OH 'MY' GOD!

Faith in God and religion are like the two sides of the same coin. However, what a group of people show off is an unequivocal display of Blind Faith in both. Their stereotypical thoughts and views portray God as a radical fanatic, raging against reason and compassion. For them, He is the one who would divide and reign, kill and kidnap and would never stop arguing with history, which He thinks is the lost baggage of lies. A manufactured God, who has been composed, created and assembled to stimulate fear, instigate terror, ransack the world and shatter the hopes of million. He, a weapon of mass destruction, must be feared!

Every time I read or hear about the Amarnath shrine, Babri Masjid, Ram Mandir or Ram Sethu, I am gripped with a sense of helplessness and religious dissent. A feeling shared by many men and women of this country. India’s secular credentials and its innate capacity of tolerance have been badly shaken by what happened in Gujrat, Ayodhya and Mumbai 15 years ago and the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi and elsewhere in 1984. These ugly eruptions have been the handiwork of disgruntled politicians, anti-social elements, criminals and hypocrites. Their reasons for these misdeeds- uncertain ‘true’ facts (sic!). What these lunatics fail to understand is the relevance such facts hold today. What these fanatics pass off as religion is very often pure ritualism which is closer to superstition that belief in Almighty. They, under the pretence of religion, tweak around certain rituals and empower these rituals to propagate fear, terror and superior might in young and old minds. They lack religious tolerance and hence are unable to understand the true underlying principles of their own religion.

An unassailable thought flows through Rig Veda: “truth is one- the learned may describe it variously”. Every religion teaches us love, compassion, tolerance, the omnipresence and omnipotence of God. One sees, feels and hears God everywhere; in birds, animals, trees, running brooks, a cherubic child, the wrinkled face of an old woman, a dilapidated mosque, in the remains of a temple, in the collapse of WTC in New York, in the feat of a swimmer who has redefined human limitations, in all triumphs and tragedies and every birth and death. If this is so, why all this fuss and mess in the name of religion?

Religion and belief in Almighty, which were once a personal affair, have now become a global revolution. The world is being turned into a religious society. Religion, in recent times has become the italicised word in politics and in India it is the most blatant political con. It is mythological pretension for some and minority ghettos for others. This concoction of religion and politics has turned into a lethal weapon aimed at demolishing the secular, democratic and cultural roots of India. In this connection, distinguishing between belief in God and in religious rituals is necessary. The option of choosing a religion or following one’s religion should be left as an open choice in its truest sense and not just in terms of a constitutional statement. Religion should never be made a part of a political manifesto. The earlier this is understood and done, the better it is for our motherland, lest she’ll be a witness to her own division and annihilation once again!!!