“Israel had no $#&*in right to bomb Lebanon on the pretext of counter attacking terrorists…” came the strong response from one of my close friends who seemed deeply affected by the recent turn of events. The next 20 minutes he took me through the history of Israeli occupation of Lebanon, the creation of Hezbollah and the dubious stance of the US and UN. His contention was
- Israel has evil intentions of occupying Lebanon
- How can Israel kill civilians in retaliation to its soldiers getting kidnapped?
- UN is a separate body and cant get dictated by the US
And he had a lot more; let me spare you of the rigmarole.
As I pondered over what he said…Its like this huge board game that we are playing; GOD created this for man, put in all his efforts to make it complicated and interesting, enabled the luxury of having infinite number of participants, no age restrictions, no restrictions on gender, color, religion and many more such interesting parameters. But, the problem is, he forgot to give us that small booklet that contains the rules of the game. And, this probably caused every member, every country, every government, every organization, and every supposed terrorist outfit to come out with their version of the rules. Not surprisingly each one has a different version completely contradicting the other versions. Its in this “contradiction” arises arguments, hatreds, battles, wars and eventually loss of lives.
Follow the principles of Geetha advises my dad on a regular basis. “The Geetha”, authored by our very own “lord” Krishna who pulled every trick in his sleeve to win the battle against the Kauravas. Things weren’t greatly different in the other avatar either. The righteous “Rama” stood behind a tree to attack an unfortunate Vali from behind; an act very much against the “rules” of a war. The mighty nation US that promptly chided India (the step mother that she is) for testing out nuclear weapons seemed quite proud of her achievement in wiping out the Japanese towns of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I am given to believe, that was the “only” way to end the war. It’s like different versions of rules that we come up with, and each updating the earlier written ones. Possibly like Windows versions. Each version has very little semblance to the earlier one; while the whole world uses them, it still crashes even under normal circumstances. In my IT city Bangalore, people have taken this philosophy to road traffic as well. I remember when my good old friend from the US asked me which side of the road we drive in, the left or the right, with a sheepish grin I whispered…”the center”.
Hmmm maybe there ain’t any rules. It’s meant to be the way it is. This game where we are mere moving objects, with varied emotions, highs and lows, and here we are competing to “reach” what we believe is a “finish” line. No wonder, Al pacino (in Devil’s advocate) calls HIM a prankster; HE has rolled the die and is now watching us play. A game it is, with no rules. I still want to ask HIM, why don’t we have a choice…maybe I don’t want to play!
6 comments:
Nice thought provoking post.How I wish God gave us the users manual so we can follow the rules.Each one has their own set and make up more along the way. Sometimes I am disillusioned with God for doing this because ther is so much Chaos in the world to day.
Its like this - God created man, and gave us the ONE thing which differentiates us from animals, thats the power to think, analyse, conclude intelligently!! From there on its all man's creation - the boundaries, the countries, the religions everything. Maybe he underestimated what he created. Which is why he never thought that a rule book would be needed in the first place!!
But why do you say you dont have a choice, you do, dont you? No one's forcing you to be part of the madness, right?
Thanks Starry nights. Its indeed intriguing. There is jus such much chaos in the outside world and often within yourself too. Not sure if this was the intended outcome of the game.
Anonymous,
interesting...maybe God lacked the vision to realize where this game would lead to...hmmm Not sure if I have a choice to avoid the game. If you are referring to self-killing, that again is like participating in the game, it compels you to go towards an area you have no clue about
Good thoughts.. great thoughts.. it made me realize that while the forms have changed... it is still to a certain extent the ancient kingdoms fighting and sparring..for land..the same borders.. just now when two kingdoms/nations goto war the entire world gets to watch and judge.
Maybe it will never change
Travelling soldier,
Your second para...beautifully put. Some times I get the feeling, the rule book exists..its called the Geetha, Bible or the Kuran.
Aditi,
Thanks..as you ahd rightly put, its has been the same situation for years, just the names and references have changed.
Maybe, the first task of the game is to figure out the rules...
(which, clearly, we havent yet accomplished)
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