"I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be 'happy'. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all, to matter and to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all."

- Leo C. Rosten

Monday, January 12, 2009

Prayer and Peace



This picture was shot on Christmas Day at a very famous church. I was captured by this mood. If you are a sensitive person, I believe you can link this picture in many ways to the previous picture. I would like to know from you how you link these two significant and thought-provoking moments from life.  

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

For me this picture shows what is lacking in the previous one. In modern life there is a lack of spirituality as we pursue material goals and do not have time to show love to others. In the previous photo I am reminded of the parable of the good Samaritan only here no one stops because no one even notices. Things have got worse not better. There are people going into churches and lighting candles but this isn't being connected with their daily lives.

Subhanjan said...

If every living being on earth had thought like you do and had practised accordingly, the world would have been a book of pleasant poems. We would have lived in ages of innocence and would have sung songs of innocence and experience.

carole said...

Subhanjan, thank you for your kind comments but I am not such a good person as you think I am. I know what is right but I often fall short.

I have posted some larger pictures of my visit to Christchurch on my blogger blog.

Carole (watermaid)

Hu said...

Beautiful picture! I think it does have a strong connection with your previous post. Religion provides us with so much....esp when we are at the end of our rope. It inspires us to believe that there is hope and to continue on our path. Then again religion can also cause alot of dispute, but how can something that provides such things as peace and hope also wage wars? Its the people and how we decide to use religion. I hope someday every can see and use it as a means of faith, hope and peace.

Tanmoy said...

We can only hope that God empowers some of us at least not to be the cause of what you depicted in your previous picture. Even though we hide behind the excuse that we cannot do anything to change, but we can!

Like I quoted Mahatma in on of my earlier post, I would say again - Be the change you wish to see in the world - Mahatma Gandhi

Subhanjan said...

A friend of mine once said: Religion causes the alienation of man from the reality. When I try to make some sense out of these words, it seems that he is right and wrong as well. He is 'Right' because religion is perhaps one of the many basic reasons behind almost every conflict and every evil that manipulates the world and its people. And 'wrong' because after all how can one blame the knife if one chooses to use it for stabbing. ‘Religion’, in Hindu Shastras is actually ‘dharma’, which means a person’s attitude towards life. It is not a belief of any particular tribe, but a belief on right conduct. And I believe one does not even need to believe in any particular ‘religion’ if one has the right thoughts and the right actions. But that is easier to say than to do. It is only a Bodhisattva who can follow the right path. And the irony of the whole thing is that there is a Bodhisattva in every one of us. But we never explore it. We are too afraid to do so, because we so not want change.