Religion…a cultural heritage!!

It’s a Saturday morning and I was sitting peacefully gathering updates of events around the globe, oblivious to what was happening inside my house, when I heard a sound, “jai Shani Maharaj!!” This disrupted the continuity of my thoughts and the pleasure I was getting from reading how beautifully Sachin had scored runs and led his team to victory. Obviously another god in this country is Sachin and watching cricket is our moral/ethical and social duty and responsibility, even if it means loss of a day’s work (by half of country, meaning loss of billions of rupees) or less marks in exams. Now this guy was distracting me and irritated I told him to move on and resumed reading the article. Obviously he did not and soon I was hearing all the curses and what a mess my future will be if I did not give him 1 rupee and what all I could achieve if I gave him that! I did not bother but was forced to when our neighbor called me and told me not to take shani dev so casually. Over the next 15mins I was being told about our culture and religion and what all should we do when these (fake) fakirs come to us as messengers of god.

Though I was not paying attention to what she said…my mind had drifted to past memories when I was in 7th std and visited Rishikesh with my family. I distinctly remember meeting a sadhu on the bank of river Ganga (or Ganges as we call it in English-though I don’t understand why it is that way, why do spellings change when we write something Indian in English, and if it is the case then why shouldn’t we start calling table as tablaa or tabela!!), he was wearing sport shoes of LOTTO (which was a big deal that time), also he had an umbrella with a silver handle so that he could protect his skin from sun, was wearing a gold plated wrist watch and accepted donations only above Rs.50. I asked my father, what kind of ascetic he is and reply came from my grandpa. He told me that these guys have big bungalows with all facilities and this is just a profession, they maintain bank a/c in lakhs and lakhs. All I could say was, baba ki jai ho!!

Thankfully mom called me for some work and I excused myself from the torture and came in. Again after the job was done my evil mind drifted to an evil possibility…what if there we no sadhus (those we see outside temples and in trains and every crossing on roads)…what if these selfless messengers of god who come to relieve us of our sins disappeared? Seems impossible, isn’t it? But it is very much possible! It is very soothing and it puts your mind at ease when you look at the one religion which again originated in India- Sikh. Yes!! Have you ever seen a Sikh beggar? The answer would be definitively no! Everyone says Punjabis are a rich, there is no need for them to beg. But did you ever think how they became rich? How come they are all employed in this country of more than a billion people where more than 30% of population is below poverty line? The answer is very simple, begging is banned in their religion and they follow it. They work...without caring about the status of job...no job is considered small by them...and frankly...I respect them a lot for the same.

What about Hindu? The great scholars/pundits/Brahmins centuries back used to teach students for free. Their job was to educate people and create norms for a developed society. So they did not work for living and begged for food in order to survive. Giving food was considered a moral duty and a good thing to do and begging a sign of student’s and ascetic life. We followed those norms into the modern society and are still continuing it today without realizing that ashrams have changed into schools and colleges and they are all money minting machines. It is no more a noble profession. Also the saints are no more saints. Even our modern Sai Baba was interviewed by BBC channel. The interview was supposedly hazardous for his image and was never aired. Incidences of childrens’ deaths and physical and sexual abuses with women are common in ashrams these days. We all know what is happening behind curtains and still we donate such huge amount of money to these cheats, just to make our life after death (which we don’t even know, whether it exists or not) a pleasant experience. All this to ward off the ill effects of the sins we do every day (like cheating customers to shell out more money from them, lie, not help those in need…) but we do not give up these malpractices!! I really don’t understand what kind of god would be happy to forgive all our sins just because we donate some money and cheat others for rest of the year...!!!???

Anyways, I think I should stop writing now and go back to reading how Sachin smashed balls and get some delight, else these negative thoughts will prompt me not to give money to any saints/sadhus now and then I will rot in hell…!! (to be cont....)