Hinduism is not a Religion .

Religions have always been at loggerheads with philosophers and their advice to mankind. Christianity and other mainstream religious theology always wanted to remain as the undisputed King & queens of ethics and morality. Even after moving from the Gothic arches of the dark ages - the medieval Cathedrals, to the neo-Gothic modern towers of online biblical teachings, they want to even control the air- waves, with their commandments.

In ancient Hinduism and the Vedanta Philosophy which is not a religion but a way of human life - it is a treatise, a teaching one how best to care for the soul. The Upanishads like the philosophy of Epicurus Aristotle etc, taught mankind how to eliminate anxiety and irrational desires to lead a life of happiness. Living in accordan

ce with one’s own virtues is the goal of human life.

Vain is the word of the religious clergy who quoting their holy scripture can not heal any suffering of mankind. Even the commandments have largely lost the robust connection to human life and reality and are just a cramped box of permissible and non-permissible deeds. There is little that looks like it is capable of healing and it seems to promise the opposite.

Hinduism and ancient Vedanta’s ethical work in contrast offers guidance to “the whole of human life” not just questions of right and wrong. They share a commitment to life that develops and perfects the human capacity for reason cultivating the virtues of courage, temperance and compassion being a few.
The basic metaphysical truths of life were offered for contemplation to everyone, unlike the dense theories of religions which differed technically in each faith and advocated living in accordance to its fixed tenets. Vedanta and the Upanishads is basically ancient philosophy which focused on living well and is flexible.

Only when one has a completely grounded philosophical understanding on the embedded truth of how to live, can one find a fully satisfactory life as a human being. Unlike other religions or science there are no pre-determined answers for; What should I believe? How should I seek salvation? Or How should I live? It teaches what matter most in life and you are left alone to answer your questions. –VINAY-

Sincerity.

How a moral ideal born 500 years ago inspired religious wars /hipster chic/ modern art/stories and the curious notion that we all have something to say no matter how dull.
Somerset Maugham once stated “ I don't think you want too much sincerity in society," It would be like an iron girder in a house of cards." Extreme frankness is often called "brutal," after all, and unbridled truth-telling at all times and in all places would probably result in bloodletting.

Sincerity—broadly speaking, the alignment of outer and inner selves—would seem to be essential to the modern conception of a virtuous life.Sincerity was eventually elbowed aside by the need for authenticity, a more strenuous moral experience that responds aggressively to receive moral opinion.

Confronting one's innermost thoughts or emotions and relaying them to others straightforwardly, no matter how relevant to the topic, injurious to one's own reputation, or embarrassing—or however correct or incorrect. Freud helped push love and sacred marriage in this direction, by replacing the traditional 'holy space' reserved for the reception of fidelity in wedlock and discovery of God with drives for sex, violence, death, and pleasure. Rousseau, always saw man without civilization and religion as happy and good, you don’t need God or religion to teach you morality.

Our frustration with insincerity, he says, is itself disingenuous—a kind of performance of upright moral sensibility. The Puritan emphasis on sincerity, led to a climate of suspicion and misanthropy, the truly sincere person ends up understanding that he is always lying. Hardly anyone including the Vicar comes close to the ideal of sincerity all the time; yet our false beliefs about our own honesty keep us from lying even more.

Excerpts from conversations and article in Life and culture –Daniel Akst and R. Jay Magill.

Spirituality is not Chicken Soup for the Soul. Spirituality is not a search for experience or meaning in one’s life. It is not something mysterious or profound- it can be arrived at by contemplation rather than meditation. It emanates from the heart, prodding the mind and it is not an intellectual or divine phenomena. Spirituality is the search for the real being that is inside you, and with that knowing, there is no urge- no need to seek for any purpose. With the knowing of the inner true reality, the authentic being, all search ceases. Spirituality is all about living a life that gives you satisfaction, one that truly makes you happy, it is then that you are at peace with yourself and the universe around you. Spirituality must connect you to your desires and choices. Once you have come in contact with your deepest core, you can live an ordinary life, but the emptiness will remain with you, a sense of worldly solitude. There is no enlightenment or nirvana. –Vinay-

Spirituality is not Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Spirituality is not a search for experience or meaning in one’s life. It is not something mysterious or profound- it can be arrived at by contemplation rather than meditation.
It emanates from the heart, prodding the mind and it is not an intellectual or divine phenomena.
Spirituality is the search for the real being that is inside you, and with that knowing, there is no urge- no need to seek for any purpose. With the knowing of the inner true reality, the authentic being, all search ceases.

Spirituality is all about living a life that gives you satisfaction, one that truly makes you happy, it is then that you are at peace with yourself and the universe around you.

Spirituality must connect you to your desires and choices. Once you have come in contact with your deepest core, you can live an ordinary life, but the emptiness will remain with you, a sense of worldly solitude. There is no enlightenment or nirvana. –Vinay-

Tantric Mythology and Sex.

In the ancient Hindu, Greek and Russian mythological texts it urges man to indulge in our baser instincts like anger, violence sex – as venting and dissipating these energies conforms to the needs of the spirits within us.

A number of great sages, philosophers, writers, artists and poets also endorse this view. With regards to carnal and lustful passions, the pagan sense of sex – which is the primal flux, the DNA of our very existence. There is no resolution for the soul’s confusion, as our lives are divided into two emotional realms – one towards separation and individuation and the other towards connection and union.

It is only after we have satisfied the cravings of one’s physical desires that one can transcend into the higher realm i.e. sex in the cosmic sense from the genital one.
Like Dante who also found himself lost in the dark woods, in the middle of his life – but also emerged to see the stars, having discovered that love is what makes the world move and go around, and this is how he truly lived.

Thoreau also echoed similar sentiments when he said “We are all living lives of quiet desperation” or in today’s context noisy desperation, the conflict between carnal and ethical explodes in our faces. Most of us are not liberated in the real sense, real freedom frightens us.

We follow patterns, set for us by our parents, prurient religious, or an overtly moralistic society that weighs our morality against our desires.
Sexual liberation is the actual drive that leads us toward transcendence- it enriches our life and solves our creative crisis at the fag end of our lives.

Puritans and clergy will disagree and may even frown on the real freedom of our untamed energy and its link to the primal force of sex. They may even classify Dionysus (God of fertility & merriment) and Bacchus as a band of drunken monks and the epitome of vulgarity, but the spark of desire will always be inextinguishable – Vinay-

Exploring the world of Vedanta

The Vedas are world’s oldest composite literature on religion, science, humanities and spirituality, yet they are not treated as sacred in the biblical sense and as it is secular. It is a priceless intangible, and unique mystical world view of that era. It has documented mans culture, fear and misery as a sort of reflection of the Rishis of yore. It deals with our attachment to our wild side and the sensual world we inhabit with all its inbuilt suffering. The universe has sculpted our connection with life forms and solidarity with sentient and insentient beings. Earth is a picture where ideological and political crimes are carried out everyday, a cruel place despite humans who are instilled with humanity inhabiting it. The world is a merciless place, inhabited by, cruelty, consumption, hatred lust, violence and untold misery. Life is full of great joy and intense pain, we have lost something both aesthetically and ethically with the shift of the ages from that era to our modern culture, and we are on the brink of losing a priceless intangible heritage. Mans condition to protest against this human condition is to protest or pray to God, as they live their entire lives in the reflected glory of religions as part of a celebrity posse, losing their own identity in the process- hope exploding into despair the external theme of faith and religious becoming the setting for absurdity. Religions, symblolise hope and despair to which mankind is forever subjected. Our relationship are filled either with great happiness or intense sorrow shared with lasting pain, it is here that the Vedas helps us learn about life. When we are stripped down to own bare bones and the road ends, when nothing leads anywhere, and religious hope and despair become equally groundless- then the Vedas helps us to reclaim our lives. As humans our life is nothing but a slow journey through detours of bliss and intense sorrow the simple understanding which unless you surrender to nature the world refuses to answer these meanings. We must move into the solitude and silence of our inner self to perceive the images whose presence our hearts opened up in the first place. What a fascinating world, its starkness like the desert that is within us, with a vast expanse of silence is the real beauty. Order and reason, the will to survive, the imperious obstinacy to change, all these secrets are revealed, the happiness in those mystical moments of nature, the simple pleasures and to re organize our life’s priorities till we can treat death itself is a triumph over our spirits. It is all there in the Vedas. –Vinay-

Where Love Has Gone it goes with you Danny…. -Harold Robbins-

Love, creativity and the Universe will always remain a mystery. It has intrigued theologists, philosophers and mankind, who keep wondering about it all the time. Love is the tragic influence in our human lives, a hostile relationship like a drug, in which we cannot control the hallucinations of desire and hate. The world is full of suffering lovers who converge easily, but with the passage of time diverge diagonally and as the sweet music ends- they no longer want the strings attached to the instruments of their love.The alchemy of the initial rhythm and mellifluous sweet thoughts that made them tango disappears in the utter tedium and futility of everyday life. As the crescendo of the love balled comes crashing down to expire on the rocks (pun intended) the images remain shattered and totally desolate. We go on living in quiet desperation even though the page is blank and bereft of letters or meaning. We wonder where the love came from and where it has gone. In this life we love many and one, it is as if the truth was an illusion built on a shaky foundation of trust. When did love alter is course like the river, what happened to all the obstacles/compromises we made to hang on, it couldn’t stop the relationship snaking away like a strong current leaving one bleary and starry eyed. Like a sputtering candle in the tempest it burns brightly then blows out and our lives become a blurred waking shadow of memories. The river of love flows into the larger ocean of life, the tears mingle with water and are everywhere but the river is no more. We wonder where it went, did someone take possession? We will never know, we return to the faded memories, like the rustling trees and rivers of our youth- to view lost love, reminisce with sensibilities on a deeper philosophical plane. The idyllic universe, that existed briefly, when we had time for loving and thoughtful individuality- deepening the intimacy before being snuffed out. Death, love, loss, expectations and regret are the deeper issues we face in our world- tinged with a sense of mild incomprehension as to what life is all about. –Vinay-

Awaken Your Ego.

Everywhere in discussions and beliefs it is propounded to kill the ego which is portrayed as a stumbling block in life and progress. According to Freud’s theory, ego has three parts Id, Ego and Superego. Id is the instinctive part (involuntary & spontaneous) which contain the basic drives and pleasure principles. Ego is the organized and realistic part, as one matures this part learns to endure pain, and defer gratification (satisfaction/ fulfillment) indulging only when necessary. Super ego is the critical and moralizing part which is the dangerous part as it can bring in a sense of false pride self idolatry in nature. All religions preach denial of the ego, this is because they do not want individual but herds and your own identity becomes extinct, and we become meek as ants. Ego is so delicate like a flower that praise tends to make it bloom while discouragement often nips it in the bud and resentment sets in. Ego is definitely required for survival in this planet. “I “and individualism is not a failing, it promotes yours own identity and a healthy distinctiveness. Your ego represents your assertion of your unique self to attain your objectives in life. The laws of nature cannot deny your existence, so treat it as a positive state as it provides sustenance for achieving personal excellence and in charting one’s life on our own terms. Even animals have awareness, instinct driven, the Lion is the king of the jungle, and they know fear but not greed. All creative people have hung onto their ego to follow their inner calling, passion, or creativity, because everyone is born with his or her own unique talent in their respective fields. Ego helps to develop lateral thinking to raise the bar for excellence and overcome adversity stimulating growth. It helps you lead your life with higher values, walk the talk, to be successful, happy and communicate yours vision. Killing ego is killing yourself a sort of spiritual hara-kiri – Vinay-.