A Human's Struggle to stay Human

Peace is the rudimentary necessity of any religion and thus to be a religious person is to inherently be a peacemaker. Today we observe the International Day of Prayer for Peace especially as a gesture of solidarity with the victims of violence in the onslaught of Israel and Palestine. As Christ promises, to be a peacemaker is to be blessed and to be worthy of being called the child of God (Matt 5:9). Peace cannot be achieved through laxity and complacency but through sheer determination and persistence. Peace also cannot be achieved without disrupting the prevailing order. Jesus the Christ whom we call the Prince of Peace has himself shown that the endeavours for peace are disruptive. The vocation of Peace is a faith imperative. For Israel and Palestine peace is still a distant dream. What we find ubiquitously pervasive in these states is the dreadful shadow of violence. Violence, whether physical, structural, psychological or in whichever form it expresses itself, is a

Festivals are an integral part of the rich and diverse cultural heritage of India. In association with the festivals, idol immersion is yet another anthropocentric activity which needs our immediate concern. Ganesh Utsav is at the threshold and we all know how this would end – with polluting one of our scarce natural resources i.e. water, through the immersion of the idols of Ganesh. While idols made out of naturally occurring clay dissolve within hours of immersion in water, Plaster of Paris idols may take anywhere between several months to years to fully dissolve. In addition, when chemical paints are used to decorate the idols, these paints contain heavy metals such as mercury and lead, which seep into the water as the idol dissolves thus intoxicating the water resources. Having said this shall we briefly look into the fact that why at all the idols need to be immersed in water. Why are idols immersed in water? The religious significance attached to this customary trad