Religion and us

Jai Shri Raawan

Dear Raawan uncle

While thinking about the subject I often end up with mixed feeling of contempt and contentment. Contempt, because I do not subscribe to the rituals or faith of the religion, and contentment, well… because of the same reason. That simply means I don’t believe in the concept of God or religion for the same reason that the believers have. I have sinned. Funny no? I will explain.

What is God and why do we believe in Him? God as I see is a name given to an unseen power by none other than human beings. Just like we gave name to Gravity, Relativity and Heavens and Hell. We love giving each other a name and often end up calling a few. God I think is another concept that was created in the intricate web of human mind. We are the only sane living being on the planet those are blessed with a brain which can think logically and theoretically. As a child we are so innocent by heart and mind that even death doesn’t mean anything to us. And while we grow we start believing in things which are told to us. We are brought up in an environment where we are more being trained to be fearful than to be logical. I often hear people saying that they are God-fearing people. If you love, believe and have full faith in God, why the fear word then? Why do you have to live in fear of him? Just because you have sinned. Sins, I will explain later in this article.

Sometimes I think religion doesn’t hurt but the rituals and practices associated with it, does.

We believe more in fantasies than in the real life. That is the only reason we believe in The Holy Books, and not in any other literature of the world. The worst happens when we read it and relate the contents with our assumptions. Most of the learned people haven’t even read it. We believed what was told to us, by various channels. Whatever written in these books are more boring than meaningful, I assume. To me an autobiography of a human being is more important than the morals and values mentioned in the holy books. Because that is what I am a human being. There can be nothing more important than understanding a fellow human being or another earthling may be. We often do not accept the fact that the study of human characters is more important than the fictions written by our forefathers. We need to understand that they wrote those of the holy books because in that time of history they never had a good reason to pass their time or to entertain themselves. They never had Televisions, Mobile phones, Cinema, internet or the strip clubs. Whatever they have written is right but it was good enough for their time period only. We have grown many a folds since these books were put on the paper. We have grown psychologically. Our morals and values have changed with times. We don’t need the sermon of archaic morals and masked values thrown on us. Some would say we do need them for the sake of culture, I would say I would beg to differ.

What is a culture? Cultures are made and defined as per the need of the society under current circumstances and for current generations. And seriously guys I am society. How can an old culture or a ritual fit in modern day life style? Its nothing more than confusing yourself. We already have a billion problems to solve every day. Why carry an extra burden on your mind? Just because my parents want me to do that or the society expects me to do that because I am of a particular age group. I tell you guys we are killing ourselves. Not only we are killing ourselves mentally but also giving wrong upbringing to our children. The generation gap consists of the elder one not accepting the change and the younger one not accepting to stop and never change. I wish I will tell my daughter to visit my parents more often than visiting a temple. I wish I would tell her to accept her character of hurting people than to be fearful and visit a temple to cleanse her sins.

Often we forget that why we are on the planet, why there are so many obvious things around us. The logic says after the big bang the atoms and particles started multiplying and created an angry star called Sun and then relatively subdued planets like ours. After a zillion years of fusions and fissions we came to existence. It took us another ten thousand years to reach at a level where we are today. But religions say God created all this. Now a question for the believers. If God created us than are we just a chemical formulae of His lab which he achieved by fusions and fissions of various chemicals thrown in together? I don’t think so. I for once believe that I am created by my mother and not by a miracle of God, because if I would have been a miracle than I would have had the powers of Superman, not a defective leg at the least. But I have powers limited to my comfort zone, nothing more. The power of my mind is bigger than anything else I could think of.

Once I visited a doctor for I had a running nose. He simply told me to stop using ice cubes along with my drinks. It made sense alright but then he started telling me not to use the ice cubes ever again. I confronted him asked for the reason. Here is what he said. “You see God created Ice, we created Ice cubes. He wanted us to feel cold, we started making things cold. Hence you have a cold and would remain till the time you have stopped using the man made cold things.” To an extent that made sense. We cannot or rather should not interfere with the things Nature created for us to enjoy but he related the whole scene with the faith in God which I found rather un-compelling.

People believe in something for the reasons of fear and satisfaction. Fear for the worst and satisfaction of the mind. Fear, greed, satisfaction, contentment and commitment are a few emotions that breed conviction. People behave as per their convictions. Here I would logically defy the presence of soul, at least in me. I am soulless. The more I think about being a soulless person the more comfortable I feel with myself. I think if I don’t have a soul than whatever I have done to hurt others makes sense to me and I don’t need to subscribe to the concept of God. See the fear is out for once. I am convinced and have accepted that I am sinful hence I don’t need to be conscious of myself. But at the same time I am afraid of death as every human being living on the planet. Although nobody would acknowledge it but it’s a fact that everyone wants to go to the heaven but nobody wants to die (this line is an excerpt from the internet).

We have commercialized everything in the process of evolution, including religion that is. God men of today are no more than the investment bankers. You invest your money and faith in them and they will invest your money and their faith in making real estate and share market investments. They are the manipulator of the words and we listen to them just to be psychologically satisfied. Why can’t we be satisfied with our own existence? Why do we need people to tell us what is right and what is not? For me nothing is wrong and everything is right as long as I am not hurting anybody. But I do that, sometimes unknowingly sometimes wishfully. It’s absolutely natural and human thing to do. I would do whatever is logically right even if it means somebody is getting hurt in the process. We need to accept we are like that only and no astrology, mythology or religion can help us in not doing so.

Sins are part and parcels of human existence. If God is there he only wants us to commit sins too. Sins are equally important to live your life as often in sins you find a blessed moment. That is definitely human character, may be Raawanistic, if you see it that way. I can say, that so far I have lived my life to the fullest, for various sins I have committed. Tomorrow if I die I wish I would go smiling because of all the naughty things I have done in my life. Like if it’s a sin to lie to your parents or spouse that you are at work while you are at a pub enjoying a few drinks with your friends. Than I have sinned and I loved every part of it, because I had had blast of the time with my friends. Hell, its my fundamental right to be happy and enjoying. I don’t want to go cribbing for the things I have never achieved. I have achieved enough to be on the other side of the truth. As of today I have accepted that and I think this makes me keep going.

Having said all the above things, I believe more in human tendencies than the hand of fate in my existence. These are my thoughts, you may be of a different opinion. I can argue with you if you have an open mind to discuss it. But if you come to me with closed mindset and try to impose your faith in me than I am sorry, I don’t have time for this. Call me a Raawanistic Agnostic if you have to. In anticipation of all the back lashing I am going to receive after this, I apologies for me being logical myself. As once somebody said “I would rather like to be hated for what I am than to be loved for what I am not.” I can live with that.

Chow for now

Raawanistically yours

Chota Raawan