The Greatest Invention of All Time

Death is a certainty which is the most amazingly ignored reality of our times. We live so as to believe that death will always elude us, as if we were born with amrit ras ( a syrup considered to be sacred and consumption of which will make one Immortal)  so as to make us immortal or eternal. Eternity is fiction, and immortality a farce.

What keeps us going? Should we all think about death as an impending reality? Should we all have death in our mind while doing our daily chores? Almost all fears and expectations vanish in the face of death.

Indeed, these questions are easier to ask than answer. Death is a motivation killer. One just cannot function with the Sword of Damocles hanging over one's head. What should be one's approach to life then? Should one live life to the fullest , oblivious to the impending death? Where should one look for answers then? The good thing about such thinking is that it is not original. People before us have wondered about the same issues. These are called existential questions. Questions which define us, questions which give us a character, questions which shape our existence, questions which haunt us in the night and amuse us in the morning. The existential questions are probably the only thing that make homo sapiens distinctive when compared to other species on earth. No other species on the planet seem to be having existential crisis as much as humans. All space exploration is a result of these existential questions.

Philosophers have been trying to find answers to these fascinating questions since ages resulting in marvelous and incredible books such as the Gita, which for Hindus is a Life Guiding self help book. So how does Gita deal with the question of death?

Chapter two of the The Bhagavad Gita says:

"For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain."

One might argue that Gita, as a philosophical book scores high and that it does there is not an iota of doubt over that. But the underlying message of the book is to keep going without worrying about

death. The book specially targets the warrior clans to continue wars and battles without worrying about death as well as moral crisis arising out of war.

Will continue......

- Sunny Gusain 

Dear GOD: Letter from an atheist

I grew up in a lower middle class god loving family. Although I must admit that the portrait of half elephant-half human form God did give me jitters as a child. I was petrified to stay alone in the house with that gross looking elephant God. I would avoid looking at the portrait for the fear of being killed or mutilated. Of course, my fears were exaggerated as nothing of that sort happened during my childhood. I was delighted that the Elephant God never devoured me for dinner but this gave me a sense of invincibility against any sorts of God, be it the monkey God or the tongue wagging, multi-

headed feminine Goddess. I was scared of myriad forms of Gods. Many a times I would just wake up in the middle of the night and sneak my head out the blanket only to find the Monkey God staring right into my soul and immediately I would hide under the covers. After all is said and done, I did have some rewarding sessions with the Gods helping me get some good grades in exams,  or so I thought. I've truly wanted to ask God if he indeed existed for then it would spare the Gallons of blood that has been spilled over his Name.

-Sunny Gusain