Abhijit Naskar's Blog - Posts Tagged "peaceful-coexistence"

“Now more than ever the hateful, intolerant, separatist bigots need our help, for they are ill, terribly ill. They are suffering from a condition, I call, Clinical Culturitis. So next time you see one, offer them a flower, and say – get well soon!”

“Get Well Soon (The Sonnet)

Upon absorbing all cultures into my blood,
I realize, the supreme culture is love.
Upon studying all scriptures as my own,
I realize, the supreme gospel is love.
Even after speaking six languages,
I say, the supreme language is love.
Upon observing all political ideologies,
I say, only ideal worth submission is love.
Unfolding the neural underpinnings of behavior,
I realize, seed of civilization is love.
Unraveling the cellular mysteries of life,
I realize, existence oughta be a record of love.
Tiny-brained know-it-alls will still yell,
their culture beats all, like some tipsy loon.
To which all I can say is – get well soon!”

Khalsa means freedom from hate,
Khalistan means nationalizing hate.
Christ stands for love and compassion,
Christian nationalism is Christ’s death.

Sanatana Dharma is advaita sanskriti,
that is, a culture of nonsectarianism,
Hindutva means mindless saffronization.
Islam means working for peace and welfare,
Islamism is the ruin of synchronization.

Intolerance is a worldwide pandemic,
only terminologies vary culture to culture.
Vaccine for the mightiest swords of hate,
is the gentle glint of one heart, hatebuster.

Give me ten unarmed transformers of love and light,
I shall wipe out hate from its roots of fright.

From Karbala to Kurukshetra, from Jerusalem to Chanakkale, light of truth has never submitted to the howling audacity of divisive animality – then why should you? Remember, there is a karbala in each of you, there is a kurukshetra in each of you, there is a jerusalem and chanakkale in each of you. And till you accept defeat out of your own free will, not a force in the world can dampen the daring advances of love and reason.

So, get up – get out – and get lost!

Wanna lead the world? First learn about the world – get so lost in the struggles of each and every people of planet earth, that you forget where you came from altogether – get so lost in the struggles of the people of earth, that for the first time in life you start to breathe as a whole human being – get so lost, that for the first time you see the light of dawn not as a puny slave to puny borders, but as the civilized maker of a civilized world.

Over the years I have walked and explored various uncharted territories of integration, but for some inexplicable reason, I find myself drawn back to my psychological homebase – to my original intervention – the original purpose for which Naskar was born – the purpose of religious assimilation.

That is why, atheism has never been the focus in any of my work. If your own exploration of nature and the universe makes you outgrow the influence of ancestral myths, that’s great – if not, it doesn’t matter to me one bit. So long as you are a decent human being, your psychological necessity of a personal deity or the lack of it, is irrelevant outside our personal life.

If you stop believing in God, that won’t magically make you a better person than you already are – in the same way – if you start believing in God, it won’t magically make you a better person than you already are. Neither faith nor intellect makes a person good – if a person is good, they know how to use their faith or intellect for good. So, I repeat, what’s needed, is not the end of religion, but the end of religious intolerance.

In some circles, I am called a genius,
Yet the only genius I know of is service.
In other circles, I am branded fraud,
Yet the only fraud I know of is prejudice.

Saying, you’ve explored my work,
after spending an evening scrolling
through a few quotes, is like saying,
you’ve climbed Mount Everest,
after spending an evening scrolling
through pictures of the Himalayas.

Yet I can tell you who I am,
I don’t need a million lines but one.
Iman insaniyat, mazhab muhabbat*;
Pani, agua, water, it’s all one.

Take my Bible, Koran & Vedas,
Take my Origin of Species.
Throw me to the fires of hell,
My life will still smell of roses.

(*faith humanity, religion love)

They ask me,
why do you speak for so many cultures,
when you are not born in those cultures?
So I asked the sun,
why do you share your light with earth,
when you are not born of earth?

The sun told me,
o ye of little mind, don’t you know,
light is not mine to give!
Light is the intrinsic right of life,
I am merely accessory to the motive.

I exist when you exist;
You exist, therefore I exist.
Shared existence is only existence,
Scared existence is existence ruined.

The lines between neuroscience, philosophy, poetry, theology and sociology do not exist in my works. Divisions exist only in the world of amateurs – the deeper you go in mind, the more undivided you become, until you finally realize, it’s all one.

It’s not enough to outgrow the divisions in culture, we must also outgrow the divisions in intellect. For example, if you think theology is all about the supernatural, it doesn’t mean the entire field of theology is nonsense, it just means, you are studying the wrong kind of theology – you are stuck with an archaic notion of theology. Likewise, if you think science is all about cold facts and figures, then you are studying the wrong kind of science – you are stuck with an archaic notion of science.

Till you develop a common humane ground underneath your feet, all the facts and all the faith won’t do you any good.

You don’t have to agree with a person
completely, to love them – accept them.
There are a few, I disagree with plenty,
yet till death, I’ll fight for them.

Not all that Rumi wrote apply today,
yet I love Mevlana like my own brother.
Even more of Aquinas are out of date,
yet like a friend I love my Thomas.

Heart doesn’t care about consensus of the brain,
Heart only cares for an inexplicable closeness.
Intellect has no bearing over heart’s closeness,
Often intellect is a barrier to life’s wholeness.

Intellect is boon, but only when it helps wholeness.
Being right is not necessarily the mark of goodness.

I know people who use God
as excuse for hate and war.
I know people who use God
as inspiration for love and peace.

I know people who use Science
as excuse to be cold and inhuman.
I know people who use Science
as means to be warm and responsible.

It’s neither God nor Science,
that causes coldness and war.
In the hands of a selfish ape,
Science and God are equally impotent.

But when it’s a responsible human
that wields either God or Science,
You can rest assured of one thing,
nothing can dent their humanness.

I’ll tell you plainly – I don’t believe in a supreme being, but if you do, and your belief helps you be a better human, I’ll fight for your belief till my last breath. But if your belief is your excuse for intolerance and fanaticism, then you’re my child, and I am your judgment.

The same goes for those intellectual buffoons who take logic as licence to condescension. Militant atheists and religious fundamentalists are both animal retards – they belong in a museum of medieval and modern artifacts, not on civilized streets.