When a disagreement emerges in a certain situation, you must first learn to distinguish, what’s at stake. If it’s just your opinion that’s at stake, then it’s far better to lose an argument than to lose a person, but if it’s humanity that’s at stake, then it’s your duty to speak up, not to win some petty argument, but to make sure that inhumanity does not go unchallenged.
Freedom is more about knowing your boundaries than to have no boundaries at all.
One must learn to embrace the expertise of others, just like one expects one’s own expertise to be embraced by others.
I am like the H2O in a lake. Some drink it at one place and call it “water”, others at another place and call it “jal”, and some others at a third place and call it “pani”. The Christians call it “water”, the Hindus “jal”, and the Muslims ”pani”. But it is one and the same thing. I am not tied to the doctrines of any church, synagogue, temple or mosque, yet I am the reason of their birth.
Only when you start questioning injustice, you start being human. Only when you start questioning inequality, you start being human. Only when you start questioning prejudice, you start being human. Only when you start questioning discrimination, you start being human.
Secularism can no longer be seen as a mere philosophical word or ideology of the books. Let me give you a simple example. If you are thirsty and you drink a glass of water, is that act of drinking water a philosophy, or is it a plain, ordinary, necessary act of preservation? Likewise, secularism is no more a philosophy, than drinking water is. Secularism is an act of preserving humanity in the humans.
I know not what course others will take, but as for me, either I’ll make the land I stand on, just, humane and inclusive, or I’ll die trying.
The masses are existentially entitled to talk nonsense and advocate for prejudices, but when an authority of the masses begins to talk nonsense and advocate for prejudice and bigotry, it is an existential crisis for not just those masses but all humans around the world, with implications of catastrophic proportions.
At that very first kiss of my life I felt something melt inside me that hurt in an exquisite way. All my longings, all my dreams and sweet anguish, all the secrets that slept deep within my limbic brain came awake. I felt billions of Beach Boys playing their sweet melody inside my heart in perfect harmony with the universe.
Fear of the lord makes a person a medieval idiot, nothing more. If you must be afraid of something, then be afraid of turning into a hateful bigot. Be afraid of being a blind follower to dogmas. Be afraid to become a deluded monster beneath the skin of a human being.
Lack of path is, in reality, lack of action.
If you could be a person who made no mistakes, had no failures and had no disappointments, you would not be a human, you would be a machine.
The only way to be truly happy is to be the gateway to somebody’s happiness.
Whatever genre you deem suitable for your taste – romance, comedy, action, mystery, sci-fi or anything else, make sure it has the plain everyday human kindness.
What we are at this very moment is determined by the sum total of all our experiences till this moment. And the step that you take at this moment, will determine your future. Past and future both require a functional mind to exist. Only the present prevails independent of mind – independent of life.
The biggest threats to humankind today are climate change, fake news, anti-intellectualism and Donald Trump.
How can you sail in the ocean, if your anchor is down!
One human life is a thousand times more valuable than a thousand bibles, qurans, suttas and vedas – one human life is a thousand times more valuable than a thousand doctrines and rituals – one human life is a thousand times more valuable than a thousand theories and schools of thought – one human life is a thousand times more valuable than a thousand religions and ideologies.
A soul trapped in the cage of doctrines cannot fly.
It’s time we take the leap across the infectious carcass of nationalism and rise as patriots of humanity – as patriots of a planet and not of any nation, religion or language. And you can take that leap, only if you have an indomitable sense of oneness with all of humankind.