God Sponsored Terror

Utterly blasphemous – apparently though. We often hear and read in various religious scriptures that all that happens is in Gods’ will and is preordained. An event as simple and impalpable like a leaf falling is part of the divine ordination – is what the preordainment implies. On this premise, it would be a travesty of our beliefs if we attribute the pain and misery of death and destruction to terror alone.  Shakespeare said, “Like flies to wanton boys are we to him, God kills us for sport.”

TERROR in any form is virtually all pervasive – globalized so to say. It started within each society as it evolved and enlarged, graduated to intrastate, interstate and is now an intercontinental phenomena. The expanse of operation is the tactical necessity for it to survive and thrive besides strengthening by collaborating with their ilk. Solidarity in fact is a happenstance for both, the terror groups as also the nations afflicted with it, but ironically the former preceded the latter. A glance at the Google incident map of terror is horrendous.  The pain and misery is building up like a crescendo across the globe. The pattern of emergence and the consequent prognosis is delirious. Conceited deceit, historic prejudices, lobbyism, national interests, et al are the greatest hurdles to tackling the terror. Common wisdom defies all attempts being made whether hard or soft.  

The world, a lot of people say, is terminally ill with symptoms manifesting in both the domains – natural as well as man-made. Natural ones such as global warming, extinction of species, calamities viz., floods, quakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc. The man-made ones- financial terror as in the 1929 great depression, Asian financial crisis, the 2008 recession; the destructive terror like 9/11, 26/11, et al. List is endless and is building up in a crescendo if we see  it chronologically. Weave it and you surely will have a gory saga.

Coming events cast their shadows before - is the mythological apocalypse or the ‘Great Deluge’ beginning to hover over us? This finds referred in the Bible, the Vedas, the Granth sahib (Bible of the Sikhs), so how could it be untrue.

Is it not a divine design then? How can it not be. What is the objective of God in letting the situation grow more and more complex?

Who would disagree – although after some internalised discernment – that, “Nature is mankind’s greatest teacher.” Greatest lesson should that be of solace from what one has. In sharing and giving to all without any bias and no expectation in return. Inequitable distribution is there in Nature too. The terrestrial forms - Brazilian rain-forests are brimming with moisture while the Sahara desert is totally deprived of it. Yet each of these sustains life-forms of various species, which have adapted and are without demur continuing with their chores. The celestial forms – some may argue that they are inanimate – Sun, Stars, Planets, their Moons too are placed in space to be performing their organic roles as ordained. The scientists with their convincing logics of science have put forth that all together they provide the energy and most of all the equilibrium for the entire Galaxy to exist. What with their stupendous speeds of rotation, their revolutions and their mysterious interdependence to sustain all life forms.

Why are the bounties of earth so inequitably distributed? Some are born with the silver spoons, some are born without the hands to hold them, some blind and some maimed in some way or the other.  Isn’t the ‘Will’ of Lord at play when it comes to terror? Terrorism has become endemic and a large number of nations – directly or indirectly – however are facing it every day. Price of Globalization perhaps. A whole lot of reasons are ascribed to the terror movements across the globe. Worrisome is the opinion of some factions in the terror struck nations as being state sponsored. All said and done, deprivation of some kind whether social or economic has invariably been the root cause of all of them. Inequitable distribution is explicitly the genesis of the malaise.

All societies are built on a basic fabric of family – parents and their offspring’s. The parents who have always distributed equally the resources amongst their children have had peaceful transitions of hierarchies and their lineage has been an example for others to see. Enlarge the basic structure of a family to the highest level as it exists in the world and anyone can draw a correct inference of the phenomena wherever it has taken roots.

Is it difficult to understand that those who terrorise are often the ones who have endured utter depredation and abject ignominy? One can daresay that it has been a blessing of some sort, in most cases, that not all of them have joined the terror bandwagon for some reasons of culture or the shackles of society and the nuances of human behaviour. They retaliated with terror, as terror has always had the uncanny quality of organization.

Mankind is being driven by his ego and in the wake of it, is oblivious to the whole purpose of creation which will ever remain a mystery.

Human being is the most mesmerizing of all the creatures and our wisdom places us differentially. In the animal kingdom, it is the male which is the attractive one, while in the humans it is the female which is endowed with beauty. Any logic in this endowment is difficult to discern. Law of Nature or the Creator or God!! Can we question it and why should we?

It has been found in all the religious scriptures that all that goes on, even the falling of each leaf is preordained. There is nothing that happens without HIS will. So HE is the mover and shaker and none else. If so much is happening then how come terror is without his will? Is it human invention alone? Is HE not the sponsor of terror too?

The sobriquet of ‘Mother Nature’ is oft used in describing its character of extreme endurance. Mothers in all forms hold a very special position for reasons we need not reiterate. Suffice to say that she accepts pain and gives back life. I am also tempted to mention about a herd of cattle which grazes in the meadow and ‘mother nature’ accepts their faeces and recycles it to produce the food for them.

“Creator created the creation on Imperfection?” Perfect ceases and imperfect linger and languish. Is God becoming weaker and the Devil stronger? But then this leads to unbalance, the balance between good and bad, right and wrong, it’s being distorted. And balance is what that proves the existence of One, either God or the Devil. After all it is said by many, ‘that if there is a God, there has to be a devil’, ‘Every hero needs a villain’.

WITHOUT SIN YOU MAKE NOT, ON DEATH YOU TAKE NOT............... MONEY......!!!

How true and well substantiated this truism stands. But life is a journey of paradoxes galore – crescendo of them in fact. The one involving money stands blatantly vindicated and perhaps tops the list of them. That money came into existence for convenience and equitability or parity is well known, but it has infused disparity instead. Would the inventors have had even an iota of clairvoyance of the current era – as the society stands completely bedevilled by it? Lets leave it at that, and try to understand that all that was, is there and will be is only adding to the woes of mankind. Dynamite invented by Nobel is an eloquent example of paradox – especially when you juxtapose the famous “Nobel Peace” prize every year! A commonsensical inference is that “Life exists in duality”. Good and evil, black and white, night and day, etc, etc.

Everybody needs money to subsist. Whether they need only to subsist or exist is the question. In their sphere of existence, mankind has a set of five innate enemies  in mystic parlance –   Kaam(sex), Krodh(anger), Lobh(greed), Moh(attachment) and Ahankaar(Ego), not necessarily in sequence of impact as they are all deeply correlated, but more in the order of ease of saying. If we introspect, all of these are centred somehow around Ego.   All of them also seem to emanate however, out of  Ego, the mother of all problems of mankind.

‘Kaama’ as in Hindu scriptures is indeed a phenomenon of great intrigue. It begins to manifest at puberty which sets-in at around the teens, and societal norms lay down sexual intercourse only after marriage. Suffice to add that west is trying to cope with teen pregnancies not by forbidding the acts, but by educating the teens. I am not by any chance sitting in any judgement on them or us. Fact is that need manifests naturally, but society prevents it at the time of manifestation.  Most religions advocate monogamy in the institution of marriage, but in reality the laws willy-nilly permit polygamy – divorce is what I am hinting at.   Reality however, is that of existence of polygamy, both in and outside of marriage. The strength of ‘Kaama’ as in Hindu scriptures,  forced  the great  Vishwamitra out of meditation when he succumbed to seduction by Menka who was extremely beautiful. So how easily it will entrap a common man can well be conceived. This natural phenomenon is greatly correlated to ‘Ego’ .

Krodh – anger, is an offshoot of Ego. When latter is hurt, we are angered. Lobh – greed of anything be it material or non-material comforts. Moh – the attachment to our possessions, our progeny or our beliefs. So actually all these are seamlessly correlated and so deeply enmeshed into each other, that all of them push the man into hot pursuit of Money.  Money is the means to all these ends where man tries to amass as much as possible and satiate all these perverting instincts. Society under the umbrella of meritocracy, open and transparent competition envisages that all will get what they deserve, but whether the institutions behove and are able to uphold the sanctity of what is believed is questionable.

Alexander the Great’s last wish to his commander-in-chief was, “ When you carry my coffin to the grave, keep both my hands out, so that people see that I came into this world with nothing and am leaving with nothing”. But the journey of his life belies his last wish. Ego indeed was at play, with the other four catalysing in their own way, by events that came up in his life time of conquests.

What must become of a man

There is a vivid picture in my head,
of what must become of a man when he is dead.
He burns to ashes while his soul leaves the ground,
or does he wait at the quarters of heaven and hell while his deeds sorround?

Does the man get a chance to bid adieu to his loved ones
for on last time,
or does he depart to hell where he witnesses everything burn to ashes
that he called 'mine'.

The entourage's New DEAL

9 o clock in the evening and I have just gotten back from a game. Vivek is heading out of the house for a business deal and i'm very thirsty. I need a beer.

Sahil(me) : Where you headed?

Vivek : Heading to totos, I met this guy at the startup conference and he has an idea for an app. So just going to talk about it and see what conclusion we reach.

MUSIC is a big part of all our lives (the entourages'). And Totos plays brilliant music (sometimes).

Sahil : Cool I'll come with you.

Vivek : Dude you take a bath and change and come.

Sahil : Fuck NO. I always go to totos stinking like a pig and my torn basketball
shorts. I'm coming like this.

Vivek : Ah fine.

He finally caved in to my demands. We are sober as hell, he has to be sober and was sober by default (not for long).

We ran into another group of friends at totos and then another group called to meet up. Ultimately about 12 people standing inside totos with no space to stand.

Sahil : Dude lets head somewhere else. Soul fry?

Everyone agreed. We reached there and were somewhat disappointed. Soul fry isn't known for it's music or anything else actually. It's just a place where you can buy alcohol in black at 2 in the morning.

But shockingly we made that place our own after about 5 pitchers. People started leaving cuz we were creating such a ruckus, rude glances could be witnessed from people passing our table. And amazingly the business meeting turned out not to be a business meeting thanks to the amount of people who showed up to drink. Majority Rules!

Soon we were all smashed, some had been drinking since 5 in the evening, I was stoned out of my mind and tired cuz I played after smoking.

Now the fun starts and the real brainstorming kicks in. We end up into a deep debate and discussion major players me and one more guy who is a struggling director but is also brilliant in his craft as he proclaimed. He could be i wouldn't have known, my sensing powers were running on fumes i needed some extra edge, dope. So the debate started everyone partook and retired, we stayed on when finally i got bored and left him to lynch onto someone else with his brilliance.

Walking back home I realized I was completely sober even after a bill of 9 grand. That is about 15 pitchers by 10 people. I was mentally sober but physically drunk my left foot did not agree with my right even though my brain commanded it too.

But somehow we reached home. And now my mind starts working after some unmentionables(not undies) were consumed.

The business deal turned out to be fine and i realized i was still not too confident about my book i have to edit one more time and immediately send it out to people for their opinions, and take that fucking criticism that i am so terrified off.

Jacob : I wanna buy dual aviation Panasonic headsets.

Neha : Why, what are you flying............. Yourself?

(stoned out of our minds)

Brainstorming

Was very close to signing one of the contracts that has been sent to me and has been lying in my mailbox for the past two months. And like always just at the brink, just when I am standing at the edge, I realised how unsure I was of my work.I mean technically only two people have read my book. I was two scared that probably I wouldn't be able to handle the criticism, so I sent it to the safest person, my then girlfriend and now my best friend and also my editor.

I have to send it to more people and i got to take that criticism, i.e if there is any. I have full faith in my story, my writing.........um, not to sure of. But my ex says it's good, so does my agent who i have never spoken to, BTW. Neha handles all that, i'm the creative end she is the 'get it published' end.

I realised I got to make myself known in the world before I can put my book, my baby out there. I got to give my forst book a fair chance to succeed, cuz no one reads an unknown authors book, trust me on that. I have been to crossword and literary fests like a million times, asked a million people, done about a million surveys. Very rarely an unknown authors book is picked by a reader. My stastics show only 2.67% people who have picked an unknown authors book just judging on the cover. It would have been much less if my survey was a lil more extensive.

So basic question what do I do, to get recognised?

Brainstorming continues in the next blog, the schemes and the antics and the life of Jacob Rohan Joseph and Neha's entourage(I'm part of it).