I am what I am because I am a believer ( or am I ?)....
My friend extreme hiker made an important comment on my previous blog(whew, am glad someone actually read it :) )! But the comment was kind of interesting, not because, he refuted my claims of "sometimes opinions dont matter" view but more because he allured examples of science and connected it to the way scientific breakthroughs are achived!
Having an opinion is nice, making it your belief is taking it one step further, totally believing what you believe is probably what we call passion but believing only what we believe with total disregard to other contradicting beliefs is fanaticism! And so in, which of these four buckets would we place those who have consciously attained martyrdom in the hope of standing up for their beliefs! Fanaticsim? Passionate and Principled? Two words, different connotations, same context!
So then , is it okay to compromise your beliefs for your life? If someone asked to change my opinion or its elder sibling, of deeply rooted belief in something, in return for my life,should I do it? Not do it? If I do it, do I become a fledgling, a weekend sybmol of everything that stands for cowardism? If I dont, am I loosing something more precious and spiritual for something as worldly as a belief, which is all said and done, is still nothing- more than a thought at the emotional corner of mind! For all that I know it may not even be true!
This is where I would like to quote my favorite "Remedy for all " book "The Gita" . One of the points Krishna emphasises to Arjun is that , this world is the way it is because of attachment, attachment to your relations, attachment to your material things, your ipods, your laptops, your cars, your coffeee(:D),and of course(if you have been reading the blog without doziing off..!) how can this be far behind- attachment to your beliefs!
And the purpose of our life , would be to stay away from this attachment, or slowly start to get detached, so that you end having an unbiased,impartial and perfect understanding of "The Truth" or what spirutalists would call "The Ultimate Reality".
Wow, that was more philosphical than I expected, so I stop, to salvage my repute of being termed as a total geek!!! :)
Well, thats what I thought, on reading the comment, and I thought I should elaborate, especially when I have 40 mintues of nothing to do, but a laptop and a "absolute no mood to study" state of mind! :)
My friend extreme hiker made an important comment on my previous blog(whew, am glad someone actually read it :) )! But the comment was kind of interesting, not because, he refuted my claims of "sometimes opinions dont matter" view but more because he allured examples of science and connected it to the way scientific breakthroughs are achived!
Having an opinion is nice, making it your belief is taking it one step further, totally believing what you believe is probably what we call passion but believing only what we believe with total disregard to other contradicting beliefs is fanaticism! And so in, which of these four buckets would we place those who have consciously attained martyrdom in the hope of standing up for their beliefs! Fanaticsim? Passionate and Principled? Two words, different connotations, same context!
So then , is it okay to compromise your beliefs for your life? If someone asked to change my opinion or its elder sibling, of deeply rooted belief in something, in return for my life,should I do it? Not do it? If I do it, do I become a fledgling, a weekend sybmol of everything that stands for cowardism? If I dont, am I loosing something more precious and spiritual for something as worldly as a belief, which is all said and done, is still nothing- more than a thought at the emotional corner of mind! For all that I know it may not even be true!
This is where I would like to quote my favorite "Remedy for all " book "The Gita" . One of the points Krishna emphasises to Arjun is that , this world is the way it is because of attachment, attachment to your relations, attachment to your material things, your ipods, your laptops, your cars, your coffeee(:D),and of course(if you have been reading the blog without doziing off..!) how can this be far behind- attachment to your beliefs!
And the purpose of our life , would be to stay away from this attachment, or slowly start to get detached, so that you end having an unbiased,impartial and perfect understanding of "The Truth" or what spirutalists would call "The Ultimate Reality".
Wow, that was more philosphical than I expected, so I stop, to salvage my repute of being termed as a total geek!!! :)
Well, thats what I thought, on reading the comment, and I thought I should elaborate, especially when I have 40 mintues of nothing to do, but a laptop and a "absolute no mood to study" state of mind! :)
posted by Harini Gopalakrishnan at 12:23 PM
5 Comments:
Maybe you are reading too much into life by expecting it to have value, meaning, logic etc. I am somewhat partial to the existential point of view that nothing matters anyway.
Till I get there, here's what the Buddha had to say on the topic: All life is suffering.
Don't you feel better already?
I have no doubts now. You are a total Geek. :).
I like this blog a lot since I sometimes think alike. Do we really have to compromise our perspectives just because people tell us that it's not correct? Maybe they are correct and we are not, but does it really matter? My best friend keeps telling me, "Every relationship in this world has the potential to hurt you, no matter how attached they are to you". It makes so much sense. It is that same sense of not wanting to hurt others which makes us change perspectives to what others believe.
Well let me stop here before I start writing crap. I have thought on similar lines so many times but only that someone ends up writing things I want to write, before I do. Too bad :(
Philosophy is boring......but cant help commenting on the topic........I believe in living everybody moment....last min submissions....long beer hangs......just taking life has it comes.....just not to regret something in life n say "Oh how stupid was I, just for the hec that i had some stupid believe which never managed to change my grades.....
Hari-nee,
Came across ur thots as I was browsing casually thru blogs - and feel compelled to jot down a few thots.
Isn't life, in an angle, a sum total of all actions taken by a person based on their 'non-beliefs', 'opinions', 'beliefs' and 'passions'? Viewed that way, each change of 'opinion'(for instance) just marks you having moved that item/decision/situation from one of the above buckets to another! That action could have been influenced by a plethora of variables like circumstances, players, priorities, environment etc. But the movement of ideals from one bucket to another is likely to be rampant amongst the first three listed above, and less onto the list of items one is passionate about. Plus there are a certain (few)things you are principled about in life - I mean, I question calling 'drinking coffee' a principle, and hence more the possibility of the 'principle' and the 'passions' remaining in the respective buckets!
Further down in your blog, you quote the Gita, which by the way professes an ideology that I subscribe to. I want to draw your attention to the timing of 'Gita' within Mahabharatha. Isn't it interesting that Krishna chose the Kurukshetra Yudham, when things had boiled down to that extend within the story(the life) of Mahabharatha and the players/actors within the epic....And if we try applying that thought to our own lives now! We spend a few decades building up our views, opinions, beliefs,passions, stuff we don't like, things we hate...at some point we realize the futiity of the whole equation, and start undoing all those.... That leads me to think that, maybe its not the actual belief that matters, not the actual opinion; but the cycle of having thought through the whole thing, the cycle of having gone thru the belief and shedding it at a later stage.........
Hari-Naan
did not read entire previous post ..but that is what i would like to tell you about current post ...everyone have different views about something .so you should listen others and may change that (if you are not confident about what you are doing) . but if you have faith on you ,and your decisions you must not even think about contradicting thoughts as it may demotivate you resulting loosing/delay of what you wnt to do
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