Myths in Philosophy

Myth 1: There is no God.
Fact: If I were to say, "There is no intelligence behind your mobile. Some metal and plastic parts, by accident, came together to form your mobile."; people would laugh at me. An Atheist says, "There is no intelligence behind this world. The human beings, animals, plants, earth, sun, seasons, etc are a result of pure accident/evolution."; yet some people believe the atheist. There exists some kind of intelligent creator. We don't know anything about this Creator. For convenience we can give any name to this Creator. One of the names given, for the sake of convenience in conversation, is God.

Myth 2: Meditation bliss is hallucination.
Fact: Across the world, in different ages, the meditation bliss is described by meditators in the same way; a hallucination is not experienced by different people, at different times, in exactly the same way.

Myth 3: This Ram or Krishna or Allah or Jesus is God.
Fact: No such evidence exists; When it is proven scientifically, we shall believe it.

Myth 4: God is all powerful. There is hell or heaven after death.
Fact: Again, this has not been proven scientifically. So any such belief is superstition.

Myth 5: God created religions (Hinduism, Muslims and Christianity)
Fact: Religions were created by Humans. Idols (Ram, Krishna, etc) were made by humans. The Bhagwad Gita and Vedas of Hinduism, were written by some human. The Koran of Muslims is a product of human mind. The Bible of Christians was written by some human(s). So to ask questions like "What does Gita/Vedas/Bible/Koran say about this? What is the meaning of this sentence in these books? etc" are meaningless; because they assume that the Gita/Vedas/Koran/Bible is perfect, cannot be improved and we have to follow it.

Myth 6: A Guru is necessary of Spiritual progress.
Fact: An inquiring mind can learn from a bird, forest or nature.

Myth 7: God punishes or rewards us for our actions.
Fact: Every action has a reaction e.g. If I jump from a tree, I will fall down and likely hurt myself. So why involve God here?

Many more myths exist, but I have mentioned the common myths above. Religion is primarily used to exploit the weak. Any spiritual leader or religion, who/that propagates above myths, is either ignorant or a fraud.

Governments like war

Nations like enemies, that way people are distracted from the real enemy i.e. "Their government" e.g. India keeps saying that Pakistan is causing terror in India; Pakistan keeps saying that Muslims are harassed in India. Who benefits from these allegations? The answer is both the governments for India and Pakistan. The people tend to tolerate the tyranny of their own governments, when they are distracted by external threats. So all governments, all over the world, almost always are at war (in some form) with some country. It benefits the governments, at the cost of the people.

John Lennon had a wonderful song, where he says "Imagine a world without countries"

Governments encourage "desh-prem" or "nation love", because it allows the governemnts to exploit the citizens. Leo Tolstoy said, "In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful."

Replace "Touching of feet" with "Namaste"

At one time, India had the practice of "Sati". Now this practice is almost extinct. We need to constant change for the better. I suggest one more improvement here.

India has the custom of "touching the feet" of elders and religious people. This practice is humiliating. I personally feel embarrassed, when someone bows before me to touch my feet. I dislike touching the feet of any person. So I suggest that we replace this ancient practice with saying "Namaste" with folded hands. Elders seldom discourage "Touching of Feet" because many of these sadistic individuals enjoy humiliation of others.

"Namaste" means "I bow to the divine in you". So any person can say "Namaste" to anyone e.g. a father to child, a child to father, a mother to daughter, a daughter to mother, a saint to criminal, a criminal to saint; etc.

Let us commit to replacing "Touching of Feet" with "Namaste". A change always begins with one person. Even if the entire group is following the humiliating practice of "Touching the feet", let us try not to follow the group.

Let us improve the world, one small change at a time. I commit not to touch the feet of anyone else, nor allow anyone else to touch my feet.

Vedanta vs Atheism

A father had a small conversation with his five year old daughter.

Dad: I have NOG!
Daughter: Where is it?
Dad: You can't see it. It is invisible.
Daughter: Can I touch it?
Dad: It cannot be felt by the skin. It is untouchable.
Daughter: Can I smell it?
Dad: It has no smell.
Daughter: Can I hear it?
Dad: Nope.
Daughter: Can I taste it?
Dad: It is tasteless.
Daughter: Describe NOG to me.
Dad: NOG is so subtle that is beyond thoughts. Your thoughts cannot think of it. NOG is beyond understanding of humans.
Daughter: What does NOG do?
Dad: Nothing.
Daughter: There is no NOG.

Children are unbiased; they tend to arrive at truth sooner than biased adults.
Vedanta is traditional Hindu philosophy. Vedanta says God (Brahman) cannot be seen, touched, smelt, heard or tasted. God is beyond mind and intellect. So humans cannot think about it or understand it. God is doerless (akarta) i.e. God does not perform any action.
Atheism says there is no God.
What then is the difference between Vedanta and Atheism? None, as far as our behavior in this world is concerned. So the comparison, "Vedanta vs Atheism", is meaningless. What really matters in this world is, "Is the person virtuous?"
A virtuous person, sooner or later, thinks "Who am I?" In meditation (both a Vedantin and Atheist) experience the answer. Then again, there is no difference between the two.

RBI drops interest rates

Today RBI dropped interest rates by 0.5%. In India M3 money supply or inflation is 11.2%, during the last 12 months, as per RBI. Dropping interest rates means higher inflation. So was dropping interest rates the right action?

There is deflation in the world. Governments hate deflation because it means lesser tax revenues. Foolish people hate defaltion because their income falls. Smart people like deflation because the purchasing power of their existing currency rises.

Governments all over the world e.g. Russia, Brazil, Venenzuala, etc and now India combat deflation by devaluing their currency; lower interest rates means that currency will become less valuable. Inflation is a form theft; it steals from savers to the benefit of debtors. The only way to protect yourself is by investing in physical assets like gold and silver.

How to access a blocked site?

Indian government has blocked access to many web sites. The official reasons are piracy, anti-national, etc. When you access these web sites, you will get a message similar to "Your requested URL has been blocked as per the directions received from Department of Telecommunications, Government of India. Please contact administrator for more information."

If you are still interested in accessing that web site, then please download and install Tor Browser. This browser accesses the web site via a network of other computers. So no governemnt can track or block access via this browser.

Nitin Gadkari's plan will make India poor.

Nitin Gadkari, transport minister of India, is borrowing a huge number of dollars (Reference). He will use these dollars to build roads, highways, tall skyscapers, etc. Reference. This act will mostly benefit Gadkari and his close friends; the indian citizen will be stuck with a huge debt to be paid back in foreign exchange.

I would have no problems with these constructions if a private party was building them; because then the Indian citizen does not have to repay the loans. I would have a much smaller problem, if Gadkari was borrwowing in rupees and payment was to be made back in rupees. This way at least the profits will remain in India. But, Gadkari is borrowing in foriegn exchange. This is a big problem. Indian rupee has been falling. It will likely continue to fall. So this means Gadkari's plan will drive India to bankruptcy.

Highways, tall buildings, etc primarily benefit a select few; while the whole country is laden with debt. So Gadkari's plan needs to be discussed in more detail before implementing the same.