Walks that help me think: Sunrise from Mansa Devi Haridwar.                              Ganga as it reaches the planes from the Himalayas June 2003

In the past 6 months (October 2011 to March 2012) I have had some interesting walks and conversations on faith and belief which I would like to share with you.

One of my keen readers, my elder son Sagar expresses surprise at my interest in Christianity while staying in a Muslim country and born in a Hindu family.

For me , observing working people in different situations has been a life long interest and hence  I engage in conversations with them about faith and belief.

To quote from Frederick  Engels’s work

“The history of early Christianity has notable points of resemblance with the modern working-class movement. Like the latter, Christianity was originally a movement of oppressed people: it first appeared as the religion of slaves and emancipated slaves, of poor people deprived of all rights, of peoples subjugated or dispersed by Rome. Both Christianity and the workers’ socialism preach forthcoming salvation from bondage and misery; Christianity places this salvation in a life beyond, after death, in heaven; socialism places it in this world, in a transformation of society.”

Suggested further reading.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1894/early-christianity/index.htm

In the past 6 months (October 2011 to March 2012) I have had some interesting walks and conversations on faith and belief which I would like to share with you.

WALKS BY ALAKNANDA-COMMUNIONS DURING WALKS IN THE HIMALAYAS

Someone told me that XYZ  is my only remaining link to a particular place.

I listened quietly, as one has to , when one has stayed out for long. Many opinions come, trying to pull you in their direction, push you into taking a particular stand. After all these pulls, pressures were over, I went for a walk.

And I realized more than ever..that my links with these places go beyond a few individuals.

https://prashantbhatt.com/2011/10/18/walks-by-alaknanda/

EVENING WALK IN ROME

WALKERS AND SPIRITUALITY

The Spanish steps were the first landmark, followed by Fontana Trevi, Piazza Venezia and then as the night became more mature I traced the steps past Foro Cesar to the Colosseum.

https://prashantbhatt.com/2011/11/26/evening-walk-in-rome/

WHAT IS SATSANG-

EXPLORING BELIEF, SPIRITUALITY CULTURAL MYTHOLOGY

Right from school (studied in a convent St.Vincent’s High School, Pune where there used to be moral science classes and a chapel where Catholics used to do confessions), to the Mass observations of the expatriate community of San Francisco Church of Dahra Tripoli where I went last Friday-(2/12/2011) the first holiday after coming back from a journey which made me revisit, reconnect and observe some traditions of Satsang-I have observed the different cultural mythology found in religious practices and its differences with spirituality.

https://prashantbhatt.com/2011/12/06/what-is-satsang/

A BOOK IN DEVANAGRI-EXPLORING LINKS AND MEMORIES

LIBYAN INDIAN HINDU EXPATRIATE WORKERS

 If the various Christian communities of different churches-Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans can petition and acquire premises for churches why can the Indian community not acquire a premise?

“Will it be secular, or will there be religious connotations?” was the immediate next question.

“We will have a library with a wide range of books, ranging from history of the mutinies to conditions of Working class to the classic religious texts.”

https://prashantbhatt.com/2012/01/24/a-book-in-devnagri-script-exploring-links-and-memories/

WHAT IS SELF ESTEEM

YOGA WORKSHOPS IN MALTA

Partnership as self-esteem

One can develop self –esteem through connections and partnerships.

Having a good life-partner is part of the process of developing self-esteem.

He may not be a prince or king. But if he respects you, he is good for you.

Being in such a partnership process is part of my self-esteem.

https://prashantbhatt.com/2012/02/13/what-is-self-esteem-in-your-experience/

CONVERSATIONS IN IDENTITY-

MALTESE INDIAN COMMUNITY EXPERIENCES

While seeing the responses one was reminded of the Mass Observation Anthology initiated by Tom Harrison and a heterogeneous group of middle-class leftish intellectuals in 1937 in Davenport, Bolton. The program helped bring forward some of the lingering issues within the Maltese community of Indian Origin regarding the fusion culture and identity evolving in the next generations.

https://prashantbhatt.com/2012/03/02/conversations-on-identity/

GROUP MEDITATIONS AND MASS OBSERVATIONS-TRIPOLI

SAN FRANCISCO CHURCH DAHRA

After the mass at San Francisco Church Dahra, I met a worker from Sri Lanka who is facing a tricky situation. She was brought to Tripoli on a visitor visa and promised a job.

Trained in the hospitality industry, she now finds herself trapped in a job as a housemaid. Now that she is “illegal” her situation is complex.

https://prashantbhatt.com/2012/03/23/group-meditations-and-mass-observations-tripoli/

AROUND GOOD FRIDAY

CONVERSATIONS IN POST GADDAFI LIBYA

As I engage some who attend mass at San Francisco Church Dahra , Tripoli in conversations to record their daily life in Post-Gaddafi Libya,  the question of “What is the change” comes back.

https://prashantbhatt.com/2012/04/06/around-good-friday/

–          –    –

As we wound up another weekly session of our reading group, I read some excerpts from

Jim Feast’s The African Road to Anarchism?

If we compare South America to Africa in terms of their likelihood of leading the charge to replace global capital, it would have to be said that in South America the poor have been better able to fight off state repression with their more vigorous labor and peasant organizations. Yet Africa, as we will see, seems in some ways better predisposed to turn the collapse of the state and the depredations of the money economy in a positive direction.

First, it is often not realized that in sub-Saharan Africa, aside from in the minority of countries with a large, white settler population and valuable resources (such as diamonds or copper), there was little penetration of capitalist agricultural forms or government into the interior. In the colonial era, as Africanist Alex Thomson notes, “the imperial powers had only limited goals. There was no desire to invest resources to ensure the state could project its authority into every corner of the new colonies.”

http://anarkismo.net/article/9840

Have you recently taken a walk or had a conversation which helped you reflect?