So recently in Twitter, I asked a simple question, “What is religion to you?”, and there was this self claimed knowlegable person, who said, “Religion is the ultimate path to salvation, it is the mother of truth, God cannot be achieved without religion, scriptures are words of God, anyone who objects to it and this idea is an immoral creature.” Nevertheless, this stupidity didn’t end here, this guy went on to post this message in response to every single tweet that promoted a slightly different response, by calling atheists abnormal sapiens, who “supposedly have a reserved place in hell.
I mean, you know what, all of us have distanced God from our lives. Well, is he abusive, that you need to scared of him? Oh my God, if I do this, will I be born as a dog next birth?? Sin, haram, paap, all of us have consciously become guardians of religion.
Understand what I am saying, imagine yourself as a kid, now think when you were a kid, and wanted to ask something from your parents, would you request or demand? Obviously, the latter, then what happens when it comes to God? Do you circumnavigate around your parent and fall in his feet, asking for something rather obvious that you anyway deserve? Then why do you do that with God? Isn’t he your creator? Which normal parent, would want his son to take a wip, beat himself up, roll and come to another bungalow of him to register a grievance?
You see the world resides in fear, and fear is better created than it naturally occurs. We fear losing power, our will to dominate has reduced down the human conscious to that of an animal. This comes from a deeper human anxiety as to whom am I?
Problem is we humans are deeply and inescapably materialistic. For us all that exists, is real. Intangibility is insignificant and hierarchical. We believe the elaborate ritualistic worship of stones, which we happen to know as Idols, is the only, if not the best way of devotion illustration. That comes from the believe that God is our physical possession. Something that’s concrete, can be stored, limited and used as per our suitability. Human spirituality lies only in shaming and pulling down others than lifting everyone up.
We say God is within us, but none of us, look for him within. We go to temples, mosques to find him. And then when life betrays, fate wags, we resort to “bhagvan nahi hain, sahay nahi diya, darshan tho dur ki baat”. Dude, when you are searching for him in stones and wooden houses, why does he need to take his ” virat avatar” as we say in front if you?
Now the typical counter argument to this is that ‘God is everywhere, then is he not in an idol’. The question is good but, you should first figure out as to whether he is ‘in’ the idol, or is he the idol himself? Maybe then you would receive the answer.
Doesn’t your favourite Shri Bhagvad Gita, yes, the one you haven’t read say,
“यच्चापि सर्वभूतानां बीजं तदहमर्जुन |
न तदस्ति विना यत्स्यान्मया भूतं चराचरम् || 39||”
(I am the generating seed of all beings, there is no being, moving or stationary, which can exist without me.)
So why do you need a materialistic matter to rely upon, for my spiritual expression? Ask yourself. Doesn’t materialism take us away from the divine power i.e. an immaterialistic being? He is in me, he is in you, he is in every real matter, as an atom, but is that in a physical form or metaphysical form? When he has chosen primarily to be in a formless abstract manner, isn’t our temple culture obsession an insult to the almighty’s decision?
People say to me, “oh all is fine Radhika, but I am a hindu, how else will I worship. Muslims worship a formless diety”. Well, I honestly, feel like shaking the heads of such fools against the wall! Dude, where do you come from? “Them and us” again started! You don’t neccesarily turn into a muslim by condemning idol worship. I do not see any practical difference between a hindu man and muslim man, I am unable to identify their religion unless I get to know their surname. Raja Rammohun Roy was an alien, yeah anti-national..
None of us care of God, but feel the need to be cared of nevertheless. Our faith starts by recitation of him being our creator, and ends with him being lynched by his sons.
That is how, centuries have passed on. Fear, anger, vanity, nothing more and nothing less than that. Then we write philosophical scriptures saying God being simply a positive force – energy. My question here is, is fear a positive/negative force? Ask yourself. You really thing you can attract a positive energy with fear who’s other name is doubt? Well if you believe in magic then certainly you can. Your surrender would also be sanctioned as a magical surrender then…hehe
See, the human body is made of flesh, blood, tissues, bones etc; But are we humans as creatures nothing more than that? Think. The holy saint and the sinner, both are equal holders of the biotic and abiotic components. Then what is it that we are attached to? Well in reality, neither is our identity has anything to do we the body nor is it the substructure for human relationships to be formed. If we retrospect then we would realize that it is only man’s action that separates him from other sapiens, who are also, the equal holders of flesh, blood and bones.
You know I often wonder, when death is nothing a transition of worlds, can we not spend our human lives living it? Than being in a fearful quest, that too inside ourselves?
God is not a farel sapien and neither a dictator, you will find him, only inside yourself and only through the eyes of love, not fear.
Love that’s of willful surrender, to a person who you think will never leave you. So shouldn’t you! If everytime something happens wrong, cards don’t turn up the way you wanted to if you resort to blame game, then dear that’s not faith, and certainly not love, that’s called trade exchange.
Is God, “your baap” , father or whatever you call him to be that cruel that he will want his sons to be killed in his name? Dude, are we serious? Well then he must be a wild beast, and so are you as “his son”- cannibal.
What we have got to understand, is that this concept of religion is no longer working, we have to either reform it, or rise above it. What is it, that we are actually arguing or debating on? Opinions and not facts. Perhaps, the commonly preached notion, that anything that conflicts with ideas of modern democracy, is a later assertion, has no gain in it’s saying. This idea is coming from a deeply rooted conscious belief, that God is all perfect, pure and good. Then again, I must ask you? Who told you? Mythology? Well, you and me, didn’t live back then in what we call the age of truth (Satya Yug), then how do we know these tales are not fictitious, not created to serve the interest of the capitalistic class (brahmans let’s say), or did God came down on Earth, to pay you a visit on your dreams, justifying the actions of individuals whom we know as saints or sages? You know, the real reason behind why I feel God is ‘perfect’, is because we have made him to be so, or let’s say our personal insecurities have taken the shape of “faith”, which has resorted itself to far-fetched metaphysical idea, which we commonly term as the “cosmos”. This cosmic energy has been discovered to gratify ourselves, in moments of conscious imperfection.
We humans for our own individual identity dilemmas have the innate tendency to judge and either accept or reject every idea that has some sort of grounded existence in society. To make everything that we see, perceive or sense under the banner of black and white, in complete ignorance of the other shades of the universe i.e the rainbow.
That comes from the belief, that human sense and perception are synonymous concepts or should be synonymous. But we fail to realize, that not everything can be perceived through human senses, or even needs to be (or must be) because there’s more to life than what we see, believe, and think exists. There is thus, nothing called true perfection or absolute morality. Different people see, perceive and go through life differently, time we focus only on what we can learn from someone who is not ‘us’, to improve ‘us’.
I know you won’t believe me, but the highest form of human excellence, is to question oneself and others. Question your beliefs. Ask yourself, why do you believe in God? Is it love or concious attachment? Is it because he is all powerful and all merciful? Or is it because you have been asked to and / or made to? Is he perfect, or we have made him to be so, to gratify our frustrated lives?
As you finish reading this article, ask yourself a question, Do you really believe in God? Or is it the convenient truth?
Lest, life is nothing but a set of unquestioned but measured beliefs.
Thankyou!
Radhika Barman 