Women

Indic scriptures state that feminine energy is distinctive, because it is powerful, yet tempered with virtue. The feminine is the embodiment of Shakti and the primal source of all manifestation. She is also full of wisdom, compassion and sacrifice. As `mother', the feminine principle supremely embodies nurturing and caring instincts.

Men use their discriminative ability only to do their jobs, but women can discriminate and deal with any work according to the situation. People call women weak. Do not believe it. Women are not just homemakers; they make the nation and the world. They have a crucial role in individual and social uplift. There is nothing in this world that women cannot achieve.“ However, women do need to protect themselves from abuse and exploitation. With access to education and good opportunities, women can get equipped for greater responsibilities and create a safer environment for all.

The Bhagwad Gita states that women are equipped with seven strengths, whereas men are equipped with only three. However, these qualities are rarely known because most women are homemakers and they labour without any material compensation that they would have received if they had put in the same effort and time in a job outside the home as an employee. If men and women are equal in essence and equal to all modern day challenges, in society and home, what is the edge that women have, in today's context? The edge that women have is their basic qualities of compassion, of mutual cooperation, tolerance and sacrifice. These virtues are abundant in the feminine psyche and not so evident in the male. This is where `macho' comes in the male machismo which is mistakenly believed to be synonymous with manhood. Battles and wars in history have been waged on grounds of ego, dressed up in another garb. What the world needs to survive is not more male machismo, but feminine energy , that is intelligent and balanced and therefore has greater chances of restoring order and harmony in a fractured world.

Another area of women's strength is in their spirituality. Their spiritual aspect makes women more reverent, humble, serene and accommodating. Their innate wisdom comes from evolving over time in terms of handling and balancing multiple relationships, as daughter, daughter-in-law, wife and mother. Their impulse is towards making, not breaking since they are geared to nurture and not to destroy. Their natural tendency is towards rapprochement, not conflict.

Feminine energy that inclines toward preservation, restoration and healing, is the very basis of creation. It is high time society understood the importance of allowing for expansion of the base of this energy for a better, more peaceful and balanced world for the benefit of all beings.

Solitude...

For all the bonds that we forge in this lifetime, nothing we carry forward into our afterlife. For people who believe in life after death, it's a different proposition altogether. There have been recorded cases of professional hypnotherapist tapping into the dark realms of the human psyche and unravelling the mysteries of it. There have been cases in which the therapist have managed to reveal the past life identities up to 11 lives. Keeping this in mind, we need to understand and fathom the reality of past experience or do we move on. The choice is truly ours. The basic instinct (not the Sharon Stone one) of us human beings is to shut out to stuff that messes up our concept of reality. Yes, everyone has a different concept of reality. Each and every fragment of an individual's existence is like a fingerprint, if tapped then that can change the fabric of everything we know or even don't know. The neural network of sub-conscious and unconscious realms are connected in a vast array of minds that form the bond. This is something that we have not understood. When your loved ones fall into peril, one gets that uneasy feeling. That's the network coming into play.

From the time of conception to the time we kick the bucket if we look closely, we are alone. There are things that make us ponder as to what is it that we are looking for? I sure don't know what I am here for. I have dissected my life and gone through the fabric but never understood it. The clues may be staring right at my face but unable to see through the tears of peril. I think once the mind settles down, I will be able to go past the mechanical way of life to the ethereal. The possibilities are unending; but for now, I am veiled under the torrents of tears of the so-called reality. 

Suicide may be the next option but is that really an option? People say that only cowards commit suicide. How do we know that they have not given their best shot? Is it our selfish/jealous side that makes us think that they are cowards? All of us have ammo under our belt. If that ammo runs out, then we pick up from what's left on the war field and fight. That's a ditch attempt for the preservation of the self-knowing very well that there is no return. When the last shot cuts through the defence and races through to your temple, we come to terms with it and accept it wholeheartedly. There are people who have ammo with them but is unaware of using them because the first shot itself was so blinding

that all knowledge goes out of the window. Curse of Karna, the legendary warrior, the warrior so great that the sages sidelined him. He was cursed to forget his knowledge when he required it the most. The tear cloud always bears in when one never should, but as it is, so it is. So, is suicide really a bad thing? Personally, I don't think so. When there is nothing left to fight then what does one fight for? It is the inherent nature of humans to not give up, but when one does, we need to understand the situation that drove the person to it. Maybe a kind word, a pat on the back saying all is well; anything positive to help the person to divert his mind from the point of no return. The ripples that one create will resonate through aeons of time. 

Next time when you hear about someone committing suicide bear in mind what to look around for subtle clues left behind for all to know that he gave his best. And he was left with no more ammo or even a hint of positivity to continue the journey.

The stop had come, and he had to disembark.

Let your journey be filled with wonders and your performance be there for all to retrospect. Once they do; the ovation will remain for all to hear and see. For once the curtains fall, and the lights fade out, the people who really look can see the stars shine.

Food for thought...

What does Islam propagate?

I had to share this, great insight to Islam.

It won’t come as a surprise to hear a section of Muslims worldwide rejoice at the dastardly terror attack on the Paris office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. They will claim the killing of journalists, whose weapon of offense was their humor, is a just retribution against those who mocked and blasphemed the Prophet Muhammad, little realising that it violates the very spirit of the Quran.

What precisely is the spirit of the Quran is open to interpretations and contestations. However, since Chapter 2, Verse 256 says that “there is no compulsion in religion”, it is only natural to assume a person has the right to accept or reject Islam and pursue other alternatives, including not adhering to any faith.

It is this Quranic verse cultural critic Ziauddin Sardar cites in his book, Reading the Quran, to say, “If there is no compulsion in religion then all opinions can be expressed freely, including those which cause offence to religious people. The believers will show respect and use respectful language towards God and His Prophet simply because they are believers. Non-believers, by definition, take a rejectionist attitude to both.”

It is possible the rejectionist could use language the believers might find profane. This isn't difficult to imagine – an atheist, for instance, is not likely to share the devout’s sense of sacredness, his or her respect of it. So then, is an insult to God or the Prophet to be avenged?

Chapter 7, Verse 180 of the Quran says, “The Most Excellent Names belong to God: use them to call on Him, and keep away from those who abuse them – they will be requited for what they do.” From these lines it is obvious the onus for punishing the person insulting Allah lies not on the Muslim, but on Allah Himself. Thus, through their attacks on the Charlie Hebdo office the terrorists were playing God, usurping his role, an act both reprehensible and sacrilegious.

Since there is no compulsion in religion, the Quran inherently advocates choice. And choice can’t be exercised unless there are multiple options available, a situation in which votaries of different faiths are bound preach and propagate, even establish the superiority of their belief systems. Debates and rebuttals are bound to follow, perhaps assaulting the sensibilities of participants.

Instead of engaging in an interminable religious debate, Chapter 109, Verse 1-6 of the Quran tells Muslims: “Say ‘O unbelievers! I do not worship what you worship,\Nor do you worship what I worship;\ Nor will I ever worship what you worship,\Nor will you ever worship what I worship.\You have your religion\And I have mine.’”

During the time he preached, particularly before migrating to Media from Mecca, the Prophet was often abused and blasphemed. Sardar writes, “He took no action against those who ridiculed him. If the Prophet himself did not penalize those who uttered profanities against him, who are we to act on his behalf?” His question will never be answered, for terrorists subscribing to any ideology, religious or secular, have a disdain for debate.

This doesn't mean the Quran advocates inaction against abuse or blasphemy. It gives the Muslim the right to retort in equal measure, writes Sardar. He cites the example of the Prophet, who instructed his followers: “When the Jews greet you with the phrase ‘death be upon you’, then you should simply say ‘and upon you.’”

This example demonstrates that words should be used against words and cartoons against cartoons, not bullets and bombs.

The Quran asks Muslims to ignore those who insult their religion or provoke them or make them doubt. Chapter 6, Verse 116 of the Quran, for instance, advises Muslims, “Now if you paid attention to the majority on earth, they would lead you away from the path of God. They follow nothing but speculation; they themselves do nothing but guess.” In other words, a Muslim is required to concentrate on following his religion, not get distracted by the utterances of others.

Yet, it is also true that this spirit of the Quran is violated too frequently. This is because there are few places in the Muslim world which allow for the freedom of expression. In such a milieu, it becomes impossible to have in the public domain multiple interpretations of the Quran, which, as any text, sacred or secular, can be read, and understood, in diverse ways by different readers.

As much of the Muslim world festers under totalitarian regimes, despotic rulers invariably seek to impose their own reading of the Quran on the subjects. They prefer an interpretation of the Quran conducive to perpetuating their power, popularly perceived to be illegitimate. Secular ideologies are proscribed, the space for civil society activism circumscribed. Dissent and opposition are minimal and brutally crushed.

Religious arena is the only public space where even the most autocratic ruler hesitates to encroach upon. The mosque consequently becomes the site of contest, and the Quran an argument for the rivals to justify their positions and actions. The opponents of authoritarian regimes tend to read and interpret the Quran in a way it justifies their militant opposition to them.

This has not only politicized Islam, but also sparked off the struggle to define what true Islam is. Since the socio-political context in which the contest for defining Islam isn’t democratic, the actors in the drama have sought to violently impose their version of ‘true Islam’ on people, demanding their adherence under duress. They portray themselves as the guardians of Islam, its indefatigable protectors.

It is this erroneous belief of theirs which has led them to attack the office of Charlie Hebdo, whose cartoonists lampooned the Prophet. It is for this reason they attack girls in Pakistan who dare to defy dictat to attend school. It is for this reason why Saudi Arabia, quite incredibly, continues to debate whether or not it is Islamic for a woman to drive alone in the city.

Islam needs to be rescued from authoritarian regimes and their obscurantist opponents.

Ajaz Ashraf’s book, The Hour Before Dawn, published by HarperCollins, tackles the theme of religious-political violence fictionally.

Courtesy - Firstpost