FAITH

A wise man once said- “There is no black or white, just shades of gray”. What is good and bad, right and wrong? How do you decide that? Answer- You have your own beliefs. You can never exactly ‘know’, you can only believe. Nobody has seen God, nobody ‘knows’ that God exists. Yet millions believe. In a way it sounds ridiculous- ‘millions believing religiously in an entity whose very existence can never be proved’. Not exactly being objective. Are we?

How do you really get to a person. I mean what really makes a man angry? Well there can be countless answers to that but is there a common denominator for most of those cases? I believe there is. You challenge a man’s belief system and he will come for you with all he has got. It just can’t be tolerated. No one likes to be told what to believe. It is something that comes from within and it has to. Only then will you fight for it. If you believe in something because others tell you to or because others do the same, you are making the biggest compromise you can possibly make. Everything else can be compromised but not your beliefs. It’s the biggest price a man can pay. Let’s see how.

Suppose you’re saying that you believe in something just because it seems to be the ‘popular opinion’. Now you know that thing they say about opinions- ‘Opinions are like underwear, they have to be changed everyday or else they start to stink’( Actually I have tweaked this one a little :) ).  Next day, ‘the’ opinion changes and you look like a fool- not to others, but to yourself. No one else would even care to remember what you were saying yesterday but you would. However when it won’t fit the ‘status quo’, you will start doubting yourself. Bazinga!!. You’re screwed. Your whole belief system is gone and so is a bit of your self-respect. Ouch. Why did this happen? It happened because you weren’t true to yourself, because you wanted to look good instead of being good.

Here’s another question that’s bothering me. If there is really no way of knowing whether what you believe in is actually true or not, isn’t it foolish to stick to it instead of saying- “I’m not really sure, I might be wrong.” No it’s not. It most definitely is not. For you to believe in something, it doesn’t even have to be ‘true’. Just your faith has to be absolute, for your own freedom and self-respect. If you believe in something, do it emphatically and stand up for it. Now won’t it result in conflicts? People can believe in different things and be equally sure about them. Yes. there will be a lot more conflicts if you start standing up for what you believe in. Is it that bad? Clearly not. On the other hand, trying to change your beliefs just to avoid conflicts sounds kind of pathetic.