{"id":152753,"date":"2020-02-10T12:00:27","date_gmt":"2020-02-10T12:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=152753"},"modified":"2020-01-31T08:17:39","modified_gmt":"2020-01-31T08:17:39","slug":"times-gone-by-and-the-contemporary-world-role-of-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/02\/times-gone-by-and-the-contemporary-world-role-of-religion\/","title":{"rendered":"Times Gone By and the Contemporary World: Role of Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"

28 Jan 2020 – <\/em>Time has usually been separated by scientists and ordinary people from space. We can travel from one part of space \u2014 from one place to another. But time is different in the sense that we cannot go back into time; we can go into future but not into past. However, the well known scientist Albert Einstein considered space-time as an\u00a0integral concept and devised many unique theories on this basis, including the well known equation\u00a0E= MC square <\/strong>(representing the transformation of mass into energy).\u00a0But although he talked of time both in the past, present and future, he could not physically go into past.<\/p>\n

Most people \u2014 novelists, poets, painters and ordinary people think and talk of the past which gives a glimpse of what a person was in the past \u2014 weeks, months or years ago. This is especially true for an old person. As we all know, a young person \u2014 child or a person in his or her twenties or thirties is so different from an elderly person, in terms of his physique, perspective, thoughts, abilities etc.<\/p>\n

The older person is the same \u2014 in terms of name, race, religion, citizenship and other common criteria as he was as\u00a0\u00a0a young person, and yet becomes quite another in terms of his psychology, personality and thinking in terms of a youngster.<\/p>\n

In terms of these parameters,\u00a0to call the person the same appears to be erroneous and problematic.<\/p>\n

In a family or community or society, we tend to feel that the other person is, if not the same, is similar; has similar likes or dislikes; has similar hopes and desires and habits. Not identical but similar.\u00a0\u00a0Consider students studying together in a particular course in a College or University. They have similar habits of studying together, going to the Library, completing assignments\u00a0given by their teachers. Similarly, they like to play games or sports, they like to dress nicely, want to see new and interesting historical\u00a0places such as forts or temples or churches, mountains, hills, rivers or deserts. They like to go to theatres or cinemas and enjoy themselves by different means available in modern society. Men and women like to go out together for dates, etc.<\/p>\n

For an old person,\u00a0\u00a0politely called senior citizen (above the age of 60 years), the energy levels become low even if he is not suffering from any major disease. But to compensate for his low energy levels, he has many memories \u2014 some pleasant, some painful. However, what pains an old person is quite often being alone \u2014 loneliness. There are other old persons living nearby with whom one has some contact or interaction. But while belonging to similar age groups, they often have dissimilar problems related to their health or to their family lives or their ideologies. Thus despite belonging to similar age groups, they often\u00a0have differing problems which accentuate their loneliness.<\/p>\n

Younger family members often feel that old people share similar health problems and similar feelings and so can become friendly with each other. This is so occasionally but often old people do not quite gel with each other and thus their loneliness is accentuated. There are old age homes or\u00a0get-togethers for such people. They do serve a limited purpose but do not quite meet the needs of elderly people.<\/p>\n

Modern society and technology do provide some means of keeping oneself engaged even for elderly persons. Television, Smart phones with various games or puzzles such as Solitaire or Sudoko do keep them busy for some duration of the day.<\/p>\n

What nevertheless keeps many people engrossed, especially the elderly, are religious rituals, charities, and lectures on Gods and deities, on good conduct, spiritual life, after life, etc.<\/p>\n

Islam, the religion of Muslims enjoins people to do namaz<\/em> in praise of Allah five times a day. Devout Christians keep themselves busy by going to Church and carrying on welfare duties such as education and health care promoted by the Church.<\/p>\n

People following Hindu religion not only go to temples and sing bhajans<\/em> in praise of various Hindu deities, they participate in crowded\u00a0satsangs, kirtans<\/em>\u00a0and listen to spiritual discourses given by different religious gurus. Not only do they listen attentively, they often sing and dance to the music of bhajans<\/em>. They feel happy and cheerful and temporarily forget the harshness of their lives. It is amazing to see not only elderly people but also youngsters and children at these\u00a0satsangs<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Krishna <\/em><\/strong>Consciousness\u00a0Movement<\/em><\/strong>—ISKCON<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0is popular in many parts of the world. Devotees of this organisation not only feel blessed by the Hindu God\u00a0Krishna<\/em><\/strong> but talk about right conduct, peace, happiness, sharing, and kindness, which\u00a0Krishna<\/em><\/strong> promotes. They sing and dance joyfully and try to help people in need.<\/p>\n

Other religions \u2014 Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, the Baha\u2019i Faith and other smaller sects also have many devotees who are attracted to their faiths and keep themselves engaged and contented by sharing, helping each other.<\/p>\n

In the complex modern society of today there are wars, terrorism, violence and billions of dollars being spent on manufacture, sale, and distribution of deadly weapons. There is also poverty, inequality, loneliness and isolation on a social level. My feeling is that perhaps spirituality will offset the cruelty, isolation of the modern world and usher in peace, harmony, love and caring for each other in this unequal world.<\/p>\n

Hare Krishna<\/strong><\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Dr Ravi P Bhatia is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>, an<\/em> educationist, Gandhian scholar and peace researcher. Retired professor, Delhi University. His new book, <\/em>A Garland of Ideas\u2014Gandhian, Religious, Educational, Environmental was published recently in Delhi.<\/em> ravipbhatia@gmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the complex modern society of today there are wars, terrorism, violence and billions of dollars being spent on manufacture, sale, and distribution of deadly weapons. There is also poverty, inequality, loneliness and isolation on a social level. My feeling is that perhaps religion will offset the cruelty, isolation of the modern world and usher in peace, harmony, love and caring for each other in this unequal world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":70777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[107,805],"class_list":["post-152753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-religion","tag-spirituality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}