God, Religion and my perspectives on them..

“History badee bewafa, raat ko padhi subah safaa…”

(translates to something like ‘History is an unfaithful mistress you read it in the night only to discover in the morning her whereabouts are unknown’, alright, I know, my translations certainly aren’t improving!)

WARNING: If you are a religious fanatic, it is advisable that you do not proceed beyond this line.            

If ever you find some time and plan to go through history since pre-historic times, from a few credible, secular sources with a purely scientific orientation and without any prejudice you might actually get an unbiased glimpse of how religions evolved, how certain customs and practices came about. Initially even I thought, I was turning into an atheist, but with an enhanced understanding I had my spiritual and to a certain extent my intellectual renaissance, as well. We today have sufficient evidence that the initial concept of religion was to hold the society together, to govern it and to enable people to live peacefully avoiding conflicts as much as one could. It was like the spiritual and legal guide for a person, much like the modern day constitution in a democratic state. Religion’s power lay in enforcing a moral-ethical obligation upon one, driven by fear of God or the judgment day or re-birth or an after-life doomed to be spent in hell, as opposed to the present system where not much of morals, ethics and values have any role to play. It might also be the reason behind increasing crimes and social disorder as, that fear has eroded. Modernization without social values, loss of trust in each other, a materialistic world instead of an utilitarian one, adds to an insatiable greed.
            A religion's age old customs deteriorated with time due to non suitability of those in the present context and also due to the imposed perversions of the orthodox who wanted to continue with their hegemony. Some enlightened soul then came to challenge it, modified it and either intentionally or by happenstance established a new sect or a whole new religion itself. He was later elevated to the status of God or labeled as the messenger of god i.e. a Prophet or a sage or a saint, who with time and ignorance got elevated to a level where he or his sayings could never be wrong, for his followers. The flaw, however is that the sayings are often misinterpreted by the priestly class to suit themselves. It's a vicious cycle that, keeps repeating itself over and over in different forms. All religions came to happen like that. Hinduism is unique, because it perhaps assimilated many such religions, tribal beliefs and prophets and constantly evolved and imbibed some of their aspects or even absorbing a few of them into itself. Hence, we can’t even roughly point out when it began or who founded it, but it has lasted quite long!  At a certain point of time, Buddhism emerged as a major challenger and was probably very progressive and popular, perhaps more than the Brahmanical religion (which later evolved into the Hinduism of today) and hence even spread out to most of eastern Asia like Japan, China, Indo-China countries, Mongolia, etc....
But some wise Brahmans(priestly class) came out with a contingency plan to save the day for their Brahmanical following n#ggahs. By imbibing some concepts from Buddhism like emphasis on vegetarianism, prohibition of animal sacrifice, etc…  The transfer of ideas happened in both directions. Buddhism eventually got absorbed into Hinduism in India by the cunning ploy of including Buddha as one of the avatars of Vishnu. Though, it still maintains its distinct identity outside India.

Some practices and traditions followed by certain religions were probably because of totally logical reasons which a sound mind can deduce, if it ever happens to stray upon it. Like the practice of cremating (burning) the dead in Hinduism because India had abundant resources of wood from forests, while in Islam which originated in the deserts of Arabia had little or no water, let alone any wood or forests, the best option was burying. While alcohol is a necessity to survive in the extreme harsh winters of Europe and hence became important part of Christianity and the Church, where it is served as Sacramental wine whereas, in a desert in the extremely arid and hot conditions it is more of a poison and hence banned in Islam. Or the system of burqa and even the long white robes worn  by Arab men evolved because of the need to protect oneself from the extremely arid sand laden desert winds and the high temperatures. There are numerous such concepts one can deduce with a scientific temperament. I might be wrong, but I am just speaking my mind!

Coming back, since then Hinduism has been picking up something from every other religion or culture it came across.... But later it became rigid with the stagnation of caste system on the basis of birth instead of the earlier criteria of merit... Now, I guess that rigidity is eroding with time in our modern world and even in India of today albeit at a very restrained pace, yet change nonetheless. The pace of this change will depend on us and our acceptability and open mindedness. In this change the most important factor is we shouldn't lose our basic rational secular culture and ethics in the name of modernity. Modernity doesn’t mean embracing everything that the West does blindly. Things which are really good about it are the ones to be imbibed. Sadly, anything Indian/Desi is not “Awesome” for most (mind you, not all) people from our Gen-Z . Most things that are Indian/Desi are part of Social Media memes or Jokes. Oh yeah, everyone wants branded Western Products even if the 'country made' aka Swadeshi stuff is equally good or better.

Due to my limited understanding and knowledge I can't comment much about other religions as of now although, I am trying to enrich myself by understanding their philosophies. Also, it is not just limited to Hinduism even a few Catholics tried to break the shackles of rigidity to embrace liberalism in the form of a new sect called Protestants, Islam saw the Sufis, they were the liberal wise minds and philosophical guides behind the rise of the Caliphate which reigned over the Ottoman Empire, yet the empire soon succumbed to a slow death after the persecution of Sufis by the Orthodox, while the Jews have turned out to be one of the most progressive and prosperous religious communities for their reliance on scientific temper and self introspection. The Parsis and the Sikhs are not far behind for their liberalism, separation of their professional life from religion and their respect for other people’s religious beliefs.

  So, presently I am more like a spiritual person. I believe religion is a personal choice which you choose for yourself and practice on your own, what someone else does or says about your religion shouldn’t affect you until the hurt is translated to physical or economical problems for you. If he abuses your God, he will be dealt by your God, why do you need to punish that person?                     
                            

God for me is hope. Someone who explains what science can't explain yet, someone you bestow your hopes on, to keep yourself going. We all need hope for important things in life, be it career, love, personal goals or wading through some crisis. Of course, for others God is something else depending on their own wisdom and belief.
Each religion has something unique about it, with at least some aspect appealing to even non-believers (even if they might never admit it openly.). Just that, like the constitution of a nation which keeps changing with time, religion also needs to adapt to time and needs of the present day. It needs to be amended and ratified with open discussions and deliberations by the participation of all who follow it. Yet it should not compromise on certain basic principles of humanism, scientific temper, logic and preservation of cultural and ideological diversity which keeps the whole system dynamic and open to new ideas and modifications which are vital to survive in changing times.

God is anyone who gives you a sense of euphoria, the sense of Nirvana/ Heaven/ Jannat/ Swarg/ Elysium and Religion is the way to approach it, it could be war as in the case of religious extremists, charity like we rarely see in the case of many genuine philanthropists who work in anonymity, the unique benign love - like that of the Sufis, it could even be the non-interference of anyone or anything in how one leads life as in the case of an atheist.It’s basically anything we want it to be, it's OUR choice. It's all in our mind. With this as the basis of our will, mental strength or moral backing we are capable of, achieving anything provided we know how to tap our full potential!  Nothing would seem or be impossible.

This is what I perceive we can term as ‘Miracles’.

I tried to read the Gita during a certain ‘Low’ phase in my life. Must admit, you really need a lot of patience and deep understanding to really comprehend the philosophy hidden in that book. Of course for best results the interpretation should be by you, yourself not that of someone no matter how learned. But, who reads such rich Sanskrit literature nowadays? The very few Pandits who know it are mostly interested in memorizing it to fool us into shelling out our money for getting some Puja done. Where the Pandit shows of his memorization skills by monotonously chanting something which is pretty Hypnotic & makes you so drowsy that you might literally fall down and sleep there itself. Although, I think I am well versed with a certain version of Mahabharata, credits to the super complex intriguing storyline.

The only moral I could get out of it is:
If you are simple and straightforward the world will screw you big time! So you have a choice to be part of that, by joining it and screwing someone else’s life too or take a stand and go against it to uphold your own core values of goodness and benevolence if you really believe in it, by saving someone else from the screw up(which you might have been through in the past or if you are witnessing someone else going through it)  it can be done by using the situations and conditions to your advantage like “Monsieur Le Krishna” did, by finding loopholes out of inescapable situations to uphold the Good. (You would understand what I mean if, you have at least read/seen some part of it. If not just read the parts to do with the death of Bhishma, Drona, Karna, Duryodhana, etc. those are the perfect examples amongst many such incidents in that story)

Bucket List of readings to complete before I perish.
Srimad Bhagavad-Gita
Quran
Tripitaka
Bible
Torah
Avesta
Guru Granth Sahib
(More might get added over time)
             
                                     
                                                 
On second thoughts, that is too ambitious of me. Let me keep it to one, to start with right? Else, I’ll carry on with my ‘sasta, sundar, tikau’ (Cheap, beautiful and workable) above stated “Moral”.

Okay, this might disgust most, but a large part of this post was drafted and conceptualized on the Pot which I refer to as “The Thinking Pot.” I am sorry if I hurt your sentiments religious or otherwise. :P
(I mean jokes apart, people kill in the name of religion! I might become the target of some serious Holy War!)
I just wanted to be honest. There is nothing unholy about it! That place is where your mind is completely calm and relieved to give birth to some great thoughts and ideas. Where nothing else is there to distract you!

God- please forgive me for this Sin !

Post Scriptum: Anyone who is offended. I am really sorry. I am just a young, little brat with a lot of things still left to accomplish and experience in life and also in my multiple bucket lists! So, forgive and forget !

If you disagree with something, your invaluable comments are most welcome. :)