Thoughts on Christmas

On Christmas

Christmas always brings lot of excitement to me with all its beautiful colors, fancy fairy tales and the simple message of love and compassion. It is a beautiful festival, which SIMPLIFIES things. Of all the deep and complicated philosophy of Hinduism, where one sometimes just gets lost, the message of the Christmas is the SUMMARY, a message of love, compassion and forgiveness.

And then they have cute, childish stories weaving these emotions in the thread of life. These stories have again and again taught me things. For the meaning of child is to be innocent, objective and God-like, un-touched by the ‘vikaar’ of the world (the falsified change and clinging to it).

Thus for me, the day of Christmas is to become a kid and stop calculating, but seeing things as they are, beautiful and full of pleasure, where every person you come across is nice and compassionate, and where life is a play of the children of Lord. I thoroughly enjoy the innocence and simplicity of the festival, with all these animated characters who become teachers!

And then I remember the THE great master, who gave his life to redeem the sin of the other fellow beings and could ask God to forgive the very people who assassinated him!!! How perfectly this ties up with Leo Tolstoy’s non-resistance to evil and Mahavir’s non-violence. And you know what, whether Christ resurrected or not makes no difference to my respect for him or him being God!!!! For it is not miracles that matter…

Thus are my feelings on Christmas. And only a hindu can understand, why the heart of a Hindu could cry as loud for Christ as for Krishna, that universality of religion is embedded in the heart of the Hindu where he prays just anything and everything, here the antagonistic duality and non-duality also embrace each other and propose that God is everywhere!!!!

I would do great injustice to the Hindu community, if I don’t become practical at the conclusion. For a great question for us is that whether we should celebrate the festival of a set of people who come to our country to convert Hindus to Christians and tell us that all non-Christians are gonna go to hell? With celebrating shoulder to shoulder with them, aren’t we registering our approval to such beliefs and activities. Shouldn’t we send a message that we aren’t with you, till you mend your ways? I don’t have an answer for this question now, I call it the 'Christmas Dilemma'. For I celebrate Christmas with my own interpretation and spirit; but it may be misinterpreted as a Hindu’s unquenched thirst, an approval of the christian conversion scheme or a community’s weakness. Maybe an answer to this is to celebrate Christmas with all the right spirit but off the eyes of public…

What was exciting this Christmas....

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are the meek: for they shall posses the land.

Blessed are they who mourn: for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.