History and Human Being

Human being is a historical being. None of us claim to be in existence without an historical element present in the veins. In other words, whether a human being wants or not becomes a part of history with existence. The moment something comes into existence it carries the history with it and in the moment of death it leaves the history back in the world.

                Why History is so important? Life is a process comprising of all living beings. What do I mean? Birth and death occur eternally again and again. There is no end to the process of life. In this sense, life is a gradual climbing. It is a climbing from what we are not to what we are and what we will be. All that happened paves the path for the future to live the present authentically with hope. In other words, the present as it is evolved from the past and the present in its entirety can be known with its connection with the past. The moment we cut ourselves from the history, human being maps his downfall and collapse.

                The history demands that human being is prudent as to what to take and what not to take. History as it evolved can be seen from two view points: False History and Authentic History. The former is a history that paved way for the downfall of man due to evil, world wars, iniquity, wickedness, crime and the latter is a history that paved way for the emergence and up rise of man due to its source of inspiration for the future. A perfect epitome of History (false and authentic) would be that of Gandhi and Blagangadhar Tilak. In the struggle for achieving freedom, Gandhi wanted to achieve through Non-violence and Tilak through Violence. 

Experience of God

 Is it possible to experience God? Experience of God becomes impossible because, experience is something that occurs in the event of seeing (I saw a big Duck), of touching (I touched Sachin Tendulkar with my hand), of feeling  ( I ate a tasty chocolate Ice-cream), of hearing (I listened to the words of the crying child). In other words, experience resides in human being. It is tangible in the event of its occurring.  Now the question is how to experience God who is not tangible?

I say it is possible to experience God. I say ‘Yes’.  God can be experienced. God can be experienced because he becomes tangible in the human being. God becomes real and is seen in people who going out of their way extend help to the needy (feeding a hungry man), God becomes concrete in people when they receive an impossible help (getting healed from AIDS), God becomes physical through consoling people (comforting a person in the time of grief).  

Philosophy of Constitutions

Human being lives in the society. It means that human being is destined to live with other human beings. The living with the other human being may give rise to divergence. Such society with no rules is equal to living with animals. As long as Man lives in society that is with other human being, the human being needs consciously controlled common purposes. In simple words, the human being needs certain rules and regulation in living life in the society.

 It is difficult to imagine a society without such common purposes. The rules give a clear way and a sense of direction to life in the society. 

Prayer

 Prayer is something that people find difficult to practice in life. Sometimes, it is true that it is obscure to start a dialogue with the Lord and while it is also true that confusion arises as to how to pray and what to pray.

Prayer is conversing with God. It is a conversation that is endless and limitless. Prayer is endless in the sense of fulfillment and limitless in the sense of the thirst that never ceases for God. It is conversation that demands listening than speaking, contemplating than chatting, meditating than muttering some obscure words. Prayer affects the life of a person in two aspects: hearers and doers. The hearers are the people who talk with God, asks God to satisfy their craving of the mind and promise God to that. Infact they never do anything authentic in their life. The doers are the people who contemplate and live the prayer in the world through acts of generosity, kindness and compassion.

Visit of Don Bosco

St John Bosco, commonly known as Don Bosco was born in Italy in 1815 in a poor family. Living with struggles of life, went on to become a catholic priest after encountering difficulties and trials with ever enthusiasm, cheerfulness and firmness. As a catholic priest, he did all that he could, for the welfare of the young especially for poor and abandoned youngsters. He became founder of Salesian Congregation of Fathers to look after the boys and that of sisters to look after the girls. He died in 1888 living behind a great legacy of work directed towards the young people.

 Now that same Don Bosco in the form of relic is coming to meet each and every youngster, in every country. And now he is visiting every state in India to bless all the works that are doing service for poor youth. His Right Hand that performed extraordinary miracles, which cured the sick from incurable diseases that comforted the young in times of need, that blessed so many thousands of people is coming once again to bless each and every one of us. 

Philosophy of Food

A great philosopher once said, “Man is what he eats.” This statement made me to reflect on the human person. As I was reflecting I heard an inner voice “whatever the human being does is only for sustaining his body through food, cloth and shelter.  Eating becomes an essential part of everyday life. It is the primordial need of human being from which all other actions emerge. But it also must be accepted that food is not as important as work, prayer but they cannot take birth with an empty stomach. For example, don’t ask a hungry man to pray.

 Food taken by human beings sustains body and gives energy. Without the action of eating, it is impossible to discharge to duties and becomes a difficult task to share the life (time, talents, and energy) with others. Let us follow the great dictum in our lives “Eat to live but not Live to Eat”. 

Question that is Killing Me?

It is simple but yet a profound question. The question is:

What makes Human being a Being? For example, there is Anil and Sunil. Both are human beings (common) but at the same time they are different. That is they are identical and different.
Answer the question.

Put on God

The search in the life of human being is inevitable. Every moment we are ‘in search of’ something. It becomes greater search when human being is in search of God. God in His love created human beings. He gave life as a Gift to all human beings.  But question is: what is our Gift to God for His Love?

According the best that we can give to God is to put on God. What do I mean?  Human being should become a replica of God through the character. Each one is called to manifest the God in whom he/she believes. Human being needs to put on God because:  Human being matter to God. It means that God does not abandon but shows care and concern all through the human life. In other words “He is with Human” and there is no automatic salvation for human being with out the thirst for putting on God.

The key to put on God is prayer. Prayer is the key to Happy life. Happy life is a sign of God’s Gift and presence of God in human life.

The purpose to put on God is to walk in the Light. 

Truth

 The great philosopher of 19^th Century said thus, “The first best thing is not to be born and second best thing is to die.” To add to this, another great philosopher affirmed, “The moment we are born, we are towards death.”

Interestingly, both the choices birth and death are not in the hands of human being. At an uncertain point of time, human being arrives in the world through birth and at an uncertain point of time departures from the world through the death.  What is going in the above lines? Life cannot be stopped. It raises an important question with regard to life: How human beings live as long as they live? Life can be lived either for the sake of living or with a definite purpose in life to reach the destination.

Each human being is born to contribute his own share of work to the world and to accomplish the task of being unique with a difference till his/her departure from the world of life.  This is the Truth.

Authentic Human Being

Every human being in the universe strives to become authentic being. The authenticity of a person depends on his/her actions. Authenticity can be defined as the state of undisputed genuineness. In other words, the action reveals the authenticity of human person.

In the quest for authenticity, person always strives to do good in all the situations. But as human as human being is falls in the trap of evil with bad actions. Thus, authenticity is an every moment business. Authenticity emerges automatically when constantly does good and learn to know evil not by practice but by observation in others. It calls for deeper observation that keeps one away from evil.

Authenticity is not an easy task. It is a task that requires Commitment, Conversion and Dare.

The Ways

The life of every human being on the earth is a journey to wards a destination. It is a journey that starts with life and ends with death. In this journey, the human being in his/her won way struggles to do always good and also equally do away with bad. According to me the way of the journey can be categorized into two namely prudent way and imprudent way.
Prudent way: Human being walking on this way is led to discover and feel a sense of satisfaction, happiness, joy but accompanied by risks, challenges, and sacrifice. Each human being through the presence of consciousness in the self, knows that this way is quite a difficult task to journey on. The only criteria to choose this way is to opt for what the world rejects. All don't dare to walk the Prudent way as it poses the total surrender. In a word, prudent way forms life.
Imprudent Way: It is a way that offers full of pleasure, evil, temptation, attraction of the world. Most of the human beings walk this way because of immediate and momentary happiness. It is a way that is not traveled for a long time. Once human being realizes he will never dare to walk again on the imprudent way. In a word, the imprudent way makes life.

Life

The moment a being comes into existence , begins it life in the world. Every being in the world has life but in different degrees. In other words, both living beings and non-living beings have life but in different gradation. Living beings are of mainly four types: Plants, Animal, Human Being and God.
Non-living being refers to those beings which are produced for the sake of being used by others. In strict sense, they don't have life. Interestingly, through their presence they continue to inspire and influence other living beings. For example, a bottle is produced for the sake of fulfilling needs of the people who use it. Through its existence in the world, continuously affects the life of other living beings. The non-living beings are in the lower level of existence.
Plant life is in the lower rung of life. They live life without awareness. They have no capacity to act and to react. Animals are one step higher than plants. They show their capacity to act and react as per the situation demands. They live in the world of “I” and so lack the need to be sensitive. Human beings are higher than animals and plants because of the capacity to transcend the horizon of “I’ to “We” through his capacity to be sensitive.
God is in higher level than plants, animals and human beings. God is God because of 'No difference attitude'. God never shows difference between one human being and the other. For him ‘ All beings are'.

Philosophy of Renovation

            Renovation is building the Building. What do I mean? In simple words, renovation is modifying a monument or building that already exists. If what already exists is destroyed, and something new is built, it becomes a construction and not renovation. For example, a building is built in 19^th century and had become old.A floor with stones needs to be changed to floor with tiles. So, the new tiles are placed on the floor. It is at the same time new and at the same time old in as much the old stones were removed and new tiles were placed.

            In the same way, human being from time to time needs renovation of the self. The renovation of the self is a call to build the new self on the old self. In other words, it is being modern at the same time being faithful to tradition. The renovation also calls for destroying what distances the self from being human and put on the self that makes self a Human Being.   

Urgent and Important

Human life is characterized by freedom for choice and decision. Every human being out of his/her freedom chooses to be such and such. Human being in order to become an authentic and genuine being, and to become a person of responsibility, carries out different activities. These activities, when carried out with diligence manifest who a person is.

            The activities of human beings are of two fold: the Urgent and the important activities. Most often, human beings carry out what is urgent and forget to carry out what is important. It is because of the human incapacity to distinguish that, what is urgent is may not be important and that what is important is urgent.

URGENT	IMPORTANT
Needs attention but not important	To be attended and are urgent
They are of Value	They are of Full Value
Ex: Relaxation due to heavy mental work	Ex: To appear for examination

Recharge with Prayer

            In the present digital world, with the developed means of technology and especially with the emergence of Cell Phone, “recharge” has become a dictum of every person who uses a cell phone. What is Recharge? In simple words, it means to charge again, so that whatever is charged will be useful and beneficial. For example when I recharge, I can call people, send message, use internet and so on. The more you charge, the more time and the less you charge, the less time

            The life of present day human being is characterized by work, work, and work. The sole purpose of work is to earn money and money whether it is to look after family, education of children, and whatever. This attitude of ‘always work’ gives rise to stress, boredom and especially to monotony. In order to relax the busy life and the mind, each human being needs to turn to God to recharge him/her self. To be an effective worker in the corporate world, it is necessary to recharge oneself with prayer. All the great people such as Jesus Christ, Buddha, Mohammad from time to time spend qualitative time with God and recharged themselves for the effective ministry.

            It is good to remember that, “the more time with God, the more charged we will become, the less time with God, the charged we will be.”

Unknown Love

            Journey to a destination is manifestation of unknown love of travelers whom the traveler meets in the journey. It is also meeting of unknown people who disappear into the darkness of life. On 7^th June, 2011, I was travelling in Train towards Nasik. To my surprise, my berth was occupied by a family consisting of Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. The daughter-in-law requested me whether I could give my lower berth to her Mother-in-law and occupy her upper berth. My answer was simply ‘No’.

            As train journey started, I began a conversation with the old lady. In course of our conversation, I came to know her fully. I was able to notice in her face a certain amount fatigue and tiredness. As she was unable to sleep on upper berth, I told her with courtesy to occupy my berth. Soon, she began sleeping. Even before I gave berth to her, she was so loving, caring and concerning about my journey. She immediately made me to remember my own mother. Till her destination, she continued to pour her love and concern on me.

            What else is greater than that someone made you to remember your own mother!!!!!!!!!

God’s Love

            I am a student of Philosophy. As part of my academic requirement, I am supposed to write a dissertation. For my dissertation, I chose a French Philosopher whose name is Jacques Derrida. The movie on ‘Derrida’ was released in 2003. So, I was desperately searching for this movie in Indian Market. But all my effort was in vain.

            Suddenly, I remembered my former principal who is in Europe. So, I requested him to search for that movie in Europe. He readily accepted. But after a couple of days, he informed that he was also unsuccessful in obtaining the movie. The result is I gave up searching for the movie.

            While I was in Hyderabad for my holidays, I happened to meet a person whom God had sent to fulfill my desire of obtaining the movie. Immediately, I requested her to get the movie. She readily and willing accepted. At that moment of her ‘Yes’, I was able to presume that I will surely obtain the movie. To my surprise and shock, I got it…

            I believe that love of God is manifested in variety of ways, which are unknown, but I firmly believe, his manifestation of love is already planned. It is only executed by right people, at the right time and at the right place. Is not this a sign of God’s love through persons?

Creative Leaving

            Most often, Human beings live life as others live. Seldom, human being decides to live life solely, independently, newly and creatively. Perhaps, the motivation to live life newly and creatively is the Creative Leaving.

            Creative Life flows from the heart of human being. The pre-requisite for this is to live life by Conscience rather than by mind. It is not an easy task but it is a task that involves risk, challenge and hard work. But it is for sure leads you to happiness all life long.

            Creative living calls for living imaginatively, originally and innovatively inventing the life situations every time a new. It is not taking side with the world but choosing a side that the world can follow. For example: The world goes by the logic of loving those who love you. But the logic of creative living person should choose to love even those who don’t love him. It is committing oneself to an action that nobody dares to do. It is the KICK for Creative Leaving. In other words, the risk and challenge give Kick to creative leaving.

God is God

God remains a God whether human being interprets him or not, but interestingly, God is God in spite of and through interpretation. As human being evolves in the world, human understanding of God evolves accordingly. Some may affirm today God as father and tomorrow God as the object in the hand of human being. It is a view that a particular person holds. For example, Feuerbach holds a view that God can be reduced to human being, Nietzsche proclaims the death of God because values which support God are devaluated, for Marx classless society becomes God, for Camus God is an absurd reality, Satre admits human being’s hunger for God as the useless passion and for Merleau-Ponty if God is dismissed, human being is liberated and in the presence of God human being’s liberty is destroyed.

All these are only views that each of them has for God. They are not ultimate answers, but different understandings of God that prove God is viewed, differently from one human being to another. Above all God is an unchangeable change. His essence is not changed with the human interpretation but it is the human understanding of God that has evolved and not God.

Authenticity and Total Authenticity

            Human being exists in the world and quests for authenticity. Authenticity is shown forth in and through human actions. Human actions necessarily help human being in being with the other. According to me authenticity is of two categories: Authenticity and Total Authenticity.

Authenticity: I define Authenticity as a state of being-in-the-world in the process of completion. What I mean by process of completion is that genuiness of human being is not stable rather in fluctuation. He/she tries to be genuine in life but falls short of this expectation and thus it is a journey towards completeness where one becomes completely genuine. Human being makes themselves ongoingly authentic being.

Total Authenticity: I define Total Authenticity as a state of being in completeness. What I mean by process of completeness is that there is nothing more beyond this point to be reached. Being is completely in genuine completeness. Being becomes a finished product. No more process to take place. This point is God and is alone reached by God. Human being’s journey in the world is a journey towards this point. But, Human Being never arrives at this point.