I like Swapna’s Idea of god and i think the most important thing about god is to give everyone the right to find his/her own.

Love is important - whether it is god or not

Communism is a theory which never worked in practice.

But I dont agree that EMS is who he is simply because he chose the anti-establishment approach. In that way, so many of the people we as Indians look up to in the political and religious sphere are mostly anti-establishment people, arent they?

EMS had the guts to challenge a rigid social system at a time when the best option for him would have been to enjoy what he had rather than sweat it out the way he did.

Whether EMS did become corrupt or not,yes, you r right, I dont know anything about it.

But if he did, even then, can we take away what he had managed to achieve, the winds of social change in Kerala, particularly among the upper caste Hindus of Kerala of that time (now its vice-versa, of course) who lived in glass houses that were far above the ordinary man’s glimpse?

U’ve given me an interesting novel idea to think about, God, Love and Communism!

Swapna i love to read every aspect of your intriguing thought process. Having said that, its hard to accept that your ignorantly subduing the fact that it was EMS who voiced out anti-Indian or Pro Chinese agenda’s during the despicable invasion of 1962. He was clearly a hero for the reason that he took anti-establishment stands, as a matter of fact anyone who goes anti-establishment does become a hero. It could be Fidel castro, Vladimir Lenin or even Joseph Stalin but these communist leaders or so to say are nothing less than the establishments they once famously overthrew for gross injustice and high levels of corruptions, which now they willingly endorse.

p.s- Funny thing, you talked of God, love and communism. Would make a good movie, i hate to say!

This gives me the perfect opportunity to talk about the famous EMS (the pioneer of Communist thinking in Kerala, a man who is believed to be a legend by die hard Communists and even the cynics) belonged to one of the finest famillies in Kerala several decades ago, a family that owned acres of land, had great prestige with the people and wielded considerable authority as feudal lords.

Living in the lap of social luxury, EMS was a youth when he read Karl Marx works on Communism. He was so influenced by it and appalled by the way religion (according to the Communist perception) was corrupting the human mind, EMS is believed to have thrown off the sacred thread that he wore as a Brahmin, renounced his home and its ways, spend years with the ordinary laborers who were of different castes.

This was at a time when caste related issues were at an all time high in conservative Kerala.

Ordinary workers had believed for years that they were destined to be poor, at the mercy of others, not allowed to enter temples, etc.

EMS questioned, debated and taught hundreds of such people that it is their right to live with dignity, that there is no God who can condemn people to live the way they did and if there was such a God, it was imagination and not real. He objected to the Brahmin practice of not permitting young widows to remarry as they would bring bad luck. What he did is he married a poor young widow and said now lets see what the Gods will do to condemn this poor woman for choosing to live in a better way.

Simply put, EMS became God and is still a god like figure in Kerala because he sacrificed all that he had to create a better social system in Kerala. The police tortures he faced for condemning the caste system and religious practices will go down in Kerala’s history as ‘black incidents. EMS lives on as an immortal hero, Interestingly, his family disowned him from the day he left home to pursue godforsaken idea.

In his last years just before he died, they requested him to visit the ancestral home. It was the kind of meeting that made nearly every one cry because he left the home as a young rebel and returned as a hero in his last days.

We need young people to make change happen in this country, not necessarily by rebelling but by changing the way society has false perceptions and practices about religion.

The sad thing is across the country we are still grappling with the same issues of inequality, communal riots and casteism even after so many years, even after men like EMS sacrificed every possible comfort to change it. Where is the ray of hope, i wonder.

i think communism should be one of the strongest supporters of the theory…after all, work is wat they blv in.. wat say?

Several path breaking studies on the Gita’s Karma principles have been published by researchers who break down the concepts one by one to explain why it works in today’s world.

Better still, let me explain why I believe so. Firstly because contemplating God as love is more in tune with the Bhakti cult of Hinduism more than the Karma theory, which focuses on positive and affirmative action to the society. Its even more interesting that the Gita explains both theories and says both lead to the same source, God.

Muslims do not accept the Karma theory. Christians are opposed to the karma theory even though the Bible says, “As you sow, you reap.” Judaism does accept it to a certain extent but not to the level that Hinduism does. The Communists obviously rubbish it as nonsense. So do the atheists.

Hinduism itself has factions about the karma theory. Proponents of the karma theory include Shankaracharya, Ramakrisha Paramanhansa and Swami Vivekananda who believed it was more relevant than the cult of Bhakti. They based their logic on the Gita. Gandhiji, as we all know, strongly favored the Gita’s theory on Karma. Not all leaders of Hindu spirituality accept the superior claim of the Karma theory.

it’s just a belief, a philosophy that every one interprets in different ways. doesn matter unless we follow it the same way - with love.

well, this is wat the karma theory is…rit?

universe is, supposedly, one family. n the global language is action. If we fill the feelin of love in each one of these actions, we r connecting to the creator of the Universe.

So, hail IBM: stop thinkin start DOING