Lets Practise Karma Sutra!

Dont just stare at the heading. Zap that images of sweaty, tangled bodies in your mind. Nothing tantalizing here. Face it, we are constantly misinterpreting the GREAT Karma Sutra. Ok, theres no need for mind-boggling terms & intricate explanations. Everything is self-explanatory once you listen to Manic Street Preachers' "If you tolerate these, then your children will be next" or New Radicals' "You Get what you give".

The world is not at war but its us who are persistently fighting a war we started. Sounds familiar? Yeah, i guess everyone has an experience of personal struggles. But im not talking about that. Right, lets clean the slate. Dismiss the misconception. Karma sutra is not just about an individual's pleasure & well-being. It concerns everyone! Its on a macro scale. It may not be as dramatic & far fetched like the "butterfly effect". But its logical. Think about it. Remember that time when you stuck chewing gum on your not-so-favourite nursery playmate? Well, viola! Karma came back to haunt you cos your favourite chewing gum became banned. But cos you did some good and upon repentance, chewing gum is back. (hmm...) LOL. Trust me, karma works in unimaginable ways.

Remember the world a few years back? When everyone is happy with a job & you could travel around the world without a baby-sitter and still come back home with your head still attached to your neck? What about now? If you survive a trip to Thailand, you are considered lucky. If you came back from Iraq with your head still resting on your neck, its a miracle.

Yes, terrorism is a plight mankind brought to himself. Its a classical example of Karma. After all, what better way can nature deliver her lessons to ignorant humans than to send the message straight through televisions, radios, internet within a split second.

It happened very quickly and unexpectedly if you can recall. Then, i was still an ignorant M-16 bearing NS-boy doing his guard duty when all of a sudden news of the catastrophic Sept 11 attacks broke. The next thing i know, Ops-bacinet (patroling in public areas under threat) was implemented and I was so damn lucky to strike jackpot to be in the pioneer batch of combat support unit to perfom patroling duty at Changi Airport. It was then that i honed my artistry in play-acting: trying to act tough with a SAR21 & wireless intercom. And of cos, if you guys wonder how i can steal glimpses of pretty girls without getting caught? Haha, the credits go to MINDEF for providing the perfect training ground: right in the aisles of the trolley-pulling air-stewardess. But of course, how can i forget the honourable CO of my FAVOURITE battalion who made the award-winning move to volunteer me & my poor friends for Ops Bacinet. In order to avoid profanities, i decided not to describe the award title.

Ok, so whats my point? Simple. Who caused wide-spread terrorism? Of course, its us humans. We invented & built cities to make our lives comfortable but at the same time the disparity between developed & developing countries widened. While the rich consume & waste, the poor starve & suffer. Still not satisfied, the rich, out of greed, decided to steal the poor's resources and invaded their lands with ugly noses and guns. These are wolves who concealed their identities with names like "Heros" & "Saviours". Bunch of crap indeed.

Already frustrated with their not-so-comfortable lives, the poor rose against the rich. They could no longer tolerate the rich's ruthless and heartless demeanour. And they fought back hard where its least expected & right at the pulse of it all--the collaspe of WTC.

Yes, nature has served her messages to all of mankind. We have been too obsessed with building a life of comfort & destroying comfort given to us by nature. Resources like timber are explioted indiscriminately. Air & water is polluted. We not only neglected nature; we even neglected human kind living in the shadows of our comfort. The ones suffering. Karma being served to the world within a split second. And that called for a mark on history books.

Karma doesnt stop there. Outbreak of diseases and the imminent pandemic are just the works of humans. Antibiotics not only provides a temporary cure for a common flu, it also enables viruses to develop immunity against it. Soon, we are just making ourselves weaker. The greater the dosage, the stronger the enemy. The harder you bounce, the harder the ball comes back up. Karma. Cows were fed with un-natural feeds to boost growth to sell for more cash, in exchange for that, we get mad cow disease. And so are the likes of other poultry-related diseases. But nature has in store for us an even bigger prezzie (a sick xmas gift?)--pandemic. WHO has predicted that a mutated bird flu virus will be the cause of the imminent pandemic.

Yes its scary. But its real. Karma is intrinsic; fused and woven invisibly within the fabrics of our fragile lives. All it takes is a careless tear and the fabric will give way. Have we not woken up or are we just sinking deeper into the mud?