Fear At The Heart:
A great philosopher put a question to his disciples "What do you think is the most dangerous thing in the world?"
The answers came from all of them as "Money", "Lust", "Power", "Ego".
Finally the philosopher gave the answer as "Faith". His disciples were confused and asked him to explain.
The philosopher asked "What caused the 2nd world war?"
His disciples replied "Hitler". Philosopher said "That's true, Hitler took the world to the bloodiest war the world of today, but have you given a thought why the men who fought with him obeyed his brutal orders. It is the faith they had in him that he will lead them and the country they love to greater glory. If you analyze all the major battles in the history of the world, the Basic factor knowingly or unknowingly would be faith of the people involved in the incident. The most apt example would be the crusades the European courtiers waged against the Middle East. The faith the Europeans had in the Christ go so mad that they went on fighting for over 2000 years leaving no way for a peace in that place."
The philosopher continued "When someone believes in something and have an unshakable faith, the underlying fact is he is vulnerable. When the person's faith is threatened he will show afraid to face the truth, he will either shut himself down or will react violently. Here I will tell you the story of a great scientist, who was shut down by the powerful men of the society because he threatens the belief system they had. This story of Galileo. As you may aware, Galileo contributed immensely to scientific community with his research on basic laws of the Physics (2 of the 3 laws). He supported a hypothesis proposed by another scientist Copernicus. His theory is that Sun is the centre of the universe and all the particles of the universe revolve around the sun. The church of the olden days (or still may be) believed that the earth is the centre of the universe as that is the god has chosen to place the human beings. As Galileo was well respected, the church feared that his support for Copernicus theory is creating a imbalance in among the followers of the faith. They forced Galileo to apologies for his words, and banned all his writings. The church feared that if one of their ideas was exposed as flawed, the faith of the followers would be shaken and even their own faith may be questioned. This is one small example how the faith when threaten will react. Each person has his own beliefs and faith, and each will react in his own way if that is threatened." The philosopher finished his explanation.
Silence prevailed as each realized what he said. The silence proved that each one accepted whatever he said. The philosopher continued "Friends, If you believe and began and have faith in me, in future when you find that I'm not what I seems to be how you will react?".
No body responded to the question as everyone understood where this is leading to. "So you understand what I am arriving at?" he asked.
"If at all everybody had just given a little thought about what they believe keeping aside their anger, a lot of bloody wars could have been averted" He finished his speech with that. The disciples went their ways deep in thought.
2 comments:
Siva- as much as i agree with u that faith is the most dangerous thing in the Universe, I have to disagree too. How about calling "Faith" the most powerful thing?? 'coz when used in the positive manner, faith can be the most positive constructive power in the world. What do u think of the faith - the same old example- that Gandhi had on ahimsa and his followers had on him?
The faith can be destructive when utilized by the wrong people for the wrong causes, as you say by the likes of Hitler. But thats what keeps the people in the war shattered middle east, alive - a faith in the future.
I believe if u look at it with a positive outlook and espress your ideas on it, I am waiting to read how poerful ur words can be in making atleast one person think.
Faith on principles leads to Heaven and faith on persons leads to Perdition. In my own small ways I have found that great people whom I admire and have faith in revealed clay feet at some time or other. For man is falliable including the Great Mahatma which he himself admitted on many occasions. That was why the sangam poet said that he neither greatly admires anyone nor will pour redicule on anyone, however small.
reg: Israel we tend to forget the enormous pain the jews suffered in the second world war when they were hunted and killed in millions. For we tend to live in the present and forget the past. I hold no brief for anyone who believes in violence as it is self destructive and is reciprocated in greater measure and the evil cycle continues. but the hunted is always one step ahead of the hunter.
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