Note: This post is not related to Ayodhya verdict as the title may seem to suggest to some readers
Disclaimer: The comments and views expressed here are the author's own and not aimed at hurting anyone's beliefs and feelings. If you are offended, author seeks apology and wishes to inform that these are author's personal thoughts and he is free to so express. Content here is not endorsed/sponsored by any institution or group.
Prelude: "If you shall not bow in front of me, you shall be condemned to suffering and pain of all sorts till you finally agree to bow"
Since I don't know when, the society around me have been working hard day and night to instill a fear of an unknown spiritual power that no one has as yet claimed to have witnessed in person and no one can either claim that it does or does not exist. Every now and then, someone will attribute some bad happening in our lives to this spiritual power and try to provide a cure for the ensuing feeling of envy, pain, remorse, hatred, jealousy etc. Of course this spirit gets all the credit for all the good that happens without fail.
Not only me but every single human being born on this planet is fed with this conundrum right from the day they are born. Aka God.
My mother has been telling me to thank Him for all that I am and all that I am not. Because all that I am, is because He has enabled it, and that all that I am not, is because He sees something better for me. I am told to pray for goodies and success and prosperity from Him. Because He, being so generous will grant me whatever I ask for.
Scriptures and holy books, saints and religious orators tell us that He is the most generous of all, forgives all and showers the one who prays for him with material wealth. The worshiper of Him is granted immunity from all the evil and such a person enjoys special privileges in the 'life beyond' - Another conundrum I must opine.
Over a period of all these years, the existence of this spirit has so much become a part of my belief system that I instinctively feel obliged to bow to him every now and then. I feel that if I do not bow enough, do not thank enough, do not worship enough the ultimate giver, I might not make it. I might not be granted the rightful reward of my efforts in this world and that I might be left alone to make it on my own, abandoned by Him for I was not worshiping him enough.
I assume that many among us believe that if we do not thank Him and worship him during the good times, bad times and misfortune will befall upon us and then we will be again subject to the mercy of His acts and forced to remember Him and seek Him for all the mercy we need to avert the unfortunate circumstance.
Scriptures say that one who does not worship Him, praise Him every morning and evening, or however someone's religious dictum dictate, he/she shall be subject to pain and sufferings throughout the life.
This may not go very well with most readers. I do not wish to propose the non-existence of any such spiritual power. Above prerequisite (to pray, worship, visit His shrines) sounds to me not quite based on the qualities that of a spiritual power that has no enmity, ego, pride, jealousy with any living organism in the universe. Rather, to me it sounds more like a dictator's order, "If you shall not bow in front of me, you shall be condemned to suffering and pain of all sorts till you finally agree to bow".
to be continued...
Disclaimer: The comments and views expressed here are the author's own and not aimed at hurting anyone's beliefs and feelings. If you are offended, author seeks apology and wishes to inform that these are author's personal thoughts and he is free to so express. Content here is not endorsed/sponsored by any institution or group.
Prelude: "If you shall not bow in front of me, you shall be condemned to suffering and pain of all sorts till you finally agree to bow"
Since I don't know when, the society around me have been working hard day and night to instill a fear of an unknown spiritual power that no one has as yet claimed to have witnessed in person and no one can either claim that it does or does not exist. Every now and then, someone will attribute some bad happening in our lives to this spiritual power and try to provide a cure for the ensuing feeling of envy, pain, remorse, hatred, jealousy etc. Of course this spirit gets all the credit for all the good that happens without fail.
Not only me but every single human being born on this planet is fed with this conundrum right from the day they are born. Aka God.
My mother has been telling me to thank Him for all that I am and all that I am not. Because all that I am, is because He has enabled it, and that all that I am not, is because He sees something better for me. I am told to pray for goodies and success and prosperity from Him. Because He, being so generous will grant me whatever I ask for.
Scriptures and holy books, saints and religious orators tell us that He is the most generous of all, forgives all and showers the one who prays for him with material wealth. The worshiper of Him is granted immunity from all the evil and such a person enjoys special privileges in the 'life beyond' - Another conundrum I must opine.
Over a period of all these years, the existence of this spirit has so much become a part of my belief system that I instinctively feel obliged to bow to him every now and then. I feel that if I do not bow enough, do not thank enough, do not worship enough the ultimate giver, I might not make it. I might not be granted the rightful reward of my efforts in this world and that I might be left alone to make it on my own, abandoned by Him for I was not worshiping him enough.
I assume that many among us believe that if we do not thank Him and worship him during the good times, bad times and misfortune will befall upon us and then we will be again subject to the mercy of His acts and forced to remember Him and seek Him for all the mercy we need to avert the unfortunate circumstance.
Scriptures say that one who does not worship Him, praise Him every morning and evening, or however someone's religious dictum dictate, he/she shall be subject to pain and sufferings throughout the life.
This may not go very well with most readers. I do not wish to propose the non-existence of any such spiritual power. Above prerequisite (to pray, worship, visit His shrines) sounds to me not quite based on the qualities that of a spiritual power that has no enmity, ego, pride, jealousy with any living organism in the universe. Rather, to me it sounds more like a dictator's order, "If you shall not bow in front of me, you shall be condemned to suffering and pain of all sorts till you finally agree to bow".
to be continued...
I like the way your thoughts flow so clearly. And agree with most of your expressions. What i've come to understand is religions at their very source were created/established as a way to try and understand the Creator/Supreme Power. The extensions and suppositions which followed mostly seem to be manufactured during the commercialisation of religion. But we as a society chose to follow it rather than correct it.
ReplyDeleteJust an opinion here - the underlying tone detected here seems to be sarcasm. It seems negative. What I'm trying to put across if tha fact that WE are free to believe what we will! Let's not go by what everyone says. Most times the world finds it easier to simply carry forward an action by rote, rather than to understand the reason that drives the action - I feel we as humans owe more to ourselves than this attitude. We're capable of thinking and evolving and hence should put in more logic behind our actions.
And essentially the same thing does not apply to everyone. That is, "To each his own", "One man's food is another man's poison" kind of stuff. You know we learn 2+2=4 but learn to apply the "logic" (not the result!) to say, 256+324=580 no!! Then why do we apply an obviously flawed technique to our beliefs and faith processes! We can for sure do better than that and do things differently.
I for one think this way - God is not necessarily communicated to in a holy place only. I can find Him anywhere! (of course, this does preclude that i do realise his existence in some manner...what manner or way is not yet comprehensible to me though...and no issues with it, i'm sure i'll get that too one at a time ) And you know no matter what anyone says I do have free will and my thoughts do appear of their own accord(this is a natural neurological occurrence!). So I can form my own belief system for Him, something which is not dictated by the society. They may say/suggest/coerce (still) but I DO in fact think what comes in my mind quite naturally. I may chose either (a) to not follow my thoughts and instead go with what others say OR (b) go with my thoughts ...but then that's what is ultimately chosen by me. (Probably, point a. here would imply the neurological occurrence being modulated via psycho-social conditioning i guess!)
We do choose our own paths essentially.
On a different note here - we have applied scientific understanding to fields of Physics, Biology, Chemistry etc. Therefore bringing in the minutest level of accuracy here. But what about the most vital fields of our lives - Ourselves, our faiths, our feelings! Psychology, Sociology, Philosophy, Theology are such starting points in this endeavour but we need to bring in the same level of precision in these fields also as in Physics etc. For e.g., even in approximations we use phrases such as "the temperature is about 30 degrees" and not "the temperature is depressed today!".
This very interesting observation i came across through B.F. Skinner. A noted psychologist who brought in scientific analysis in the field of Psychology. If you ever come across one of his books titled "Beyond Freedom and Dignity" you might want to give it a read. very suljhe hue vichaar! Also, there's another very intelligent author named Ayn Rand. She puts forward her thoughts and philosophy among other writings in the form of 2 very famous stories named "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead". I found them a real delight! She celebrates Man in its glory, she makes persons into what they are essentially meant to be (probably something on the lines of self-realisation!!). Try them too if you ever get a chance. You may find a lot of similarities and feel glad that there's another fellow human being who thinks so much the same!
Sorry about the loong rant above! Thanks though for sharing your thoughts. I thought I should reciprocate. -Gurpreet
A comment longer than the post itself!
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot Gurpreet for the appreciation, your thoughts and suggestions on further reads! I will definitely look forward to them.
I also wish to appreciate your knowledge of spirituality and your interest in literature.
The negative undertones possibly made them there being the state of my mind as no effort was made to imply anything other than what I was thinking at the moment. Sarcasm, however is unintended and I might have to learn better phrasing. :-)
It is a good point you made in your observation that we have not yet applied scientific methods to Theology etc. At least in Theology, (religious)owners of the concept won't want it to be. Added, the fact that, some part society wants religion to stay 'commercialized', it becomes more difficult to state something in disagreement to popular/established belief. Ironically such beliefs are also fortified with some historical and mostly unverified context discarding which takes a lot of courage and an open minded society. That is exactly why Galileo had to put his life on the line to postulate what was converse of heliocentrism; that the Earth revolves around the Sun! I hope you get the point.
"God is not necessarily communicated to in a holy place only. I can find Him anywhere!"
That is something I relate the most with and this is what I believe and this is also one of the reasons that I had to come up with this post(s) because this simple belief raises so many doubts related to the way we treat God. These, I am going to discuss subsequently.
Thanks again for taking time for reading and commenting. Such 'rant' is always welcome. :-)
Many people bow to God of fear or they want their wishes to be fulfilled by God. By doing so they are missing the joy comes from being spiritual. We can draw inspiration from Gugu Gobind Singh's life. He draw all his strength from almighty to sacrifice so much for the humanity that a normal person can;t even think of.
ReplyDeleteI would like to mention about Karl Marx's quotes also, though it's directly relevant to the article
Religion is the opium of the masses.
Religion is the impotence of the human mind to deal with occurrences it cannot understand.