People take a lot of trouble to visit the places of god.
Tell people to work out every day and they will turn up their noses but ask
them to climb a flight of 1000 stairs to a holy shrine and they would readily
huff and pant all the way.
What I do not get is why this tremendous hype is associated
with paying a visit to gods’ places. God is definitely not our
friend…friendship is possible between two equals and with God we always take a
servile demeanour and deep down we harbour the hope to get a big favour done in
return of our piety. That’s definitely not the code of conduct between friends.
Now think of our mythology. You will get so many examples
where people have observed penance for thousands of years to please a
particular god. And when they finally appeared they inevitably asked for
immortality. Do you see the hypocrisy? A person who has already survived a
thousand years without food and water was already blessed with a pretty long
life. Now instead of making good use of it the idiot chose to waste the years
in penance…only to ask for the same thing.
Most of us do not understand the rote chanting of the
mantras. Mantras mostly consist of praises of the gods and glorification of
their attributes interspersed with the odd request of looking after the well
being of us, mortals. Basically while worshipping we choose to flatter the gods
in a quaint language (Sanskrit) and we expect gods to be pleased with us.
I like the way Durga puja is celebrated. No one is thinking
about religion. People have hastily got their yearly makeovers and during the
festivities they would eagerly show their new selves off. People would visit
the deities more to observe and appreciate the art than with the intention of
appeasing the wrath of the gods. The children are happy to get a good break
from studies, the young and unmarried are all decked up and busy falling in
durga puja-induced-short-term-love, the newly-weds are busy getting themselves clicked incessantly, the much married women
are planning pot luck meals while their husbands are excitedly planning about
the other kind of pot.
That’s a mature way to deal with a festival. No one is
expecting to get favour from God just because they have participated in Durga puja.
They did it because they loved it.
Recently an important gentleman who is a strong contender
for the upcoming elections criticized the decision to hunt for gold
based on a seer’s dream. He was cursed by the seer and had to issue a public
apology. Sigh… May be we need a law to restrain people from obsessively
performing puja and depending on god...logic is clearly not working…will a
prohibitive law work? I don’t know exactly what but something needs to be done
to protect this country from blind faith. Do you have any idea??? Please do share...
