There’s this thing troubling me all my life. Going to temples, finding peace, divinity, contemplating. Supposedly. And one fine day, what the hell.You don’t feel anything. The idol in the shrine no longer appeals to you. You begin to wonder how a stone sculpture can move millions of people, spiritually, emotionally. How one can explain piercing your tongue, or shaving your hair, or slaying a goat in the name of sacrifice or rituals? What explains this mindless acts beyond logic performed in the name of “God”?
It is bemusing to see people walking on fire, paying crores as dakshina for temples, and eat food on the ground. To listen to people preaching unsolicitedly about how you should lead you life, how you shouldn’t, and why your karma rules your life. Rich people who are religiously inclined, want to spend their money for a charitable cause. So what do they do?
Spend a better half of their moolah on temples, instead of spending them on hospitals and education for the poor.There is another strata of the society which blindly believes in astrologers, and all the other objects that claim to predict a man’s future.In why a particular three dimensional orientation of planets in outer space determines your destiny.All said and done, our nation is at the mercy of such dogmas. True story.
Just when you think this doggedness has become the cultural order in today’s India which is trying to ape and adapt to the western way of life. There’s the other side of the coin.With more of an open and non-conservative outlook, people who don’t give a rat’s ass about God, rituals, and other practices which are brainchildren of yester-years society. People who are indifferent to religious beliefs, and criticize a divine presence. The people who take the stand of science. How can one claim that if either beliefs are true or false, the other exists peacefully or happily? There is only one answer to that. You know it. I know it. FAITH. In bold caps, oh yes.
Temples work for those who have faith in it. Astrology works for people who have faith in it. Atheism works for people who have faith in it, so does agnosticism, so does metaphysical and scientific belief.If you think there’s a divine force guiding your thought and actions, it is. If you think God is there in the shrine, in the form of a stone, he is. If you think he is a non-existent man-made entity, he is. Faith. What you believe in. It creates you, it defines you.It rules your life, every moment of it, every decision you make, every risk you take, whether you know it or not. You are what you care about.
So, What do you believe in?
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