Oh God!! Jeez!! Jesus H Christ.. Siva Sivaaa!!.... aiyyo rama!! various inferences to god that people make all the time... especially when something goes wrong ..or when something happens that we dont like happening. Well... now ... the time has come for me to give a discourse on god!!
God...
I have always had a pleasant relationship with god. My parents... grandparents.. have always been pretty religious. My dad was a firm believer in Shirdi Sai Baba and would listen to his Bhajans whenever he was home. That was my first exposure to music.. and till this day... those tunes stick in my head. But more than him... I remember my grandmothers.... Both of them would go for their bath... go and pluck flowers in a little tray.. and then go do puja. It was very interesting. Especially as a young kid... seeing ur grandmothers follow a tradition. I would sometimes help them pluck the flowers..especially if there were some in corners they could not reach...
To me, god never had any particular name. I was poor in telugu ... and in Hindi...so I always prayed in English. I wondered whether Hindu gods would be able to understand me... and so, I would always refer to all of them as God. I believe that my education in a Christian missionary school had something to do with my religious views. As I have said in my previous blog... I held my teachers in very high esteem. And when these teachers and principles told us a parable every day... and spoke about Jesus... it never occurred to me that he would be a different kind of God compared to Hindu gods. And I did not want to offend any god by referring to one by name instead of another. So... in one word...I encompassed them all.. all the 3 crore (30 million) (mukkoti in telugu) Hindu gods... Jesus... Allah...everyone.
We had to say the lords prayer every day in school. The Christian lord's prayer. And before that... our principle would pray for all of us while we stood with bowed heads and folded arms. But to me... this wasnt a real prayer. It was something we did by rote... Often .. my mind would wander during the prayer... and I would think... shouldnt I be praying now!!
And then... all those festivals... where we listened to stories of various gods. Those were fun!! Especially as the language used was arcane and I barely understood what was being said.
I began praying in earnest once classes and exams started taking their toll. I would pray to god and ask him to make sure I would do well in my exam... and to wake me up in time!! I always felt that praying to god and reminding him to wake me up was totally responsible for me getting up in time. I still do that!! Later...I remember someone told me that when we pray... we should first praise God.. then we should Thank him... and then... we should ask him. Since then... I have had a standard prayer I recite... I ask Him / Her to help my friends, relatives (I take quite a few names... and try to visualize their faces when I state the names) and the universe as such. Then I thank him. Somehow... I feel as if I speak with a friend. I dont expect miracles... because I know that in the end...only good happens.
One day.. I sat down and thought... why do people believe in God. And the answer I reasoned.. was very simple. People needed something to believe in.. something to have in common with people of their neighbouring villages...towns....kingdoms. And ... what better thing to do than have a supernatural leader who is always right?? So... I believe.. God was created by man to explain that which he did not understand... and at the same time..... create a universal leader who would bring people together and tell them what to do and how to go about in life. And then it struck me... all religions seem to have the same underlying core value: Help yourself... and then help everyone else in this world. Voila!! The ten commandments... the Bhagvad gita... the Koran.. all seemed to point to this simple statement. Of course.. they made it much more complicated and gave a whole bunch of other guidelines... but I didnt care for those. Those were superficial... and very often... interpretations by some human to suit his or her own condition. Why would I need to follow someone else's interpretation when I knew the core value??
No...I have not read the bhagvad Gita... no..I have not read the koran... and no I have not read the bible. However...I have read parts of them... read stories which mention them... and spoken with devout Christians, Muslims and Hindus... all of who seem to have the same underlying belief.
So...I guess... my religion is Humanity!!
If you ask me what my religion is...I will still call myself a Hindu. Because...I appreciate the values of Hinduism. That religion is a private thing. That you follow your beliefs as you wish... and noone can say you are wrong. Noone can preach to me and tell me what to do if I dont want them to. Noone can scare me and tell me that God would leave me if I behaved in some way rather than another. I believe... Hinduism is not a religion of fear but a religion of love. I believe that Hinduism evolved by merging all the local gods of kingdoms.. when one took over another... or one prince married a princess from another. It was convenient to say that all the gods were the same and equally powerful. This would make so much social sense. So... basically...I would not be wrong in saying that Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed and all the other religious leaders... were all a part of Hinduism. I see Hinduism as a way of life... not as a religion per se.
I do not think of myself as perfect. I have my doubts very often. I have been hard pressed for answers at times... when it came to religious debates. And many times... people fail to see my point of view. They stick to some idea and refuse to let go of it.... and I probably do the same too. However...I sincerely believe that by sticking to my path of Being good to myself and then being good to everyone else... will keep me happy.
Maybe....it will be something which will help you too!!
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