The Freedom Blog

Right wing fanaticism is sweeping the nations today, with the emergence of nationalistic and hyper-nationalistic narratives all over the world. Countries like India, Germany and Turkey, which have had largely pluralistic movements that held center stage, are also succumbing to this trend, leading to the emergence of the far right as a serious contender for political rights and a mainstream audience. Far right movements all advocate the notion of a quasi-theocratic state where the religious and administrative centres of power merge into one body, a sycophantic coterie that succumbs to the will of a powerful family or sometimes even a powerful individual.This phenomenon is witnessed even in the churches of today, with both religious and administrative functions of the church being controlled by a single individual, a family, or a group of individuals. The need of the hour is for identifying the roots of this systemic corruption that plagues churches , and transforms churches with cult li

    The Law and the Prophets were summed up very neatly by Jesus in two commands-  Love your neighbor just as you love yourself, and love the LORD your God with all your heart and and all your soul and all your mind. - Mathew 22-40.   Naturally the emphasis is more on "loving God and loving others" , whilst retaining a degree of self love, which is essential for understanding the unconditional nature of love. In order to empathize with others, one must empathize with one's own limitations and weaknesses. In positions of authority one must often be critical of others too for their own good,but that means we must be critical of oneself too. This kind of balanced self-introspection is what loving one-self is all about. Narcissistic Personality Disorder is a psychiatric illness where unbalanced self-love controls the individual. These days it is quite rampant in the body of christ , where people fall in love with their own selves, and cant see beyond their own needs, ofte

  India is a country synonymous with various caste equations, stretching across all religions. The founding fathers of India had a dream to build a casteless society , and no one epitomises the dream of such a unified India than the father of the Indian constitution Dr. B R Ambedkar. Political parties are aware of the ground realities, and come election time, do not touch the caste equations, rather preferring to keep things the way they are, so as to garner votes on the basis of caste loyalties. Elected officials on the other hand, have the onerous task of filtering out caste from the equation when it comes to the delivery of government subsidies and other forms of assistance. When the focus of a government is on delivery of services to the poorest sections of society, caste equations fall by the wayside, as the government authorities alone are able to create a legitimate and lasting narrative where castes can merge into a more homogeneous Indian bourgeoisie, which in many ways would

            At most times we are not happy, when we look at the world around us. Even if we were to ignore the world at large and focus on our personal circumstances , chances are we not satisfied with what we have achieved. Yet we can by joyful. Joyful does not mean happy. Joyful means you have a sense of hope, no matter what is wrong in our life, God can and will set it right, if we put our faith in him. This is the difference between being happy and being joyful. Church, particularly through worship gives us an opportunity to express this joyfulness in the presence of God. Songs that convey the true inner state of our beings, expressing our need for God in our moments of distress translate into experiences of joy.      The joy in our hearts comes from the innate understanding that we are deeply loved by our Creator,and we are wonderful and unique in our own right. Sometimes we can lose our joy, when we don't spend time in the presence of God, because we focus so much on our wor

Marriage , in the more traditional understanding is a covenant of partnership between a man and a woman , within the context of a particular societal group. The rules that govern this partnership vary from community to community, but the bedrock is always that of trust and empathy between the partners, for each other, extending outwards into society as a model of human happiness, expressed in the form of greater participation in society , all the while doing their bit to ensure the continuity of the human race. Individuals seldom enter into a covenant of marriage expecting it to fail, but in these fast paced times , the increasing influx of technology and wanton materialism in our day to day existence is leading to the erosion of once held societal norms that held marriages together, and that is reflected in the large number of separations this once holy institution is now facing. A cursory look at the family courts in our country gives us an idea about how large the problem is, with

It is very difficult, almost impossible to look into the future and try to predict what lies out there. IMO that's why its alright to get embarrassed, when people ask you about your 'VISION' , and you have no answer. Sustaining a long term vision requires foundation beliefs of some sort. Allmost all programmers of repute i am aware of have some sort of creed. Its what they doggedly believe in that drives them through social ,financial, emotional and intellectual issues that arise with being a visionary. There exists no prerecorded statement in our heart to answer the iconic question - What is your vision ? Possibly because a vision is not a pre-fabricated thought process one is born with. A vision arises out of experience, inspiration and education. The greater the quantum of these three influences on our lives, the more refined and eclectic visions can turn out to be. You dont have to go to Harvard or an IIT to get a vision, but it does help to have a great education, to m

In order to break out of a serious destructive habit of getting angry all the time, one must get in touch with one's inner self to understand what one is driven by... We all get angry from time to time. From things not working out in our lives to things not seeming to work out according to our expectations in the lives of others. Anger is always linked to deeper emotional stress we experience in our inner selves. In order to break out of a serious destructive habit of getting angry all the time, one must get in touch with one's inner self to understand what one is driven by, and secondly what one's inner goals in life are. One can trace a direct correlation between the concept of the inner self, and the modern-day psychology's concept of consciousness. In other words, our sense of Person, and our sense of identity, and as an extension, our sense of being alive. These are all different terms meaning the same thing, our inner self. Most human beings today are highly goal-