[Reader-list] When was the first time you were told there is God?

Rakesh Iyer rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com
Mon Aug 3 15:11:29 IST 2009


Dear Pheeta

When I say "faith allows me to do what I like", it doesn't necessarily make
me free. Faith gives me freedom to do certain things, but there again one is
bound by norms, as you yourself state. And when we say that people have a
right to freedom (like right to water, or right to food or anything else),
automatically they are bound by an inherent duty to that right. (like for
example, the right to water in my belief inherently means that one shouldn't
waste water because it affects the right of others to have that water, if
not today, then potentially in future).

Nothing in my mind is available for free. I remember, quite a long time
back, almost 10-12 years ago, I was watching a serial 'Yehi hai Zindagi'
(probably on Zee TV), where one of the characters said 'Duniya mein kuch bhi
muft mein nahi milta, maa ka pyaar bhi nahi' (In the world, nothing is
available for free, not even mother's love for a child). The inherent
meaning is that even a mother loves a child in the hope that either that
child (generally a boy in the Indian context for what I say ahead) will take
care of the mother in her old age, or he/she will become a successful person
(success in terms of job, money or something else as the mother defines or
perceives) and she would be happy to share that success with others around
her. (There could be other meanings as well).

And I don't consider such a thing (even if one calls it selfishness) as
wrong. Even these beliefs are based on some faith on the child, and they can
give the mother freedom in certain ways.

Regards

Rakesh


More information about the reader-list mailing list