Few days earlier. Results were to be announced anytime.
Tensed, is the word too small to describe our situations. Every classmate of
mine were worried and at the same time anxious about the results, scribbling
through the college website and every now and then checking mail. It was around
that time when I noticed something strange about my friend’s whatsapp dp.
It was a picture of Lord Shiva carrying a “damru” with one
palm towards the screen. I laughed off. The reason was obvious. I took a
screenshot of it and teased him about it. He said keeping that dp was “lucky”.
I didn’t understand the logic. In fact I never do.
I don’t fully know
what religion is but at the very least, it isn’t about keeping a God’s photo as
YOUR display picture only around the time of results.
Hinduism very passionately includes worshiping of stones
and cows, keeping widows in seclusion and hatred, marrying with a tree or fuck
whatsoever. One fine day when we were to visit Tryambhakeshwar, a one of the 12
“Jyotirlings” of Lord Shiva. For those who don’t know, Lord Shiva, one of the
trinity is supposed to reside in 12 places all over the India.
“Why did he chose ONLY India to cast his presence if he is
the sin destroyer of the entire WORLD? Moreover why do all Hindu Gods chose
only India to take birth?” asked my rational Uncle.
The question very appropriately, in itself, answers many
other questions. Indian Gods were born only in India. Japanese Gods were only
in Japan. Ahh well, Christians are a bit universal for the matter. If even, we
were to think that they all were incarnations of the same single creature why
did they advertised different ways to reach God?
They didn’t advertise anything. The different people
requires different sets of rules, hence the different religions. Period.
Sati was banned by Britishers. Did the whole world die? No. Following
this, how many more traditions can we remove by enforcing a law? Think about
it. The biggest proof of blind faiths being illogical, irrelevant and
ineffective is that they are followed in different styles in different lands. We
consider crossing of a black cat a bad omen while some finds it lucky. Ohh
wait, that just now reminded me of the origin of the “black cat crossing bad
omen logic”.
Once upon a time, very long back, kings, businessmen who had
to travel across cities even in nights faced a very inadvertent trouble in
their bullock carts. Bulls when crossing deep forests, when encountered with a
black cat turns horrified at the sight. It’s because the eyes of a black cat
glows bright in dark which leads bulls to frighten. After the discovery of this
fact, it was suggested that the travellers’ should rest for a while when their
carts get crossed by a black cat. News spread carrying along with it several
masala’s and result is something which is evident at present.
But still I don’t intend to hurt any of the sentiments. If
this is what keeps you a human, it’s fine. If you believe that throwing a
polythene full of flowers in to running water will bring you fortunes it’s fine. It at least brings you hope. But do
think of what your actions actually result to. Water contamination. But I say,
it’s fine. Remember the film PK? It cleverly portrays how religious beliefs
brings a lot of positive hope in your heart and a will to fight this world. “Somebody is there to protect me. I have done my job to make
him happy, and now it’s his turn.” This thought itself is miraculous in
everyday life, to keep you “going”.
There is a very popular story about a business man. He was
having a bad time, his company was in huge debts and the trade wasn’t going
well. He was thinking of every possible way to prevent his company to go
bankrupt but couldn’t. One day he was walking alone a road distressed as
usually, decided to sit on a bench, it was then an old man approached him and
seeing his bad mood asked what the matter was. The businessman narrated his
helpless situation. The old man seeing the man extremely sad took out a cheque
and handed him over saying that the man can return the money in one year and
will meet him at the same place then and went, The businessman was shocked at
the gesture but was even more shocked when he saw the cheque. It was from
Warren Buffet and the sum was 1 billion dollars! He was overjoyed. Now all his
problems were solved, but suddenly his conscience struck him. As a man with
self-respect he couldn’y just accept the favour. He decided to not just
withdraw the money but to keep it for future security. He decided to simply
forget about the cheque and concentrate on the business. He tried hard, made
better deals, assured client satisfaction, soon in less than six months. He had
kept the cheque safely all this while and eagerly waited for the day to come
when he could return the cheque just as it was. Finally, the day came and he
saw the same old man sitting on the bench but as soon as he started to move
towards him, a middle-aged woman came and started to pull Warren Buffet from
his sleeves! He got anxious and asked the woman who see was and how could he
behave like this to such a personality?! The woman just gave him a grim look
and told him that he is no special, he was just his father who is a mental
patient and just roam about calling himself Warren Buffet!
What was it which made the business man to come back on
track? Hope. Hope that there was something he could use as his last resort if
anything goes even worse. His self-respect and courage made him try his best to
not actually use it. This is what religion brings to one’s life. As long as it
brings hope to you, it is legitimate for you to perform religious actions. We
cannot stop you from doing something which doesn’t harm living beings, but
sadly your actions does. (Aquatic animals)
But there’s a hack. Pay your taxes regularly so that water
you just spoiled gets cleaned up. It’s gonna be cleaned up anyway. Pay for
roads to be cleaned where you kept a coconut and a “lal chundhi”. Rituals say
you to keep it, not to protect it and make sure to make it last till eternity.
But once again I’ll tell you, this all stuff isn’t necessary. They are to
religion what add-ons are to your browser. “Extras” To make your experience
complete.
But, I don’t really hate religion. It’s something which
keeps these monsters civilized. Yes. We are monsters who are simply trained to
be civilised. Otherwise there are tribals who eat each others. If we would look
closely into some rituals, we will find them necessary for the overall
stability of the world. They were meticulously planned on to implement. Stories
which Hinduism teaches, no doubt contains lessons which are pure genius. We
should respect them. We should follow them. My parents say, “how can someone
create stories so intimidating, so consequential, so real?”
“What?” I say, “don’t you watch movies, TV series? The
fictional stories they say, aren’t they simply spectacular with so much of
variety and fresh content every week? “
Then there is no reason to doubt the ability of our
ancestors to woo stories especially when they were supposed to inculcate values
not only in their present but also the future generation. Maybe there was no one with an elephant face with two wives
and still no children(Why?) It’s
always funny to ask, why isn’t there any progress to Gods and their families?
We spill milk in lakhs of litres on a stone, to make our day
good not realizing that if we would have donated it, that same one glass of
milk could have actually made somebody’s day good. They, in very specific
manner what is termed as “defense”, say that science hasn’t yet found many
answers. Yes, but that doesn’t mean you will roam around following some
manuscripts written over thousand years ago. Science has answers now, to those
questions which were considered “unanswerable” earlier. Predicting disasters,
curing mental diseases(do I really need to tell what religious people have an
opinion about this?) and many things which were considered to be in the
religious domain.
But,
If we should not believe in religion, what should make us in
control?
First of all, you should consider yourself extremely lucky
that you were given a life or may be your parents had a beautiful night that
date. But, err you still are lucky. Furthermore, you have two legs, two arms,
two eyes, a mouth, two ears and a caring parents who shower their love to you.
A mom who destroys her own youth to make yours better. Omg, you are complete!
And mind you, you are still lucky enough to have these bare minimum.
Second step, follow your religion. Yes, be aware of what it
actually is. Read every books. I am telling you Bhagwad Gita. Ramayana and
Mahabharata are epic. Not just because they are called “epic”, but they
actually are. If the customs and beliefs satisfies your thoughts, follow it.
But don’t fall prey to blind faith. Cross examine everything but remember
again, some things really take time to fully understand. But if not, try
another or may be nothing.
So you decided to follow nothing? Chill, it’s not a sin but
wait you are already above this stuff. You just saved a lot of precious time of
your life. Now you are supposed to not think of Gods but think of your future
generation yet to come. You are now responsible to make your world worth living
for others. The world given to you is beautiful and you are here to make it
even more beautiful. O live in present to the fullest rather than shedding
tears on the past. Many of times we cry over our past for which we could
actually do nothing about. It was probably bound to happen, think it this way.
Don’t remind yourselves that you did a mistake, instead pledge a vow that you
will never do it again. Don’t think about what will happen in your future,
instead strive for ways to improve it. Don’t worry too much about making the
right choices. Nobody knows what is the right decision to make, life’s all
about making a decision and then trying to justify it to be right enough. Never
give up, it takes years for one to become an overnight success.
And one last thing,
If you are a religious person, don’t think every atheist got
a license to kill.
