PRAYER

Today is Mahashivaratri. In an unexpected turn of events, I ended up in a temple. It was clean. There was no noise on loudspeakers excepts for the bhajan and the bells ringing. It was a serene and joyous experience. I prayed there for 10-15 minutes and came back. It was good to have a small time of peace, feeling presence of God. As always I just thanked Him for all that I have, remembered my good times and the good people I have met in life and thanked Him again for making my life so fulfilling so far.

Religion for me has always been very complicated and confusing topic. The history of it can be traced as back as fire. I have read accounts of religion in many different contexts: the conflict in Palestine, the Rishis of Himalayas, the rites and rituals in marriages, the crausades, the tribal religions in pre-historic times. It has been interesting to hear about the small short stories of religions. All religions.
Consider this:
“It is said that Prophet Muhammad was so nice to the people around him that when he used to go to drink water in a well, the water would rise up to be touched by such humble a man. But he would not take the favor lest the creatures around the water body be affected by it.”
Or this:
“When Lord Rama was in vanavas, there was a demon. She was a follower of Rama. Since he was going to pass through her village, she got some berries for him. A monkey (or something I don’t remember) told her that the fruits might be sour. It would be bad if Lord Rama tasted them it they turned out sour. It was a mischief. Out of devotion she tasted each of the fruits to make sure that they were not sour. The monkey later told that it is ‘jootha’ (mouthed). Obviously if someone has already tasted a fruit, you would not like to eat this. When the monkey later told her this (out of mischief), she was a lot perturbed. When Lord Rama heard of this, he ate all the fruits with a lot of love.” He then gave discourse on Bhakti (devotion) and why hers was true.

Lord Rama was a kshatriya, the tribal woman was, to explain in modern terms, a scheduled tribe woman. But Hindu rules restrict entry of so called backward classes in temples where Brahmins (mostly) worship the kshatriya King. Strange!!!

Almost all the religions have a holy book in common. For Hindus it is Gita, for Muslims it is Quran, for Christians it is the Holy Bible, for Sikhs it is the Guru Grantha Sahib. If you read the real text of these books, there is so much of knowledge, wisdom, rules of virtues and guidance to make tough decisions mentioned in them. But what comes to us is versions of what religion mentions. Thus Quran becomes a proponent of Jihad which is violence, Hinduism becomes an impotent religion not interested in defending itself against its attackers and justification of caste based discrimination, Christianity becomes a tale of false statements denouncing the origin of Humans through evolution. Through centuries all the religions have been allowed to be corrupted, empowering the custodians of religion, creating tussle between political and religious bosses and creating the so called ‘clash of civilizations’. Now it is a little pretentious to assume that such a strong text will not be corrupted over time. Even constitutions get corrupted as different interests try to interpret them in their own way. So it is obvious that the citizentry trying to capture power in the minds of people will try to create interpret the text in a way that suits their vested or non-vested interests. But even after so many centuries of facing the force of myriad groups of people trying to tweak it for their requirement, it still remains a strong force. It got BJP to power in India, resulted in creation of Pakistan, no American Presidential candidate can win an election by denouncing the ‘lies’ mentioned in Bible. And it remains the solitary company of the common man. Why so good and so ba??
The problem lies in the way we interpret our religion. It is usually some television serial, some editorials a couple of books at most and hearing some ‘learned person’ for creating our view. For me, religion has been a never-ending quest to know the Eternal. A quest which begins with the very questioning of whether God exists and moving through the scientific studies which prove the mathematical accuracy of universe which Human mind cannot comprehend, to creation of living beings, to understanding the ills of religion, to finding Him. And it is fun.
A very funny way in which religion has been turned into today is provided by these lines:

“I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said 'Stop! don't do it!' 'Why shouldn't I?' he said. I said, 'Well, there's so much to live for!' He said, 'Like what?' I said, 'Well...are you religious or atheist?' He said, 'Religious.' I said, 'Me too! Are you Christian or Buddhist?' He said, 'Christian.' I said, 'Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?' He said, 'Protestant.' I said, 'Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?' He said, 'Baptist!' I said, 'Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist church of god or Baptist church of the lord?' He said, 'Baptist church of god!' I said, 'Me too! Are you original Baptist church of god, or are you reformed Baptist church of god?' He said, 'Reformed Baptist church of god!' I said, 'Me too! Are you reformed Baptist church of god, reformation of 1879, or reformed Baptist church of god, reformation of 1915?' He said, 'Reformed Baptist church of god, reformation of 1915!' I said, 'Die, heretic scum,' and pushed him off. --Emo Phillips”

When someone asks me if I am Atheist, I rather say yes than explain him my religious convictions as that would take time, but looks like this blog has a lot of time for me.
Religion for me is a subject about which I wan’t to know and learn. I avoid visiting temples as they are too noisy. I don’t believe that lord Shiva is present in that stone where some priests are chanting some shlokas in a language I don’t understand. I find him everywhere. If I want to pray, I can pray even when I am going to sleep. But this is not to denounce the importance of religion. In fact, I think temples (or any religious place) is a good thing if kept clean and less noisy. It creates a collection of people who are there for the same purpose: Pray. It is like having a book in your hand. You can read it in a polluted and noisy traffic signal or in a silent library. Where do you think will your bent of mind have more chances of learning quickly from it?? I believe that there is a lot of treasure in religion. I am a Hindu, but believe that the beliefs of all religions is true. I dislike conversion. It is like saying you want to drink water from glass A and not glass B while both have the same source of water in them. It is folly to assume that people should have freedom to change religion. It only brings strife in society and competition amongst various nefarious to resort to more aggressive conversion. Religion should not be used to frame any government policies, but any policy or government decision should respect the faith. If a temple needs to be demolished to build a road, it should be done. But this should not lead to demolishing many temples (or any religious structure) for any flimsy reason. Studies in religion should be encouraged. When India was the superpower in ancient times, when people from across the world used to come to India to learn medicine, mathematics, science, the one thing that attracted the scholars most was ‘adhyatm’ or religious learning. Adhyatm is a learning beyond any religion. It doesn’t belong to Hinduism or Budhism or Jainism, the formost proponents of it. It is more about using any of your religious learning/conviction and discussing what part of it makes you virtuous, healthy and intrepid. True adhyatm will tell a Muslim never to leave Jihad (Literal meaning from Quran: strife against immoral things in society) or his faith in Allah. A small beginning towards Adhyatm is Yoga which aims at integration of mind and body. Anyone will tell you the benefits of it. Yoga has proven to have healed terminal diseases in matter of months, imagine the power hidden in Adhyatm which the generation has left for denim jeans and pizza corners. I further believe that prayer is a powerful instrument for oneself. I don’t think God will ever come to visit me, but I also believe that he doesn’t need to. God is more than a human in existence. He is a form which my mind cannot comprehend. I don’t find it insane to try writing about something which I , at the onset, believe that my mind cannot comprehend. It is like gravitation and relativity and strings theory. I understand the first one completely, the second one partially and third one not at all. The logical result of the equations of these theories will predict that matter and gravity don’t exist, that everything that is happening is already happened in the dimension of time: something like you travelling on a rail track and discovering new distances. It is just that you come to know about the area of track you have just reached, but it was already present there in same form.
I believe that we should narrate the religious anecdotes to children. It helps in good growth of them. My parents tell me that I was very intelligent since childhood and didn’t need to be taught since class 3 or 4. But my earliest remembrance is of my grandfather chanting the shlokas of Ramayana and me repeating after him. This what when I was like 1-1.5 years old!! This might be a mis-interpretation of mine, but it is my belief.
Take 10 deep breaths concentrating on inhaling. During inhaling try to feel that energy and life is entering you. When you exhale try to think that all the physical and emotional pollutants are leaving your body. Close your eyes, close your brain of all the thoughts for two minutes, and then let your respect for an omnipresent power enter your mind and remember all the wonderful time you had in life. Thank Him for all that you have and seek the blessings for more learning, more experiences in life. Thank all the people you have met for teaching you something or other. Pray for their wellbeing. Pray for betterment of each nation, society, removal of evils and progress of civilization. By now you already have become a saint for two minutes!! This is the first step towards any religion: Prayer and a regular resting place which will provide you solace when you read and learn about religion and start questioning foundation. Go ahead and learn as much about it as you can and it will be a rewarding journey….

“If there we to be a conference of Gods of all religions,there would be only one person speaking”