Well let's look at it once again. Did you read "GOD IS NOW HERE" or "GOD IS NOWHERE"? Amazing, isn't it. The same sentence doubles up to depict beliefs which are poles apart. What you interpret is what you believe in. You must be thinking, why did I open this Pandora's box. This is what it is all about. It's about what RELIGION means to me and about why I believe or don't believe in GOD. To make any sense, let me tell you that I submit to the second interpretation -"GOD IS NOWHERE". Well, I too don't know what happened to me, that I don't believe in god, and its not easy to understand even, because, back home, everyone is a staunch believer, and the air in my home is extremely religious. I too was taught in my childhood about the almighty ... !!! I was asked to perform all the customs which a normal Hindu family would perform ... of course without justifying to me why is it necessary to do them. Its just that slowly I got fed up of this and dwindled away from the belief. When I grew up, I started to question the very existence of the entity termed as God, and let me tell you that I now totally believe in the absence of any such entity. Now, if we start to think why do we people believe in it, its not that you realise that such an entity exists, its just that every child has been forced to live with this phenomena called God, I don't know about other countries, but about India, this is true. You would agree with me, if I say that a child can't make an educated choice between believing and not believing, if he is not allowed to think the other way. Most of the Indians are believers because they have never questioned what they were asked to do during their childhood, and on top of that would not do so, even if allowed, because of the fear that something unprecendeted might happen if they start not believing. We have an entire setup that tells us that if something happens its because of some cause. Without a superpower acting nothing can happen. I just want to say that, what if this very proposition is wrong !!! What if things that happen, don't need any cause to happen. You might be thinking that this guy is demented, well, you may think so, because, if you do so, the cause is again what you term as God, because it can't happen by itself and has to be done by some superpower, isn't it (ha!!)??? I always think that if God has created us all, then why is this imbalance, why some people wipe even there pet's poop with a bill, while others (a large number of them) don't have a penny even to feed themselves or there children?? What wrong has a differently abled infant done, that he is born like that?? Why is that some receive respect of a king upon death, while there are millions of people, upon death, are considered useful for population correction?? I know I know, I can here it coming, the "karma in the last life stuff", do you really think that this is the reason, which is used to justify anyones miserable condition in this life. Isn't it just a proposition that some person has made because he couldn't justify that God is the ultimate, and isn't it fair to say, that he proposed this just to make the so called "almighty" beyond a common man's reach, so that he couldn't question his existence???
Even if GOD existed, wouldn't it be equivalent to its nonexistence, when we see such gross indifferences in a world which was created by HIM for the equals. On this pretext I am fairly convinced that there is no such entity called GOD, because lot of imbalances occur in our world - the world created by the so called almighty. There are just these forces of nature ... and believe me they don't need any supernatural power to guarantee there existence.
For me Religion is, if you see someone in need, help him with whatever you can. I have seen very few of these kind of people who are selfless (needless to say I am one of them , ha ha ha !!!), but yes I do try to help anyone who knocks at my door, anytime of the day, and I try to help everyone with whatever I can. And still take this, I am a non-believer. IITD gave me an opportunity to meet this other guy who is a selfless person, at least when it comes to help others, the needy ones. His name is Peeyush Mishra, though he is a theist, but I don't mind it (ha ha ha !!!). He is one person whom I respect from the core of my heart, his stature even grows bigger in my heart, when I see him helping some poor roadside kid, by giving his jacket, so that he can protect himself from the chilling cold of Delhi, when I see him offering a cup of tea for an old poor lady, and feeding poor people to do away with their hunger.
For me, God is anyone who is like Peeyush Mishra, whose actions inspire me of doing the same. Isn't this definition of Religion and God, more realistic - "Religion": To help the needy; "God": One who does so. Then why do we need 360 Million (36 Crores) Gods and Goddesses??? Just a thought that crossed my mind.
aham brahmaasmi !
ReplyDeleteHey vijay…well written and really well expressed….!!! Kudos to u……I especially liked the concept of ur title “GODISNOWHERE”……It was awesome…!!! I also liked what u wrote about children been forced to live with this phenomena called “God”…I totally agree…BUT there are quite a few things on which I would tend to disagree and would love to discuss. But before I start let me tell u tht, had it been a year back, I would have agreed with u to each and every word of ur post, and also tht I am not a THEIST (but agnostic) at all.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all u said tht if “GOD” has created us, why is thr imbalance..?? but vijay how can you fault “GOD” for all the prevailing imbalance. I think it is not “GOD” but WE who are responsible for all the social and economic imbalance and inequality, it is bcz of the structure of society and economy tht is causing all the polarization. we all completely soaked in self-centered n selfish nature and to top it all, our never ending desire to get power and money has made us forget the virtues of love, brotherhood and Humanity. So I think u cannot put it on “GOD”, for what is completely OUR and solely our fault.
I think the term “GOD” the way it is, was coined for a layman as it would be vry difficult for hm to grasp the concept of GOD. The rishis knw that a layman who is soaked in materialistic world and MAYA could never understand the concept of CONSCIOUSNESS, the true “GOD” within us. Hence the figure of “GOD” was made so that even a common man cloud reach out and had the sense of HOPE.
Finally, on ur question as to why is there 36 million GOD’s…?? all I can say is that Hinduism and vedic text have a clear answer to it.
In Hinduism there are many schools of thoughts and many layers of thoughts, because Hinduism is not the product of one prophet or one messiah and because it does not believe in the tyranny of religious dogmatism and in the stratification of human thought. It is a product of man's freedom of thought and of action. A constantly evolving and flowering religion, at the same time generously tolerant and lenient. And it gives freedom and opportunity to each individual to find “GOD” in his or her own way. Hence by polytheism, it gives total freedom to all, as there are many ways in which one can pursue the path of liberation.
Hey but I guess Piyush would be really happy….hahha….i agree though he is truly a great human being…..kudos to him too….!!!