Wow!!! This is a record that I am writing a second post in a day. And I chose it this way, because the topic is a bit different and I did not want to mix the two, although they are similar in nature.
Last weekend I have been preparing for my teaching of Jain religious class . Where in I read that 'intellectually we may understand some thing, but to really know what it is, we need to experience it'. That made me think. After a lot of mulling over, I realized the truthness of the statement. I have always been saying that until one becomes father or at least feels like a father, after seeing his child, one does not 'really' know what it is to be a father. Although one may 'intellectually' understand what it may be like being a father.
This is actually true for most things in life. And different cultures, societies and human experience have said the same thing in different ways. Like the saying in English 'Put yourself in that man's shoes and then find out how he feels'. That's why Mahatma Gandhi favorite hymn was 'Vaishnav jan to taine kahiye, je peed parai jaane re' (means A really religious [pious] person is the one who knows the pain of others).
Hence I have resolved that before giving my opinion or judgements on other person's condition or their actions in a certain situation, I really need to know, what they have gone through. And a certain feelings and aspects of life I would never 'really' know; like being a Mother, Woman, Sister, White Man, Black Man, Mongoloid person or so many other identities people carry. Being a secular person, I must respect all those and accept their uniqueness whole heartedly without judging or evaluating.
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