The Journey

The Journey !!

On a Sunday cloudy morning I have been trying for the last half an hour to focus on something to use my keystrokes on my laptop. My mind started traveling in all sorts of directions and then I chanced upon a magazine given to me by a fellow passenger last week, but let me get into that later.

I am a Hindu (follower of Hinduism) and therefore governed by these myriad complicated rules of the religious component of my society. Irrespective of the type of religion you may subscribe to, you would also be under the purview of your respective rule sets. The atheists of course may not follow any such paths but often and on they too land up following some ritual and customs due to social obligations or community pressures. I am not sure about the definition of what you may call a devout Hindu but in my worldly agenda I do have my way methods (some borrowed while others entirely original) of long distance communication with the Super Power.

Now this religion that I belong to is an extremely complicated one and too may things are left open to diverse interpretations. Most of you would be familiar or at least heard of the Indian Hindu Caste systems as they still exist. Originally the caste system was defined in the Vedic Ages (Once upon a time!!!) on the basis of occupation and accordingly there were four distinct divisions. There were two ways this could be determined. The first one was religious in nature while the other was biological. Typically there were four classes but over time the wise men(sic) decided to divide and divide and divide the people leading to numerous sects and sub sects. Now I didn’t really care about all this convoluted processes but what perked me up was that somewhere conveniently people have made this into a hereditary situation throwing whatever logic the system had earlier to the wind.

Now the religious pundits keep telling us about this ultimate goal of making a housing investment in God’s Housing Society, have a nice residence out there with I am sure all the amenities. But I do wonder about the municipal corporation that needs to exist especially for the caste believers in terms of duties. Will the low class janitor (Sudra) co-exist with the supposedly so called priestly (Brahmin) in terms of post-death benefits in God’s country?

And somehow its during the time of marriage that the Hindu families educated or otherwise, suddenly become extremely conscious of their castes so that I guess the couple can go singing to Heaven together and otherwise they might land up with compatibility issues in the journey towards final destination!!

Here in Seoul I sometimes visit the Buddhist monastery because I get a chance to be at peace with myself in that serene atmosphere, But the marketing techniques applied for propagating ideas must be the different Christian communities out here. Coming out of Mapo subway station I am handed over these leaflets to join the Sunday special service for foreigners in the local church.

While coming down the escalators of Singil station, my end of day thoughts are interrupted by this person who is delivering his never ending diatribe on sacrificing the sinner in a loud pitch through a portable PA system.

Another day inside a local Seoul bus, this slightly aged lady is violating the peace with her own long religious piece. While coming back from Incheon I was engrossed in a Ludlum, and this young couple tapped me for some attention. They had noticed that I was reading an English novel and I had no idea where our conversation was leading to, until the moment when they gave me a “gift” in terms of a free copy of the latest “Awake” magazine. They exclaimed when I professed my awareness of the Jehovah’s Witness (a Christian community) and I was immediately invited to one of the congregations. Did they think that here is another one to bite the dust? They are doing their “Duty” of spreading the love and giving directions of another way of travel towards the Housing Society Management Office!!!

Each one to their own and perhaps your journey would dependent on many factors, like your location, the transportation available and the economics!!! But I still have questions to go. Like you could be preaching me to take an airplane while I am stranded on sea like Tom Hanks in “Castaway”.

But all you guys may not have considered a simple fact. In spite of traveling first class in an airliner, when in queue for immigration, I might just be ahead of you and to top it all, maybe you are deported back or quarantined. Who knows? Sphere: Related Content