The Bahá’í and the Ramakrishna Mission

Do you know of the Bahá’í faith? I guess most of you don’t. Well, do you know the famous Lotus Temple in Delhi? I guess you do. That temple is the worshipping place for the Bahá’í in Asia, one among the places they have, each in one continent. I visited the Bahá’í house of worship in Wilmette, Illinois very close to Chicago and was impressed by their thoughts. What was particularly interesting to me was the similarity with the Ramakrishna Mission movement, I am so familiar with.

Both of them started in the nineteenth century, the RK Mission with the teachings of Shri Ramakrishna (1836-1886) and the Bahá’í with those of Bahá’u’lláh (1819-1850). They flourished because of their liberal outlooks and their trend of accepting all sorts of people from varying background. They accept all religions to be true, all spiritual leaders as messengers of God and the humanity as one unique community. Both the religions were introduced to the western world at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 and have, since then, gathered large number of followers in all parts of the world. They have well-maintained hierarchical structures and have a democratic style of organization.

However there are differences nonetheless. I think the Bahá’í faith is more concentrated, as it seems, they have an official community with registered members. They accept donations only from registered members (which I consider to be justified enough to keep away political and other agendas out of the realm of religion) and as such that makes a very clear-cut definition of who is a Bahá’í and who is not. They are a more well-defined separate religion. On the other hand, Ramakrishna Mission is not a separate religion. Obviously there are monastic members who are like ‘registered’ members of the order, but you don’t have to be a RKMissionite or something like that to offer your financial help to the society. You can be a Hindu or a Christian or a Muslim and a member of the RKMission at the same time.

For more info check http://www.bahai.org/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramakrishna_Mission

(I am not an expert on either of the religious orders. My comments or opinions are my personal only and not targeted to particularly promote or defile any particular school of thought. I just found it interesting to note the similarities (and dissimilarities) of the two orders in a short span of time.)

Twenty-20 World Cup - A New Hope

India winning the final of a big tournament; well, that's reason enough for a celebration. We had grown so accustomed to India losing out in the final (in case they made it till there), that this was a very welcome change. India won the Twenty-20 World Cup. More importantly, they did it without the big names. The young Indian side quite ably lead by Dhoni pulled off a rather unimaginable feat. They beat South Africa, Australia and finally Pakistan under such tight conditions, it has been an infallible testimonial to their never-say-die attitude. India, if you remember, is not quite recognized for that. Even with a favorable situation at hand, I have heard hardcore Indian fans not trusting their team until they really reach their target. My parents still recall when Pakistan was all out for 60 runs and yet managed to beat India or when Javed Miandad hit a sixer of the last ball to clench a sensational win. This victory is not enough to get rid of all the insecurity we have gathered over the years. But I sincerely hope that, it be the beginning of a new phase, when we will believe that Indian players can hold on to their nerves till the last minute and can win tournaments even with all odds against them.

Blog Topics in Mind

Although I couldn't come up with a post in the recent time, it doesn't mean I wasn't thinking. Here is a list of topics I thought I would write about.

T20 World Cup - Now that India is in the final, any Indian would like to talk about it. However, what is really amazing is that in the final, India is going to face Pakistan; both of whom had a humiliating eviction from the regular world cup in the group level. What is even more interesting is that they both beat Australia on their way up. This tournament will redeem their reputation and boost their confidence a great deal, no matter what happens in the final.

Drupal - Anyone with a bit of web development experience is bound to know about Content Management Systems (CMS). These are basically web-based applications which help you present your content on the web without bothering yourself too much with the technology. They offer the backgroud coding; you need to worry about the content and its appearance. The Blogger itself is an example of a CMS. However, I was planning to write about Drupal. I have used other CMS like blogger, phpWebsite earlier, but the extent of features Drupal has, I think it is the best one.

The Bahai Faith - It is a relatively new order of faith originated with Bahaullah in Iran. It recognizes all religions of the world as one. What I found striking was its similarity in terms of ideology and otherwise with the Ramakrishna Mission movement. I have every intention to write about it in more detail.