I have been questioned about which religion I belong to
almost by every person I met on the planet of this earth who spoke to me. BTW -
I don’t enjoy bashing religion or other religions. I mean there is more than
what meets the eye.
To my knowledge, I was born in India to “Hindu” couple. (If
you want to know, they come from different castes). So, does that mean, I am a
Hindu?
I was told to go to the temples during Hindu festivals, Churches
during the Christian holidays, and Mosques whenever. We all made it a point to
especially visit the Gods’ houses right before the test results were released
to ask them to magically change the scores (cliché). My mom loved all Gods. She
included Gods and Goddesses she ever heard about in her prayer room. She also
made sure we did not discriminate against any of the Gods.
My dad made sure we read the Bhagavat Gita, Holy Bible and Holy
Quran. I can’t speak about my siblings, but I think I read the first pages of
all three books. I really wanted to read all those books to be close to God and
to be a good human being. But those books were too fat like 100 times the size
of any comic book I had read. Hey, I remember the cover of the books till date
(I think).
I learnt about a few rules and regulations each religion
imposed on its devoted followers. I despised all of them. Come-on I was rebel
and I did not like the concept of following the teachings from a guy who died
thousands of years before I was born. How can a rule or regulation from a
thousand years still be relevant to the current situations and times? Following
it blindly, is following it blindly. There is no meaning in it, there is not
beauty in it, and there is no love in it.
Over the years, I also learn about the origins of some of
these religious rules and the original rules that have been modified and
hybridized as per convenience. This caught my attention; I had more leverage to
argue against the holy men. I also understood and really liked the fact that
some customs were actually adopted from other religions.
I enjoyed any bit of science behind a religious rule. I felt
religion tried to make the lay man follow the beneficiary science in the name
of God will, which is in fact a cleaver thing to do. (BTW, I absolutely hate
all the rules where the God men imposed on the lay man where the God man got to
enjoy the benefits). I found that there are several things I liked in each
religion I came across.
There was also a time when I decided to not believe in Gods
and Goddesses of any kind. But when I think long and hard about the innocent
concept of higher beings who want us to be the best we can, it is so beautiful.
I did not want to distance myself from that.
What if I believed and loved all religions in the world? What
if I followed all the silly little things that I liked from each religion?
If I was in a party (the world), and everyone had a balloon (religion),
I would have more fun by having a bunch of balloons in all colors and shapes.
It would be great time pass to poke fun of others balloons and argue mine was
the best. But having more instead of one or none is a lot more fun. So, that is
exactly what I did.
I don’t have a name for my religion and hope I will never
have one.
Since COSMOS proved to me about how I came into existence. About
how the iron in the sun ended up in my blood and more, it was clear to me that
my actual parents are the Sun and the Earth. We are always very enthusiastic to
worship our creators. Since the Sun and the Earth created me, they are my Gods.
I will worship them by respecting and using more of the natural resources like the solar power
from the Sun and try to leave as small of a carbon foot print by being organic on my Mother
Earth.
I am very thankful to be born in an age where my beliefs are
respected even if they are not understood.
Hello Sreedevi,
ReplyDeleteNice post and expressed your views clearly. While I commend you for the soft and polite words you used in your article, I do not like the word `hate' you used. You can use a soft word in its place. Why I am particular about this word because when you speak about God, religion, human beings, god-men, you should not have hatredness towards anybody. Religion ( in Telugu Abhimatam ) means a common approval and acceptance of a group of people about certain issues put forward by a religious leader.
Madhavarao Uncle.
I could have used "don't like" in the place of "hate", but there are certain things the religion has done that I truly hate!!
DeleteI don't like the tradition of Devadasi.
I don't like the tradition of Child Marriages.
I don't like the tradition of Sati.
I don't like the tradition of Parda or burkha.
I don't like the tradition of believing the earth is only 5 thousand years old.
May be there is some kind of good in all these religious practices. I am not able to see it. I will be honest, I did not even try.
I will however try to change my views. Please give me some time.
Hello Sreedevi,
DeleteThank you for your prompt reply. I do like your open-mindedness. Religion is a two-edged knife. The knife can be used to operate a patient in medical emergency and it also can be used to cut the throats!! Religion is formed to guide the society when people are going wild; it tells good but people, in practice, with their selfishness, add their own rules and regulations to the original religion thus religion is de-faced.
Devadasi system is not in the religion. But, kings, rich selfish people made it as a custom when people in the olden days were mostly un-educated. Similarly, the Child Marriages:- the intention at that time was that a young girl, married at the age of six or eight years, sent to her in-law's house, got adjusted to the new family members, and become friendly with her husband who was also a young boy and they both understand each other by the time they mature mentally and physically. In fact, the then tradition said that the girl be married at the age of eight, bring back to her parents home, and send her after attaining maturity. However, child marriage is not at all suggestible. Sati and Burkha have come into existence, as per my thinking, when women folk were in a highly un-protected circumstances. About the Earth's age you have mentioned above, I do not know where from you gathered this information. I am giving a LINK below and read this article MANVA CHARITHRA.
http://navarasabharitham.blogspot.in/
Finally, my one suggestion, since you are good at expressing your thoughts and subjects, is read as many books as you can, particularly our Telugu scriptures on different subjects, and add your own ideas, thoughts, opinions, comments with relevancy, because when you publish an article, it is read by many people who are sometimes experts in a particular subject. Wishing you all the best and expecting more and more from your mind and pen.
Madhavarao Uncle.