Terrorism: A Sad Twist of Belief

What we believe about God may or may not be true, but it certainly is an ethical idiosyncrasy. Those tenants of cultural behavior and values make sense. It certainly is the right path, at the start of which stands bright hope and at the end there is harmony and non violence.
What is truth? It is the synonym of belief when it touches the boundaries of submission and interpretation. The problem is, we sometimes fail to differentiate between these terms. Truth is a slave of perception. When the perception of an individual changes, so does the truth. Belief however is the set of rules we follow which are bound to ethics and harmonious life & has nothing to do with change. But belief gets dragged into truth and it is validated all the time. If a student prayed to God to pass him in an examination, his belief will depend upon the testing of his prayer when the result is announced. If he fails in the exam, his belief will dwindle as his prayer was unheard. This is a mistake.
What do terrorists do? They bring their own perception into belief and consider that twisted thing to be the truth and submit to it firmly regardless of ethics. Belief is not specific to religion. It is an element of submission, not validation and certainly not something to be twisted and molded.

On Patience

Evolution is a gradual process and is about growth through the establishment of simple truths, which are the rules that reap maximum benefits for the sustenance of individuals in this world.

We are the subjects of evolution, always getting built into a greater structure on different mental and physical grounds. We are also the creatures of Egoism. The expression of egoism hinders our soul towards experiencing and assimilating the simple truths that evolutionary life has to offer.
Nature undergoes the construction process slowly. The changes towards the benefit of the individual happen gradually, over the period of several years sometimes. The time depends on whether we fight towards the change or against it. The scars heal slowly as the complex forces of nature come together to form a system.
We are the ones who resent the slowness of life's change. We want to grow faster, make fast decisions, heal faster, become popular instantly but what we forget is that to evolve is nature's own way to train us for good and it only happens if we remain patient.
Impatience always leads to people going astray, swerving away from the path of evolution, the path of good.
We must remember that for a journey of thousand miles begins not just with the first confident step, but the first 'patient' step.

The Perception of Luck

He bent down one last time with his club in hand, staring defiantly at the sands. Surely, this would be one step too far. Everyone around him had given up hope. There was no way with the inclination so steep that anyone could lift the ball above the bunker and into the hole, not in one stroke anyway. But this guy was different. He saw the wind was moving in his direction and once the ball cleared the bunker, there was a downward slope to the hole. He selected his club, with the approval of his caddie and focused on the ball. The world around him vanished like a man with an astigmatic vision. He took one swing of the club, the ball flew out of the bunker and slowly made its way towards the hole and with each rotation the palpitation of the crowd was so loud, you could hear it. And then, VOILA!!! We had a winner. The ball slips into the hole; the player takes his cap off and bows to the crowd. He was none other than Tiger Woods himself.

Once we know the name, we are often led into believing the inevitability of that result. But just think, if that person was a newcomer, an unknown person none of us would be thinking like this. It’s as if we have classified a particular set of individuals as genius or in some cases and cultures demi-gods. For others, everyone has a threshold, a limit beyond which we cannot pass. However in our myopic judgement we don’t notice the simplicity of their thinking, the adroitness of their execution and the passion in their hearts. They simply break a problem down into simple constituents and always take it one step at a time.

So next time before procrastinating at a problem, ask yourself this question. Is this problem really impossible, or is your acceptance an excuse for your indolence. And then remember what Cassius told Marcus Brutus in the play Julius Caesar, “Don’t blame the stars, for the fault lies in ourselves that we are underlings.”

Guest Written By Abhinav Verma