to the skeptic

I think the disappointment with God stems out of denied expectations, .It is all in the manner you soldered your connecting wires.. or the USB port you used.. The disappointment would not have been there if the connecting terminals were stronger..
I think of Krishna as so cute, so great, so learned, so perfect.. and He makes me feel good..
It will be a bonus, a boon and ultimate windfall, if ever even the faintest love or consideration of His is directed towards me..
It is immaterial whether He cares for me, but I am blessed because He is there in all His glory..
Maybe it is a platonic one-sided love.. But that love makes meaning in life for many including me and most believers..
He was there before the biological mass that is me was formed and He will be there even after this biological mass undergoes some chemical change and decays..
How can I say He was not fair to me..? Do I matter much in the scheme of things? Besides, I believe He suffers the pleasures and pains of this illusion when each living being is subjected such pleasures and pains..
हरिर्दाता हरिर्भोक्ता हरिरन्नं प्रजापतिः हरिर्विप्रशरीरस्तु भुङ्ग्ते भोजयते हरिः Hari is the giver, Hari is the enjoyer, Hari is the mass of food which is enjoyed, Hari is the Grand Sire, Hari is the body of the learned man, Hari is eating and enjoying and Hari is the one who makes us eat and enjoy..
So in the scheme of things does it matter whether I believe in Him or not? Divine presence is too obvious..
If Radha often fought with Krishna, it was only a fight for His love...The yearning of the lesser evolved soul to reach the perfect soul..
This is our journey and this is the journey for all of us, whether we realize it or not..
YOU ARE NOT A NON-BELIEVER.. YOU ARE JUST ANNOYED or is peeved AT HIS BEHAVIOUR for the present.
Just like a child feeling temporary dislike for the mother when she punishes him for some small mistake..

What is faith?

What is faith? Is it blind belief? Or is it the result of logical reasoning? For a mature person it must be the end product of contemplation, evaluation and perhaps even experimentation..Just as a beautiful sculpture shows itself from out of a shapeless mass  of rock at the tip of a chisel wielded by a brilliant artist, faith is the final product of a lot of processing. Faith may be beneficial  or detrimental  depending on  the quality of the mind which nurtures it .

Freedom from Helplessness

Freedom from Helplessness
The prognosis is writ large the moment we were given lives as embryos..The finger that runs on the keyboard is 58 years old.. Was this being helpless all these years.. It could have been annihilated every moment right from when it took shape in a female womb. It has been confronted will all dangers for fifty nine years now but it has been provided a reasonably comfortable existence .. By.. call it God, Serendipity, Krishna, Jesus, AllaH,, does a name really matter.. If you would prefer to call it mere chance, that "mere chance" is the God.. This being would have overcome very minor adversities, but how could it have survived without many things which only that "power" provided in its superior wisdom. That power has never made this being to feel helpless at any time.. When that power is there is to help how can this being be helpless.. The moment help from that source stops, this being ceases to exist, to feel anything and then the feeling of helplessness becomes redundant. This is the ultimate truth.. Accept it or not, the truth is not affected.

origin of brahmarakshas

dear krishnan,  Brahmarakshasa originated from a Brahmana.. The genesis could have been in a number of ways.. many brahmins become really learned in vedas and saastras but during lifetime do not observe the nityakarma anushtanams or engage themselves properly in karmakaanda.   Going to temples or namasankeertanam would not be of much avail. Brahmin's duties have  to be scrupulously followed.  There are avaricious brahmins well versed and could perform yagas yajnas and paurohitya well.  But they find wrong means to cut short the procedure if they don't get the huge dakshina they expect. There is another category who, though having knowledge, lack in aachara.  When observing  deeksha for vedic karmas the ritwig, hota etc., are expected to maintain a strict regime of mental and physical purity and also continence in food  and abstaining from sex etc.,. Such restrictions are given a go by. Then there are brahmins, though learned, who commit  various paatakaas(sins) and do not expiate for them during their lifetimes.  When such and similar brahmins die they become pretaatmas,denied permission to enter pitruloka, and  form a group wandering in this earth as braharakshasas.  In fact we call brahmins showing such tendencies during their lifetimes itself as brahmarakshasas in jest. 

For brahmarakshasas their vasanas and knowledge in vedas do not disappear with death. Usually they try to occupy some trees just in the periphery of the agrahaarams they infested during their lifetime.  Now struggling with thirst and hunger with hardly anyone to pour til or water and pinda for them and even if it such things are offered being incapable of  partaking  in such offer, they sit restless, sleepless and mad perched on the trees.  Whenever a brahmin passes by all alone especially after sunset, this rakshasa will come down and start asking him questions on vedic and scriptural subjects and if the unfortunate pedestrian is not able to answer, the angry brahmarakshasa will give the former a thorough thrashing (but they do not kill intentionally..). and the victim could be found lying  unconscious under the tree in the morning.

As you know, such brahmins we see aplenty during their lifetimes and their tribe is ever on the increase. So whenever a sacred Karma or kumbabishekam etc., is conducted, and the devaprasna or ashtamangalya prasna are taken up, invariably the presence of some Brahmarakshas is found and pariharams are prescribed.  Praayaschitthams are offered by the community on their behalf and the mollified brahmarakshasas are invoked into some silas (stones) or the wood from the gooseberry tree and  given a place in a group  in the outer precincts of the temple and offered daily pujas etc.  It is believed that such expiated souls will transform themselves into Vishnuroopam after due penance.

  There is a scientific explanation for people falling unconscious under a tree during nighttime.  During the sunny day, there is a lot of photosynthesis, the leaves absorbing carbon dioxide and giving out oxygen, but the process stops with the sunset.  Then the leaves and other parts of the tree have to breathe and their bottoms are rarefied, with percentage of oxygen pathetically low. So anybody landing up walking along a row of trees or plants can feel the lack of oxygen, become breathless, hallucinate and swoon.  

Anyway brahmarakshasas have become interesting  characters in local village lore.  In Tamilnadu  the attack by  Muni  is similar to this phenomenon.

There is one school  of opinion that some of the brahmarakshas are being worshipped as kuttichathans in some places and many  dirty tricks are played by people through their good offices.

The brahmarakshasas are notorious for their love for intoxicating drinks like patta (hooch), and better commodities. Maybe this is inherited from their former habits in their lifetimes.