Opinionated Perceptions

When I was pure and had no knowledge about the world I had taken birth into, I knew nothing about life. Then once I saw an egg. It was clean, white, smooth, shining, and beautiful. I took it into my hands and stared and observed from every possible angle and side. I could easily understand how wonderful it was because it appeared simple. But as I wanted to be a rational person with reason-based thinking and actions, I wanted to know more about it. I pressed it as hard as I could and suddenly it cracked and all the stuff from inside it came out. It was white, transparent and yellow. It was sticky. It was very tough to understand what it really was. The outer part was so simple, but from inside it was complex.

This is how our life is – simple from outside and complex from inside.

The basic step towards understanding my life, the foremost requirement I had, was to be conscious and aware of myself. Consciousness is such an important thing – without it I would not even know that my life is reality and I am really living it. It makes me aware of myself.

I chose to be conscious. I decided to be conscious of what was happening around me and within me. I understood that some things are to be destroyed before they destroy us. I understood that I can be an end in myself. I understood that anyone not being conscious has decided to be irrational and has stopped behaving like a human being. I understood that he has decided to destroy himself.

I wanted to make myself more accountable for everything I do so I thought of having my understanding of myself and my rules defined for once. After serious thoughts I found out that there are three basic factors or premise of my life – religion, people and money. These are in the order of their importance to me and my soul.

God and Religion

Religion has to be unquestionably taken as the foremost need of man. To start with it fulfills the emotional needs of man and helps him gain control of his actions. A religion stands as the control center for his life and gives him the fundamentals for sustaining himself as a responsible human being accountable for his every exploit. Religion separates the civilized from the uncivilized. It raises man as a ‘social animal’ and specifies the objectives of his life along with the ways to attain them. Religion gives the path and also the direction to life.

The direction is not always chosen by man himself. It is forced onto him from his birth; by the community he has taken birth in. Even if the parents he is born to are on the misleading path, he finds no ways to change it. He has no choice over this, and as long as he ceases to be rational and reasonable, he remains stuck in the same sets of beliefs and ideologies.

Religion as defined by Oxford Reference Dictionary is ‘A belief in and worship of a God or gods’ and, ‘a particular system of faith and worship’. As I have already stated, a man has nothing to do about the community he is born into, I continue it by saying that he has all the rights to correct himself. The foremost step for him is to take and initiative and it is only the right and necessary knowledge that can provide him with that step. And it’s not an easy idea to happen to him.

“Deaf, dumb and blind, they will not return (to the path). [Holy Qur’an 2:18]

“Seeing they see no; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.”

[Matthew 13:13]

“There maybe someone who sees the words and yet indeed do not see them; maybe another one who hears these words but indeed does not hear them.” [Rig-Veda 10:71:4]

Agnostics and atheists are people with no rational reasoning and they shall remain the same way as long as they decide to be. Every human born, has the necessity in his life for religion and he can turn into an agnostic or an atheist only when he has been taught with those misleads. The idea of the two cannot come into the intellect of a normal man unless he has been misled by some other man.

No atheist or agnostic groups have rules or moral codes of ethics for themselves. They may formulate their own concepts but seldom do they succeed with them with comprehensive objectivity or subjectivity. No matter what they believe in, or decide to believe in, they do understand the need for spirituality in their being. But they refuse to accept that it is their human nature embedded into their soul that makes them want that spirituality and consequently a religion. It is the want of religion that makes them ask for spirituality.

It has been proven scientifically that God exists (1). It’s not only the books and people that speak about God but also the science. There isn’t more I need to clear on this as every atheist must belief in science regardless of his implicit beliefs.

And for those who believe in the Darwin’s Theory – I invite them to explain me why it is still a theory. The past couldn’t do it; the present is not attempting to do it; the future won’t do it. Not because it can be unnecessary, but because they can’t do it.

I will move on further taking it for granted that I need not stress more on religion as the basic necessity of man.

Now, the question that arises next may well ask “What religion to be followed?” I leave that reasoning to readers with my trust in their rationality. But I will admonish to everybody that any belief in more than one God is an extreme show of absurdness and illogical understanding of visible facts and truths.

I wonder how one can explain the possible existence of more than one gods. If this is to be possible then I wonder how miserable my life would be as I may just not be able to please all of ‘them’. It’s not about me alone – the entire mankind, if agrees to multiple-gods, will find no peace. The whole idea of more than one gods is foolishness. I am thankful to God that He is ’One’. I can worship only Him and this reduces a lot of possible burden on me.

“If there were in the heavens and the earth, other gods besides Allah, there would have been confusion in both! But glory to Allah, the Lord of the Throne: (High is He) about what they attribute to Him!” [Holy Qur’an 21:22]

“Ekam evaditiyam”

“He is one without a second”

[Chandogya Upanishad 6:2:1]

“Shama Israelu Adonai Ila Hayno Adna Ikhad”

It is a Hebrew quotation which means

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord”

[The Bible, Deut 6:4]

This being accepted by every Holy Scripture has really helped me with explaining how true the concept of one God is. Verily God is great.

Next: Who is our God? What is our God? What is He after all made of? Where does He come from? Did anyone create Him?

The answer to all these questions is short and precise. It is in fact an answer from God Himself.

The most concise definition of God says it all:

“Say: He is Allah, the one and only.”

“Allah, the eternal, absolute.”

“He begets not, nor is He begotten.”

“And there is none like unto Him”

[Holy Qur’an 112:1-4]

I take God as my only sustainer. I put Him above myself and above my parents. It is He who has given me the rules to live on and the Holy Qur’an is the book He has prescribed for me. Every act I commit, I try to keep it in accordance to this book and this makes me a responsible human. No matter where I go and what I do, I know what I belong to and what I am supposed to have my foundation as. Any further rules I create for myself comply with those specified in this book and I intend never to break or bend them.

My God has taught me that the second, third and fourth priority of my life is my mother. The first being God himself; the next, fifth, is my father. Immediately I would like to get back to the point where I was discussing about the necessity of religion – my religion has asked me to have my mother on the top of the list; animals have no religion and so for those creatures, their mothers mean just a source of food and security till they are on their own. If religion had had not asked us to love our parents, we would have been similar in nature to these animals.

God is always with me – no matter what I do, and where I go. There is something, a quote, I remember reading sometime back – “It’s only when you turn towards God that you realize that He is already looking at you”.

In the Holy Qur’an, God has promised man many rewards based on his conduct in his life. But as we all are slaves of His, we find no right to question what He does. He is our Lord, our Creator, and everything He does is His will and we are not supposed to question that in any form. He is free to keep those promises or do whatever He wants with them. But he is God, and God is God only when He remains committed to His promises. Subsequently, there is no question of showing concerns on what He has said. He is the final authority and what He says or has said is final.

Having said all this, there is one more point I would like to make – Belief is faith in action. So what I say is what I am supposed or expected to do, and that is the motivating factor of my life that propels me forward into the experience called life.

So, I highlight this once again – my source of energy is my God and everything I do and decide to do is in extreme inclinations to what my God has asked me for. I shall put everything I can in everyway feasible to keep myself surrendered to His will and be steadfast to the fundamentals. And every rule I plan for myself shall be based on these fundamentals. I repeat this again - every rule I plan for myself shall be based on these fundamentals.

People and Relationships

I must live for my own sake, neither sacrificing myself to others nor sacrificing others to myself; I must work for my rational self-interest, with the achievement of my own happiness as the highest moral purpose of my life. (2)

Yes I am selfish. By definition this means that I am more concerned with the things of my own interest. My selfishness can be stated as good or bad only on the basis of the goodness or badness of these things of my interest. These things are dependent on the values I have decided for myself and they are subsequently based on the goodness of these values. And these values are the productions of the moral code of ethics I have designed for myself in realization to the best of my rationality.

‘My things of interest’ – this can be a comprehensive and in-depth definition of the character I possess and the person I am. These things are objects for me and I have always tried to enumerate the codes of morality for these objects - guided by the rational thinking I may profoundly believe in, and the understandings and things that value to me. These things have been chosen by me based on my value judgments and my needs. My goals have come from my desires and desires from my selfishness. Henceforth, these things are a ramification and definition of my selfishness.

In the present context I am writing on, these things are people. People are objects for me and each of them for me has a code of morality based on my values. People here are things of interest to me and my selfishness revolves around them. The values I have chosen specify the priority I am going to give to these people.

I shall explain my selfishness with people starting with an example. I meet a person and I like a few things inside him. He immediately becomes a reflection of my values and I decide to be his friend. (It can also happen that he or I have helped each other in someway and we have become friends then depending on the ‘compatibility’.) I immediately define a code for him and he becomes an object for me. He is a thing of interest to me. As I am selfish I will do anything to be happy and my happiness lies in his. So consequently, I will do anything to keep him happy. His happiness is my goal and so is mine to me.

My selfishness states to me that: in no way am I going to hurt him because that will in return hurt me; I will always do things he likes so that he likes me in turn; I will always be good to him so that he too is good toward me. Now when it comes to helping him, what I do for him is not a help I am rendering to him but a help to myself. I will do the necessary to set things right for him so that I am happy. When it comes to sacrificing something from my side, it won’t be any form of sacrifice to my money or my own life – what I do will simply be a show of my selfishness so that I remain happy, and I am happy only when he is happy. When I am crossing a street with him, he is but just a code to me of a value I possess. So should anything happen to him, I shall get him through only because if I don’t do that I may end up hurting myself. I can give my life to save his, but can’t live for him.

If I do something for him because I find it as his need, then I am not having integrity in my relationship with him. What I do for him should be directly for my personal happiness and benefit – free from all guilt and unknown nervousness.

Selfishness for me makes me live for myself: I live for the things of my interest. They are of the highest concern to me and I control the kind of concern I should have for them by myself.

People, after my religion, are of highest importance to me. I value each and every person I have in my life and each of them is a thing of interest to me. Any disturbance to their happiness is surely going to disturb my happiness. So I will do anything to please them, to make them happy, to keep them satisfied with their lives, and to let them practice their own free will. All this I do is for me directly. All this is defined as selfishness for me.

I am an object t myself – I won’t hurt myself, I won’t sacrifice myself for others (anything I do – even giving my life for my loved one – is for my own happiness and self-interest), I won’t destroy myself – I will do anything to keep myself happy. I have codes of morality for myself and they are again based on the values I have selected in accordance with my rational thinking and religion.

My rational thinking also defines love for me. The foremost belief I substantiate is that love is an open word used to describe many abstractions and because of it’s openness it has been misinterpreted in various ways. Apart from love for God, I believe in only two other of its forms – love for those who are directly related (family) to us, and love for those who have nothing to do with the family we belong to.

There isn’t much to tell on the love for our relatives as there are no reservations and misgivings in it. But the second form – the love for ones with whom we have created self-defined relationships – is something to ponder about. My constructs for this love are: it is a complex obsession we have with the person and also the relationship we share, this obsession can be killed if necessary by rational and reasonable thinking if the circumstances do not permit us to continue with it, both persons need not feel the equal for each other, there is no real love if there is no integrity (if things like sacrifice and helping are involved) and implied selfishness, and finally it is just a state of mind based on the values again.

A man’s need, more than being loved, is to love someone. I may somehow manage myself to be fine if I am not loved by someone, but I may not remain happy if I am stopped from loving someone. As I have said that people are my need, it is only a validation of the fact that ‘to love’ is my need.

I believe that every person dead, alive or yet to be born, was, is and will be as important as the survival of the whole of mankind itself and is necessary for the existence of this world. Every life is precious and no other human has a right to take it away from him. Right to ones life is a birth right given to him, and only him, and no one can take it away. A man is free to practice his own will with the values he chooses and accepts them as his codes of morality. His society has no right over what he decides to choose and he himself is in ownership of the choices he has made. And this also implies that he is in full responsibility of his choice and every action he commits holds the right to ask him back for his commitment. Man’s actions are again a direct consequence of his values.

Every man should be respected and so his thoughts and ideas. Rejecting a person’s ideas is like stepping hard on his dignity, and this is a crime. Freedom of speech is a straight forward right a man is provided with and this must continue as long as he respects others and behaves only rationally and not absurdly.

So in all this framework I proudly say that I love my parents, my relatives, all my friends, my acquaintances and every person I meet in my life – also including those who just happen to pass by me when I am walking on a street. I should respect them and have them always as my top priorities and things of my interest. May be the words things and objects sound harsh, but they give me exact explanations for the finality I mean to convey.

Money and Power

Money can buy food but not appetite. Money can buy medicine but not health. Money can buy a bed but not sleep. Money can buy books but not knowledge. The list can be exhaustive.

If you are hungry, it is only money that can buy you food. If you are ill, it is only money that can buy you medicines. If you want to sleep, it is only money that can buy you a bed. If you want knowledge, it is only money that can buy you books. This list is not just exhaustive but also wise and honestly violent to the extent that it may describe the materialistic necessities of a man in his life. This list is naked and frank with the harshness I have always tried to understand.

If someone says money can’t buy happiness, let me say that they do not know how and where to shop for it. If someone says money can’t buy love, let me say that money gives a better bargain (3).

It is also said that those with lots of money are not happy. Well, I have personally met many of those kinds of people with lots of money but I don’t find them to be unhappy. If anyone thinks that money creates family problems, then may I ask them if there are no such problems in the families of the poor? In fact I find more problems threatening them.

There are several quotes available in the ‘market’ that try to defame money in general and the people with money in particular. But if the knowledge about the formulators of these quotes is acquired, it can be understood that these were the people who had very less money and were just trying to pacify themselves by justifying their inabilities to have money with them. Now it is of not much concern to me if they were aware of what they were doing or not, but what matters to me is that I don’t want to end up being included into their mindless fraternity.

I understand the importance of money and I respect money and people who have money. But that doesn’t mean that I have less respect for those who don’t have it, it’s just that I have equal regards for them.

Though I do understand that money is not everything, I do understand much better that money is something, a lot more than just something. The importance of money can neither be understood by those who have it nor by those who don’t, but can only be understood by those who know what loss it can do if they don’t have it.

Having the knowledge that money means a lot to me, I trust the ways I have found for myself to be rational for me to get that money. I put money as a thing of my interest and the way I acquire should no doubt be a method of my interest too. I am in contradiction to any logic that states that I should work the way my society wants me and allows me to. It is a birth right for me to practice my free will and find my own ways to acquire it – of course rational and responsible.

I do not believe in having any form of careers in life and I also do not believe in preparing myself for the industry or the market. I am of the understanding that the industry and the market behave that way I perceive them to. All I need to do is tune myself to the hidden rules of business that are conducive in the formulation of new markets. Creation of new markets is the most logical and rational way of furthering life towards financial success. Rubbing ourselves against the existing feasibilities should just be the start of ones being in the market. The rest following this should be on my own and not on the career that may be enforced onto me.

I have found many people longing for jobs in multinational companies and it is not just simply a longing they have but a supreme goal of their life after the end of their education. The first mistake is that they pretend to end their education and the second is that they chose a career. The end of education they accept is an end to their growth. They may continue to learn newer technologies but they have here created a shell around them that stops them to expand in any other way but just the one in which they have specialized in. They chose to build a career and that again is an incarceration of their abilities and values. They cannot grow out of their career.

I am of the opinion that there should be no such thing as a career in a rational man’s life if he desires true success to be his. He must be ready to forge himself into any direction and be prepared not just for the changes happening explicitly but also be ready to make explicit changes happen by himself. I believe in the creation of pipelines for the flow of money towards me by having multiple sources. A career limits this kind of possibility as it limits any scope beyond the specialization. Of course a start is always made with a single source and that may in some ways look like a career. But this has to change as soon as self-sustenance is met.

When I talk about markets, I believe in the capitalistic ideology and free markets. Any government has no right to regulate or control or restrict the growth of a business organization. Freedom is a term applicable not just for men but also for what they do, and any friction induced by any government is a crime against capitalism and man himself.

I believe in industrialization, modernization and globalization. For those who believe that these cramp the poor sections, let me explain the truth about it. Contrary to the understanding that introduction of machines reduces the need for labor, it is the introduction of machines that creates a need for extra labor. But here the labor required is not unskilled but skilled. So it is just a progress man has made that makes the unskilled, futile for the society.

When man created fire – he never ended; when man constructed a house out of stone – he never ended; when man invented the wheel – he never ended; when man used steel for building – he never ended. When man had no skill to make fire, he was unskilled; when he didn’t know the use of steel, he was unskilled. But he understood that it was necessary for him to learn the skill so that he could progress his life. When man started using a spoon to eat food, did anybody tell that it makes the hand useless and that the spoon should not be used? No, but instead, he learnt how to use the spoon with his own hands. Man has to come out of stagnation and learn to become skilled. It is similar to the survival of the fittest. If anyone thought how much loss of human labor the introduction of electronic computers could create, they can now see how much labor computers themselves have created; but for only the skilled.

Globalization asks for skills and helps only the deserving to make progress. If one thinks that it is a bane then it is logically obvious that he is stagnating himself. Plants grow to the size of a tree and once they have fully grown they stop developing and begin to die. Animals grow to their age of full development and stop learning how to survive; their end begins from here. But man has been provided with a mind to think and to reason. He is expected to be rational and logical with his values as the motivations for him. A man has to continue to grow. When he thinks he can’t move further, from there starts his end. As rightly said by Ayn Rand – A man is an end in himself. No one can destroy him nor can he destroy anyone. He is his own source of destruction (4).

Continuing further with money and power, I assume that power and money are materialisms of the same type in different forms. They are almost one and the same with the exception of the differences in their visibilities. It can simply be found that power creates money and money creates power. Now it may not be the same always but it’s the taste of men that makes the two look the way they are. It is more of personal perceptions, and I perceive the two as the same materialisms.

Man has always loved heights – from where he can see all his fellow humans under him. He always wanted to be above others and never under anyone. Those who work below anyone are considered losers or at least the ones with less power and subsequently less money. All this continues to be the same and will continue to be in the future too. I believe that there is only one thing that puts a man above the other and that is more or less his thinking. This thinking may have some levels that determine man’s own personal level and standard in life.

Here I would also like to mention about the equality of right as I have already activated the topic of levels. There can be only one ground where rights may not be equal – the ground of sexes. Yes, men and women cannot have equal rights. But this never puts one above or below the other. It only means men and women have unequal rights in equal weightages. This is again a whole new topic and most of it is pointless to discuss as religion provides better explanations and understandings on it.

So finally I would like to state that maximum of the commitments we are making with education, jobs and similar facades, there is directly or indirectly only one purpose – to get money or/and power – the reason for this purpose can be man’s nature of some other need that may include people.

After having described my perceptions on these three I would like to make it clear that these are just the basic premise and apart from them there are few more like – humor, entertainment, food, style, fashion and several others that may be profoundly programmed (5) by ourselves.

Every time I do or say something I just ask one thing to myself – Am I correct? Am I deceiving myself? Am I on the wrong path? Is what I believe rational? I continue this by praying to my God that I find peace with myself by being glued to truths I have to live for. Every moment I spend in this world is but an execution of my moral ethical codes and I want them to be pure and reasonable. I won’t forgive myself if I learn and teach anything that may destroy me.

My perception of my life belongs to me and is in no relation to what others perceive for themselves. The ideas may coincide but mine are independent of others and shall be effected only when I find them to be illogical or, in any unintentional way, not in concord with my religion.

Notes:

(1) http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=god+exists I sincerely hope that what ever you find here will help you believe that God exists.

(2) As quoted by Ayn Rand

(3) Yes, I believe that though money can’t buy love, it can give a better bargain. I find it needless to write on some topics because that may just turn out to be shameless shots on the professionalism I am trying to present here. It is my perception though. And yes, it is just a quote I have read somewhere.

(4) These are not the exact words used by Ayn Rand. I just wanted to mention it here for explaining my points.

(5) I believe that we are responsible for everything we show, including our styles and fashions. It is taste we have opted for and we have a right to do it that way. But if needed this taste can well be changed i.e., programmed.

I would sincerely like to thank two people particularly – Dr. Zakir Naik and Ms. Ayn Rand. Mr. Naik because I did refer to some articles and books written by him, while writing on religion and also previously. Ms. Rand because I have learned a lot from what all I have read in her books – “The Fountainhead” and “The Virtue of Selfishness”. Though I haven’t read these books completely, I was fine enough to write a few things I have observed. I never mean to copy anything; I just found the right words from these books to describe my own ideologies.

And of course, the Book that guides me – The Holy Qur’an. I can never describe what all I have learnt from this Book. I thank Allah for giving this Book to the mankind.

Posted by xubayr at 7:17 AM | Permalink | Comments

We don’t recognize when we are doing it. Not even after we have done. We don’t admit when others protest; there is the egotist rapt in our soul, warring to repudiate yielding, eluding your desire to beget the non-spurious intonation – a ramification of your devout conscience. It cheats you, proves your debility to open a door through which the expression of non-corroded purity, from your true inner self, might try to emanate out.
Yes, it makes you fake your actions, counterfeit your words with a gleam – make them look biased.

If you have got me by now, I am with exalted humility, speaking of the iniquity that pushes us to do it. And the “it” I speak is the fraudulence we often set in motion when we have our mouths open.

Integrity by definition means the quality of being honest and morally upright. Integrity is the cliché that must never say quits. It is purity, as pure as life itself, wealthier than any figment that should acquire all the gold in the worlds, as true as truth itself.

Our reputation is all we take to our grave – first-rate or awful. But who cares for what the grave has in stock; too busy to give a think to the living, we hurry past the pathway as though we know it like the back of our hands. We push through the seasons ceasing to have that pinch of guilt in our desolated souls (if I am not inflating it), taking forsake the every forbidden idea we utter so often – the lie. So easy has it become to do it – to sacrifice our integrity.

Good character builds trust and trust is the glue of relationship - the profoundly proclaimed necessity for every human, the commitment that verily inspires millions of souls. And so often we cheat these relationships. I don’t say we cheat people as they are not the need, but the relationship is. We spoil the splendor by the utterance of untrue words and undermine the saint in us. Dishonesty chokes true relations; be it friendship or any other.

Every time we speak a lie, we cause to make a crack in the foundation of our integrity. We may not have the guilt fountain starting, but we surely have sacrificed our self-respect. We have made ourselves weak and fragile and stand only on our feet with an illusion of honor but no light in our hearts when we do that. We might just not even feel anything when we have spoken a lie, but it definitely glues us to the evil. Dishonesty gets us closer to the evil spirit.

Bending integrity is not just about the words in open – our hearts too speak languages unheard by our inefficient little ears. I speak about the deep rooted, yet highly frail intentions we possess. Our actions need not verily show our intentions for it’s not a human tendency to synchronize them with our behaviors. But definitely having a clear conscience is a satisfaction in true sense and in itself. Dishonest intentions undermine our untainted thoughts and corrupt our mind – leaving us with an unforgiving pain in our soul – seldom understood.

Keep your word; be loyal and committed; make words and actions, like two parallel lines, always run together; detest deception and fraud; condemn cheating. But this is not all it takes to keep you integrity intact – it needs more than sacrifice of the false mask you bear on your face – it needs love for integrity, requires endurance when heated due to friction, it asks for standing for the truth – even if it means giving up you life.

There are many more instances in our lives we happen to see, where in we just say no to the never dying truth; we allow it to happen, not aware that allowing something to happen in our eyes is equal to putting an approval stamp on it. There are many more occasions, I feel, not necessary to be unfolded now, where we shut the door close. It’s time we wake up and comprehend the knowledge we have been provided with – the one that makes us satisfy ourselves with a proud feeling of living with integrity.

Integrity opens the door for fulfillment in our hearts; the very bare necessity for a gratifying existence. Integrity teaches love.

Integrity makes you a person of substance.

Posted by xubayr at 7:16 AM | Permalink | Comments

“But to pronounce moral judgment is an enormous responsibility. To be a judge, one must possess an unimpeachable character; one need not be omniscient or infallible, and it is not an issue of errors or knowledge; one needs an unbreakable integrity, that is the absence of any indulgence in consciousness, willful evil.”

These are lines directly from the essay “How Does One lead a Rational Life in an Irrational Society?” in the book “The Virtue of Selfishness” by Ayn Rand. It may not at first sight present any relation to the right to free will, but it does explain the direct duties a man acquires alongside this right.

The right, of a man, to free will – the right to select a course of action as a means of fulfilling his desires - is a right given to him by the moral law. He is free to choose any set of values and morals for himself and practice them with no threat and interference from any other man. He is also free not to choose anything. No other man can dictate conditions onto him and can in no way control what he decides to choose. It also entitles him from being free of any implications forced onto him by the society or any traditions or any culture. He is given the right to choose his own destiny.

When a man steps into the phase of his adulthood he embarks on a journey into his end and every step he takes thereafter, before this end, is a selection based on his value judgments or most probably some favorable criteria that guides him to logics and conclusions. He selects every thought he may aspire to continue thinking or any action he may commit. Every dot of the line of his life – right from his conscious living to his end – is freely opted by him and the values of these dots he holds. And he is free to perform all this based on the moral law that supports him with the right to free will.

But when he is free to follow his own will, the same law also prescribes onto him the ruling that he, in no way, can interfere with the same right that has been given to his fellow men too. The law binds him to himself and restricts his choices to his own courses of actions. One man cannot claim the moral right to violate the rights of another. Every man here is equated to every other man.

The right to free will is as necessary to a man as the right to live - living under the dictations of any force and without his will is the murder of man’s dignity and pride. But this right fortifies his self-esteem and elevates his personal level to a civilized being by allowing him to access and assess his own value systems and rationally choose anything that pleases him. This right gives man the power over himself to advance his being in any direction he wants.

Coming to values systems, rationality and directions, there is only one logic that materializes the whole right – ethical morals. If a man chooses a value system for himself that guides him into a direction that may destroy him or the use right itself is ill conceived and a show of immature rationality i.e., irrationality, then he is responsible for opting of ethical values destructive to him. When he chooses a course of action for himself he has chosen to be himself and so the consequent gain or loss is prescribed implicitly into his own credit.

Amongst all the creatures that live on this planet it is only the man that has the ability to act in a way that can reflect his survival instinct as a very weak one. Neither plants nor animals do anything that may result in their own destruction but man keeps doing it - just to clear any doubts of his possible mindlessness. He opts on the basis of his right to free will, intentionally or unintentionally, sometimes the courses of actions which turn out to be in his own disadvantage or even his end. (It is only a man who can commit suicide. Plants and animals never do that. If lower levels of self-destruction are considered, smoking can be taken as an example for that.)

So for a rational man, it is expected from him that the choice he makes about the dots of the line of his life to be an upshot of valid reasoning and purpose and not just a free irresponsible practice of his right to free will. He also stands responsible for all the consequences – good or bad – which are a response to his actions. And if he causes to affect others in an undesirable way or interfere with other’s respective rights, then he is entitled to be under the punishable force of the same law – the moral law.

So finally coming back to the lines of Ayn Rand - though they were in a slight deviation of the context as they were said for a good judge of a court of law, they can be found to describe a rational man who has to make reason based choices rather than answering his desires or emotions or whims or fancies or likeability.

Every claim a man stakes on himself is a simple approval of his inherent instincts that may or may not be good for him in a real honest sense, but what he chooses on self-grown and self-sustained reasoning is coherent and gives the definition of his character which again is implicitly self-opted.

Posted by xubayr at 7:15 AM | Permalink | Comments

“Perfection is such a costly idea well beyond the reach of the average human’s capacity and beyond every realistic sensation he can consume and stay stable”.

I do hear these kinds of impulsive reactions quite a many times when I talk about humans being perfect. The reactions are interesting enough for me to wonder if I can justify my belief that it is very much indeed human to be perfect.

I call this cost inflated, and every notion talking against the belief that flawlessness is not attainable, is speaking my language. It is but a myth that being perfect is impractical and has more of theory than reality. Now, keep this design aside. Let me say “it takes more than a lifetime to get in touch with absolute perfection”. I obviously understand this statement is clearly in contradiction to the above said bunch of just-sown-seeds. Allow me to take an indirect approach to what I intend to simplify, explain and elucidate to anyone who has ridiculed the initiative of being sagaciously realistic perfect with a dash of optimistic and heartily committed flexibility toward the life-picture surrounding his mental freedom.

As long as we know that whatever we know is the absolute truth and that there is no corollary beyond that belief’s working and energy, we are happy and satisfied for what we have known seems to be final. But the moment the next lungful of air says that there is more to it and we are ignorant of the incredibly forsaken facts and the real savoir faire, the peace of mind is destabilized and the uncomfortable desire to know the final is born. Not every person sees this kind of a psychological imbalance but those who like being satisfied and free of possible guilt do. The knowledge of being ignorant is fine but when someone says “I know that I do not know something”, the real fight begins.

And one such cognition we can nurture in our splendidly power-packed minds is that we can transform ourselves into whatever shape we want almost instinctively and in a blink. Here again I go in contrast to what many of us like to hear. When things like “I am happy whatever way I do things”, “why should I change myself?”, “Even if I want to change, I know it’s not easy and I won’t waste my time after it?” are said, all ears are caught attentive because these words sound sweet, and they directly touch our hearts. But the truth is that they simply put forth our mediocre nature openly. We all like being safe and love to see our lives in a ship encountering no rough seas.

When we honestly realize our need to become different from what we are, we create a new kind of energy inside our minds and this energy destabilizes our soul. It generates a new form of waves that immediately substantiate a root level change in the thinking area of our soul. This destabilization is for good because as long as it is there and it is growing we seek newer ways to fight it and reduce it, ultimately finding the right paths to take ourselves nearer to where we want to be. A change in our life is begotten only when this destabilization is encouraged and this in turn can happen when honest realizations are made.

A simple decision is all it takes - a very powerful and determined decision with cent-per-cent commitment. A resolution to mould our self into a new being, the way we want to be is required. Once decided half the work is done. But it’s not at all easy to get committed. For getting committed, inspiration and motivation are required and these are obtained only when success and progress in life are desired. And success and progress are desired only when endless satisfaction accompanied with happiness is sought. And of course for all this it is destabilization that helps – the call for more in life.

Once decided then comes the next step of becoming rigid and flexible to the present and real situations. This is because the change we ask for should be compatible with what exists in real life already. Becoming flexible includes accepting changes around us and not only around us but within us too. When the idea of changing is thought, it should never be taken that it is the other person who has to change to the situation, it should clearly be understood that change is mutual and change begets change.

Then is the process of learning self-existence and finding the area of self-existence. This is necessary and it makes us aware of the faults we have inside us – even the faults we ourselves are not au fait with. This takes a lot of effort on being honest and confident of our knowledge of ourselves. Critiquing ourselves, smiling at our own mistakes, admitting faults and allowing others to speak about us frankly helps us with this process and is as necessary as the whole mental work.

Once we know what we are and what we do, it can’t get more obvious that we need to work on the information we have obtained. The effort in correcting the mistakes is again lot dependent on the rigidity we can show in changing ourselves and all this is a state of mind and subsequently depends on the commitment we show towards the decision we have already made.

The above two steps can give enormous pleasure as the art of self-discovery is learnt and the growth of knowledge on our own behavior is very interesting. Constructive self- criticism is fascinating as it creates a world of enrichment of our soul. Once we are done with this, we are almost done with the change we want. If we still don’t see in us what we wanted to then it must only be that we have not made the right decisions at the initial point itself and there must be no doubt about that. Blaming others for not being able to help ourselves is just a blatant show of adolescent nature even grown-ups make.

It all starts with a choice we make. This choice is like a seed which grows into a big tree and gives fruits. It takes years and lots of nurturing and care. But we being humans always are different than any other creature that exists. Unlike the way we can’t change the tree that has already grown (science is advanced enough to induce required characteristics in the seeds and small plants but not in big trees), we definitely can change ourselves into whatever we desire to. It’s not a perspective you or I have, it’s just a state of mind and an effective decision made.

We all like to have a good image and want to make other people like us. But that requires a reason to make others like us. We need to become what others like without losing our own identity. It’s just in meeting people where they are. When we talk to small children we use simple language and even our tone of voice turns childish. It doesn’t means that we have become a child – we are just meeting that kid at a place where it is. When we talk to our equals, the same can be done. Of course ego has to be beaten here and again a decision is all it takes. It never means falling to a lower level from where we stand, it just means making that person comfortable or making him believe that he is or equal (if not above us).

Things change with time and history is evident of this fact. There were evolutions and revolutions but what made marks in the past 200 years are the revolutions because they have really made a difference to the way people live and die. The differences were socio-political and also in personal lives of people including their relationships with others. It might have taken decades to have these changes made of course and we can’t be patient enough to wait for all that to happen with time. We have to work out our lives for ourselves and keep moving spreading light rather than seeking light.

Revolutionalizing our lives is the need of the hour and again it is the decisions we take that make all the difference. We can’t wait for a life time to happen for ourselves to become perfect, all we have to do is to make many lifetimes happen in our single lifetime. It is all we have, a lot less than a century of life. And we live it cursing others for not being the way we want them to be, blaming others for what we couldn’t become or do in our lives. It’s so simple and easy to do all that. No one likes to take the burden of himself or herself, forget others. And we find clever ways of disdaining our true potential of being absolute perfects.

May be perfection is really not for humans. Why do we have that word then? To describe God? Well I don’t think so. The word ‘perfection’ exists so that we can achieve it and adore it; to strive for it and command it.

All this may well look philosophical and impractical, but as I have once written before, “it is for a man to convert theory into practice”. I won’t really override it here but I’d just add a few more words to it and say, “it is definitely only for a man of mental strength to convert logical and objectivistic theory into practice, and the one who does it, even a bit of it correctly, is perfect and has attained discipline and control in his life. If he has succeeded in getting along all this in combination with his religious fundamentals, then he is truly a man of marvel – a heroic being.”

For the above combination I have once used the word synergy. It means the interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.

I hope the message I had planned is conveyed!

Posted by xubayr at 7:15 AM | Permalink | Comments

Daily  you   go  home  in  the  evening  and  listen  your  favorite  song  several  times  and continue  doing  this  for  several  days.  Then  one  fine  day  you  don’t  get  to  listen  due  to  power  failure.  What  do  you  do?  You  start  humming  that  song  to yourself  and you  are  not  even  aware  of  what  it  is  that  makes  you  do  it.  

Far  across  the  street  you  find  your  beloved  one  and  you  smile.  Though  that  person  is  very  far  from  you,  you  start  smiling  and  also  try  to  keep  your  head  down  not  allowing  him  to  see  the  gleam  on  your  lips.  The  same  happens  to  the  other  person  too.  What  makes  this  happen?

You   are  driving  your  car  and  the  truck  in  front  of  you  stops  suddenly.  You  apply  the  brakes  spontaneously  without  any  thoughts.  What  makes  you  perform  this  action  with  no  thinking?

The  basic  root  level  object  that  differentiates  a  human  from  an  animal,  along  with  some  secondary  others,  is  our  ability  to  use  our  brain,  the  mind,  at  our  discretion;  the  boundless  room  designed  for  evolving  the  authority  commanded  by  the  self  analysis  over  the  internal  and  external  lives  of every  fellow  human  being.   This  biological  machine  that  resides  within  the  hard  protection  of  the  skull  is  single  handedly  the  most  powerful  ingredient  for  the  formulation  of  every  logic  on  which  the  civilized  verve  exists.

The  human  brain  is  virtually  divided  into  two  parts  preferably  called  as  levels.  The  larger  part  is  the  conscious  mind  and  the  other  is  the  sub-conscious  one.  The  sub-conscious  mind  resides  inside  the  conscious  mind.  As  the  words  themselves  explain,  the  conscious  mind  works  in  lines  with  the  way  we  want  it  to  i.e.,  consciously,  and  the  sub-conscious  mind  works  without  our  knowledge. The functioning  of  the  sub-conscious  mind  is  similar  to  the  reflexive  actions  performed  by  our  body,  but  this  level  is  programmed  based  on  the  continually  repeating  behavioral  instances  of  the  conscious  mind.

The  well  known  cliché,  ‘practice  makes  a  man  perfect’,  explains  the  tricky  yet  logical  concept  behind  the  controlled  functioning  of  the  sub-conscious  mind.  Lets  take  the  example  of  an  amateur  basket  ball  player  attempting  to  master  the  left-right-jump  to  throw  the  ball  into  the  basket.  After  the  initial  knowledge  of  handling  the  ball,  running  and  jumping,  he  takes  a  step  by  step  approach  toward  the  game  for  the  required  jump.  At  first  he  gives  all  his  concentration  to  the  placement  of  his  feet  on  the  ground,  then  next  to  the  jump,  and  finally  to  the  throw  of  the  ball  into  the  basket.  He  works  on  the  technique  fully  aware  of  every  move  he  makes.  And  he  repeats  the  complete  process several  times. All  this  he  does  is  consciously  planned  and  executed.  When  he  repeats  this  a  multiple  number  of  times,  he  gains  expertise  and  perfection  on  this  part  of  his  game.  And  now,  whenever  he  attempts  a  left-right-jump,  he  doesn’t  gives  even  a  small  thought  to  the  steps  he  is  taking,  he  is  much  more  concerned  about  the  other  moves  in  the  game.  This  is  all  because  he  has  repeated  the  steps  so  many  times  that  the  process  has  moved  from  his  conscious  mind  into  the  sub-conscious  mind.  It  is  as  simple  as  that!

The  sub-conscious  mind  is  a  sort  of  sub-set  of  the  conscious  mind.  Anything  done  repeatedly  in  the  conscious  mind,  gets  absorbed  into  the  sub-conscious  level.  

The  above  elucidated  example  is  just  a  small  degree  at  which  the  sub-conscious  level  works.  Right  from  the  way  we  speak  to  the  way  we  eat,  every  minute  detail  is  explained  at  this  level  without  any  substantial  knowledge  to  the  larger  and  the  more  crude  level  of  consciousness.  

When  we  dream,  it  is  the  material  in  our  sub-conscious  level  that  gives  us  those  visual  scenes.  When  we  speak,  the  words  we  use,  the  voice  we  speak  with,  and  even  the  body  language  we  sport  is  dependent  on  this  level.  The  way  we  walk,  see,  hear,  react,  respond  to  stimulus,  and  even  the  way  we  think  with  our  conscious  mind  has  the  base  in  the  sub-conscious  level  of  thinking  and  judgment.

This  most  important  reason  for  us  to  be  aware  of  the  working  of  the  sub-conscious  mind  is  that  it  can  be  made  to  behave  the  way  we  want  it  to.  Yes,  I mean  to  say  it  can  be  programmed  to  receive  the  actions  at  our  will.  The  only  obligation  being,  maximum  control  over  the  conscious  mind.  As  I  have  already  explained,  the  functioning  of  the  sub-conscious  level  is  inherited  from  the  conscious mind.  So,  it  instantaneously  becomes  obvious  that  whatever  we  do  consciously  with  repetition  becomes  a  sub-conscious  act.

To  get  to  the  root  of  how  we  can  use  this  in  our  daily  lives,  lets  take  an  example  of  a  business  man  whose  only  desire  is  to  make  more  money  by  wasting  less  time.  He  is  business  minded  and  has  reasons  and  explanations  to  every  act  he  performs.  For  better  understanding,  lets  take  this  man  to  be  near  perfect.  So  now,  what  we  have  in  his  sub-conscious  mind  is  only  business.  When  we  say  that  he  is  business  minded,  we  mean  to  say  that  his  sub-conscious  level  is  business  minded.  When  this  man  wakes  up  in  the  morning  and  sees  the  sunlight,  the  first  question  he  asks  himself  is  how  he  can  use  it  to  make  more  money.  When  he  goes  to  the  bathroom,  he  thinks  of  a  new  business  he  can  create  in  bathroom  accessories.  When  he  eats  his  food  he  wants  the  best  bread  that   would  keep  him  energetic  thorough  out  the  day  so  that  he  can  earn  more.  Everything  he  comes  across  on  his way  to  his  office  makes  him  think  only  of  one  thing – how  he  can  make  more  money  out  of  it.  If  you  are  thinking  that  he  is  mad,  then  let  me  remind  you  that  we  have  taken  him  to  be  a  perfect  business  minded  man.  

His  sub-conscious  mind  has  been  tuned  in  such  a  way  that  every  tiny  thing  he  does  is  in  relation  to  his  business-mindedness. There  is  only  one  ideology  that  controls  his  behavior  with  the  external  word;  his  thinking  is  always  business  oriented;  his  every  action  is  defined  by  the  idea  of  business.  The  concept  of  business  is  so  deeply  rooted  into  his  sub-conscious  level,  that  his  complete  consciousness  works  only  on  the  principles  dictated  by  the  sub level.  So  we  have  a  programming  done  here  which  gives  us  the  definition  for  every  action  of  a  perfect  business  oriented  personality.

How  many  of  us  don’t  have  dreams  and  desires  to  become  a  worthy  person  in  life?  None  will  raise  their  hands  as  we  all  want  something  out  of  our  lives.  So  all  we  have  to  do  is  tune  our  sub-conscious  mind  in  the  right  direction  with  perfect  visions  and  goals.  When  these  dreamt  visions  and  goals  are  desired  again  and  again,  they  get  into  our  sub-conscious  level  and  our  consciousness  behaves  in  accordance  too  these  dreams.  Whatever  we  do  gets  dependent  on  what  we  want  out  of  ourselves.  The  way  we  think,  work,  speak,  even  the  way  we  sleep  gets  in  the  direction  of  the  instructions  given  out  by  the  sub  consciousness  (remember  the  business  man).   So,  when  whatever  we  do  speaks  only  of  our  desires,  and  whatever  we  do  is  just  single  mindedly  oriented  towards  our  goals,  it  becomes  pretty  easy  for  us  to  get  closer  to  accomplishment  of  our  dreams.  Is  this  not  what  we  want?

This  all  perception  is  just  a  realization  of  a  human  as  a  complex  personality.  Who  knows  we  might  well  be  having  many  more  powers  and  senses   yet  to  be  recognized.  Discovery  is  a  never  ending  process  existing  since  the  time  man  came  to  this  earth  as  an  alien  to  it’s  biosphere  and  started  walking  on  it.  Survival  of  the  fittest  is  still  the  in - thing  for  those  who  really  want  extraordinary  life  on  this  biosphere.  Success  is  not  a  matter  of  chance  but  a  matter  of  choice.

Posted by xubayr at 7:12 AM | Permalink | Comments

At times in my life I come across a kind of people and in a blink of an eye I decide I would not like them. Its a simple spontaneous derivation I make out off their first sight and my intuition. Its pretty deliberate and rude; usually making me feel that I have done the right thing by disliking them. I never found an explanation on what makes me develop this scornful attitude toward these people and no matter how much I try I can never get over what I assume at first place. And yes, many times these people in a way have turned out to be sources of harm to me and invariably a pain in my neck. So it works for my good too. But not always.

Now, today I am here to find out what makes me feel such an inhuman sensation. I will write out all the logic I can think of being behind this repulsive submission to an act that seems to be insolent.

It starts with an empty unimportant-looking glance at a person. It is said that every face speaks. It surely does. It does more than just that – it sparks a ‘no’ with a short and obscure ‘n’ and takes the ‘o’ to a length. The ‘no’ is a simple talk by hunch. It sounds meaningless and sordid and is heard only by me.

It could be the face of that person. Or his/her hair. Or anything right from the body language to clothes. Even the person’s voice clicks the instincts if the first glances have failed to. At times the people surrounding that person too play the fuse. And some way or the other after this thing has started I impulsively find a bitterness created in me toward him/her which looks obvious in the way I speak or behave. If by chance, due to compulsions, my instincts do not convert to practicality, the contemn still remains within me though not physically visible.

It can merely be a matter of my tastes, likes and dislikes. It can just be that that the person has confronted me when I am in an unhealthy mood – at the wrong time as it can be said. It could also be the evil in me. Or perhaps its my jealousy that pushes me toward that sort of feeling. (Usually, just usually, we hate people because we infer a jealous stance on them. Then there is an obfuscating difference between hate and dislike that drives some impulses.)

This was about the effects of the first glances. The talk with those ‘special’ persons gives this effect as a continuation or as a start to the pretensions too. I do not like what they say, the way they say, in the tone they say, or in the words they say. Their talk gives an irritation beyond endurance, but still I am compelled to stay calm – I am expected to be calm. Nothing they say appears correct. The words look harsh on ears. Their eyes give soreness in mine. I get an unsavory urge of shouting back with the most ungracious words I can. But I continue with peace – I have my rules.

This can be because of my commitments to several traits I hold. Their talk may find me displeased because I have decided to take it that way. It may be an effect of my decision to dislike that person. It may be because the facts or comments said by that person are true to such an extent that they taste bitter. It can be because I am such an erroneous person that I don’t like to hear good things. I can be because I don’t find that person worthy to teach me – I sometimes feel like asking back who the heck is that guy to preach and tell all that to me. Or I might be a cynic, I may be an obstinate. It may well be the otherwise too – I may be right in doing this.

On some occasions when I find this prejudice not to be a prejudice but something vaguely undefined that has helped me avert a possible harm, all this recreation of possible fallacies comes down to a laughable abstract and only one thing stands out – the ‘me’ who can never be wrong. This has happened and I have felt proud of myself and proud of my intuition. I have thanked God for this presumed knowledge that has helped me. It is of course God who provides such undefined helps.

But when I find this prejudice to be a prejudice and a mistake of my instincts, then I know about the possible breaches in my character and the possible weaknesses I may contain in understanding people. And here I curse myself for committing a foul and destroy any thoughts of the ‘me’ who can never be wrong. What remains is a humble knowledge of my weakness.

Life is not a game that can be played and won – it has to be lived right till the end. If at all there is a victor, it is the ‘we’ who take it to the line and go beyond. If at all there is a loser, it is the life itself that ceases to live when the line is reached. Life ends but we carry on our beings and never end. We are the ultimate and the never-ending. We have been designed that way. Everything else we see and feel will end.

The world is based on assumptions – biased and unbiased. Every fact that comes out is a result of a dim assumption that was made in the first place. We can control the assumptions based on reason, but not the facts that become discoveries. We can control the conclusions to some extents but the reality cannot be altered. All we can do is use the facts and conclusions in a real way, as real as the reality. Getting me? No? What I mean is: have integrity in assumptions and integrity in utilizing the facts and conclusions. This can make or break the whole experiment that can never be lived again. The conclusion is always the eternity.

© 2006 Zubair

Posted by xubayr at 7:11 AM | Permalink | Comments

Right from every person’s understanding of the existence of two kinds of dreams to the interpretation and explication of them, my heart is fairly oblique to the obvious fact that any kind of dream gets everybody astonished, and that astonishment has got me to write this. The two kinds of dreams are of course the one seen when we are asleep and the one imagined in consciousness.

It is not of much concern to me what is dreamt in sleep - it may be an interesting topic all together but it depends on the individual who prefers taking it on with more interesting construal; I happen to take these dreams as an entertainment to me sometimes apart from some amazing ideas I get from them. Otherwise they mean nothing at all.

Every human has some hopes, some wishes and some dreams. Hopes and wishes are usually the lighter forms of dreaming where nothing much is expected out of them. But the dreams – they make the soul take part in a quest for cosmic significance. A dream is like a force in the universe that puts fresh energy back into the system.

Why do we dream? Probably because we feel nice by doing that. Or maybe because of our longing for more comforts in our lives. Or perhaps it is just in the nature of humans to dream. But it can be much better understood as a source that drives people towards success. People are considered successful when they accomplish dreams – of their own and of others. So dreams are probably dreamt to further life or to quench the thirst of the vacuum that is created when we don’t have anything worthwhile in our lives.

We are here today in this modern era for only one reason: because great people in the past have had great dreams which they did accomplish. It was not just in the past that people had great dreams; in the present day too there are innumerable scientists and researchers who constantly dream big and achieve the impossible. It all starts with a small imagination that gets converted into a dream. And this tiny dream becomes the only purpose of life for these people – they live for it and live up to it; successfully.

A true dream is a hope. It is the energy that makes living out of survival. Having a fire in the belly to achieve what has been dreamt is the only way that takes us there – to the apex of our life.

Everyone wants to be successful, have the best in his/her life and have all the desires fulfilled. Seldom are people found victorious in getting what they want. Why does this happen? Why do people fail? Who is to be blamed for the failure people see in getting their dreams fulfilled?

A dream must be an emotional energy – that which comes out from the inside, something undefined yet our own. The dream must be an offshoot of our psychological embodiments that casts a vision – a vision close to our heart, a recreation of our inner strengths in the form of a power that would drive us to a desired end, and a hope that keeps the soul running. The dream must create a fire in our belly. Only that kind of determination can get us to a triumph. Most of us lack this emotional energy, hence the lack of determination and lack of ‘fire in the belly’.
Without fire in the belly, a dream is impossible – it is nothing more than just wishful thinking. When we feel truly passionate about something then we are in dream territory. The right dream drops passion in our guts. It begins from that passion.

Sometimes it dies away. The basic reason is lack of confidence on ones own self. This again is an indication of missing fire in the belly. But sometimes it is because of our background and environment that we fall back from accomplishing our dreams. Even the people who pour in negative material into our ears are a junk that causes only destruction. But we only need one person who believes in us to make the dream a reality. To start with it is better that we are that person ourselves.

People cannot see what we can see, so it’s better that we don’t try to make them see our dream. If they don’t like our dream, it means that they have never learnt to dream anything. Having a dream won’t be easy – nobody will love us more because we see what they don’t.

There are times when we don’t have proper dreams or proper ambitions. This can be because of the same reason why we fail to accomplish our dreams. But we should realize the importance of dreaming; it is the small spark that lights up the fire that gives light to our life. Getting a dream means being unafraid to get emotional: to get to those places where our true feelings and gut urges hide. Too many people are afraid of their feelings and they end up living a tragic lie.

A dream when decided to be pursued becomes a goal when its exact date of accomplishment is written with it. Dreams, or goals, can be short term or long term. All are to be given importance but a better planning of short term ones is essential for the success of the long terms’.

There is one point where people fall short of getting to the right objective or goal in their lives – backward goal setting. People set their goals depending on their past experiences and the experiences of others. They are blinded by the forces that say they can’t do what they want to do. They see short of their potentials and are conservative in their approach towards their lives. They cannot see what they can do, instead they believe only in what has already been done and they trust only the existing capacities. Their dreams are the already accomplished dreams by some other people and they are not their original. These kinds of backward goal setters never make a difference in their own lives, let alone others. The accomplishment of a perfect dream should affect at least every person connected to us if not the whole world.

When the proper dream is dreamt, and a good goal set, there is always a price to be paid to see it get transformed into a reality – not a virtual one, in our imaginations, but in physical reality. Sacrifice, discipline, commitment, perseverance, faithfulness, loyalty. delayed gratification. Feeling nauseous yet? These words conjure up mental images of pain, agony and years of frustration in search of a dream. They’re becoming less and less popular especially to the Leisure – Pleasure Generation of today.

We can see dreams and build castles in the air, it is perfectly alright to do that, but to really live in those castles we need to build foundations beneath them. The higher our castle rests, the bigger and larger the foundation we need. We must be clear about our dream, our aims, our willingness to pay the highest price, and our readiness to go through the kind of pain that the average human being avoids.

Discipline is doing it when you don’t want to do it. Discipline means, apart from anything else, having routines: doing the same things all the times. Not the things that unsuccessful people do, but the things unsuccessful people won’t do. Discipline is the chieftain of requirements to see our dreams being fulfilled.

Bigger dreams are seen by visionaries. These people may or may not complete what they start but they do leave behind something more to be done and dreamt. We are not tiny little unimportant creatures in this world – this world is because of us and our existence in it. Our passion has brought us this far and our dreams will take our march further. We may not last in the world for long but our accomplishments do. What will we get being remembered when we are no more? But if we have our dreams successfully accomplished then it is the present life that will adore us and the satisfaction we obtain will surpass all the materialisms.

Negativity is everywhere – the largest part of it is inside us. It is contagious because people are not conscious of their shortcomings. We ought to clear ourselves of this disease of being small and shortsighted. It’s a crime to let our potentials become suppressed under the weight of our narrow views. This world is for the one who lives feeding himself on his own energy and victory, parasites feed on others and live under others. They have no vision and they leave the world unused.

Imagination and creativity is here to stay. Money is paid for ideas. Those who materialize the ideas are nothing but parasites. Those who come out with these ideas are the victors. Ideas, dreams, visions, goals – they all belong to the same kind – the winner’s kind.

Posted by xubayr at 7:10 AM | Permalink | Comments

It is not that I hate watching television or even dislike it, it has more to do with it’s content that irritates me. Otherwise in every valid case - be it entertainment or knowledge gathering - I love watching television. But when I weigh the merits against it’s demerits, I find television to be more negative on me – in a more objective sense: it irritates me. This, I had felt and thought to have a negative impact on the way I look at the world surrounding me and also within me. The negation is on my mental being and that boils down to my attitude towards life. Apart from the psychological disturbances television creates, the content usually finds me with a stench of scorn – I don’t find it logical in a way that I prefer calling things logical.

I have used the television in many ways. Right from playing video games of all kinds on it – 8 bit to 64 bit, connecting  cassette and CD players and watching movies, and of course the broadcasted channels which are connected to the set via the famous ‘cable’. I desire to discuss the content available through this ‘cable’.

The most decent of the television channels are the news channels. They are just supposed to be the decent but they do a great amount of damage. Every individual news channel can be found to have taken a stance on every particular item and they prove to the viewers that the opinion they have put out is correct. The facts are on the dull side of the game and opinions are given more shine. The spicing up of the facts to the ‘creation’ of news makes or breaks a news channel. They all seem to be in a rat race to increase their TRPs but they do not seem understand that a winner of a rat race is a rat. I somehow feel like asking them back if so much of ridiculous stuff is worth being acquired by our brains and expected to be called as knowledge which is said to be a satisfaction in itself.

Some days back I happened to sit in front of the television. Though I didn’t like myself doing this, I had to do – there were forceful reasons behind. I was watching a news channel which was ‘sharing’ with the viewers the story of an Indian girl getting married to a Pakistani boy. They had met through the internet and they had decided to get married for reasons best known to them-selves as if they can’t find suitable matches in their own respective countries. This was ‘news’ according to that news channel. They were showing all the preparation the girl was making at her residence – the design of henna on her hands, her jewelry, her bridal clothes, and what not. For once I just got the feeling that I was watching the video of some relative of mine getting married! I couldn’t understand how such a personal endeavor can become an occasion worthy enough to be broadcasted on a national channel with millions of viewers watching it.

When I find any useless news on the television I can understand that there was nothing much that had happened that day and the channel is playing with the audience. Then the next day when something fascinating happens, it looks as if these channel people have made that happen.

Then there are the advertisements on these news channels that are shown even while the news is being read. They look more like pop-ups popping out when we use the internet. The only difference is that while using the internet we can have a pop-up blocker to stop them and here we can’t have that privilege.

The music channels are a class in themselves. There are those that belong to the lowest class but command a higher TRP.

Among the several shows that irritate me the most of them are the ones that make the viewer come back to them again. They are like cigarettes with a high content of nicotine in them that pull the smoker back in. The lead in this kind is taken by the daily soaps. This is so obvious that it will be silly for me to elaborate the dumbness of these shows. But I salute the directors and producers of such shows – they know exactly what touches the hearts of the viewers and what can make them feel rather than think. The acting performances make no difference; it is the dialogues and the music. Dialogues induce new vocabulary into the minds of the viewers and they learn how to become more expression-filled when they talk to others (when they get time). The music is the chieftain – no matter how the dialogues are, no matter how the action is, or whatever, music creates the perfect atmosphere. Music creates the mood that fits into the story – sorrowful, threatening horror, romantic or pleasant.

It is not the ask for entertainment that pulls people back to these shows but the curiosity of what’s going to happen next in the story. The ‘next’ keeps coming and more ‘nexts’ follow. The show never ends. The finality is that there is nothing final.

There are quiz shows and those that acknowledge the youth for their impressive knowledge filled minds. I wonder if the knowledge in our brains is more important or the wisdom to know what we got to do to have the relevant knowledge with us. Gifts worth a heck are given to the so-called knowledgeable. I am sure what those people thrive to remember can be found in a hundred rupee book available at the nearest book shop. (Am I supposed to know what made a particular car manufacturing company to give a particular name to it’s new car model? Why should I have concerns with that? Let them name it anything – Sissy Boy or He-Man.)

The movies shown on movie channels are again a confusing lot. They are called block-busters and kind. They are just the movies that was declared flop even before they were released.

The other part of the television: advertisements or commercials. There are people who complain about the number of advertisements the channels air. Do they think the channels are run by some government or a welfare society that intends to entertain people? Don’t they understand the purpose behind the running of these channels? It is all money do doubt.

The advertisements are the most severe irritators to me though I am amused by them at times. The news channels probably give away the air time at a lower cost so the adverts on them are third grade with all the local products being publicized. The adverts are either dubbed from other languages or have idiotic themes and ideas. The local music channels air the most rotten of them.

There are of course those adverts, common to all the channels, which seem to have taken birth in a numbskull’s advertising agency. They make good and branded names silly at times with ridiculous concepts used to advertise them. They take superstar celebrities and create a heck out of them. I remember seeing a top notch Bollywood actor trying to sell hair oil that promises to keep my head cool. I have no objections to that but when a favorite of mine is endorsing a hair oil brand by behaving like a fool on the television, it definitely hurts me. More than half of the adverts are dumb and they are worth not a single watch.

But some people do have brains. I love that commercial of an adhesive wherein a woman is working and her about-two-year-old son keeps running away from her. She brings the child back but he runs away again. Then she finally makes him sit on a box and he doesn’t move! The kid is sitting on a box of that adhesive. There in not a single real dialog spoken but still the advert looks least formidable. The logic of a boy sitting on a box that holds him from moving may look silly but it is entertaining alongside advertising that brand.

There are very few commercials of such kind that boast of a wise explanation of why that product should be preferred over the others. Even if there is nothing wise, there are few that just entertain, with no reason, with no logic, but still have a class in them. The kind of adverts a channel broadcasts makes up for the ‘class’ of that channel. Usually the news channels lack this.

Once I turned on the television set to get the latest updates of a cricket match. It was late night and I had to search for the channel that was relaying the game. I came across 51 of them before I could find what I wanted. But in those 51 channels I saw at least 20 of them showing some advertisement of some product that proclaims itself to be the best that would help us slim down and reduce weight. I was thinking if people have no other work than losing weight. Why are they more concerned about their looks and not their brains?

I once saw the commercial of the shaving razor brand I use. I felt like punishing myself for using that brand. I knew why there was a female model in that advert but I didn’t like her being there. This was just one single instance – even other accessories used only by men have ladies in their advertisements.

We have heard a lot about the negative impacts of the television on our society and also the individuals. The thing that pricks me the most is that I believe the failure of most of the marriage relationships that are taking place now a days are mainly due to this television. The actors and actresses are chosen by the producers from millions - these faces are one in a million – picked up and prepared to look perfect in front of the camera. They appear pleasing and incredible and they make money for the industry. But the viewers cough up their lives sometimes because of the same. When they see perfect faces they expect the same from their spouses. But of course their spouses are not one in millions; they are not perfect and as pleasing as the ones seen on the television screen. The expectations are hurt and the relationships broken. It happens directly or indirectly.

The language used in many soaps; the vocabulary – everything; the plots, the sequences – they are all related by the people with their own lives and they don’t imagine the loss as a result of this. It results in people having lesser trust in their spouses. This, in a way, creates a communication gap. The difference between hate and dislike is forgotten, the relationship is lost.

The most beautiful relation created by God is destroyed by a nuisance called The Television. It is not the television exactly but the content that does the damage and harm.

Have people lost their ability to decide what is right and wrong? Have people failed to realize that what can entertain them can also destroy them? Have people been so ignorant of the consequences of becoming couch potatoes?

I have nothing against those who watch television. They can decide for themselves. I am much concerned with myself and I have decided that I will keep away from it. Yes, sometimes it becomes necessary for me to have a look at it when there is something important being shown. And once in a while I do sit in front of it. But I hardly switch it on by myself except on rare occasions. I am glad this thing couldn’t carry me away from my consciousness.

Every person needs some kind of entertainment and it is his/her right. But anything that can be a means of destruction to him/her must be condemned. The whole of television is not bad. It has many good advantages. These kinds of merits and demerits have been discussed at many places. My purpose of writing this was to share why I prefer having the demerits speak for me as a source of drive for me that stops me from watching it.

Keeping away from the television gives me a lot of extra time and helps me have a better commitment towards my parents. Though sometimes I find myself ignorant of some facts shown on the television but it gives a kind of pride to me – not knowing something because I don’t watch television. I am glad to be ignorant about the hit movies now a days, and also the names of many movies. I feel great when someone asks me if I have seen some advertisement and I say I haven’t.

The bottom line: I love not watching television – it is a satisfaction in itself.

Posted by xubayr at 7:09 AM | Permalink | Comments