EDUCATING YOUTH TO REAL LOVE.

There are many youth today who are hungering for real love but all that they get is superficial love. There are many lonely hearts. How is it that the youth at such a young age say that they have fallen in love? Do they really know what true love is? Love is made into a concept without knowing what it really is. I feel that the youngsters at their young age are not sufficiently educated about the value of real love and all that they do is try experimenting it by themselves. They think that they have truly fallen for someone when in reality it’s just an attracted or infatuation. And this cycle goes on and on. They get carried away until one day they are hit hard onto the ground, later on not knowing what to do. It goes without saying that they get hurt and their lives become miserable. Later on, some restrain from getting into such situations but some do try their luck. And it works; it may end at times, where the hurt person ends up getting more hurt than before and in future ends up hurting someone else. This leads me to ask the question “What is it that the youths are really searching for?”  But one thing I'm sure of is that most of the youth are in search of true and real love. But what is true love in the first place?

True love is not entirely a human entity; but it also has a divine aspect to it. It is God who in His love provides the grace for His creature to love one another. We are all made for love. There will always be love for the lovable, but there will never be love for the unlovable unless we begin to love them for God’s sake.

True love is outgoing, service oriented and ever ready to self-sacrifice. Love is a feeling that one feels than one can never give enough of it to the other. By giving love no one has ever gone bankrupt. Love can’t be seen. It can only be experienced. Love doesn’t come with a price tag and neither can it be weighed. Love simply ‘IS’. True love never thinks how much it will receive in return it simply gives its all.

True love is best put in the words of St. Augustine ‘Our hearts are made for you Lord, they will never find rest, until they find their rest in You.’ Love is simply that which find rest in someone who can be his/her comfort and that's which gives him/her peace.

Every youth feels that each one should be complete but he/she doesn’t know how they will be complete and it’s this which gives meaning and purpose to one’s life. Each one wants to be happy, and to gain this happiness they are even ready to take up to different vices, only to feel accepted and loved. Later they feel attracted towards others which is not true in its essence; it’s just an unreal love, which last for a few days. But it’s only when one gets to the true essence of love, that time he/she feels complete. The true essence of love is no other than God. He alone can satisfy all the aspirations of the heart. God is true love. But in this world His love is manifested by His people. The people are substitutes of God who spread or give love to each other. We are happy that we love someone but we are much happier when someone else loves us. We need love because we are imperfect and that’s how many lovers consider each other as unworthy but at the same time they love each other deeply.

These thoughts seem to be vague but it’s sure that no one will ever find an absolute ideal of love because it can only be God. But it’s only later that the youth realize that, what he/she wanted was the love that doesn’t fall short of love. And that is the infinite love who is God. It’s only by the blessings of God there can be true and real love. And finally a relationship stands strong enough when the foundation is built on the Love of God who is the giver of all Love.

BIRTH AND DEATH OF CLAY

It’s something like moving from a summer sunny day to the wintery cold night.

The birth of clay is when it is born of the clay by the breath of God the almighty.

The most comfortable place in the world without the cares of the world is the womb of the mother.

It’s when the clay is born it starts to cry. Why?

Many say your downhill t death is after the age of 50.

But I don’t think so it’s then, I guess it’s when the clay is born.

From then on the clay is responsible for its own survival.

The clay always is about to save its breath coz if the breath is gone, the clay returns to clay.

And that’s what none of us want.

How scared are we to death when we are certain of it. Can it be stopped? No.

That is one of the eternal truths we know.

How blind and deaf can we be that we can’t hear and see the nature die.

How dumb we grow when we ate to speak of death?

Well death puts all things right but we don’t wanna get it right.

An Insight just occurred to me: when a new baby is born we are all happy we welcome this new born child into the most deadly race in the world: the Human Race. We are happy for the child coz it’s just gonna do like us destruct this world as we do. I’m sorry for being so pessimistic, but that’s what it is. And then we cry after the person dies coz we are now sure now that this person is never gonna follow us anymore.

We grow and grow, grabbing all that want beyond our necessary requirements.

Giving our body all the possible pleasures that we can.

Forgetting that the soul too needs to be cared of.

Oh! How dumb and deaf and blind and lame our soul will be on the last day as we grow ahead.

The more we create, double the times we destroy.

Leaving the nature worse than ever.

The nature never tires about giving coz it knows.

It will give until it can and then cease to exist.

That will eventually lead to the end of the clay.

That’s what death is …..

You see a patient in the hospital suffering in a hospital at the mercy of the nature coz that’s what it is that provides medicines, etc. to him.

But what when the nature can’t provide anymore.

The person ceases to exist.

Oh! How foolish this clay can be.

Trying to beautify the pot or any clayey material.

It only requires one hit.

And there comes down the pot from the table down to the ground, shattering itself into a million pieces.

What was all the use of beautification?

When the clay knew that one day it would shatter and be thrown away only to be back the clay it was once…..

Fudging Figures and Twisting Facts.

Good afternoon to you all gathered here. The topic of my talk is Fudging Figures and Twisting Facts. My talk features four points. First, Age and Time connected to History. Second, Historians: The History Makers. Third, Truth v/s Power. And Fourth, History from Below. So let’s begin with an introduction.

Introduction.

On 14^th August 2011, Shoban Saxena a reporter published an article ‘Wrong Numbers’ on the Times of India. This article spoke about how government and other agencies twisted facts and figures, exaggerated or cited out of the context to prove their point or support their own agenda. Dear friends, if things can be fudged and twisted in the here and now, it is good to ask ourselves how much more of twisting and fudging of facts, figures and data must have happened in the past? Stastical data, facts and figures of the present situation can be cross checked and verified but how can one verify historical accounts of past happenings when there is very little evidence to support it.

Science has grown or progressed through trial and error method. But what about history, if the historian gets it wrong in his history writing, he only multiplies errors.

With this I begin the First point...

1.      Age and Time connected to History.

Every philosopher’s reflection and insights are replies to the significant issues and questions at that particular time and age. It may not make sense to a person who is living in a very different time than that of the philosopher. So it’s wrong to study philosophers in isolation from his times. Another wrong way is to treat all philosophers as contemporaries. If we talk of history most of it is told from one age to the next. And when it comes to the last person it comes with added information. Past is past and it can’t be changed. Present and Future can be changed. The evolving present has a great influence on people who understand the past. A decision or action that was recently seen in positive light could suddenly come to be regarded as an act of violence or oppression. What till the other day was viewed as an act of barbarism could suddenly because of changing perspective become an act of courage and heroism. Past is not static or fixed but can change any time. One doesn’t really know and one cannot even reasonably predict the ‘future of the past.’ By tradition history has been narrated. Written history can have a stronger impact through which one might be better able to focus on the activities of the individuals. The only struggle is to meet the contingencies, whether it happened or not. To get facts one must distinguish between many myths which are taken in consideration over the course of time. For e.g. In the Christian Theology there has been a search for historical Christ. Some historical figures are related to myths. The problem now is can one separate myths from historical figures? Myths are not necessarily the opposite of history. When one takes away the myth one does not come closer to the truth. On the contrary, one ends up distorting the truth about the person. One must be careful not to succumb to the temptation to exaggerate while writing history, especially the history of religions and religious figures. However, one has also got to accept that the myth is very much an integral part of the person around whom it builds up.  

Moving to the 2^nd point..

2.      Historians: The History Makers.

Historians are noted for their careful, meticulous and systematic study. In the past before when the historians researched, they published their findings to the public which was scrutinized, appreciated and criticized. Now the tag of professionals is also given to write popular history. Nowadays history has become popular through movies, novels and documentaries. As it looks more attractive and has impact on the people. History is now no more boring but entertaining. History is belittled by removing some part of it which makes the people feel bored and a fictitious history is created which is exciting and nice. This makes history impressive which makes the people feel attracted towards it. Professional historians may say that the quality of history communicated by these media may not be honest. These historical movies, novels and documentaries may contain factual facts, factual fiction or even fictional fiction but for people it’s the same. For e.g. Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, where the fictitious information was sold as historical fact to popularize and sell the novel.

And now the 3^rd point...

3.      Truth v/s Power.

All history that is given to us is not just a historical account in isolation but a historian’s personal pre-suppositions and biases. It’s difficult to deny the historians pre-suppositions interests, value systems which influence history. A lot of history is interpreted by the historians especially why things happened in such a way. Historian’s version of history can never claim to completely true because he doesn’t have access to all the facts. Historical accounts are affected because of both the context in which the historian finds himself and the limitedness of his perspective. Here we see that the truth is limited this doesn’t mean that every historical truth claim is relative or subjective. It’s possible to arrive at objective truth to a certain extent in history. The face one doesn’t know everything doesn’t mean he knows nothing. What a historian knows may be limited but what he knows is true to fact also. Since no historians can study enough of a person or event from different perspective historian needs to be open to dialogue between different historical versions so that the truth can gradually emerge. Historians can create heroes from small Lilliput’s to great Giants and vice-versa. This can be done innocently or intentionally. Someone who has really done a great difference can be just blanked out from the pages of history but someone who did something small can be raised up as a great hero.  History is not concerned about how the person lived or what were his convictions but as how the person meant to a particular group. E.g. Bhagat Singh for Indians was a freedom fighter but for the British he was terror. Truth is a tool, a useful fiction used by those in power to exercise control over others and manipulate them. This may not apply to all historical writings but there’s no doubt that such things are done by the powerful in economic and politics. E.g. Our P.M Modi during the 2014 elections projected himself as a victim rather than an accused in the Godhra riots where he appealed to the emotions of the majority population. Thus, creating a fiction around the truth of the riots.

This leads to the 4^th point...

4.      History from Below.

Before I move to history from below let us first know about history from above. History has usually focused on the deeds and achievements of important people of kings and rulers, of politicians and statesman, of the wealthy, the famous and the powerful. This history is referred as history from above. However, the present time has seen historical attention shifting from these ‘extraordinary people’ to more ‘ordinary people’ to the contribution and the deeds of the common person. History from below is a movement which considers the story of ordinary people, workers, immigrants, women and racial minorities. The case in point is the crusade against corruption led by Anna Hazare, an ordinary activist who mobilized mass support and forced the government to pass laws against corruption. This movement has challenged traditional notions about who the historian is and what history is about. It has attacked the presumption that only professional historians are qualified to do history and on the other hand it popularized the view that even ordinary people who are interested in the past of their families and communities can make a big contribution to the understanding of history. Internet has made ‘History from Below’ not only popular but also exciting one. Here people can track back their ancestry and build their family tree across generation. One can write his/her own story and many people across the world can read and comment on it. History seems to have closed eyes towards women. Robin Morgan, a journalist has coined the word ‘Herstory’. This derives a very powerful message which shows the ignored life and contribution of women. It has treated women as if they didn’t exist and they seem to be a different species altogether. But over the years we see that women's haven’t remained silent but they too have bounced back and created histories which have become inspiration to many. E.g. The active role of women in the French Revolution.

And now finally the Conclusion.

In my talk I have spoken some of the important issues that ‘Philosophy of History’ needs to be sensitive to in our contemporary times. It is true that past events are usually interpretations or personal constructs determined by the historian’s perspective. And therefore this makes a Philosophical reflection on history very important. And hence I end by saying ‘History is said to be given but it doesn’t mean it can’t be questioned.’

Thank you one and all.