The real meaning of freedom.

I have been listening to the discourse of Sri. Velukkudi Krishnan's on Nyasa Dasakam that explains the full meaning and purpose of surrendering the ' I '.

I have no proper words to explain my gratitude to him. The deep insight on the act of surrender is very profound and I watch myself melting literally towards God.

What happens after listening to his discourse is when we start practicing the surrender, we start shedding away all the dirt in us; the anger, worry, fear, the attitude of competitiveness, the urge to win over something or somebody slowly but surely disappears and a supreme sense of freedom sets in.

God, isn't that I would call 'FREEDOM'!

Om namo Narayanaya!

Religion rules? So be it!

"Religion is the opiate of the people” — Karl Marx

We have no way of knowing what went on Karl Marx's mind when he thought of this. I also wonder what prompted him to put his thought in writing!

First let us rule the most used meaning of opiate and stick to the other one:
As per Merriam Webster Dictionary, opiate means: " induces rest or inaction or quiets uneasiness"

If this is so, why Karl Marx had linked religion to rest, inaction or uneasiness. Don't you think he had pointed to three different kinds of people? I am now able to see the implications but I don't want to get into a debate.

As far as I am concerned, I will bracket myself into the second category which is 'inaction'. My religious philosophy is this: "There is no religion". I don't judge any religious beliefs and customs. Let people follow and practice whatever they are comfortable with.

My religious beliefs kept changing till I arrived at the conclusion of no religion. So, anyone is quite likely to change their present views and beliefs. Why take it seriously and expect them to conform with my views?

Live and let live!

Image source: Yahoo! Images

Is God a man or a woman?

Image of Sri Aurobindo via Wikipedia This question rarely arises in public though almost everyone who is God conscious might have entertained this question at least once in their life.

I think India is one country where Goddess ( God as a woman) is widely worshiped. Of course the same male worshipers may not behave kindly to all the women is a matter of another debate.

My husband respects women and he firmly believes that 'Godness' is the prime qualities of women. He refuses to see movies where women are ill-treated by men. He condemns the perverted imagination of the author of the movie.

I want to you read this great quote from Sri Aurobindo.
"After I knew that God was a woman, I learned something from far-off about love; but it was only when I became a woman and served my Master and Paramour that I knew love utterly.

Read God as mother as seen by Sri Aurobindo.

Are there any similarities between Hinduism and Shinto?

’Yes’ is the answer given by somebody, somewhere but I don't agree. In fact I would never compare any two religions. One may find a few aspects that look alike but the founder knows there is nothing. Every religion is based on certain divine principles but all religion defends humanity to the core.

I know that in Hinduism, for which no one man is attributed as its founder existed more than 5000 years ago as proved by the archaeological discoveries in Harappa and Mohenjadaro.

The different Gods in the Hinduism must have come much later but there are no historical evidences for that too.

For information, Shinto is the religion of Japan. Shinto is commonly translated as "The Way of the Gods".

Do we have to follow rituals?

After my previous post on placing our will at the disposal of God, I retired to bed pondering over the Sunday’s function in which I and my husband are officially (?) surrendering at the feet of Lord Vishnu preceded by some religious rituals.

I am not going to elaborate on the rites and its outcome but let me outline the philosophy behind it. The meaning behind our surrender is to dedicate all the results (be it good or bad.) of our actions to the God.

In our family circle, we sometimes debate on the philosophies of Hinduism and Buddhism and many times, the exchange of views between us revealed similarities on certain basic tenets.

Without going into all the details, I will cite only one example between these two religions and that is idol worship. Personally, I think Buddhism is simpler in its philosophy.

I have answered a question on Blurt it. The question is, “Buddhism is more philosophy than religion. What are your thought on it?” The answer is my own opinion and I am aware there may be a difference to it.

In all religion, we should try to understand the inner meaning or the essence of it and how the rituals help in making us understand the philosophy of the religion.