Opinion Archives ⋆ Heer Khant

November 27, 2018

What Is Spirituality? It Has Nothing To Do With Religion!

The people of the 21st century are the ones who are moving towards an awakening. But what is spirituality exactly? Have you ever wondered?

When we were born, we came empty-handed. As we grew, we learnt what others told us to learn. We picked up the language of our parents, the lifestyle of our family, imitated the other children of our age and then went to school to learn what everyone else was learning. Our dressing, walking, in fact even thinking was somewhere an imitation of something or someone. Even the things we learnt from books, influenced us. Everything we ever saw, heard or felt influenced us.

But now what? Think.

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What if you wanted to see what you could become without imitating someone or something? What if you wanted to be empty again just like you were when you were born because the way you are right now is not working out for you? What if you wanted to unlearn and re-learn and become a completely new person, take birth again? That is when you embrace spirituality.

The dictionary meaning of spirituality is, ‘the quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things’. If we break this dictionary definition down, it gives us two focus words – human soul and getting rid of materialism. Well, it is somewhat correct.

Spirituality is a journey, not a quality. It is a journey that lets you die and take birth again while you are still breathing, in the same world, around the same people. It is about re-inventing yourself. It is a process to find a window, go to it, look out and exclaim, “That’s my soul!” Only that window will be somewhere inside you.

But this entire hulla gulla about doing away with materialistic things and punishing yourself does not make sense. Choose to keep the things that help you – do away with the rest. The idea of decreasing the burden is practical. Lighter the luggage, better the journey.

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Don’t let people tell you what you must do on the journey. You make your own dos and don’ts. If you once again imitate people – the yogis and the gurus – it is futile. Let them guide you but then you set your own goals, standards and decide what works for yourself.

Yoga, meditation, Zen, prayer are all vehicles for the journey – you can choose whatever suits you or choose none at all.

Spirituality can be as simple as sitting and watching the ocean or spending a day all alone thinking about yourself. It could be anything that helps you heal and make you happier. It is simple. Let’s not complicate it.

Happy journey, folks!

November 27, 2018June 11, 2020

Dear 20-Something, This Is Not The Time To Conform To Stereotypes

All through our teenage years, we wanted to rush and grow up. We wanted to grow up so we can take our own decisions and be our own bosses. We wanted to grow up to experience freedom and independence. Then we grew up. Bang! The reality hit us in the face. Non-teens wasn’t a paradise.

The minute the term ‘teen’ was out of the spelling of our age, the world began expecting more from us. We were expected to do something out of our lives, become responsible overnight and know exactly what to do (like some Sharmaji’s son who knew what he wanted to do since he was six!). We didn’t take a pause to reflect. Instead, we kept being swept away by the current of what one is supposed to do in their 20s.

Some got married, some had to join their family business, some had to simply go abroad for higher studies and some had to take up a job. But what about what YOU want to do?

Take a deep breath and take a pause.

‘,’

You do not have to conform to the stereotypes of your age or time. You do not have to do something simply because you are a certain age. You do it when you feel the time is right. Unlike how it is portrayed by the world at large, we do not function according to a Big Brother in the universe. We have our own tiny clock, that ticks for us. Follow that.

Your 20s are the time to discover yourself. You seek and find. You take risks, you explore and you do things that bring you closer to finding your purpose. Do you think you were born to get into a churning routine only to save up enough so you could have a lavish wedding and buy a home one day? Do you think that is it?

Often, the current generation has the responsibility of revolution. Revolution isn’t always drastic.

Imagine this. Millions of years ago, there lived our ancestors – the men who walked on fours. For them walking on twos was not conforming to the stereotype of that time. They questioned, adapted and evolved. If they hadn’t, what would we be today? And if we don’t, what will our future generations be? Stagnant? Remember, Darwinism?

In your 20s, you question, you try and then choose. If there is truly a responsibility you have in your 20s, then it is the responsibility of evolution. The ones younger to you are still growing, the ones older to you are getting resistant to change with their increasing age. You do your bit, by truly exploring what your life can be. You cannot do that by doing what people before you kept on doing.

Look at the bigger picture and enjoy the quarter-life crisis. Don’t forget to breathe.

“We are the representatives of the cosmos; we are an example of what hydrogen atoms can do, given 15 billion years of cosmic evolution.

– Carl Sagan”

November 27, 2018

Say Goodbye To These 5 Myths About A Woman In The 21st Century

There is a problem with any mindset – that problem is lack of evolution and the same applies when it comes to the mindset the society has about a woman.

Not just the Indian society but across the world there are certain things which a woman must do and certain things which she must not. People adhere to these mindsets without growing up – without seeing the dynamic change that has come about in the definition of women.

Today, we are helping those people who are still stuck in certain mindsets. Let us redefine women.

1. Not all women go gaga over the colour pink:

Most people think that all females like the colour pink and it is their favourite. Let’s bust this myth! The truth is, so many women love the colour black. Some women don’t like pink. Some hate it! All women don’t rush to buy pink clothes, purses, accessories and more. Period.

2. Not all women are golddiggers and would want the man to pay for them:

This is the 21st century. Even if it was the 18th, not all women want the man to pay the bill. Women would love to go Dutch or pay the complete bill themselves. Not all women depend on men for financial needs. Financial independence is not an antonym to womanhood. Women can and are, earning their own livelihood.

3. Not all women want to get married by the time they are 25:

The minute a woman turns 23-24, the entire society is suddenly concerned about marrying her off thinking that is the ‘best time’ for her to get married and it is in her ‘best interests’. Well, no. Most women would like to decide their own ‘best time’ for marriage. It could be 16, it could be 45, or even 70! Their only goal in life is not marriage. Some want to spend their life studying or working or travelling!

4. Not all women hate sports and like cooking:

It is yet another mindset that all women hate sports – some of the biggest sports stars are women. Many women who aren’t stars find sports to be their passion and indulge in it on a daily basis. Also, not all women like cooking and aim at becoming great chefs to please the palate of their future husbands. Cooking is an option for women just like it is for men.

5. Not all women desire long hair, love lipsticks or scream when they meet:

Make-up is not gender-centric. Not all women want to sport long hair. Some like it blunt, some like it short, some like it long. Some women would wear no make-up at all, some would wear minimal while some would love thick red lipstick. Being a woman does not automatically make them make-up lovers.

Make things gender-neutral. No gender ought to act in a specific way. That is a myth.

There are a gazillion other myths that need to be busted about women. Tell us in the comments below about something that annoys you the most as a woman.

October 21, 2018November 27, 2018

A Page From The Diary Of A 6-Year-Old Syrian Child

Mom woke me up with a smile today, she said she had made my favourite food. I asked ma, “Ma, why today? It isn’t even my birthday!” She placed her hand on my cheek and said, “Adnan, you take after your father. He loved kebab too…I feel that today something…” She didn’t complete her sentence. Last year, my dad left us – it was exactly one year today, maybe dad had sent the kebab for me from where he was. Mom said that he was in a far away world and he would never come back. Why couldn’t I go to the faraway world too with him? Wouldn’t it be full of baklavas and kebabs? I hate dad for going without me and not saying goodbye. Mom is so alone now – it’s just mom and me. It is so noisy here.

I heartily ate the kebab. Mom said she didn’t want any, she wasn’t hungry. I think mom has a disease in which she never feels hungry. I always have all the food she cooks. Maybe, she should see a doctor. Yesterday, when mom came home from work, I told her to see a doctor for her hunger-disease. She thinks that I shouldn’t be worrying so much because I am just 6 years old. I promised her I will not.

I spent the whole afternoon reading my old school books today because no planes took off from the nearby airbase. I sometimes spend time counting the number of planes that take off and land at the airbase, watching from home. Mom doesn’t allow me to go out anymore – I cannot even go to school. She says that for a few days I cannot even see any of my friends. I have no one to talk to, so mom asked me to write.

The only people I see around are men wearing white helmets. One of them, uncle Abbas, looks just like dad – he always says hi to me. Today when I saw him I asked him that why couldn’t I go play outside anymore? He said that some people had thrown huge bombs from the sky in a place that wasn’t very far away from me and that is why everyone was afraid to go out. He said many people had died. I didn’t know what he meant by die…maybe dying meant Why do people throw bombs on other people? Mom always said that all people are God’s children – I would never drop bombs on my sister. Maybe, monsters were dropping bombs from the sky.

My sister, Amena is my mother’s sister’s daughter. She doesn’t come see me anymore – they live in some other place and no longer with us. Once, Amena had told me that they lived in a tent now and she could see the stars every night. Even I want to live in a tent, it would be so much fun. But mom starts crying whenever I ask her to move to a tent, I don’t know why she never tells me. I miss Amena so much, she never even writes to me anymore. I told mom to tell her that I still have her doll that she forgot the last time she came to see me, it has been two years.

Well, I learnt a new word today from an English book uncle Abbas’s son, Mohammad had given me last week. It is spelt as P-E-A-C-E. Mohammad said ‘peaces’ are very tasty and they come in different flavours like chocolate and vanilla. He said he had a red box that had ‘American Peace’ written on it and inside was a tasty chocolate round shaped peace, given by a golden-haired lady to her father. But when he showed me the box, it peace was spelt differently. It was spelt as ‘pies’. Maybe it was a spelling mistake. But peace sure must be tasty.

I am tired writing now, mom says I have gotten weak and that I needed some sunlight. I thought I would just step outside for sometime in the evening when lots of fair soldiers roam around outside our house. Mom says they are ‘roosians’. She doesn’t know what it means, nor do I. But today, they weren’t there. It is all so empty outside. Mom is also late to return from work. Where did they all go? I feel so alone. I will go try and sleep, that will help pass the time. Mom, come home soon. Good night, mom.

The next morning never came. This child was killed in brutal strike in the wee hours of the morning by a country that wanted to avenge the deaths of children and civilians killed in an attack 48 hours earlier. His mom would have never found his body, or worse died in the same attack that day.

Disclaimer : This is a work of fiction and an attempt to portray a day in the life of a child in Syria.

Preview Photo: ibtimes.co.uk