Month: October 2020

I want to preface by saying I know some very loving, accepting, good Christians, but unfortunately your fellow Christians have let you down. And the following does mention the unfortunate impression it has left on anyone who does not come from your faith.

As Judge Amy Coney Barrett gets sworn into the Supreme Court, and as the election inches closer… the same thoughts keep swimming around in my mind. The more I read, the more I know, the more questions I ask, unfortunately I’ve come to one conclusion over 30 years.

Christianity and similar faiths are extremely self-centered. They just spread discrimination and hatred against anyone who doesn’t follow them. There I’ve said it. If I’m wrong, show me I’m wrong – and I would gladly love to be shown that I’m wrong because I want to see good in all religions. But on the basis of what I’ve experienced, I cannot say with confidence that most Christians respect anyone else. Only their own agenda. I know this statement is going to offend so many people, but enough is enough. From imposing their views on people, to telling people that there is only one way to go to heaven. Good behavior doesn’t matter because Jesus has died for your sins, but as long as you’re Christian and accept only the Christian God, you will go to heaven. Otherwise, you can be a really good human being in society with upstanding morals and values – but if you’re not Christian… you’re going to hell. What?!? I finally, officially believe that anyone who believes that there is “only one way” has completely missed the point and intention of religion. And I mean this for anyone of any religion. I mean this thought is completely selfish, and self centered. The major point being missed by radicals, is that being tolerant of other peoples choices does not mean you have to agree with them. You do YOU. Live life by your beliefs and morals and values. No one is stopping you from doing so. But other people should equally be allowed to do what they need to do.

Recently I saw several posts from several fellow members of society in which they wrote “Our foundation must be in Christ”. Lol hello! This is America, separation of church and state. Disregarded. Instead they believe that they must shove their religion down everyone else’s throats. If I wrote “our foundation must be in Krishna” or in Allah, or in Buddha, or in any other religious body, hell would break loose. Wouldn’t it? Making any statement like the above is downright disrespectful of people’s ability to decide for themselves what religion or moral code they want to follow for their own moral upliftment. Keep in mind, everyone doesn’t speak the same language right? How many times do we see instructions written in multiple languages? Same message, multiple languages – people read the language they understand. That is the SAME concept with religion. But I could beat this point till it’s in the ground and stubborn, self centered folks still wouldn’t get it.

Recently I read that Judge Coney Barrett’s swearing in is a major win for Conservative Christians. This is scary for America. I mean it’s scary for anyone to make that statement in America. I did read that she doesn’t feel that personal religious beliefs should impact professional decisions… which does give me a small sigh of relief … but truthfully I’m not sure what direction she will actually go. The reason I’m writing this rather long blog today is to make a point that dawned on me last week. Abortion cannot be banned based on personal Christian religious beliefs because it will be unconstitutional. It will also go against other religious beliefs. Hear me out.

For the sake of argument (and I don’t think any Hindu has ever made this argument, but if we want to get technical) – Banning abortions is against my religion. “What?? Hinduism is blasphemy!!” No, no it’s not. Hindus believe in a Karmic cycle, your karma dictates your future benefits as well as punishments. Thus, I quickly tell you a story told in our religion (like your Adam and Eve) but I’ll super summarize it:

Once upon a time a well to do, good King met and fell in love with the god(dess) reincarnate Ganga (today known as the river), proposing marriage to her immediately. Ganga said she would marry him on the condition that he, nor anyone, could question any of her actions, otherwise she would leave him. The King agreed and the two married, living many happy years together, deeply in love. Then one day Ganga became pregnant and the King was overjoyed. Ganga reminded the king of his promise. When the baby was born, to the Kings dismay, she took the baby and put him in the Ganga river (yes effectively killing it). This occurred 7 times to the Kings horror. (And perhaps yours too, but read on). Finally the 8th time, as Ganga took the baby to the river the king finally stopped her and asked the question he said he never would. He said, “No more can I allow you to murder this child. Moreover I should like to put a pertinent question to you. Are you human or a devil incarnate?” Ganga gave a sad smile and replied, “Know me to be the Goddess Ganga adored by the heavenly beings as well as the humans at large. I had to accept this apparently cruel mission paradoxically on compassionate grounds.”

Bewildered the king demanded to know the entire story. Long story short, these 8 babies in a prior life were immortal noble men living in heaven who ended up sinning greatly at the forced requests of their wives (forcefully taking a holy Saint’s cow and cows baby, and a whole slew of drama). Subsequently, they were cursed to live horrible mortal lives from there on. Upon hearing their punishment, they profusely apologized and asked for forgiveness. The Saint reconsidered seeing their plight and gave them the following adjustment to the curse – they would still have to go Earth as mortals, but it would be only for one time (not recurrent). The loophole, since they were otherwise good men, was that instead of living an entire life in misery, they would be born to Ganga and killed immediately after birth, restoring their places as Noble men in heaven. The 8th child however, was a reincarnate of the nobleman who took the initiative in the cow abduction, so he was not completely pardoned and was cursed to live out the entire life. Thus was born Bhishma, a very important character in the Dharmic War, the Mahabharat. But that’s a story for another day.

Anyhow, I’ll now come to the point. Hindus believe that what happens to you in this life, is a result of pending Karma from prior lives. Therefore, by making abortion illegal, you’re possibly stopping a human from paying their karmic dues. Which statistically as we see, most children who would be born in those situations, would end up living a life either severely debilitated, in a broken or dangerous home, without a mother (death by childbirth), or as a ward of the state. Not all, yes, but statistically most. So what’s stopping a Hindu from asking – is this the life they’re living because they’re paying their karmic dues from a past life, and would abortion have been the greater Mercy, by quickly repaying their dues without much suffering? Is forcing a child to be born under the above circumstances actually an act of cruelty?

It seems silly, I’m sure to most of you, but don’t forget that things you believe may seem silly to others as well. My point is 1.) banning abortions, on the basis of separation of church and state, would be unconstitutional if decisions were made based on religious beliefs and 2.) they would actually be forcing people of karmic faiths to behave contradictory to their beliefs. Which again, goes against the entire foundation on which this country was built. I don’t care that the founding fathers were Christian, if they wanted to make this a Christian nation they would have, but they DIDN’T.

So tell me this – if we do base decisions on religion, why not base it off of mine? What makes your religion more important than mine? Oh you don’t want my religion shoved down your throat? Okay, then you keep your beliefs and your Christ to yourself. You live your life the way you see fit. If that means you’d never be okay with your children having an abortion, so be it. If you cannot agree with the homosexual life, then don’t engage in it, yourself. List could go on. I can respect your decisions being made for yourself. But don’t push them on others. Stop spreading intolerance and hate in the name of religion. I’m surprised Christ isn’t flabbergasted by the fact that his teachings are being interpreted in such a way. Because if you really want to argue the rest of us can find enough flaws in your religion too. Hell, there are so many factions to your religion because you guys can’t even come to a common understanding. Other religions have been around for centuries longer and don’t have that issue. Maybe instead take the time to understand what religion is actually supposed to mean, and actually supposed to accomplish. If this blog stings, if it’s offensive, then it’s time to reconsider YOUR views and YOUR actions. Because quite frankly, this is how you treat everyone else, but no one else has had the guts to finally just tell or show you how they feel. So here it is. The way you feel after reading this blog is literally how you extremists make everyone else feel.

All of the above being said, I think I’ve figured out what the problem is. Blindly following a religion, and believing everything preached to be true without understanding the meaning behind it is the problem. This goes for all religions, including mine. As a Hindu, I’ll be the first to tell you (for example) that the story of Adam and Eve is a beautiful story with SO much meaning and SO much to learn/take away. And yet sadly every Christian I’ve asked has told me that all they know about Adam and Eve is that “it’s true, it’s how we originated, and that Adam sinned”. Dear Christians, if you’d like to actually talk about the beautiful message it gives, and the moral take away behind Adam and Eve, let’s talk. If you haven’t thought about the “why is this story in existence” and only believe it to be fact and nothing else – you have sadly missed a very beautiful message. It’s time to ask yourself –

Is this a trend?

K bye.

I am about 2 seconds from falling into a very deep sleep so I apologize in advance for the random ramblings, the spelling errors, and the grammatical ones too. Just had a thought I really wanted to put out there!

I sleep these days, about 8-9 hours… about a 3rd of my day. But in reality, it feels more like half my day… half my day I’m sleeping, half my day I’m at work lol.

During covid we’ve all been stuck at home… and the longer this goes on, the crazier it feels. Like we’ve been holding our breath for a really long time. Like we are stuck in this reality and that reality is a nightmare. As I held my breath, I suddenly thought about all those discussions on existence. The questions asking about “do we really exist?” and, “What’s the proof?”

I think, therefore, I am?

My mind started doing that thing where it goes on a tangent, and I realized there are two equally real realms in which we exist. The first being this so called “reality”… and the second being the dream realm. In our dreams the “Covid reality” doesn’t exist. Life is usually normal, sometimes weird, but normal in its own way. Especially when we’re having a positive dream!

Last night I dreamt that I was able to see and hang out with my best friend, Anna! I haven’t been able to do that very frequently at all this year and it’s been rough to do the year without seeing her every few months! It was calming. In my dream I also went on a vacation with my husband, Sagar… and that FELT amazing. It felt so real… each emotion I felt, each thought I thought, was so realistically induced. What’s to say I didn’t also exist in a different, alternate reality?

Perhaps allowing our dreams to become our reality, and our reality to become just a dream (a nightmare) is how we will survive this grim period. After all… they do feel pretty darn similar!

I’m sure you read the title and terror ensued within each cell of your body. And for that I’m offended. Thanks Hitler. You were possibly the worst man on the planet.

I’ve sat on this topic for years but it’s high time we open it. Controversial, only because the entire Western Hemisphere is as ignorant as ignorant gets.

Note I said “Swastik” not the butchered “Swaastika” that everyone in the Western Hemisphere has come to hate. It’s Swastik. And I’m sick and tired of being judged for why it pops up in so many Asian and Indian videos, photos, and ceremonies. I’m sure all Buddhists and Hindus are. I’m tired of it being affiliated only with the Nazis, when it wasn’t their thing to take to begin with because they stole it, and it’s so deeply and personally hurtful that this is ALL the rest of the world knows.

First and foremost, I mean no disrespect to the Jewish people. What happened to your ancestors I take very very seriously and I am mentally and emotionally distraught whenever I watch a documentary or hear a story from that era. I have studied the Holocaust thoroughly. I’m not Jewish, but my personality doesn’t allow me to be emotionally ignorant about what happened. My discussion today is not to minimize what happened thanks to Hitler… but rather to uncover yet another chunk of the world Hitler also destroyed (in addition to all of the horrific things he did) that no one seems to know about. To help the world understand who else Hitler destroyed in addition to the Jewsish, admittedly in a different way… of course physically in a much lesser way, when he stole an entire identity and redefined it to symbolize hate. Forever.

Imagine what would happen if someone, a non believer of the Christian like religions, took the cross tomorrow and used it to discriminate and hate and KILL an entire race of people for no good reason. Imagine if an Indian, for example if we flipped the scenario, took the cross and convinced the world that it was the sign of hatred, and murder. Imagine if because of this the rest of the world decided to hate the cross, or any other religious symbol without making an effort to understand its origins. What it really means. That’s what Hitler did. A disgusting European white man STOLE an extremely important Hindu, Buddhist, similar religions symbol (the swastik) and used it to spread hate. Without asking for any permission. He destroyed and killed the Jewish people, and along with them, he destroyed the reputation of an entire ancient and sacred religion – to no fault of our own. And it’s VERY annoying.

In Hindu ceremonies, you literally cannot complete some rituals without the Swastik. I’m going to defend my culture and say it’s not fair to ask us to change or alter rituals that have existed for thousands of years (literally longer than most religions and races have even existed) just because this idiot 100 years ago decided to abuse it. However, I’d love to come to an understanding about how we can have it back without hurting sentiments. Not that thing we let the white people borrow, no… I’m talking about that thing the white people stole. Ironically, I’m nicely asking how we can have our stolen symbol back.

On a global level… it has been accepted again and returned to the rightful owners. But unfortunately, no one has been informed of this… no one has been educated on this. So I decided to blog about it today to at least start the convo, plant the seed, hope you start looking into what it actually means and what it actually is. I wrote the blog in hopes that people won’t take it the wrong way, but instead will take a moment to think about what I’m saying.

In the meanwhile, I want to know how can we have our extremely religious symbol back while still respecting the Jewish community?

I also want to know, how the hell do we get these idiotic NEO-Nazi idiots to STOP FREAKING USING OUR RELIGIOUS SYMBOL ALREADY TO CONTINUE SPREADING HATE.

IT IS NOT YOUR SYMBOL TO USE!

America – you HATE cultural appropriation and yet you believe in, and encourage the worst possible appropriation EVER. An appropriation where a cultures identity (Aryans, Swastik) was taken, and used for the worst!

I’m not going to sit here and explain what the Swastik is because I’m hoping this blog will encourage you to do your own research and then get back to me with answers. But yes, I and my fellow Hindus, Buddhists, and similars, are SICK and TIRED of Europeans and Americans abusing something so important to us, and then deciding how the world should feel about it. Sickened because I feel for the Jewish sentiment, but at the same time feel punched in the gut because it was my symbol used against my will to make someone else feel so horrifically miserable. Not just feel, but they were treated, absolutely treated, in the most inhumane and disgusting way.

But for the record when you start researching, you’ll realize that the Swastika is the most ancient symbol symbolizing positivity, growth, and well-being in the world, it exists in almost every Asian country, and even so far back as to the Norse. It existed in Native American culture, in Japanese culture (manji), Ancient Greeks, Celts, and even ancient Eastern Europeans. It is the ONLY symbol that has had the exact same meaning across all these ancient cultures that supposedly didn’t even know of one another’s existence. It was literally carved into the walls of caves from when humans lived in Cave. Yes that’s how ancient it is.

Now please, look it up. Please look it up and see this previously hidden part of the Damage Hitler caused. The part that finally needed to be uncovered, be known by the world because us Indians/Asians are sick and tired of just tolerating being shit on and saying nothing about it… this just being ONE example.

But I guess we can start somewhere.

There’s two kinds of people – metaphorically speaking, those who like to play house… and those who know when to play house.

In any given situation… there’s a rushed way to do things vs a particular time to do things. I’ll preface this by saying, there isn’t always a right time to do things – but there is a wrong time to do them.

As I grow up, I realize this more and more in my own life as well as the lives of those around me. There are some people who choose to do certain things when they don’t have the means to do them… diving head first without considering the consequences… and there are people who evaluate their means first…

Then of course, metaphorically speaking, there are people who are too cautious to play house at all. But what fun is not playing at all…

Right?

So then I guess there are actually THREE kinds of people 😂

….but in any case, Balance is key.

I mean sure we all have things to say when we’re bothered by something… but I’m sure we all know those people who are CONSTANTLY complaining about other people. CONSTANTLY looking for things to hate about someone else. If they can’t find anything noteworthy they’ll make up things to complain about. And if they really can’t find something they’ll attack a person’s personality or physical appearance. The weirdest part is when the same group of people have something nasty to say about each other, the subject just changes depending on who isn’t present!

Unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do about it when we find ourselves on the receiving end of that. Recently I found myself in the presence of an acquaintance (3 days in a row) who walked in the door complaining about other people. Their decision making skills. Their strand of hair that was still on the chair. Their personality. I mean I don’t even think person A has seen person B in well over a week or two but I couldn’t believe how much person B was getting figuratively assassinated just because. I realized that the same must be happening to me when I’m not around.

I think when we find out someone had something negative to say about us we take it personally and feel bad about it… furthermore when it’s something that’s not in our hands – such as our appearance or personality. Even more so, when we genuinely try to be a kind loving humane person, and get nothing but crude harsh judgement in return. So I made a list of things I need to realize if I ever find myself in this situation. You should too… or you can use my list and tweak it as you see fit to apply to your life!

My List:

1. I’m happy with who I am
2. I know I’m a good person
3. I know I try my hardest, even if I’m not always perfect
4. I know I’m good at what I do regardless of your standards
   1. I’ve fixed your mistakes too, or noticed plenty of flaws in you too… I just don’t feel the need to point them out to you every time, or micro-analyze them.
5. You’re actually just creating a bad impression in MY mind
   1. I now think of you as negative energy/vibes
6. I have an amazing family that loves me (so I couldn’t care less about your views)
7. I have amazing friends that love me (so I couldn’t care less about your views)
8. I have an amazing husband who loves me so much he spoils me, and is the only person whose opinion about my personality and appearance at this stage in life REALLY matters. (I am not trying to befriend you, date or impress YOU, so I don’t actually care about what you think)
   1. Since we’re being shallow, before you judge me, have you looked in the mirror? When was the last time you – washed/combed/brushed your hair, took a shower, didn’t have your hair shed, got a haircut, ironed your clothes, went to the gym, had good posture, etc
9. Before you comment on how much I talk and like to have conversations, have you looked at how much you complain – or how judgmental you are? I think my desire to have a conversation is a sign of my intellect, empathetic nature, friendliness, and desire to connect with my fellow human beings.
   1. I don’t judge you for your lack of ability to have a conversation (at least not consciously, and not out loud), but if I did, I’d judge you to be shallow, robotic and depending on the situation, I’d think you were incapable of having an intellectual conversation all together.
   2. I’d also judge you for lacking humanity, empathy, and the ability to connect with other people (unless they, like you, just like to spend their time complaining)
10. I personally have gone through so much worse… I’ve danced with death and came back from the edge. I’m strong. If I survived that… what could you possibly do to make a dent my emotions? You’re literally a nobody in front of some of the folks and actions I’ve had to deal with.

So basically if I ever find myself on the receiving end of such a person’s negativity (knowingly) – yes I’ll probably feel bad… but then I’ll remember that such a person wasn’t around to wipe my tears or chase my fears… so they don’t get to cause fears and tears either. I’ll remember the 10 points above and realize…

I just don’t care! Because such people just don’t matter 🤷🏻‍♀️