This thought came up from my experiences in India and abroad and also from various stories i have heard and seen.
Right from the time Indian gains conscience after birth, we are influenced by Western world, negatively or positively. There are various things, which play important role in building our strong desire to go to US. The skin color plays an interesting role in our awareness of the world. In olden time, we used to be very excited about finding a foreigner in the streets/ market and entire "mohalla" would be out on the road for having one glance at the gora. I have seen Indians in great pride when a gora is walking with them. More than a decade ago from my memories, some of my friends used to go to "Palika Bazaar"/ Purani Dilli just to catch some time with stranger gori mem so that they can polish their english language skills.
Some portion of Indian movies have always been shot outside India, so they play an important role in building our desire to go abroad. With a huge population base and great democracy (people having right to abuse anything or everything), and less of tall buildings, beautiful landscape, clean roads, nice-cars, beautiful french houses, we're always attracted to West courtesy Indian movies.
Above all, every firangi is tranditionally being considered rich in India, either because they flew to India by hawaai jahaj or because one dollar is sum of lots of Rupees. So it is said if you go to Amrika, no one in the world can stop you to become krorepati within a year or couple of year.
Oh by the way, all gori chamdi is said to be amrikan and all kali chamdi is afrikan. We (Indians) have adopted a macro-level view here.
All things are more or less same in India today as well.
Some of the facts which i found are in Amrika are eye-opener and are expressed here (they may be different for illigal immigrants):
1. Here you need a good credit score if you want your basic necessities, unless you are a cash rich person (which is unlikely the case if you are here for money). For establishing a credit score, you need to have a credit card for buying your daily necessities, loan liabilities and successful track record of payment.
2. No bank will give you a credit card, the moment you land in Amrika. Even if you show them your million dollar appointment letter. You need a corporate sponsor.
3. Be ready to pay huge deposits for everything you want to buy until you have a good credit score. Without credit - If you need a post-paid phone, deposit 500 dollars. Rental deposits are very low here for normal person but with no credit, deposit is a month's rent.
4. There are four kinds of non-avoidable taxes one has to pay every month (Federal, State, Social Security and one another), which almost leave you with 65% of the promised figure. The hack-saw doesn't end here.
5. One cannot afford to fall ill in Amerika without having an insurance. No it is not allowed unless you have your own money-making machine. If the cost of treatment is high, one cannot expect cost of insurance to be low or moderate.
6. Everything is very expensive here, thanks to the US economy which is running on the products which are manufactured either through machines or outside US. They may be cheaper to Amrikans but not to an Indian, who immidiately converts every dollar to INR. Everything where Amrikans are involved in the production (labor intensive), don't even dream that their prices will be low. Here man is valued more than machines. Top of all, Indians have special food needs, dare to imagine cheaper Indian stuff in US.
7. There are one million vendors of each product you want to buy, and are trying to sell one billion products. It's extra transparent but mostly gets convoluted in confusion.
8. If you are living on rent, you have to take renter's insurance for your guests/ neighbours/ side-walkers. If due to your mistake anything happens to them, you can be in big time law-suit/ soup. Without this insurance, no apartment complex will give a house on rent.
9. There are more numbers of lawyers in Amrika than anywhere else in the world, and there is nothing you cannot sue upon. It is even possible to sue God here. The TV channels are full of advertisements displaying for what all things you can sue whom. The lawyers will fight for you without fees, they'll just take their commission from the claim money. I was surprised to see an advertisement where you can sue IRS (Internal Revenue Service) if you have a huge tax
demand but cannot pay. I like that sometimes, but mostly i dread.
10. There is no life without a Television and there are no free channels. You have to shell out money if you want your TV to work else it's just a box. You cannot just survive with a small TV, because most of the programs/ news channels are designed for minimum 32 inch TV (some may be for bigger size). If you are trying to watch these channels on the small TV, a portion will be cut. You cannot read the full text of news/ advertisements.
11. Dare not to dream without internet. Lots of things are cheaper on the website than on the store. Not to say it comes with extra cost.
12. Cannot do without a car unless you are in NYC or couple of other places.
The list will never end. Considering all these, it's a challenge everyday in US. Things are pretty much sad here and makes me think the best place for an Indian is India and no where else. It's not that tough back home though. Home Sweet Home!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
One Father and One Way
The world was already a prison and we made it more complicated by creating a maze inside it. A Jantar-Mantar, biggest in the Universe.
I believe all would agree that We all are sons or daughters of the one and only God, we all belong to him. He is our spiritual father. If Father and children are no longer together, the reason for that is "at some point of time, we're sinful" so He went away from us. And, everyone who comes to this earth is mortal. We have been given limited time (age) to wash our sins and return to the father. It is said that those who go back to the Father, they get everlasting life, they never return. Because the kingdom of God is beyond the realm of life and death. So, if we exist in this earth today, that means we were never with the father. Those who do not believe in re-birth, think once again - over & over again.
The generation which exists today have been circling around in this mortal world (life and death race), we just die and come back in the form of either human or animal or bird or insect or a tree or anything which is created by God (based on how we lived our last life). By saying this, i do not want to say there is no way to go back. We'll talk about it in some other posts (I still have to collect relevant verses from scriptures).
If we are not with our father, wherever we are (Earth or Hell or elsewhere) - I'll call it a prison, where i cannot meet or see or hear my spiritual father. In this prison, we are subject to the atrocities of age, environment, relations and death. There cannot be constant peace and happiness in this world.
But when He sent us to this earth, we got involved in the worldly pleasures. We can all can see the change we are bringing to the world (Huge towers, aeroplanes, computers, various machines, etc). We are eating away the natural resources every second of the day. God did not go way from us so that we can do wonders on the land. It was a punishment. In the book of Genesis, God said to Adam that "Now you will have to stretch your hands to pluck the fruit from the tree of life". By stretching He meant that we'll have to do some "labour". But coming to earth, We fell prey to the senses and the mind and we kept on drifting away from Him. But some of us did or do remember our relationship with the God. God is described as a source of light, sound and a supreme soul in all the religious books. He has no form, no name. He always sends his pure soul in the form of a human, who can talk to us at our level, who can show us the way back home and who can take care of us. And, i am not talking about "after-death" care. The path to God-realization has to be found when we are alive. There is no guarantee what will happen after-death.
From time to time, he sent Rama, Krishna, Jesus, Muhammed Pagamber, Guru Nanak, etc. to take care us. They assured then-existing people about God realization and showed them the way. They were sent to take care of their alloted souls only, not the entire-populatoin which existed at that point of time or those who will take birth in future. None of them ever proclaimed that, through them the entire world would be saved. They did their tasks and went back. They cannot help us today wherever they are. But we sill are worshiping those people and hope to get salvation through them. Do we think, His alive representatives do not exist today? Do we think, that our Father is so unkind that he no more wants to take care of good souls?
Neither of the representative every said that He/ She is a God. However, what they said is "We are the way, you must pass through us". Today, we cannot pass through Rama, Krishna or Jesus, they are one with God now. It only meant that we need a live person to show us/ guide us through the way to God. Since we do not find any more saint around us, within our religion and we have not seen God, so after they die we created idols of His representative and started worshipping them as God. This was never the intent of God or His representatives. He is formless. The negative power does not want us to pray the right way so it is involving us in all the ungodly things. And, we as of today are just following what it says. It makes us do all the ungodly things through our mind. Our mind is devil's advocate,it has made everything so convoluted, while some say it is leading us to development, most of us will realize some day that it is leading us to "Destruction".
We do not want to go beyond the walls, we have created within this prison. We care more about the walls than the humans. 24X7 we are involved in the maintenance of the walls. If someone tries to put a nail on the wall, we'll not hesitate to put a nail on one's head. Something like this, we did with Jesus, sikh gurus and there'll be many examples in the history. But, what are these walls made of? These walls are made of our religious beliefs.
If we believe in One Father, He only created one way to reach Him. He did not create separate way for Hindus, one for Christian, another for Muslims or any other for that matter. He did not create a shorter route for one region over other. He has no preference for any religion. Because it's not He who created religions, it's us. Since our mind always resorts to the easy way of doing things, we created a convenient way of reaching father by worshipping Him in idols and following some man-made rituals. It is not that easy, somebody said, the path to God is very strait and path to evil is broad. Following words resonate in my mind - "Ek aag ka dariya hai, aur doob ke jana hai".
We live in the Karma-bhumi today, in english we can translate it as "Land of actions". Although each one of us has come with a destiny but our action decides what our future would be. If we decide to do all good in the world, however bad our destiny is written - we can change it. This is the power of God, which He gave us when he sent us away. He's one kind father, who sent us away but kept the secret to return home inside us. Only the true representative, who has come from the father - can show us the way to get back to Him. Christ said "Those who seek, they shall find it".
Focus more on our actions and give some time to finding the true representative of God, who can show us the way back home. And, ask for his grace.
I believe all would agree that We all are sons or daughters of the one and only God, we all belong to him. He is our spiritual father. If Father and children are no longer together, the reason for that is "at some point of time, we're sinful" so He went away from us. And, everyone who comes to this earth is mortal. We have been given limited time (age) to wash our sins and return to the father. It is said that those who go back to the Father, they get everlasting life, they never return. Because the kingdom of God is beyond the realm of life and death. So, if we exist in this earth today, that means we were never with the father. Those who do not believe in re-birth, think once again - over & over again.
The generation which exists today have been circling around in this mortal world (life and death race), we just die and come back in the form of either human or animal or bird or insect or a tree or anything which is created by God (based on how we lived our last life). By saying this, i do not want to say there is no way to go back. We'll talk about it in some other posts (I still have to collect relevant verses from scriptures).
If we are not with our father, wherever we are (Earth or Hell or elsewhere) - I'll call it a prison, where i cannot meet or see or hear my spiritual father. In this prison, we are subject to the atrocities of age, environment, relations and death. There cannot be constant peace and happiness in this world.
But when He sent us to this earth, we got involved in the worldly pleasures. We can all can see the change we are bringing to the world (Huge towers, aeroplanes, computers, various machines, etc). We are eating away the natural resources every second of the day. God did not go way from us so that we can do wonders on the land. It was a punishment. In the book of Genesis, God said to Adam that "Now you will have to stretch your hands to pluck the fruit from the tree of life". By stretching He meant that we'll have to do some "labour". But coming to earth, We fell prey to the senses and the mind and we kept on drifting away from Him. But some of us did or do remember our relationship with the God. God is described as a source of light, sound and a supreme soul in all the religious books. He has no form, no name. He always sends his pure soul in the form of a human, who can talk to us at our level, who can show us the way back home and who can take care of us. And, i am not talking about "after-death" care. The path to God-realization has to be found when we are alive. There is no guarantee what will happen after-death.
From time to time, he sent Rama, Krishna, Jesus, Muhammed Pagamber, Guru Nanak, etc. to take care us. They assured then-existing people about God realization and showed them the way. They were sent to take care of their alloted souls only, not the entire-populatoin which existed at that point of time or those who will take birth in future. None of them ever proclaimed that, through them the entire world would be saved. They did their tasks and went back. They cannot help us today wherever they are. But we sill are worshiping those people and hope to get salvation through them. Do we think, His alive representatives do not exist today? Do we think, that our Father is so unkind that he no more wants to take care of good souls?
Neither of the representative every said that He/ She is a God. However, what they said is "We are the way, you must pass through us". Today, we cannot pass through Rama, Krishna or Jesus, they are one with God now. It only meant that we need a live person to show us/ guide us through the way to God. Since we do not find any more saint around us, within our religion and we have not seen God, so after they die we created idols of His representative and started worshipping them as God. This was never the intent of God or His representatives. He is formless. The negative power does not want us to pray the right way so it is involving us in all the ungodly things. And, we as of today are just following what it says. It makes us do all the ungodly things through our mind. Our mind is devil's advocate,it has made everything so convoluted, while some say it is leading us to development, most of us will realize some day that it is leading us to "Destruction".
We do not want to go beyond the walls, we have created within this prison. We care more about the walls than the humans. 24X7 we are involved in the maintenance of the walls. If someone tries to put a nail on the wall, we'll not hesitate to put a nail on one's head. Something like this, we did with Jesus, sikh gurus and there'll be many examples in the history. But, what are these walls made of? These walls are made of our religious beliefs.
If we believe in One Father, He only created one way to reach Him. He did not create separate way for Hindus, one for Christian, another for Muslims or any other for that matter. He did not create a shorter route for one region over other. He has no preference for any religion. Because it's not He who created religions, it's us. Since our mind always resorts to the easy way of doing things, we created a convenient way of reaching father by worshipping Him in idols and following some man-made rituals. It is not that easy, somebody said, the path to God is very strait and path to evil is broad. Following words resonate in my mind - "Ek aag ka dariya hai, aur doob ke jana hai".
We live in the Karma-bhumi today, in english we can translate it as "Land of actions". Although each one of us has come with a destiny but our action decides what our future would be. If we decide to do all good in the world, however bad our destiny is written - we can change it. This is the power of God, which He gave us when he sent us away. He's one kind father, who sent us away but kept the secret to return home inside us. Only the true representative, who has come from the father - can show us the way to get back to Him. Christ said "Those who seek, they shall find it".
Focus more on our actions and give some time to finding the true representative of God, who can show us the way back home. And, ask for his grace.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Where art thou?
“Where art thou?”! If some of you are not aware, as per the book of Genesis in the Old Testament this is the first question which God asked Adam (the first man) when he committed the FIRST sin. The sin was disobeying God’s commandment by plucking a fruit from the tree for the knowledge of good and bad. Do we ever wonder, why did God ask this question for He being omniscient and ubiquitous? He knew exactly where Adam and Eve were and what they did. He gave Adam the hint that by not keeping His commandment, you are at the place where even God is not able to see you. The soul became sinful. And, even a single sin is not acceptable in the kingdom of God so He threw the first man & the first lady out. Do we know how sinful we are today, if one sin was so enough to send Adam and Eve away then can we go ever back to the father?
In Bible you would find at various places God appeared to people/ prophets and had given them commandments, direction and guidance. But why did he stop appearing or talking to people now? Isn’t He the same kind God? He still is asking the same question but instead of one sin, our soul is laden with multitudes of sin. It’s buried under the bad karmas. It cannot hear the voice of God anymore.
How do we get back to the father? How do we find the fruit from tree of life? Can we be sinless when we are alive and be sure of going back to the father after we die? All these are questions, most of the world never try to work on. This is something all of us just leave at God’s disposal. We just hope that all our sins would be washed by the merciful lord after we die.
Do we ever think why he did not forgive Adam and Eve’s only sin? When soul is sinful, it’s not in His hand my friend. We all are applying our mind in achieving worldly milestones but very few are applying it in spiritual way. It’s very selfish of us if we leave everything to God. Bible says, Seek and you shall find it. Ask and it shall be given to you. Knock and the door shall be open. Are we seeking? Are we asking? Are we knocking? Are we putting in any efforts to realize God? Let’s find out the tree of life and be able to hear Father’s voice. Let’s all make a resolution to put in right efforts so that we regain our one-to-one relationship with the Father.
In Bible you would find at various places God appeared to people/ prophets and had given them commandments, direction and guidance. But why did he stop appearing or talking to people now? Isn’t He the same kind God? He still is asking the same question but instead of one sin, our soul is laden with multitudes of sin. It’s buried under the bad karmas. It cannot hear the voice of God anymore.
How do we get back to the father? How do we find the fruit from tree of life? Can we be sinless when we are alive and be sure of going back to the father after we die? All these are questions, most of the world never try to work on. This is something all of us just leave at God’s disposal. We just hope that all our sins would be washed by the merciful lord after we die.
Do we ever think why he did not forgive Adam and Eve’s only sin? When soul is sinful, it’s not in His hand my friend. We all are applying our mind in achieving worldly milestones but very few are applying it in spiritual way. It’s very selfish of us if we leave everything to God. Bible says, Seek and you shall find it. Ask and it shall be given to you. Knock and the door shall be open. Are we seeking? Are we asking? Are we knocking? Are we putting in any efforts to realize God? Let’s find out the tree of life and be able to hear Father’s voice. Let’s all make a resolution to put in right efforts so that we regain our one-to-one relationship with the Father.
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