Abhijit Naskar's Blog - Posts Tagged "interfaith"

“Be the proof of integration,
When prejudice is the tradition.
Devise your own inclusive destiny,
When heritage is rooted in division.”

“Islamophobia doesn’t disappear simply because you choose to close your eyes. Can you stand by a dehumanized muslim, against the bigoted barbarians of your own culture, and speak out at the top of your voice and conviction – I am a muslim, just as much as I am a christian – I am a muslim, just as much as I am a jew – I am a muslim, just as much as I am a buddhist – hindu – or atheist? Can you? Because, until every threat to the welfare of the dehumanized humans actually, genuinely, internally feels like a threat to your own family, no phobia will ever come to an end – no hatred will ever face demise. Till every culture, every country, every corner of the planet, becomes our own culture, our own country, our own home, there is no peace, there will never be peace. And this, my friend, is called practical divinity, practical sufism, practical nondualism, and practical humanism. Or better yet, this is the ism beyond all isms – this is the ism that concerns the life, laughter and loveliness of the entire humankind – this – is humanity.”

'Let us just be human,
This year, and every year.
With this hate-defying hope,
I wish you a happy new year."

“Just Need to Be Human (The Sonnet)

You don’t need to be an arab to stand by
the muslims, you just need to be human.
You don’t need to be an immigrant to stand up
against hate crime, you just need to be human.
You don’t need to be a woman to stand up
to misogyny, you just need to be human.
You don’t need to be a queer to stand up
to phobia, you just need to be human.
You don’t need to be colored to defy
discrimination, you just need humanity.
You just need to be not stupid enough,
to confuse diversity with pathology.
Every person we meet is our neighbor.
We cannot exist as human beings,
till we wipe each other’s tears.”

"Writers have limits, I don’t, I am not a writer. I am a dimension immeasurable – siphon all you want, I won’t run dry."

“The Immeasurable Dimension (Sonnet 1014)

During my bouts of nirvikalpa samadhi or trance,
I have no perception, which language I’m writing in.
When the trance breaks and normal awareness returns,
It looks less like literature ‘n more like exotic cuisine.
It is not only difficult but plain impossible to adapt
the immeasurable to the measures of a prison camp.
So I rewrite the original light simplified by love,
Hoping it may reach the heart across cultural handicap.
Handicap of culture is a choice, it’s not your destiny,
Only you can sign the release orders from your imprisonment.
We cover our eyes from the evil outside and its cure inside,
Then we run here and there chasing fictional treatment.
There is a dimension immeasurable intrinsic to every human mind.
Be immersed within, and you shall rise with an immeasurable light.”

Secularism has three stages. First, you realize, all religions pray to the same God. Second, you realize, God exists only in the human heart. Finally, all talk of God disappears, and what remains among the humans, is a natural sense of oneness.

Every sapiens is atom bomb,
Every sapiens is a power plant.
Reckless mind is mayhem machine,
Hateless mind is lightland.

Land of love is godland,
There’s nothing else more divine.
Divinity is but a lesser synonym,
There’s no god, only lover divine.

Aşk vatanımdır,
Milliyetim aşık.
Benim adım insan,
Benim adet insanlık.

Faith is subordinate to love,
Philosophy is subordinate to love,
Science is subordinate to love.
Until you feel it in your bones,
You’ve got plenty dust to wash off.

La fe está subordinada al amor,
La filosofía está subordinada al amor.
La ciencia está subordinada al amor,
Sentir esto en tu alma es ser humano.

Everybody loves Rumi,
I learnt his tongue,
So I could pick up where he left off.
Better than basking in borrowed light,
Is to be an original light to the world.

Everybody yells, viva la libertad,
I learnt el idioma, so I could
humanize the paradigm of revolution.
Everybody loves Indus valley diversity,
Annitiki munde anni shaashtralu nerchkunnanu,
So I’m never out of spice for my humanitarianism.

Everybody loves boasting about their culture,
I spent years making all the cultures my own.
Thus my strength was amplified a thousand folds,
My sight expanded beyond all norms of vision known.

Polyglots have more fun – there is no question.
When science, poetry and polyglottery come together,
That’s the beginning of a paradigm bending revolution.

“Ramazan Söz (Şiir)

Ramazan yani sabır,
Ramazan yani sevmek.
Ramazan yani saadet,
Ramazan yani rahmet.

Ramazan bize umut verir,
Ramazan yapar cesur.
Hadi gelin, bayram edelim,
Affedelim her geçmiş kusur.

Ramazan yani bir ilahi söz,
Rahmetten vazgeçmem, söz verdim.
Bu ramazan ve her ramazan,
İnsanın evine insana hoş geldin.

Ramadan is resurrection of a promise divine,
Festival of one people is festival of humankind.
Ramadan is the end of all feelings unkind,
Ramadan is a human being a human’s lifeline.

Rahmat is an act of azan,
Rahmat is what makes us holy.
When Rahmat and Azan manifest as one,
That’s the beginning of Ramazan,
Christmas and Deepavali.”

Discipline of the Sikh,
Enthusiasm of the Christian,
Brotherhood of the Muslim,
Nonviolence of the Jain,
Senility of the Buddhist,
Groundedness of the Hindu,
Rationality of the Atheist,
Resilience of the Jew –

Take the good from everyone,
Mind expands through assimilation.
Past errors mustn’t continue as tradition,
Oneness is divinity, division is damnation.

Dear believer, I don’t believe in an Almighty God.
Do you hate me for it? If yes, you have
learnt nothing from your faith.
Dear atheist, I don’t believe in supremacy of facts.
Do you hate me for it? If yes, you have
no mind but machine, my friend.

Everybody has imaginary friends,
My imaginary friend is my late teacher,
And I find it therapeutic to talk to him,
Whenever I hit rock bottom during disaster.

Quite like air, water and food,
It’s something we humans need to survive.
Last thing this world needs is more war
to prove whose imaginary friend
bears the greatest of might.

Militant atheists are no more humanist,
than religious fundamentalists are religious.
Secularism is not the absence of religion,
secularism is the absence of religious intolerance.

Naskar the scientist says,
Science that lifts no human condition,
is not science but superstition.
Naskar the monk says,
Inclusion is illumination,
discrimination is delusion.

Naskar the philosopher says,
Better lose truth, than lose humanity –
Better lose truth, than lose love.
Naskar the sufi says,
Sense yourself till
you sense nothing but love.

Naskar the humanist says,
I don’t care about your belief or disbelief,
all I care about is your behavior with others.
Naskar the humanitarian says,
each human must earn their admission
into the human race with humane actions.

The spirit of love speaks of love,
no matter the faith and field.
Hate is but a mark of narrowness –
When you expand heart and soul,
whole world becomes kin and kith.