Gott ist tod.
God is dead.
- Friedrich Nietsche.
Read this on a school magazine board when I was 13 and it shook my entire being.
Probably more than any 'spiritual' text I have ever read. None of them did it for me. I tried for years and years like opium..a junkie..the gita to the quran to the dhamapadda to the gnostics to the bauls to the sufis. None of it worked. Like bad relatioships you try to make work, I tried.
I didnt need a school book telling me I should'nt steal or lie et al.
Ironically most people doing that these days believe in some sort of a 'god' or religious text.
Whether its the killers in Gujarat or Pakistan, Texas, Saudi Arabia or the place formerly known as the White House.
As someone said:
They cant even empirically or in anyway, prove or disprove the existence of a god. but are ready to slaughter their next-door neighbor for it.
That's why, on a slightly altered note, I find Bhagat Singh so interesting. a 23 year atheist, born into a Punjabi peasant family, labelled a long-haired Sikh, cuts off his hair and dies at the age of 23, at the hands of the British imperialists, reading Lenin's works, as his last task. His essay 'Why I am an Atheist' is one of the most profound and life altering things I have ever read.
more than Nehru, Jesus, Mohammed or anyone else.
3 comments:
Never read that. I will. And when my parents get upset if i get too influenced, I'd blame it on you :)
Just kidding. It is quite a thought provoking post to be honest...
Why would I consider something like that? Your views are your views and healthy debate is always gut :)
Danke Schon.
Nietsche..I have to hand it to my Delhi school. While on one side we had the whoe behenji culture, we had amazing intellectual exposure.
Yes, I wonder why the who god thing is taken for granted,, its almost like the Dark Ages, but certain things were taken for granted like the heliocentric universe and the "church is the state" and rules your life. I guess, we are coming out of that stage..at some point, hopefully
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