Comrade Jesus

Jesus was a revolutionary, and one of the prominent such icons in history. But that’s only the secondary reason why I like him.

It was such revolutionaries that brought about the much-needed change whenever entropy tightened its grip on societies. It would have been very different world today if there weren't any Karl Marx, Martin Luther, Che Guevara, Gandhi, Mandela, Malcolm X and such. The world would have had more difficult and slower progression without them.

Changes, through revolutionaries, war or catastrophes, happen at appropriate points of time in history. The situation forces it. Reason is that nobody likes or wants change. Prevailing social/religious norms and laws provide security for sometime but not for long. They gather static and slowly but surely become redundant. These frameworks will be so restrictive that it calls for shelving/ amendment/ or revamp. Revolutionaries, philosophers and such thinkers may be the Design's (God?) way of shampooing and then conditioning such institutions (society or even whole cultures) and thus bring about the much-needed 'upgrade'.

Anyway back to my topic. Undoubtedly the first reason why I adore Jesus is because he epitomized LOVE. No, even beyond love; it’s about compassion. Another God-figure I consider quite similar to Jesus in the compassion front is Krishna. Krishna probably was the lord-allocation for that geographical area called India as Jesus was to Judea :-)

Consider these facts justifying my second reason:

• He dared to modify the commandments. NOBODY (Israelite at least) dares to change the centuries old law or tradition. Would we dare to even try such a thing in this age enlightenment and freedom?
• The fact is that he blasphemed! Blasphemy, especially within a monotheistic religion, is the Papa-Sin and the crime is punishable by stoning. So wasn't he radical or what?
• He ridiculed the ecclesiastics publicly. That’s a death wish within any community.
• He, consciously or unconsciously, was the reason for a new faction within Jews and almost stirred up an uprising. It projected him as a coup leader.
• I do believe he had a soft corner (that much at least) to Mary Magdalene. Even if not, he dared to associate with outcasts - lepers and prostitutes. That’s really bold of him. In all probability his relatives must have ostracized him. 
• He had a natural inclination to break most social rules.

Now why would somebody do all this? Because he was a FREE man, loved his freedom, was fearless and was absolutely focused on his karma to free others too.

Jesus (my personal Jesus) was a free man. He had he guts to live and speak the way he wanted. He spoke freely and acted the way he wanted. He had a definite goal/message oriented life; inspired the masses; gave his unbiased free love to all who asked; and had the courage to change whatever he deemed necessary. Finally he died in style...as a martyr to a cause.

Salute to one of the greatest socialist that walked the earth!

The cry for Islam

Once upon a time in a hostile arid land far away there was chaos, battle, pain and uncertainty. And no hope for the les miserables. Blood spilling and women looting were a part of every day life there.

 

Barbaric tribes and warlords killed all men and raped all women (and children and sometimes men too!) for entertainment and for power. In those days mothers (the few that were left alive) bore the pain of childbirth for two outcomes: either to create men to be sent to their deaths in battle or to watch their female newborns be buried alive. (Because females served no other purpose, in those cursed times, except be objects of sex-slavery).

And as for the leaders they indulged when they were alive. In food, orgies, and intoxicants until one day somebody else slaughtered them.

And fishing in these muddy waters were wacky wizards...those who instilled fear in the minds of everyone (as always) with the help of their soulless stone gods (which numbered just over a few thousands).

In this land it was a period of darkness, hollow-idol worship and blood sacrifices of history's ugliest.

Then in the 7th centutry a glitch occurred in the system. A bug in The Matrix called Mohammed : The ONE who managed to radically reform everything in this land with a new idea. Reminds me of a verse:

“yada yada hi dharmasyaglanir bhavati bharataabhyutthanam adharmasyatadatmanam srjamy aham paritranaya sadhunamvinasaya ca duskritamdharma-samsthapanarthayasambhavami yuge yuge”Translation:
“Whenever and wherever there is a decline in dharma, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion—at that time I descend Myself. To deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to re-establish the principles of religion, I Myself appear millennium after millennium”

This illiterate and simple spiritual man, who is now called respectfully as Prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon him), based on The Almighty’s words that was revealed to him through the Angel Gabriel, brought about radical changes in the most impossible of situations:

1. Abolished intoxicants or mind-influencers of any kind by labeling them 'Haraam'
2. Safeguarded females and created a sense of respect towards their kind. How? Asked females to wear the purdah in order to avoid the leerings of men. Polygamy was introduced in order to take care of the widowed masses (Most men were dead remember?). On one condition: that each wife be treated equally.
3. Brought the perpetual inter-tribal warring to a pause by introducing the concept of ‘brotherhood’
4. Brought criminal activities to the lowest levels by the strict use of Shari-at, the Islamic law. Rob and off goes your hand; kill and off goes your head. Ouch!
5. Inculcated cleanliness into the local DNA. Muslims will have to now wash their bodies or clean parts of it at least 3 times before entering the mosque. Washing was almost unheard of in the pre-Islamic barbarian land and that too in a desert!
6. Instilled discipline to every Muslim life by fixing routines and timing for worship, fasting and pilgrimages
7. Curtailed greed by abolishing interest on money and forcing alms to poor
8. Gave a quantum leapboard to the spirituality process. Moved forward from worshipping multiple idol gods, the first stages of faith, to the advanced stage of a Formless, Omnipresent Allah

 

Was he a leader or what?

True, as usual with any religion, all of the above rules may have been twisted by now. Still Islam was clearly a necessity at those turbulent times. In my view Islam (and Buddhism) is a true religion in the true sense of the word religion.

One can observe Islam’s beauty if one manages to get into the marrow of the Word. Islam preaches the beauty of everything in nature and that God is in its details. In fact Islam is so nature-accepting that they have chosen green as their religion's colour!

 

Some gyan for the Islam-ignorant:

• The word ‘Allah’ literally means ‘God’ in Arabic. So it doesn not mean another Entity which is different from what is in your religion. Understand?
• Contrary to popular beliefs: unlike Christians, especially the new-age fundamentalists, Islam do not allow proselytization. An individual should willingly volunteer to convert to Islam.
• Circumcision is not Islamic but Jewish in origin. If not for whatever ambiguous that happened in the New Testament we would find most Christians circumcised too!
• Sometimes I feel they respect Jesus and the Virgin Mary more than the Christians. Jesus is mentioned as the ‘purest of the prophets’ in the Koran
• While Europe was in its darkest ages Middle East was shinning golden bright with researches in alchemy, mathematics, calligraphy etc. Trade flourished. For those who consider that Muslims and/or Arabs to be stupid go read history and count the contributions that came out of this Golden age. If I remember rightly even the numerals we use now are of Arabic origin.

 

Inspirations

1. Manoj VS
2. Islam for Beginners
3. Eaters of the dead by Michael Crichton