Spirituality

My hat’s off to the writer of this song. I’m sure we all have songs stuck in our minds; they just keep repeating. You can’t shake them off, and I only remember the verse of this song, so I don’t know the author. Quoting it as it is in Punjabi, and I would write it as author unknown. I’ll quote in the original words and then try to translate it into English. I hope the author can find satisfaction in knowing that someone is talking about their work.

“Panwain khey thay Anmole panwain kodian ch tole, Nanon hunjoo bun waggay tarri ishk kahani jay toun samjain taan moti jay na samjain taan pani.”

According to my understanding, which may differ from the author’s, the translation would be: “You can say it’s priceless, or you can compare it to dirt cheap. The story of your love flows out of the eyes like tears. If you understand it, it’s a Pearl; if you don’t, it’s just water.”

I believe we are all cells in the body of God, each worth five bucks, one person at a time. The physical expression of God is mankind, and God is our spiritual expression. That means God lives through us. My way of proving this is that if mankind disappears, no one can understand God, let alone believe in God.

My logical reality says if you ask an Alzheimer’s patient about God, you may not get anywhere fast because the installed knowledge is wiped out by the disease. But the way I see it in this situation, God is there in the people who are taking care of the patients. God is our understanding, which is usually installed in us as we grow up. Thus, this knowledge is highly tainted and influenced by the politics of the sense of belonging.

When you are born into humanity as a human being, you are, by nature, a human being first. The labels you acquire afterward, such as boy or girl, black, white, brown, yellow, or red, Muslim, Christian, Pakistani, Canadian, or any other nationality, belong to secondary categories. But first and foremost, you are a HUMAN BEING.

Let’s start from the beginning: a baby is born into a Muslim household but adopted by a Christian family, or a black baby is raised by a white family. What is that child’s identity? Would we change the status of being a human being? I don’t think so. But when it comes to the sense of belonging, it’s not an easy question.

When someone loves a child, the whole community should respect it because in advanced or educated human societies, love should outweigh our differences.

The reality is, even today, there is still prejudice because of the powerful politics of belonging. The truth is that if you are born as a human being, you are a human being regardless of your color, gender, nation, or religion.

All the knowledge about the differences is installed by the sense of belonging after you are born. Another example, if you are asked to make a fist, you would have no problem unless you are a victim of a stroke, Alzheimer’s, or any disorder that robs you of your mental capabilities. But you would still be a living human being. No one should tell you that just because you are sick, you are no longer a human being. Anyway, you can make a fist with no problem, but that is a learned action. You had a heck of a time learning to walk or speak as you grew up, but after practice, everything becomes second nature. My point is that you have learned all the skills, behaviors, and belief systems from your belonging groups. With practice, they have become second nature to you, but they have the potential to make you something you are not.

A baby is like a brand new computer; the data is added after birth, but the baby comes with all systems running before learning the installed knowledge. What makes the whole package with the potential? What makes an individual pick and choose, mix and match the information, and respond to the actions of others?

Have you ever wondered beyond your installed knowledge? When you look through your eyes in the mirror, who are you looking at? Are you just the computer with the data, or are you looking at the person who lives in your body, who has a name and actually runs the computer?

Have you ever truly reached out to someone, beyond the confines of societal data, or are you stuck in that limited perspective? If you feel trapped, you’ve likely adopted the color of your belonging group, and it’s time to rediscover your inherent individuality.

You are the one orchestrating the complex machinery of your brain, body, and everything in between. You transcend mere data; you’re the CEO, calling the shots.

Though spiritually and physically connected to the real source, data can render you vulnerable, impressionable, and insecure, ripe for manipulation.

If you feel like your wings have been clipped and you can’t soar independently, start communicating with your inner courage.

Do you aspire to be a CEO who’s first and foremost a human being? Then, connect with the true essence within you, not the identity shaped by external affiliations.

Take ownership and challenge the politics of belonging before participating in senseless violence in the name of religion or nationality. It’s akin to harming God one cell at a time; the body may survive, but it suffers greatly. Think of it as God having an autoimmune disorder, which only human beings can remedy.

Your reward will be internal. Assume the responsibility of a CEO, and you’ll comprehend the harm inflicted upon God.

Imagine if humanity pooled their resources to alleviate suffering. Would we still endure starvation, homelessness, and poverty, or national bankruptcy? If united, we could address the suffering afflicting God’s body.

Our evolution is intertwined with God’s; every cell is vital. However, the politics of belonging often obstruct this unity.

Our divisive politics propel us towards the destruction foretold in holy books, yet we each possess the power to shape our lives.

As CEOs of our existence, we must transcend the boundaries of religion and nationality. Let’s cultivate peace and realize the potential intended for humanity by God.

God has bestowed mankind with free will and sustenance; it’s now our responsibility to fulfill our potential.

Can we evolve into a godly humanity, capable of saving lives and alleviating suffering? Or will we succumb to the fate predicted in ancient texts?

Individuals trapped in the politics of belonging are hindered by personal insecurities. If we shed these insecurities and embrace our connection to the real source, we can transcend group identities and belong to humanity as a whole.

Currently, we often prioritize our religious, national, or personal identities over our shared humanity. My fervent hope is for a reversal of this trend, but it can only happen if we collectively understand and act upon it.

God is akin to a pearl if you can comprehend it; otherwise, it’s merely water, regardless of our prayers, fasting, sacrifice, or attendance at mosques or churches. An individual can spiritually benefit from a belief system directly connected to God. However, living within the confines of religions and nationalism can potentially lead to harm. Just observe our history and present riddled with wars.

It’s worth reiterating that if you prioritize belonging to a gang, community, nation, or religion, it’s akin to living in a pond with boundaries. You’re constrained by rules, unable to freely express your thoughts, regardless of your inherent abilities prior to adopting these identities.

The capacity for independent functioning is innate; it’s part of your nature. You can discover it by immersing yourself in the spiritual realm of God, which is vast like space, the internet, or humanity itself. It’s boundless, evoking fear in non-believers yet providing complete security to believers.

By shedding fear, you can transcend death, live life unencumbered, and resolve physical, emotional, and spiritual challenges. Removing fear-related stress can lead to a happier existence.

Imagine yourself standing with one foot in the future and one in the past, metaphorically urinating on the present. Living solely for the afterlife, engaging in violence due to past grievances, causes immense pain to both yourself and God. Understanding God beyond the confines of the politics of belonging is crucial, akin to how a CEO comprehends their responsibilities beyond organizational boundaries.

 

I am going to start this blog with a story I read when I was very young.  I don’t know the author, but I acknowledge this unknown author, because I still remember it.

There once was a very popular healer. When his fame reached to the king, king decided to have himself checked for his health problems. So king was told  by the healer that he had a king’s disease and it would cost him a million coins to be cured. King thought for a while and said I will get back to you. King though I am a king and can afford the million coins but I would like to know what happens when some one could not afford. So the king disguised and sat in line for hours until he got his turn. The diagnoses was the same but the healer suggested him to bring me these ingredient and I will make you the medicine which will take three months to be ready. He told him where to go which included different places even on the top of the mountain to collect some herbs and a copper coin. After three months king got his medicine for free and was healed. After that needless to say the healer was a royal healer.

When I heard that it takes five hundred thousands dollars a year for the new drug to keep one individual alive this story came to mind. Since I write about the spirituality, I am going to say that I am an idealist and to me it is a shame for the humanity that we are creating a situation that one has to die if he/she can’t afford the cure. It makes me wish that we have those kind of kings running our governments so the equality is imperative.

Logically we are able to see and create the scenarios in our heads so we all are insecure to different degrees.

A billionaire died few years back in Toronto, he left 18.9  billion dollars behind. Why I am mentioning it, because I saw one of his friend was on TV saying  that he lived in an old house and was very exited when he bought a freezer full of hot dogs on sale.

A man can only consume so much in his life time. If you really and I mean really learn to live a temporary life, your attitude would be different. In mortality it is not what you save or own, it is what you consume during your life time counts. Somehow we think our time would come but not for a long time, so we live to save not to consume. That is the reason most of the people’s money is in the banks. I can safely say that there is more money in the banks than in the circulation because people all over the world always thinking and feeling about the saving regardless of the need. Why I say feeling because insecurity falls into the feelings.  If we all have the urges to save because of the unknown, we all contribute to create poverty, hunger, famine and extreme gap of wealth.

Everyone has been taught by their parents, culture or nation to save, save and save. A mortal life is lived but in deprivation by choice. The business of spirituality does not mix very well with insecurities. If everyone saves not because of the needs but out of the fears of unknown insecurities, eventually the whole humanity would have a problem. Sure it is important have some extra money to leave behind before you die.  After balancing the books when you fold, still you have to be useful to the humanity not a burden.

Hare we have people in the grave yards with the tomb stone saying died in 1800. That means human is the only  creature on the face of the earth who owns a piece of land long after he/she had died, yet we have homelessness all over the world. If the loved ones would give some money to the poor on the name of the loved one, instead of going to the grave spend money for the flowers, that dead loved one would be still useful to the humanity.

It is not only the duty of the individual to be spiritual, collectively we should be spiritual as well.   As I have written before, a society which can take care of its sick, is spiritually healthy. If people die of the avoidable sickness, hunger or poverty  that society is spiritually bankrupt regardless of being a political power house. Politics and business is not the only thing a society should run on, compassion, conscience, ethics and love should not only be related to the individual alone.

Unfortunately our religious people are against the universal health care and equal human rights how and why is that possible? where is the spirituality? political arm of the religion is that strong that people would take their human jewellery off for their belonging groups. Compassion, forgiveness, sacrifice and love are the fundamentals of all spiritual systems and they have been taught to us by our  religions, but look at the religions where do they stand. Can anyone find these jewels in the history of the religions, we have been killing each other on the name of God for a very long time and it is not for God it is all about the politics of the sense of belonging. If a religion can’t teach spirituality it has no business to be in God’s world. Equal human rights and universal health care is spiritual essence of the humanity. If you stand against these things you need some spirituality in your religions.

Every society regardless or religion or governing system, preaches to save or face the stress of being left alone. Politicians say they would protect and secure the individual but as they come to power there is no promise, so the insecurity is continuous and actually  created by our education system.

Spirituality teaches that, the security is in believing and contributing to the humanity. Your fiver is a great asset, because it is given to you by the God. It is not only good for you but it is good for the humanity as well. If you believe as you are told or taught, that you are a worthless sinner, your belief is going to be the dead dog of your insecurities. You would try to secure yourself by the materiel things yet you can’t really deal with the deeply ingrained insecurities, they will show up in your everyday life. Look at your behaviors if you don’t believe anything is done for you from  the God and your life is all a failure, just look at the abilities you hold inside they are all there because of the fiver and the oxygen you have been blessed with. Being happy or unhappy is strongly related with the comparison. If you want to compare, always compare with both sides  to be fare. With the people whom are better than you for the inspiration and the people whom are worse off than you for the appreciation. ( Read the  river of time and ladder of horizon).