I was born a Hindu, a unique one at that. I am a beef eating, non-Diwali/holi/any important Hindu festival celebrating, “other backward caste Hindu”. Other backward caste (OBC)…..my caste was so insignificantly backward that it got slotted in "others". Don't you hate it when something that you feel is important gets slotted in the after-thought of "others"? For instance, when you file an online resume, you might get options for the institutes that you have studied in. You scroll through the list of IIMS, XLRI and many others, and at the end of it you find “others”. Well, I digress.
I value Hinduism for its nonchalant attitude. You can pick any god you desire for worship, you can worship him any time or day you want, you are not compelled to visit the temple at regular intervals, you can eat anything you want (atleast an OBC malayali can). The mythologies are colorful and vibrant, each with an underlying moral of the triumph of good over evil. The Gods have human shortcomings too, Indra’s pride, Krishna’s slyness, Ram’s suspicion and weakness. You can easily relate to them, but blindly worship them? Not really.
I have always envisaged religion as a projection of a higher way of life. It should be something or someone who you look up to for guidance on how to fabricate your life. In the chaos of life we forget the essence of what religion is and focus only on the propagators; the Gods. I believe that God wants us to worship him not through sacrifices and poojas but by following the message that he has conveyed to us. Living our lives in accordance to the standards and system which defines the religion is the best way to worship God. I personally find pilgrimages to be a fruitless endeavor. Visiting shrines to capture a glimpse of a small idol among throngs of people never appeals to my vision of serenity and it is rare to find a temple in India which isn’t crowded.
I have read the Bhagavad Gita and some parts of the Vedas, the profoundness of which overwhelms me. It also made realize that humans as a species are dumbing down as each generation passes. The intellect of people who wrote these scriptures must have been extraordinary.
As I grew older, I found myself getting more detached from Hinduism and God in general. The angst of my youth made me question the benevolence of God after witnessing the pain the world is going through. It is somewhere during this period of distrust, that I chanced upon the saying in Buddhism “life is suffering”. Well, now here is a religion who admits that life is not a cake walk. I had always admired the quiet confidence that radiates from Buddha’s smile. In my view, Mona Lisa’s smile was a poor effort to capturing the mystical all-knowing element of Buddha’s smile. How Davinci chanced upon Buddha’s image beats me, maybe Richard Gere might have the answer to that.
The deeper I got into Buddhism, the better the realization that it is not only for monks in far off monasteries in the Himalayan valleys. The simplicity of the religion, the quiet detachment from materialism, the unconditional love, the purposeful self awareness, these appealed to me.
I guess everyone has a set of values that they are comfortable with and I found mine in Buddhism. Being a Buddhist doesn’t automatically make me a Buddha, just as being a Christian doesn’t make one Christ. So go slow on the assumption that Buddhists are monks who have thrown away all worldly attachments and have found Nirvana. I still make mistakes, some really dumb ones at that. But now I have something to look up to and judge myself against. This forms the essence of my religion.
I can empathize with the anger that people feel on being marginalized based on their religions. The stereotypes- Muslims have beards and turbans, Jews have long noses, Buddhists are bald- will always be there. But the more dangerous ones, like Jews are cunning, Muslims are terrorists etc. bother me. The holy war of the past, the Christian crusades by the church was one of the ugliest periods of humanity. Wars based on religion might never cease. The irony of it would be when a set of aliens would land on earth and see people fighting against each other. The aliens would accost a human from the midst.
Alien: What are you humans fighting for?
Man: Religion.
Alien: What is religion?
Man: (after a lot of thought) it is something where people believe in and worship an unknown, invisible power called God.
Alien: You mean you have never met God?
Man: ummm, that is right.
Alien: And you are massacring each other in the name of someone you have never seen in your life?
Man: it is not as simple as that…..
Alien(looks back at the alien standing next to him): When did these guys take control of earth? The last time we were here, didn’t women rule the planet?
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When have women ever ruled the planet?
ReplyDeletenice...
ReplyDelete*do you know if the gods propagate religion? or do you think they do?
*why would they need to propagate any religion?
*who are these gods......stories that people made up to encourage moral behavior,powerful super humans, aliens,energy forms,something else?
* words and emotions like love, anger,peace,detachment - what exactly do they mean? do they precisely describe a feeling or situation? they are all man made words...
*how do we know exactly what people like Buddha or 'the gods' said or meant when they said and did what they did?
Just thinking out loud...
Personally,I believe in Buddha and in whatever he had preached about. I do not have evidence on how he went about his business or who he is. Trusting your beliefs without proof is faith. As Voltaire said "“Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.” Everything in this world, in its core definition can be challenged from a different angle to contradict its very being. "proof" is just what we choose to believe in with the reasons that are appealing to us. Undeniable proof for someone would be myths and fantasies for someone else. It depends on perspective. Love, anger, peace, detachment are words that we as humans choose to describe certain emotions(in English of course) Did Buddha speak in English? I don't think so, even though I don't have proof to the contrary. I don't have videos of Buddha giving discourses, yet I choose to believe that the eightfold path was something that he spoke about and not something that a tea vendor on the streets of Laos spoke about on a cloudy night.
ReplyDeleteHaven't you ever had an emotional experience, a connection, indescribable? Something that feels just right at that singular moment, but can not be replicated? If you put me on a dais and ask me why do I chose to believe in Buddha or why Buddhism appeals to me more than other equally powerful religions, I might not have a suitable answer for you. What is love? what is definable and definitive? What can stand the scrutiny of change and variability? We are upon a planet which is never, ever on a constant for a minute, our lives isn't the same for a second, something or the other changes, the time, the light, the wind, the air, the heat. What would remain constant is what we choose. I have chosen Buddha as the propagator of the religion that I look up to. I choose to believe that he is preaching this to me, to make me a better person.