Following your tradition and yet remaining devout
By vanny
@vandana7 (101255)
India
February 13, 2025 12:54am CST
Ok...I don't know how if I have defied my culture..
I have attended Christmas mass, and other mass in Church.
I have said Hail Mary and Our Father several times in my life
And I have wished my fruit vendor Allah Hafiz several times...and there is another Muslim waste collector, Allah Hafiz, and a Muslim driver who is no more, Allah hafiz.
I have eaten food in Christian households, and truly relish traditional goan dals (lentil soups) with coconut in it.
As to Muslims, I have received sweets and biryani from the late Muslim driver a couple of times. The Waste collector too brings sweet on Idd day.
I eat it all...glutton that I am. Biryani dad eats...it has chicken or meat in it...don't know.
For some reason, they all like me.
And yet, I go to temples, I say my prayers, I sing songs of our gods....listen to them.
It will be difficult for me to leave these surroundings when I go to the assisted living facility...they all help me, whenever possible. I often leave my half shopping with the fruit vendor, and return to pick it up after I have placed the other half at home.
So what act of yours will make you think you are being disloyal to your gods...
This post is loosely inspired by Pony's post..
6 people like this
6 responses
@lilacskies (4153)
• United States
13 Feb
It seems like people like you because you are a genuinely nice person.
3 people like this
@vandana7 (101255)
• India
13 Feb
I think average person is nice...to begin with, until somebody with prejudiced mind manages to make idiots out of them. I am still the average person, and the people with prejudiced minds have not yet managed to make an idiot out of me. Nothing nice or bad...just that a smart person with prejudiced mind has not crossed my path...I have outwitted them or maybe I have too much ego. They liking me? I am a regular customer...they have to like me. LOL But maybe they do...because I eat their food and do not feel defiled.
2 people like this
@lilacskies (4153)
• United States
13 Feb
@vandana7 That is a great perspective. I never really thought of it that, but you gave me a new perspective to think about. You may not think of yourself as nice, but I definitely do based on your posts and comments. You are a very nice person.
1 person likes this
@vandana7 (101255)
• India
13 Feb
@lilacskies You are pumping my ego..it will burst like a balloon. LOL
To be honest, people like others talking in their language. So if a Japanese person talks to me in my language - my mother tongue or even our national language...I will be so much in awe of him. It is a natural thing....
If Pony sings in Hindi...that would get him many views....
Likewise, for some reason, people like others eating and appreciating their food, or join in their festivities...and somehow I manage to do that, which makes them happy...
1 person likes this
@Pankaj365 (21)
• India
17 Feb
There are some important commandments which people of every religion are supposed to follow
Love, Forgiveness, patience, tolerance, compassion, humility, etc...
If we do not follow these, then we are disloyal to our God
It does not matter whether you go to church or temple. For that matter, there are a lots of Hindu construction workers who built churches and mosques. How does that matter?
The church neary house was built by a Hindu engineer.
1 person likes this
@vandana7 (101255)
• India
17 Feb
I wish there were more people who would realize such things. Including from where their bread comes from and from where they get soaps and jobs and blood in the hospital, and doctors. By restricting ourselves...we prevent access to wider choice of doctors, jobs, etc. Those who advocate only one religion are lost folks. Rest of us are taking at least one route to god. :) A very learned Muslim gentleman, who is no more, once told me, when we say Allah is the only god, our books have asked us to say it. The reason we say it is, it prevents false people from getting away with tricks and claiming to be gods, and cheating innocents or those who are in pain. And it keeps the hopes alive thinking well, ultimate power is yet to act upon whatever is the problem. So I asked him, why don't you explain this to others. He said, signs of maturity to grasp this are not there in most. And most are using the phrase to irritate people from Hinduism and Christianity. It is difficult to talk sense to those who know the truth, and are hell bent on going wrong. I agree. Even Hindus should not read implied meanings. LOL We do have Asarams, etc., right?
1 person likes this
@Pankaj365 (21)
• India
18 Feb
@vandana7 Wisdom is there in all sacred books, but many do not understand.
In schools and Colleges and also in workplaces, we get along fine regardless of religion.
Yet in society, there is sometimes unrest by faiths of different religions.
1 person likes this
@BarBaraPrz (48556)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
13 Feb
@vandana7 The idiom hedge your bets means to protect yourself by supporting more than one possible result or both sides in a competition.
1 person likes this
@vandana7 (101255)
• India
13 Feb
Sorry..I did not understand that....LOL
No....it is just acceptance of everybody as equal....and extending understanding....I have never been narrow minded....but the recent spate of fanaticism in my country is possibly also responsible for my excessive tilt...towards such acceptance.
Not everything needs to be understood. There are answers somewhere, but do I really need them? What am I going to do with those answers..? Better just accept everything and everybody.........life is much easier that way........I feel....calmer.....and peaceful...there is a different kinda joy in that peace.
1 person likes this
@xander6464 (44755)
• Wapello, Iowa
13 Feb
The problem seems that there are just too many Gods and each of them has a cult that thinks there is only one.
1 person likes this
@vandana7 (101255)
• India
13 Feb
One of the really educated Muslim guy once told me that when they say Allah is the only god, it is to serve themselves as a reminder that all humans are fallible and therefore, the faith should rest only in Allah, and not any humans, including the mullahs, or prophets. But, most Hindus take it as an offense, looking at it as a statement rejecting their gods. Most muslims don't know the meaning, and those who do, won't bother explaining because the other side is not receptive. So the misunderstandings and ill will continue to compound.
@vandana7 (101255)
• India
13 Feb
You are not devout? I was not about 20 odd years.........I seem to have gently drifted into this belief.......and last few years I have found answers to many of my questions, thanks to my recent reading of Sai Charitra. There is gentle sense of comfort...maybe childhood memories are creating that nostalgic comfort. I am finding it hard to resist this.
1 person likes this
@wolfgirl569 (111735)
• Marion, Ohio
13 Feb
@vandana7 I don't follow any religion. Lots more freedom that way
1 person likes this
