A man of no/all religion

I received an email from Wasi yesterday who offered to answer my queries, if any on the principles of Islam. I replied back with thanks stating that there are no queries as such. Moreover life already seems to be on direction of becoming a true Muslim.

I later received an email from Poul who asked whether my parents were Christian looking at my inclination to quote Bible.To him I replied that though parents were born Hindu but they nurtured me to become a true Christian.

Oh my goodness! I myself was surprised of the replies I gave, but those were not replies out of confusion, also not to confuse them. I wanted to bridge the gaps that might have existed based on outer layers of religions. Therefore I tried to create a comfort factor to instil a feeling that I belonged to them.

The feeling next to surprise was of gratitude - To understand such basics of religion was never in my capability. While there are people who go to extremes for converting someone into "their" religion, and here was I who was himself converting his religion with every email. That too because of one simple message.The simple message that prophets have given from time to time is such a powerful tool to resolve all differences. Wish whole humanity could understand, and then the peace - both internal and external - would become a reality. 

I later wondered what would Wasi and Poul think of me? I didn't know the answer May be "A man of no religion" or "A man of all religion". 

But one thing I was sure of was that they would have pulled their hairs if they had read what my replies were to other person's email :)

What's on your mind?

"What's on your mind?"...I have always been tempted to reply to this question which one would normally see on almost all social sites these days, sites such as Facebook, Twitter etc. It does give you a feeling as if some one is keenly waiting for you to log on, and ask you whats going on in your life! And you would see people replying also...their revelations, their anger on some event, their love for loved ones, major events in their lives, their visits to places etc etc. Facebook is full of such 'personal' information.

Facebook..another blog on Facebook! There isn't any like or dislike for this site, its just that Facebook played an important role for the learning that I am trying to post. 

While I was cautious not to share much of personal stuff on Facebook, I couldn't resist the temptation to answer this very question "What's on your mind?". I felt as if I would be impolite to the Facebook designers if I don't answer this very question each time I login into Facebook. So I would reply...always with a quote.

It so happened that one day I was falling short of quotes that I could share. Lakshmi was sitting next to me, I casually asked her to tell me a quote which I could share on Facebook profile. It must have been stupid of me to ask that from her...but I did ask. Quite surprisingly she answered, "Sunil Ji, roz quote badalne se kya hoga...baat to tab banegi agar ham ek hi quote ko poori zindagi nibha lein". Thereby she cautioned me not to fall in trap of sharing more and more because mere sharing will not bring any changes in us. For bringing change in us, we'd have to follow those. Even if we stick to one quote, and follow it religiously...it would do miracles in our lives. A single quote that is followed can do what all the quotes which are just shared collectively also cannot do.  

Very profound thoughts Mrs Sethi has - I must admit. 

Since that day, I have tried to consciously remind myself not to fall in the same trap again. Now whenever I login into Facebook, and see that question again...I smile and answer "Same as it was on the last time!!".  

 And to go bit deeper on the learning, this is much of the problem that we see around...we often rush to speak, but rarely pause to listen. That reminds me of this riddle....'The moment you name it, it is gone...what is it?' "Silence".  

Wish we could pause, and ponder...ponder deeper to realize that even single thought is sufficient to bring a change in our lives.