Being Vegetarian?

I am sure we all have questions in mind when we take certain actions and we ask every-time whether they were right or wrong. Like eating non-vegetarian food, some say it does not matter and some say it does, some say its important for world to have people eating non-vegetarian food as the food is available in limited quantity. Some say its just a question of few generations and we will have human meat as acceptable food considering the rate of population growth and availability of food in the future.

Given the fact that i have a choice now which may not be available for people in the future. I wanted to understand why monks are vegetarian? What spirituality has to do with what you eat? and how eating or not eating affects your 'self'? I am not sure i could provide any logical answer. Neither i want to advocate and preach why should you have vegetarian diet.

However i came across something which challenged some of my thoughts and pushed me to understand the fundamentals of life. This is expert from Mahavira's Jain Sutras (simplified and put into context)

"A man that does not understand and (become aware) renounce the causes of sin, descends and wanders, , is born again and again in manifold births, experiences all painful feelings"

Truth is comprehension (understand) and renunciation (become aware and growth in consciousness). Those who knows this called a reward-knowing sage (muni)

As somebody may cut or strike a blind man (blind man cannot see the wound is used as an example to explain the plants and animals, to be precise water bodies, fire bodies and earth bodies), as somebody may cut or strike the foot, the ankle, the knee, the thigh, the hip, the navel, the belly, the flank, the back, the bosom, the heart, the breast, the neck, the arm, the finger, the nail, the eye, the brow, the forehead, the head, as some kill (openly), as some extirpate (secretly), (thus the earth-bodies are cut, struck, and killed though their feeling is not manifest). 

He who injures these bodies (earth-bodies, water-bodies, fire-bodies, wind-bodies) does not comprehend and renounce the sinful acts; he who does not injure these, comprehends and renounces the sinful acts. Knowing them, a wise man should not act sinfully towards earth, nor cause others to act so, nor allow others to act so. H e who knows these causes of sin relating to earth, is called a reward-knowing sage. 

There are numberless lives or souls, not only embodied in animals, men, gods, hell-beings (tasa, trasa), and plants (vanassaî, vanaspati), but also in the four elements--earth, water, fire, wind. Earth, &c., regarded as the abode of lives is called earth-body, &c. These bodies are only perceptible when an infinite number of them is united in one place. 

There are beings living in water, earth and fire, many lives; of a truth, to the monks water has been declared to be living matter. See! considering the injuries (done to these bodies), those acts (which are injuries, but must be done before the use of water, eg. straining) have been distinctly declared. Moreover he (who uses water which is not strained) takes away what has not been given (i.e. the bodies of water-lives). 

He who injures these bodies does not understand this sinful acts; he who does not injure these, comprehends and renounces the sinful acts. Knowing them, a wise man should not act sinfully towards these bodies nor cause others to act so, nor allow others to act so. He who knows these causes of sin relating to water/fire/earth, is called a reward-knowing sage."

Lets keep aside the part of sin (difficult to understand in many cases). the way i understand is we need to respect life in every form as we have the same life, the same spirit. If we do not respect and revere (reverence to life) then who will understand? All forms of life exist such as humans and we as humans possess no special rights to kill and use the other forms for selfish reasons.  The real question is that aren't we killing the plants in case we eat vegetarian food?

If you have read this and have an opinion, do write!!

The Superman

Thus Spake Zarathustra

I TEACH YOU THE SUPERMAN. Man is something that is to be surpassed. What have ye done to surpass man?

All beings hitherto have created something beyond themselves: and ye want to be the ebb of that great tide, and would rather go back to the beast than surpass man?

What is the ape to man? A laughing-stock, a thing of shame. And just the same shall man be to the Superman: a laughing-stock, a thing of shame.

Ye have made your way from the worm to man, and much within you is still worm. Once were ye apes, and even yet man is more of an ape than any of the apes.

Even the wisest among you is only a disharmony and hybrid of plant and phantom. But do I bid you become phantoms or plants?

Lo, I teach you the Superman!

The Superman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: The Superman SHALL BE the meaning of the earth! I conjure you, my brethren, REMAIN TRUE TO THE EARTH, and believe not those who speak unto you of superearthly hopes! Poisoners are they, whether they know it or not.

Despisers of life are they, decaying ones and poisoned ones themselves, of whom the earth is weary: so away with them! Once blasphemy against God was the greatest blasphemy; but God died, and therewith also those blasphemers. To blaspheme the earth is now the dreadfulest sin, and to rate the heart of the unknowable higher than the meaning of the earth!

Once the soul looked contemptuously on the body, and then that contempt was the supreme thing:--the soul wished the body meagre, ghastly, and famished. Thus it thought to escape from the body and the earth.
Oh, that soul was itself meagre, ghastly, and famished; and cruelty was the delight of that soul!

But ye, also, my brethren, tell me: What doth your body say about your soul? Is your soul not poverty and pollution and wretched self-complacency? Verily, a polluted stream is man. One must be a sea, to receive a polluted stream without becoming impure.

Lo, I teach you the Superman: he is that sea; in him can your great contempt be submerged.

What is the greatest thing ye can experience? It is the hour of great contempt. The hour in which even your happiness becometh loathsome unto you, and so also your reason and virtue. The hour when ye say: "What good is my happiness! It is poverty and pollution and wretched self-complacency. But my happiness should justify existence itself!"

The hour when ye say: "What good is my reason! Doth it long for knowledge as the lion for his food? It is poverty and pollution and wretched self-complacency!"

The hour when ye say: "What good is my virtue! As yet it hath not made me passionate. How weary I am of my good and my bad! It is all poverty and pollution and wretched self-complacency!"

The hour when ye say: "What good is my justice! I do not see that I am fervour and fuel. The just, however, are fervour and fuel!"

The hour when ye say: "What good is my pity! Is not pity the cross on which he is nailed who loveth man? But my pity is not a crucifixion."

Have ye ever spoken thus? Have ye ever cried thus? Ah! would that I had heard you crying thus!
It is not your sin--it is your self-satisfaction that crieth unto heaven; your very sparingness in sin crieth unto heaven!

Where is the lightning to lick you with its tongue? Where is the frenzy with which ye should be inoculated?

Lo, I teach you the Superman: he is that lightning, he is that frenzy!--

The True Seeker

They say the believer is non-believer in disguise and vice-verse. Believer needs one small doubt which can change his direction and that's equally true with non-believers. Both are extreme ends and in either case the true search ends. If you believe/disbelieve then there is nothing to seek anymore and the search ends. The seeker in you dies slowly and steady.

In the work of believers and non-believers i think the one who stands out is real seeker. He who does not believe or disbelieve, he who is open and ready to receive. I love this poem from Rabindranath Tagore, look at this question - If this house is certainly the house of God, then what will I do after I have found him? 

and the way it ends - And I continue the search, enjoy the very journey, the pilgrimage. 

Search of God by Rabindranath Tagore 

I have been seeking and searching God for as long as I can remember, for many many lives, from the very beginning of existence. Once in a while, I have seen him by the side of a faraway star, and I have rejoiced and danced that the distance, although great, is not impossible to reach. And I have traveled and reached to the star; but by the time I reached the star, God has moved to another star. And it has been going on for centuries.

The challenge is so great that I go on hoping against hope... I have to find him, I am so absorbed in the search. The very search is so intriguing, so mysterious, so enchanting, that God has become almost an excuse—the search has become itself the goal.

And to my surprise, one day I reached a house in a faraway star with a small sign in front of it, saying, "This is the house of God." My joy knew no bounds—so finally I have arrived! I rushed up the steps, many steps, that led to the door of the house. But as I was coming closer and closer to the door, a fear suddenly appeared in my heart. As I was going to knock, I became paralyzed with a fear that I had never known, never thought of, never dreamt of. The fear was:

If this house is certainly the house of God, then what will I do after I have found him?"

Now searching for God has become my very life; to have found him will be equivalent to committing suicide. And what am I going to do with him? I had never thought of all these things before. I should have thought before I started the search: what am I going to do with God?

I took my shoes in my hands, and ilently and very slowly stepped back, afraid that God may hear the noise and may open the door and say, "Where are you going? I am here, come in!" And as I reached the steps, I ran away as I have never run before; and since then I have been again searching for God, looking for him in every direction—and avoiding the house where he really lives. Now I know that house has to be avoided. And I continue the search, enjoy the very journey, the pilgrimage. 

The Atheist

It all started with the FB post by my friend quoting Ernest Hemingway “All thinking men are atheist”. I was decently surprised with such generalization on his part. I have great respect for Hemingway as writer. I have thoroughly enjoyed his short stories like ‘Indian camp’, ‘The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber’ etc.

I am not against atheism and have little experience in life to speak about God or spirituality. However I believe being theist or atheist is not a question of choice like someone choosing the sexual preferences. It’s about your belief and faith. There are some great atheist personalities like Albert Einstein who became believer in god towards later part of his life. If we were to consider ‘thinking men’ then Isaac Newton and Swami Vivekananda were among the best known people believing in god. There are many million such examples where strong atheist converted to staunch god believer.

Atheist is a great stage and it’s like true acceptance of non-existence of god. It’s a stage where you question everything which a religion and rituals offers. You reason with others to prove the corollary of god’s existence. So we cannot convincingly say that “All thinking men are atheist”. Yes thinking men try to create reasoning and probably create foundation of thoughts about their beliefs.  

Born Into Brothels

Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids

This Academy award winning documentary by Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman's touches the heart. You will be moved and would want to save these children from the poverty and abuse. I appreciate Zana’s effort to show that world of Calcutta's red light district. I would ignore the critics about calling it an ‘outsider’s attempt’ since it does not matter to someone like me. 

Old is Gold

Old is Gold

I like listening to discourses and attending satsang programs. That’s my way of keeping in touch with reality, finding peace and of course de-stress myself. The session began with Sanskrit versa which is part of one of the chapters in Gita. When the discourse of half way through the discussion became more interesting around ‘why old people were of great importance in earlier days?’

I had returned from vacations during the same time and had spent more than a week with my parents. I was conscious of the discussion and I could clearly feel the heat. During my vacations at my home town, I visited one of friend’s parents (my friend is settled in US and visit home once a year), they were almost in tears and desperately wanted their son to come back. I could feel the absence of life, the memories of their son captured in photographs all across.

So as I understand from the discourse, during earlier Yuga’s the knowledge was passed on from one generation to other by memorizing and reciting verbally. The writing were not the popular or rather advised way of transferring knowledge. The best way to communication the leanings or teachings to children’s and adults was through stories by old people. They commanded the respect and each section of society was responsible for making the strong ‘social fiber’. Hence the stories are always associated with grandfather and grandmother.

Needless to speak the current state of the treatment older people receive. The nuclear families and migration for job to metros and towns. The erosion of confidence in older generation about their own kids. The speed of life moves which leaves less time at disposal for people to think about their old parents and support them.

Celebrating Chinese Diwali

Well, this sarcasm stems from my angst. Why am I angry and how is Diwali associated with Chinese? I like celebrating even small occasions, events and incidents. I picked up this learning from my dad who would not let go any opportunity of distributing sweets in the neighborhood. When I was a kid I used to find this annoying however I realized the importance of ‘celebrating for small reasons’ as I grew up. I still don’t possess the enthusiasm, energy and zeal with which my dad used to create during such celebrations. I try in my own small ways. J

Now, Diwali is THE festivals for Indians and imagine the grandeur of this festival when more than billion people celebrate over a period of almost a week. I wanted to buy ferry lights and lanterns for decoration this year and of course some fire crackers. I visit the market nearby quite popular in the locality for such shopping. The market was quite like massive fair. The parking, honking, traffic, pollution and the October heat was intolerable. Great day for shoppers who were successfully wending their way for selling the goods.  

I was browsing rather strolling the market for the list I had for shopping. The first thing I realize is the dominance of ‘red dragon’. I mean most of the shops were only displaying Chinese goods. Though there were some choice but it was not good enough to make a decision. The ferry lights were cheaper and I am sure it won’t last till next year. I am not so much for ‘made in India’ or Indian flag bearer. I do buy American products and I like them as well. However would like to see our own culture to be reflected in our festivals. It’s a part of our many thousand year old tradition and was disheartening to see been encroached upon.  

What did I do then? I compromised and bought the stuff which will do for this year. And I am going to be judicious next year, will prepare bit early so that I find what I want for Diwali festival.