The Eternal Wait

I waited and waited, hoping that you will come,
till the setting of the moon and the rising of the sun,
when for the world the day was beginning, my came to an abrupt end,
by getting to know, that now towards me, you will never tend.

I got drenched waiting for you all throughout the monsoon,
and shivered with cold, waiting in the winter which arrived soon,
and while waiting in the ever soaring heat of summer, I got sunburn,
but towards my waiting self, you never took a road of return.

All these times, I was at your gate,
sitting there in your wait,
so as to keep the promises that I made,
and to see whether or not you were written in my fate.

But of the wait, I became tired,
so to my death bed, I finally retired,
and there where I waited, now sits my grave,
which you can visit, if ever for me you will crave.

~Love, Light and Truth;
Harshad Gupta

My Journey To Atheism

Disclaimer: This post is not written to hurt any religious sentiment of any faithful religious person of any faith by any mean. (Readers discretion advised.)

[Above cartoon is drawn by Dan Piraro, an American cartoonist and a Vegan. Link: Bizarro.com]

"Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right." ~Abraham Lincoln

I am an Atheist, but I was not born one, to the contrary, I was born in a secular conservative Hindu family twenty two years back, who taught me to be spiritual instead of being religious and to respect every religion without any discrimination and made me to believe in what I used to say, "There is only one true God. And he is "God", who has no name, no religious followers, who is impartial to all creatures, who is just God." But one day something happened that shattered my faith in that "God", not any particular (as the the world thinks that there are many "Gods" in this world, who are all against other all) but in all sorts of "God" (if they do exist). That event made me think on what Epicurus, an ancient Greek philosopher and the founder of the school of philosophy called Epicureanism said about "God":

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?

Then he is not omnipotent.

Is he able, but not willing?

Then he is malevolent.

Is he both able and willing?

Then whence cometh evil?

Is he neither able nor willing?

Then why call him God?”

My second year finals were over and I was enjoying my summer vacation. That day, contrary to my habit, I went to bed early and consequently woke up early to find that it was a winsome morning in which I should go out to have a morning walk and enjoy some fresh cool breezes complimented with the sweet song of birds. After walking for half an hour or so, I felt urge to go to a restaurant, famous for its "kachauri and sabji", a kind of breakfast dish usually enjoyed by resident of the city of light which is known by the name of Varanasi, which also is my home town. But, as it was too early in morning, the restaurant was not open for business, so I went to the Ghats on the bank on River Ganges to sit there and enjoy the lovely morning. After devouring there for sometime, I thought of going to the an old bridge on the Ganges. On my way to the bridge on my bike, something happened that cannot happen just by chance but had some reason for its happening, (as according to the philosophy of Truth, "Every thing has a reason and every thing has a time" and as I have written in one of my blog post about happenings titled, "Happening, for a good".) I was taking the narrow street to the highway and just before their juncture, my bike went low on gas and it stopped there. There were two gas stations on either side of the highway, so I thought of giving my bike a little push to the gas station on left. As I was pushing my bike, I crossed a slaughter house, which I had crossed many times before also, but in those times may be I didn't noticed it, but this time I did noticed it and to add up to it, this time I was also a Vegan. The sight of the slaughter house completely baffled me, and this is when I thought that, "How can someone not be dazed by seeing how people take pleasure in others agony?" I was completely stupefied, and thought how can someone, in the holy city of Varanasi, murder some sentimental being so heartlessly. Then a thought sprouted in my mind that, it is not people who are solely responsible for the cold-blooded show of barbarism but are also the words of "mighty", "all generous" "God", which have been noted down in their holy books, that let these butchers murder so pitilessly. From that time onward, I decided to be an atheist and work against these Gods for the betterment of our non-human animal friends. This is when I read a quote from an anonymous writer that, "I am not interested in any religion whose cow, goat, pig, chicken, fish and other sentient beings have yet to experience freedom from the belly of its followers." and understood why majority of the Vegans are atheist.

You must be thinking that why a faithful religious follower like yourself is reading a crappy post of a non-faithful person speaking ill of the mighty God, so I want to make you aware of the fact that like me you are also an atheist. But you may be thinking that, how you being a faithful follower can be an atheist, then for that I will like to quote Stephen H. Roberts who said that, "I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."