Amir Khusro(spiritual disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi)

Khusrau darya prem ka, ulti wa ki dhaar,
Jo utra so doob gaya, jo dooba so paar.

Khusro says the river of love
Has a strange flow
One who jumps into it drowns,
And one who drowns, gets across.

Sej wo sooni dekh ke rovun main din raen,
Piya piya main karat hoon pehron, pal bhar sukh na chaen.

Day and night, I see an empty bed, and cry
Calling for my beloved, I remain restless for ever.

Religion and Us

Most of the time there is a madness associated with a religion. People hate people of other religion not because other religion is bad but because of people's very nature of individualism. People hate people of other cast, other country, or the ones which have different ideology, thoughts or status. Every person likes or dislikes things based upon his experience or self set criteria. This is not religion but people (I would not call them followers, because they are not) who hate other people. Teachings of religions are spread either by books or by its teachers. Religion as itself is inert or has no power to work on its own. Religion is a power (power of people, who say they are of this religion) like atomic energy, which can be used either for construction or for destruction. If this knowledge goes in good hands, it serves the mankind; and if it goes in wrong hands, it spreads communal violence and hatred. This world was created with 'interdependence'. Nobody can survive on its own. And for maintaining harmony in daily life, people must learn to live with interdependence. Removal of people of different thoughts is simply not possible and will never happen. Mind is provided for thinking in either direction; upward or downward. Due to diversity and versatility of the world, climate, culture, race and nature etc, one size can never fit all. One University can not teach every student on earth. One mother can not give birth to every child on this planet. Whole world can not claim one place and so is true with one religion. Religions were taught/preached/spread keeping the audience and society in mind. Change is the nature of the world and if it stops changing, it will destroy itself. World still existed before the existence of any religion existing today. People were still there and so was the nature, climate etc. It can easily be concluded that this world can run without religion but religion can not run without the world. No religion is bad and it can never be.

Religion somewhat finds us through our parents. Most of us don’t choose our religion; but inherit it from our parents. We start believing whatever is told to us. And we never think of questioning it; either we are not allowed to or we don’t care about it. Questioning something is not abusing as long as it is put in right direction. It will help finding out true teachings of a religion. Regardless of efforts, over the period of time, impurities are mixed in everything. Languages, which were present in earlier times, are now obsolete. Even current languages are changing at a rapid pace. So is true with everything we see or speak. We enquire a lot about everything in life but, for religion, we follow whatever is told to us. Most of the time we inherit or follow rituals, hatred, good feelings, bad feelings about others told to us. Though reinventing wheel is not recommended, yet mind is not given just for assuming everything told. Understanding a religion by reading holy book(s) is limited to ones capability of understanding of such an intense & deep subject. Every student of a class is taught by same teacher and reads same books but exam results are not same. Similarly understanding of a religion of it's followers (practicing and non-practicing) can never be same. That is why there is so much madness and so many mad followers of every religion. Some are mad due to their understanding (very little knowledge) and some are intentionally mad for their individual gain. Difference in understanding will happen when we talk about something which can be understood only by experience. There are millions of colors in the world. For true appreciation of a color one has to see it. Reading only will never help. And it is foolishness fighting over description of a color, which is explained in a book using some text. That's what is happening in this world today.

What is the aim of our life and what is the aim of a religion? Aim of a religion is not to spread itself all over the world, but to make this world a better place and make it's followers life a better life. Making other's life hell is impurity and not part of teachings of any religion. Thoughts, like this, are preached for the benefit of the preacher (past or present) and are not suggested or promoted by a religion, because religion itself is inert. Aim of our life is something we have to find out.

Just getting admission in kindergarten does not make you a holder of Ph.D. degree. Obtaining a Ph.D. takes around 21 years when everything goes right. By just getting admission in a school will not promote you to higher classes. You will have to work in that direction to make yourself eligible for higher classes. A college peon is always a peon; though he belongs to
that school, but he does not study for lifting his education level. You were assigned a religion at your birth; it is your job to get a Ph.D. in it or just stay, wherever you are today, performing some rituals told by your elders. Developing an understanding of a subject will take a while i.e. years and it can take your whole life when you talk about something which is beyond explanation and vision. You have got the life and opportunity to either use it or loose it. Body is yours but you are not the body. So run the body the way you want. You are master of it not the slave.

Worth reading this story

The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. But the waters close to Japan have not held many fish for decades.
So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger
and went farther than ever. The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring in the fish. If the return trip took more than a few days, the fish were not fresh.
The Japanese did not like the taste. To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their boats.
They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers
allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer. However, the
Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen and they did not like frozen fish. The frozen fish brought a lower price. So fishing companies installed fish tanks.
They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks,fin to fin. After a little thrashing around, the fish stopped moving. They were tired and dull, but alive. Unfortunately, the Japanese could still taste the difference. Because the fish did not move for days, they lost theirfresh-fish taste. The Japanese preferred the lively taste of fresh fish, not sluggish fish.
So how did Japanese fishing companies solve this problem? How do they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan? If you were consulting the fish industry,what would you recommend?
How Japanese Fish Stay Fresh: To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks. But now they add a small shark to each tank. The shark eats a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively state. The fish are challenged. Have you realized that some of us are also living in a pond but most ofthe time tired & dull, so we need a Shark in our life to keep us awake and moving? Basically in our lives Sharks are new challenges
to keep us active and taste better.....

The more intelligent, persistent and competent you are, the more you enjoy a challenge. If your challenges are the correct size, and if you are steadily conquering those challenges, you are Conqueror. You think of your challenges and get energized. You are excited to try new solutions.
You have fun.

You are alive!