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Yesterday, the Sunday afternoon, while i was on my way back to home on the subway after a shopping, i saw a couple who must be in their late 40's or in early 50's were deeply merged in 2 different books. The male person was reading the book "Jews, GOD AND History", whereas the female counterpart was flipping page after page of the book called "The Bastard of Istanbul" through her thick glasses and leaning her head on her husband. Suddenly i discovered that along with my shopping bags, in my hand i had the book called "Lecture from Colombo To Almora" by Swami Vivekananda, that i am yet to finish with the last couple of chapters ! What a combination of three people with three books!

I neither know the contents of "Jews, GOD AND History" nor do i know that of "The Bastard of Istanbul". But for those few minutes of that subway ride it let me feel that all the religions of the world have their freedom of getting acceptance and getting recognized. I have seen people who are very much religious, very much committed to their rituals and yet, at times when it comes to public, they take a step back to say that they are not religious. I have even so many friends in today's flattened world's social network internet sites where they even don't care to say what religions they are from and what are they up to in their personal beliefs and doctrines? My question to myself, what’s wrong to say i am Hindu if i am a Hindu?

Yes, you got my point right! We are in 21st century. We have all the knowledge of the world at our finger tips. We understand what’s good and what’s bad. We know the self pride. We even know how to reach God. But we have never thought yet why there is so less commandment over owning our religion. That’s why i always wish if there could be a conference on religions in each and every city of United states once in every month where people can freely talk, freely accept, freely share and freely observe, freely comment and criticize and ofcourse proudly own. Technologically we might be running 240km per hour (or even more in Japan), but until unless the spiritual knob is tightened, a day will come when all the technology will be shattered into pieces, leaving no pillars for our Globalised world.

So for this globalised world to succeed and to thrive over centuries, sticking to the world religion is inevitable. If there is any religion existing today that has touched at least one single soul, then its a part of World religion. I see it as that simple. Getting this world religion established means establishing the conducive environment of respecting and getting respected. Swami Vivekananda says "The highest of gifts is the giving of spiritual knowledge, the next is the giving of secular knowledge, and the next is saving of life, the last is giving food and drink". And if this be the form of gift, and if establishing the world religion be the mission, then the Vedanta and Vedantists would always be a step ahead no matter whether today's off springs own it or disown it. It will find it's way!

There is this African proverb;

"Every Morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
it knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
it knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running."

If this be the meaning of living in the present, then so be it. After all, we all are either a gazelle or a lion in our respective fields. Every morning i wake up and take the subway to work, and i see people running; running in either way for earning food and living a life. But i wonder how many New Yorkers are truly living in the present.

Who lives in the present? The Indian Fast food seller on 53rd and 3rd Ave standing inside the cart from 10Am to 3Pm or the umbrella seller standing in the rain for hours to sell an umbrella on 59th Lexington or those too old couples walking to NY Public library with the help of each other to read a book or two or me sitting in front of a computer from morning to evening? It doesn't matter, because living in the present is a relative term. The significance of "present" is different to different individuals.

But the moment, i ask these questions to myself, "present" stands before me as an absolute entity, treating me with good and bad, tricking me with laugh and sorrow and ensuring me that it is actually unique to all.

> What’s that thing that i could do in my daily routine to give some impact on others?

> How many people will come to my funeral if i die tomorrow?

> Am i a taker only? Do i give something or other?

> Do i enjoy each minute of my day with a sense of fulfillment and aspiration?

All i want to say is everybody's life is a fortified cocoon of his or her home, more or less filled with roller coast rides over time. Unless one does not control the steering of his ridings, i wouldn't be surprised if he/she would be a lost city of Pompeii tomorrow.