with a good game of chess!!!