Immortal

Anything that will never die is immortal. But what is death? As a young teenager my spiritual guide told me death is nothing but stagnation. For anything to stagnate there has to be life and when the life ends one stagnates. But then what is life? Is it just the basic physical attributes that include movement, breathing, reproduction and probably eating to get energy (sorry my basic sciences are so weak). I do not intend answering all these questions in a single blog but will take up these sometime or maybe I won’t be able to answer them ever but here I just want to give my view of immortality. Well well hang on and don’t worry a readable blog must be like a lady’s skirt short enough to retain interest and long enough to cover.

Immortality is something that can only be associated with things larger than life. Life is the most precious thing that we have by far but what is it that is more important than life? Do you remember when Romeo and Juliet existed, or Heer and Ranjah or Laila and Majnoo tread on this earth? I don’t and probably you don’t too. Why because they are characters larger than life. They will live forever not as human beings but as emotions, as embodiment of love and as symbols of greatness that love brings onto us. I am not a person of war but when people lay their lives for the love of their land and honour they too become immortal. The common denominator in both these types is LOVE.

It is love that makes us immortal. If you love a person you become a romantic, your country a shaheed and God then a sufi. But before you can love you need to have love within yourself; you can’t give away anything that you don’t have. Hatred, fear and suspicion will burn you out thus finish it from within yourself so that all your heart is filled with love. Then see how the world changes for you. You will fly in the sky; drink from streams; eat from forests and be on top of the world.

Omar Khayyam said and I quote

A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread--and Thou
...Beside me singing in the Wilderness--
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!

This is all what I need to live my life, as Khayyam says a book of verses, you, jug of wine and wilderness all under a tree.

I am a romanticist and am so proud of it.

Have a great day

Cogito ergo sum

Cogito ergo sum - “I think therefore I am” – a statement by Rene Descartes, a modern natural philosopher of the 17^th Century is often quoted as the basis of contemporary philosophy. Simply put if we think whether we exist or not it is in itself the proof of our existence.

We all exist but the existence of physical objects that include all animal and plant life is different from human existence. These elements exist in the physical world whereas the humans exist at three different planes. The basic and fundamental is the physical existence in this world of air, water and earth. We use our five senses every moment to interact with the physical world. We eat when we are hungry, we sleep when tired, we drink when thirsty but why do we cuddle our loved ones, why do we engage in discussions and endless gossip, why do we cry, why do we feel the pain even when there is no physical reason for that?

We live through all these experiences because we do not exist on the physical plane only. Our existence is on more than one plane; beyond the physical reality we have a spiritual reality too. We have emotions, we miss our loved ones – when away- and we have obsessions which are difficult to explain on the basis of physical logic because we have something that is not bound by the principles of Physics. It is the spiritual world. The world that exists and we are part of it but still we do not realize. We cannot name our everyday encounters with this spiritual world therefore we choose to ignore it. Have you ever thought why only humans fall in love and not animals? They exist only in the physical world and nothing beyond and a part of us – our soul – exists in the limitless universe outside the physical boundaries.

How do we connect the physical and spiritual worlds that exist side by side within us? Philosophy is the synthesis of the two worlds; it connects the spirit to physical world. Everything that exists in the physical sphere has a philosophical basis. This world is bound by hard material rules then how do we explain coincidences.

There are no coincidences but everything that happens has a philosophical basis. If I met you today this existed in the physical world forever but we had no hint before this happened on the ordained day. It does not happen for nothing. It has a purpose, it is for you and I to find out the purpose if we have the vigour and if not then this event will fade away in oblivion life so many other distant memories. When I say my future depends on you I draw not on your physical self but your sprirtual power. Come hold my hand and we will conquor the whole world.

"It happens all the time in heaven, And some day it will happen again on earth--That men and women who are married, and men and men who are lovers, and men and women who give each other light, Often will get down on their knees and while so tenderly holding their lover's hand, with tears in their eyes, will sincerely speak saying, 'My dear, How can I be more loving to you, How can I be more kind.'" (Hafiz - Translated from Persian)

Friends are family of your choice

Relationships are like responsibilities. Every expectation creates a role and every role creates a relationship. We live in a complex world where every person has multiple roles in life. Men are fathers, husbands, brothers, friends, bread earners and so on. Women again are mothers, sisters, daughters, wives, friends, home makers, wage earners, etc. Each of these roles assigns us some responsibilities and more the roles more responsibilities. We are accountable for each of our responsibilities then why do we make friends, enter into relationships, and add to our responsibilities.

Human beings are social animals though, I despise humans being called animals as humans are humans and animals are animals but sociologist call humans social animals so I use the same expression. They live in companionship of others and can only survive when in their drove. That’s why many statutes have penalties which are solitary confinements. Solitary confinement is also used to break people like they are holding detainees at Guantanamo.  Being alone is painful, very painful indeed.

There are different people who help us grow through a range of phases in life. Parents sustain us when we are infants, siblings join in when we are toddlers and activity partners when we are adolescents. No one can make a choice of family he or she is born in; so as a corollary we have to accept parents and siblings that are already chosen for us. But it is not possible to cover the whole nine yards of life with these primary relations only.

We need much more than parental and sibling espousal to live our lives. We need soul mates who are there to share whatever we have. Expectations from our parents and siblings force us to be a certain person, which we may or may not be; therefore we need someone with whom we are just us and nothing else. Such is the pleasure of having friends that we are backed in everything right or wrong. I quote from Khuswant Singh’s Train to Pakistan where he says “Punjabi morals are baffling, you swear on Holy Quran or Geeta, get beaten up at a police station and still tell a lie for a friend and be called a nar adami a he man”. While his novel is set in Punjab but these words hold true for many cultures.

Friendship or fraanship – as one of my dear friends calls it – is an asset without which hardly anyone of us can survive. We choose our friends therefore we have control over who enters our life and who stays on. This is a circle that is based purely on our liking and choice. You can share anything and everything that you have with a friend and still feel secure. A true friend will defend you when you cannot defend yourself, cover you where you are at your weakest.

Treasure your friendships. Keep them close to your heart. With a friend be random, take chances, dance in the rain, cry, spend all your cash, sing out loud, fall in love, laugh till your stomach hurts, dance like no one is watching, laugh at a stupid joke, say I love you, make them feel better, make up a song, tell them how much they mean to you, and try anything new. Life will be at its best it will be so much fun and pleasing.  

Why Everything Inappropriate is Attractive

When a friend asked me as to why everything inappropriate is so attractive I was at loss for words for a coherent and acceptable answer. I just discovered another attribute of human nature. While many of my friends will present me the usual good and evil reaction that is written in all religious scriptures and narrated by a Mulla or a Priest every week in the weekly congregation but I am searching for an answer that is more to do with human beings and less with faith.

My first reaction to my friend’s question was how do we define the word inappropriate? According to the Standard English language dictionary inappropriate is something that is not acceptable, wrong, out of place. For anything to be inappropriate someone needs to evaluate it as such. This makes inappropriateness essentially other people’s understanding of our actions.

Do we really want to entrust others the right to decide on what we should or should not do? I will be very nervous giving away this right to someone else to decide on our actions. If this is my life then I have the right to live it myself. I cannot and should not let others decide on how I live my life. As an individual I am liable to my actions and have the right to decide on the way I want to live it. My faith in personal freedom is absolute to the extent that I would not object to someone committing suicide and indeed the statutes in western countries do not consider a penal offence.

My friend insists that we judge ourselves constantly therefore inappropriate remains inappropriate even if we are no longer concerned about others. We can run away from everything and everyone in this world but not ourselves. In response I will again say our values are again someone else’s values; someone defines our standards and not we ourselves. As human beings we are not born with pre-programmed software that tells us what and how to live our lives therefore all our values, believes, norms and standards are given to us by others. These are someone else’s values that are ingrained in our personalities when we are learning to live our lives. That is why values and standards of morality are different in every culture and society. Cousin marriages are an acceptable practice in many of the eastern cultures especially in South Asia whereas the same is incest in the west. Alcohol is inappropriate in Muslim cultures whereas it is not appropriate in other cultures. Sikhs do not smoke tobacco whereas there are over a billion other people who smoke. If you drink alcohol in a Muslim community, marry a cousin in a western society or smoke tobacco in a Sikh village these will be all be inappropriate while the same will be acceptable outside these cultural confines.

Inappropriateness is relative and changes form culture to culture and society to society. If societies and cultures that are collection of people can decide on the standards then why by the same corollary individuals can not define appropriateness for themselves. Anything that attracts me is closer to nature, satisfies me, and makes my life worth living so I cannot let someone’s views on morality, or ethics take away these essentials from my life.

I don’t know my friend convinced or not? Convincing my extraordinarily intelligent, gifted and bright friend is not easy though I will keep trying. Having said this I agree to individual’s right to define appropriateness including accepting standards by others.