Friday, February 13, 2009

Belief or interpretations!

There are times when we have to face challenging questions about beliefs which have become part of us by the religion we are born, the culture we were brought up or the experiences we have had.
In most cases a natural reaction to the situation is a Closed one with remarks varied from a very aggressive "Will you shut up or stop hurting others with your bully questions" or a more subtle " Maybe you have a point. But I am comfortable with my beliefs and therefore see a need to argue with you who has a contra belief".
Whatever the reaction is, for sure we have recognize it is not the belief that gets challenged but it is more the interpretations.
Yesterday I had an interesting discussion when a Swedish lady approached me and asked "Do you know this Indian Book called G...I...T..A." I said "Sure..It is the holy book of Hindus". She was taken aback. She said "No, no it is about resolution of personal conflicts as there is good and bad within oneself. I am not sure there is any religion to this". I was a bit puzzled and went into more details on where she got this inference. Then she told me about Yoga classes she attends where they also discuss this book. Her Teacher uses a lot of quotes from Gita to ensure that the students have some connection back to soul. She believed that the book is not about Hindu religion but about realizing oneself.
I had a choice-to leave her with that impression or introspect my belief.
I decided to do the later.
For sure who wrote GITA under what circumstances etc are important but the more important is the how the contents are interpreted. The first one is build on beliefs and second based on the objectives fulfilled for receiver. How many people in India live by Gita? Maybe less than 1% of population. If this is the status in the country which believes in Lord Krishna how can I expect any other country to share same belief. The objective of Gita is to bring peace in oneself and as long as this is achieved by interpretations I think there is only good purpose achieved. Afterall Global world is missing the spiritual connection which can be provided by all Holy books and Gita is one of them. To claim superiority of religion, belief is for sure more fanciful for politics but for individuals what matters is self realisation. If interpretations are able to guide this than blind belief then let it be so.

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Gothenburg, Sweden
Still finding introspecting to find who am I? Waiting for a Guru!