Role of Religion and the need for Standardization

The number of religions across the world is uncountable. All these religions enjoys a great role in determining the way of live of each associated human being. Infact it is the single thing that greatly unites and controls multitudes of men. Its a bonding that is much thicker than any other force.

Karl Marx had once rightly pointed out ' Religion is the opium of the people". This is very true in the past, present and will remain so in the future. 

The way in which people think and act are determined by the religion. Some religions however fortunately has adopted a wider thinking thinking and opened hands to all. Whereas some are shallow and never allows to think outside the box.

Two great thoughts are the ones set forth by the Hindu religion and Christianity. In Sanskrit there is an ancient writing 'loka samastha sukino bhavanthu'. This means about the global well being. Hinduism believes in that, the entire living things in the universe should live well and peacefully. 

And in Christianity, Jesus Christ teaches his followers ' love your neighbor as yourself'. Its is the prime duty of each man to maintain a sense of care and love for each other. Without these essential traits there can be no mutual trust and peace.

In modern world we have standards for all. There are standards on automobile emissions, on subjects topics to be taught in schools, quality standards for edible foods, standards for communication so on and so forth. The only thing that do not have to fall in line with any regulations is the religions. Religions for some reasons or the other are never touched upon and often left undiscussed even by intellectuals. Religions are man made. And there are newer man made religions sprouting in several parts of the world today. Thus it is a matter of significance that there must be standards for religions also. Religions must guarantee progress and peaceful co-existence. Its time to end destruction and fights based on minor difference. As a global citizen we must unite and live together.

The fact of the matter is that there should be clear cut guidelines that governs the attributes of a religion. Injustice in the name of the religion should be banned. Even the modern world see many fraud holy men surfacing from different part of the world. Each go by own imagination and utters rules of their choices. So such actions can be curbed if there are universal rules on Do's and Don't's.

The great son of India-Dr. APJ Kalam

The greatness in Kalam is that he was never after any titles.  But everything came to him. He never went by short cuts to achieve personal gains.

Secondly, he knew how to prioritize things. He put nation always first and never mixed personal interest and religion in to social life.

A meaning quote of his is as follows:

"I am not an Handsome guy,

But I can give my Hand-to-Some who needs help.

Beauty is in the heart,

Not in the face".

A brief list (not complete) of titles that were awarded is also attached here.

1981 - Padma Bhushan

1990 - Padma Vibhushan

1997 - Bharath Ratna

2000 - Ramanujan Award

2007 - King Charles II Award

2011 - IEEE honorary membership award

GREAT QUOTES

Some quotes are thought provoking, some inspire men and make them go forward. Some famous quotes are cited below. Most of these quotes comes from the personnel experience of men who overcame setbacks and overcame them in due course of time.

• We should not love beauty, instead love whoever loves you - Tagore

• An unfaithful friend is dangerous than an animal - Sri Budhha

• If you build an army of 100 lions and their is a dog, in a fight, the lions will die like a dog. But if you build a team of 100 dogs and their leader is a lion, all dogs will fight like a lion - Napolean Bonaparte

• Praises or Insults will not affect who live politely, because they know whom they are - Mother Teressa

Funny Usages in Malayalam

There are several usages  in Malayalam language that hilariously represent a situation. These are not necessarily proverbs; because proverbs carry a message or a kind of advice. However, these funny usages how no messages as, but only refer to plight of the situation.  Most popular of these are listed here.

• Adinaye patti yakkuka

        ആടിനെ പട്ടിയാക്കുകന്നു 

• Appol kanunnavanaye Appannu vilikkuka

          അപ്പോൾ കാണുന്നവനയെ അപ്പാന്നു വിളിക്കുക .

• Kannadachu iruttakuka

          കണ്ണടച്ച് ഇരുടട്ട് ആക്കുക 

• Kurangantae kaayil pomala kittiyapol

          കുരങ്ങന്ടെ കൈയിലു പൂമാല കിട്ടിയ പോലെ  .

• Yenna thallandammava njan nannakilla

          എന്നെ തല്ലണ്ട അമ്മാവാ ഞാൻ നന്നാവില്ല .

• Onamathinidakku puttu kachavadam 

           ഓണനിടക്ക് പുട്ടു കച്ചവടം .

• Like dog went to market

      പട്ടി ചന്തക്കു പോയതുപോലെ 

• Like a dog got a full coconut

      പട്ടിക്കു മുഴുവ്ണ്‍  തേങ്ങ കിട്ടിയപോലെ 

• Picturing a goat as dog.

       ആടിനെ പട്ടിയാക്കുക 

• Doing things thinking others are ignorant

       കണ്ണടച്ച് പാല് കുടിക്കുക 

See related popular poverbs and sayings in malayalam proverbs page

Few Great Novels For Reading

The Alchemist

A beautiful novel with no names for the characters. It is the story of a young Shepard who start out chasing him dream to discover the treasure. The novel repeatedly urges "If one decides to chase his dream the entire world will conspire in helping to make him achieve it". The Spanish boy sets out to the Egyptian coast after selling his herd and crosses the desert towards the pyramids. The adventures along the desert route is well narrated and depicted as real. 

Moreover the book has nothing obscene and could be recommended as a good read for any age. 

The Good Earth – Pearl S Buck

This novel narrates the story of an enthusiastic and hardworking peasant named Wang Lung. The hard works he and his wife put in farming the land ultimately makes them rich and prosperous.

Wang Lung’s father also a wise farmer gives him correct advices especially at the time of selecting women as wife. Wang Lung wanted his wife to be beautiful, but the old father questions him – ‘What will we do with a pretty woman?’.

Wang Lung accepts a young woman slave named O- lan from the local landlord as wife. Though she was not any good-looking, was intelligent and equally hardworking as her husband.

Wang Lung and O lan go through several hardships in life, but overcomes all odds with the hard works they put in on land. Many times O lan surprises Wang Lung with her intelligence and pragmatic solutions. Gradually they get wealthier and richer.

Towards the end, the riches slightly change the habits of Wang Lung but not his love for land and the earth that gave him everything. This is evident when he overhears a discussion between his sons. In the last chapter, his two sons can be seen discussing about selling the land and investing the money in shipping and rice trade. The moment Wang Lung hears this; he burst into tears and pleads with his sons not sell the land.

The Good Earth won Pulitzer Prize. The novel was translated into over thirty languages.

Pearl S Buck was born in 26 June 1892, and spent her childhood in China. Her other novels are East Wind, West Wind, A House Divided, Dragon Seed, The Time is Noon. She was awarded Nobel Prize for literature in 1938.

One Hundred Years Of Solitude
- by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The novel narrates the history of Bundias family. The reader gets an experience that almost makes it impossible to distinguish between reality and fantasy.

Adujeevitham - by Benyamin

This is the story of a poor Muslim youth from rural Kerala going to a gulf country in search of better job and prospects. In Kerala he `lived as a very friendly villager with the neighborhood and had immense freedom as a free bird. The situations when he reached his dream land were exactly opposite to his experiences in home country village. There he had to live in bondage under hostile employers who denied him even his primary needs.

The author is successful in narrating the incidents happened as if he himself had experienced and gone through every bit of it. Gulf countries are seen as a dream land by many youngsters in Kerala. But the attitudes of the Arabs towards them are not always amicable. Here he was a slave by all means in a goat farm. And for several years he could see the outside place or contact others.

The bitter experiences are extremely touching and how he escapes is also breathtaking. Author for some reason presents him as an optimistic and staunch believer of God. But, at the end few good people and the government of India comes to rescue bringing him to peace and home where his wife and son was waiting all these years without even knowing anything about him.

The entire experiences can be coined to a single proverb in Malayalam – ‘Akkarapachha’. Meaning that we have great regards for foreign land; blindly tend to imitate their customs forgetting the greatness and blessings of home land.

Men who surprised the world

 1. Alexander the Great

Alexander the great is the first in this list. He lived almost 2300 years ago and did what no one could do even today. He was the king of ancient Greek Kingdom of Macedon. He lived during BC 356 – 323 and had become king at the age of 20 after the death of his father Philip II.

He set out to conquer the world and defeated Egypt and the Persia at the age of 25. His invasion continued till the northern border of India. He died at the age of 33 and the reason of his death is suspected to be poisoning and loss of health due to excessive drinking.

He is important even today because he is still a benchmark against whom military heads compare themselves and his war strategies are still said to be taught in military schools.

Two things to be known to live in this earth

 The world is a big stage. Two things that are essential these can be narrow downed as:

1. Be a good actor 

2. Forget about the truth, and adopt all possible routes to march towards the goal.

But, know that at the end of a tunnel there is light. The success of the fraud hence will not stand long.