Anarchy in the name of rituals:

The holy city of Varanasi and the ghats on the bank of the sacred river Ganges (Ganga) are no more that holy a place as they used to be in the past traditionally since ages where people from all over the country, nay all over the world, used to congregate and take a dip in the waters of the river with the belief that this acted as a vital source to absolve themselves of whatever sins they  might have committed in their life. They did so also with the conviction that the type of such a bath coupled with certain rituals in the form of a puja (worship) was a sure way of going to heaven when they die. Such a puja used to be and is still performed on their behalf by the local priests who practically behave more as gangsters than the real holy men. These priests have their own prescribed rates for each ritual and the worshippers are forced to pay them exorbitantly failing which the worshippers have to face their wrath and curse in most crude a form. The most surprising phenomenon is that even in the present day world of ultra modern culture at the level of the society there are people who can’t afford disregarding the dictates of the priests for the fear that this may annoy the so called god men to the detriment of their future births. Such a false belief on the part of the devotees is not only highly ironical it is in fact a grave tragedy which they suffer from for no logical a reason. Only the other day I saw some of the priests on the bank of the Ganga at Varanasi well clad in jeans and multi coloured shirt practicing the puja on behalf of their customers/ devotees as if they were enjoying some picture in a cinema hall and had nothing to do with their traditional dress of dhoti/ kurta with a vermilion mark on their forehead. It is difficult to comprehend as to why the people should pose their faith in the god men so blindly. What the priests practice and the way they do it in the name of rituals is an act criminal in nature and in fact the devotees themselves are a party to such a crime by voluntarily succumbing to pressure tactics of the god men. Wake up India, wake up.

Link:Entity of God(s)

Technorati Tags: falsefaith,devotees,ganga,priests,society,culture

One’s own personal postal stamps:

It is possible now that one can have his/ her own personal postal stamps. There are people who have a deep craze for postal stamps indulging themselves in their huge collections and for them it is certainly a good news as pronounced by the postal authorities in India. The stamp so envisaged has to be in two parts –one containing the picture of some celebrity, Taj Mahal, Panchtantra, train, aircraft or some thing else as decided by the Government from time to time and the other with the photograph of the person who gets himself/ herself duly registered for the purpose with an amount of Rs.500/ including Rs.100/ as registration fee for a block of 12 photographs. There is nothing like any upper limit for the purpose. The scheme thus covers even a common man and is no more confined alone to dignitaries or other logos of national importance.

Technorati Tags: Postal stamps,common man,dignitaries

Practice of contrasts

Believers in truth tell lies, preachers of non violence act as killers, masters of ethics indulge into unethical activities, moral monitors are found involved in immoral acts, advocates of simple living are found drowned deep in luxuries and the total cycle of such a routine in the society is not a product branded today, it has been there right from the time the very civilisation was born. I visited a Budha monastery and had a talk with the attending monks and the bhikshus. Before I interrupted them, they were actually quarrelling on some trifling matter which soon assumed a graver proportion when one of them pickedup a stone blowing it hard on the head of the other one resulting into profuse bleeding. My men intervened and the fight stopped with their angry postures continuing. I asked the monk who attacked the other fellow of his as to why he indulged himself into such violent activities being a Budhist. His reply was that he was a Baudh no doubt but it was not to mean that he was not to fight for his self respect. The reply was shocking but quite revealing in the sense that basic tendency on the part of the humans is that of a beast and whatever apron they wear in the name of a religion or a creed is just secondary.Non violence prohibits killings and any non veg food is not possible without it. Majority of Budhism followers are non veg people only. Possibly there is hardly any exception where a culture or creed is followed without contraditing its own frame of ethics and rules.

Technorati Tags: nonviolence,culture,contradictions,practice

The stones that talk

Technorati Tags: travels,varanasi,sculpture,tagore,gandhi

The stones speak, they talk and they interact too depending on whether the viewer understands their language. A great expression dug deep in stone engraving a  masterpiece of the two outstanding figures -Ravindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi by another great personality, the sculpturist Khastageer stand witness to lot many events in history of the country. Visitors to Varanasi hardly miss an opportunity to relish the beauty of these objects of manumental significance. 

Cheer girls

Technorati Tags: sports,cricket,news,catastrophic
• Cultural changes reaching a pinnacle, there are newer innovations one after the other emerging to surface. Games. It is a renaissance, an upheaval or a radical change on the cultural front is a different matter but the message it leaves for the people of the country is lucidly clear -the message of a total overhaul of the civilization scenario. Games being a great tool of entertainment, exercise and publicity, they are the best chosen area of imposing any new sort of trend on any front. Cheer girls are now the latest addition to grandeur in cricket as if it was otherwise lacking necessary popularity. Cricket mania is a known phenomenon not only in this country but equally in all the places in the world but its managers felt there was an urgent need of accelerating its popularity for which they opted for cheer girls as a device to attract viewers. The result is as it was guessed. The viewers are all not the cricket lovers, they consist of the audience in bigger measure more interested in scantly dressed girls dancing, twisting their bodies and even kissing the players in the field. The show can't be branded as ugly, obscene or ridiculous as it is organised by powerful forums. The question that needs an answer is that if the way these cheer girls show themselves baring themselves to the point of nudity, what is left for the preachers of descency to teach. The media sought an opinion from the viewers themselves who were almost unanimously of the opinion that there is nothing wrong in it and that it should be given full freedom to go ahead further. What is the meaning. Is it not that we are heading towards a catastrophic scenario with the name Cultural heritage of India?

Heralding cultural heritage of India

A powerfully rich cultural heritage of India is a great source of inspiration to the world right from its Vedic age culminating into an enormous strength with unit in diversity message. India blog deserves laurels for necessary focus on it. http://www.myindia.blog.de/