Contrary to what the various religious leaders and self-supposed guardians of various world religions would like to believe and assert, their revered gods and messengers are not a proprietary of their respective religions, and neither do they possess the exclusive right to grant people licenses to worship them, at their damn discretion.
 |
| जगन्नाथपुर मंदिर, पूरी | the Jagannath temple, Puri / Picture by Jason |
In an ancient and among the most revered hindu temples, the jagannath temple in Puri, India, non-hindu people or even converts to hinduism (this eliminates most of the foreign ISKCON devotees of krishna too), are not allowed to enter and offer their prayers. The temple authority lays too much emphasis on being a hindu by birth, rather being a spiritual or even a religious person! May be the hindu gods there don't like people with dual citizenships of religions ;) or may be those gods are real victims and the long suffering hostages of these 'religious' bigots, guarding those four temple walls.
On a sadder note, this always makes me feel shameful that I am a hindu by birth, as I cannot bring myself to identify with such archaic practices and philosophies, and even sacred privileges that are conferred upon me just because of an accidental (or even if not) virtue of my birth. It's one of the most revered hindu temples of lord vishnu, and among the four sacred dhams established by the Adi Shankaracharya, but I don't think I will ever pay my visits to the gods enclosed and blinded behind the four walls there, till this archaic and ugly law stands. I also doubt whether the temple trust authority can justify it as part of some hindu religious guideline, and intend to do a background check regarding the constitutional legality of such discriminating act. But heck, here faith still (read bigotry) supersedes law at times.
And I am not even going to discuss the systemic and unanimous prejudice against the gods in all major religions, no exceptions, when it comes to not allowing them to 'accept' many special religious services and duties from their women devotees, when they can unassumingly accept those from the male counterparts. In orthodox christianity a women can't be ordained / become a pope; same with orthodox judaism; mormonism; hinduism too has its fair share of such non-sense; and about muslim women the less said the better
And I am not even going to discuss the systemic and unanimous prejudice against the gods in all major religions, no exceptions, when it comes to not allowing them to 'accept' many special religious services and duties from their women devotees, when they can unassumingly accept those from the male counterparts. In orthodox christianity a women can't be ordained / become a pope; same with orthodox judaism; mormonism; hinduism too has its fair share of such non-sense; and about muslim women the less said the better
Writer-producer David E. Kelley# so rightly rightly echoed these sentiments as:
"The ugly fact is that we are okay with bigotry as long as it is cloaked in faith... Religion has a mean legacy... We cannot deny that religion is one place where we allow hate, oppression and discrimination to fester, as it seeks safe haven in the constitution."
Time for enlightened religious people to take control of the situation and release our hostage gods (irrespective of their religion; they all equally need us) from ages of tyranny from the 'religious ignorance' of 'religious people'? I don't think in at least another 100 years to come...
Just in case, if you happen to be an atheist or an agnostic and missed the whole point, view the whole scenario with a role-reversal point of view. Who are the real hostages here: gods, or us?
And, at the risk of getting 'lynched' by the people whose 'religious sentiments' I might have knowingly or unknowingly 'hurt', I have knowingly omitted those 'grammatical capitalizations’ from various 'holy' words associated with various religions, because I don't respect any world religion in their current form, the way they are practiced in our times, as opposed to the way they should be practiced. Yes, it can be argued that it’s not the religions, but the religious leadership that has failed us, nevertheless, people should not be allowed to get away committing civil rights or human rights violation under the hood of religion, and it's about time that the religions systemically fostering and perpetuating such, be categorically banned, denied their tax-exempt status, be tried in the court of law for such violations among starters. Now, you are free to think of this as a “ridiculous, sacrilegious, or even a blasphemous act of heresy” being committed here, nevertheless, the views stand tall, with reference to the current acceptable worldwide civil rights or human rights (not to be confused with the civil/human rights scale as considered a reference by the taliban and likes) or even 'god rights' (they too are the victims here, as this whole nonsense is unfortunately falsely justified in their 'holy' name) standards...
Just in case, if you happen to be an atheist or an agnostic and missed the whole point, view the whole scenario with a role-reversal point of view. Who are the real hostages here: gods, or us?
And, at the risk of getting 'lynched' by the people whose 'religious sentiments' I might have knowingly or unknowingly 'hurt', I have knowingly omitted those 'grammatical capitalizations’ from various 'holy' words associated with various religions, because I don't respect any world religion in their current form, the way they are practiced in our times, as opposed to the way they should be practiced. Yes, it can be argued that it’s not the religions, but the religious leadership that has failed us, nevertheless, people should not be allowed to get away committing civil rights or human rights violation under the hood of religion, and it's about time that the religions systemically fostering and perpetuating such, be categorically banned, denied their tax-exempt status, be tried in the court of law for such violations among starters. Now, you are free to think of this as a “ridiculous, sacrilegious, or even a blasphemous act of heresy” being committed here, nevertheless, the views stand tall, with reference to the current acceptable worldwide civil rights or human rights (not to be confused with the civil/human rights scale as considered a reference by the taliban and likes) or even 'god rights' (they too are the victims here, as this whole nonsense is unfortunately falsely justified in their 'holy' name) standards...
Rescuing god; Never thought about it; but it looks like you strong point to make;
ReplyDeleteIt is not just religion. There are a lot of things that follow obsolete rules and practices. But they are their. The concept of freedom is new in human history. Rules and slavery is the accepted way of life and that is what these religion which were born "once upon a time" practice.
"The concept of freedom is new in human history."
ReplyDeleteHmmm... never thought about it like that, but now that you said it, it really seems so! Will give more though to it.
Paa n me had a great time and laugh at the irony of what you have written. Mom n babbu are still in a fix...and cant understand how gods cant be hostages! :P we got great walls to break!
ReplyDeletephew.. I didn't know how you all would take it... load of my shoulders!
ReplyDeleteNice to see you putting your thoughts in order ..finally :)
ReplyDeleteWhile I have to agree that the whole premise of 'the Gods' taken hostage is a pretty interesting and disturbing one at the same time,I just dont comprehend the underlying necessity or desire to consecrate people or places as the cornerstones of faith. Religion ,for me, is a very private territory for every individual ,which we seek out to look for what is not very obvious in our lives .
The culture and practices in India ,as we know them, have shaped over a lot of history and they will come with their fair share of baggage . This Puri temple one diturbs you in particular , probably because you don't perceive religion at all like what most others do or rather did.
I come from a family of practising pundits , some of them for a living, but I don't at all relish the idea of gods or religion as a fiefdom of a few :) (Some years of self-decreed atheism might have done that to me though )
But reforms take time and religious ones take even longer because they begin in the mind .
Godspeed !!
'consecrating people and places as the cornerstones of faith', well that's an interesting one! didn't think and mean to do that at a conscious level, but i think i can be held guilty of that.
ReplyDeletei think this is the part where we separate the terms 'religion' and 'spirituality'! when you say about 'religion' as being a very private territory for every individual to seek out to look for what is not very obvious in our lives, you mean really mean to say 'religion' or 'spirituality'?
tricky, because before we further our discussion, we must define what we mean by those terms, and then proceed, to avoid any ambiguity. but that task is at the moment beyond the scope of my knowledge. but i will try to say what i believe is a probable start towards a solution.
a recent Dalai Lama tweet read, “I sometimes say that religion is something we can perhaps do without. What we cannot do without are the basic spiritual qualities.”, and a yet recent one read, “there must be a way of promoting human values without involving religion, based on common sense, experience and recent scientific findings” that I think comes more in the domain of spirituality rather religion.
spirituality can survive without any religion and its gods, so i think, while religion needs its icons in those people (Rama, Krishna) and places, the four dhaams, the Ganga, the Shaktipeeths, as those absolute reference 'cornerstones of faith' as its immutable foundations.
even an atheist/agnostic can be a spiritual person and many a times more moral than a god believing person. this makes me further wonder that 'belief in god' rather 'morality' is the necessary and sufficient condition to be a religious person.
the timeless Bertrand Russell is proving quite helpful to me esp. in a clear disection of these issues, and whenever leisure blesses me, i am usually immersed in his writings.
however, as i said earlier, i am no expert on religion or spirituality either, and all these are just my current views, as opposed to what really is out there. but i think am fueled up to get to the core of these complexities someday, and to liberate myself from this inner state of ongoing confrontations and contradictions.
Who am I to disagree with HH Dalai Lama !! And yes I am much more at ease with 'Spirituality' than 'Religion' . I don't believe that there should be such a clear cut demarcation between the two . Wikipedia defines 'Religion' as - "Religion is the belief in and worship of a god or gods, or a set of beliefs concerning the origin and purpose of the universe" . And I believe therein lies the premise of factionalism and its repurcussions because deification is the surest and shortest way to getting people and emotions polarized :) I am not qualified enough to even think of sermonising on religion but i will tell tales(trivial ones ofcourse) from our experience in school and college .. Cricket is a religion for me ( and you !) and it eventually led to a new God for me ,Sachin. And as soon as Sachin had a clan following him , sprung forth a group to write him off as a mortal who merely is very good at his job . Similar story followed in the case of SRK . He did not matter until some guys exalted him and then that too ended in a wave of anti-SRK euphoria( if you remember , 9th Grade :) ) .Guess I am trivialising the whole discussion but then 'Religion' is being used for all sundry purposes these days , so our words won't do any more harm. Any religion cant do without its share of Gods but co-existence or acceptance is the tricky part . I am reading stories here in US papers that a Florida arch-bishop is planning a ceremony to burn copies of Kuran on the anniversary of 9/11 !! Crusades don't seem like a story from the mists of time anymore :) There are no absolutes when it comes to faith or religion . But that is way easier said than understood .
ReplyDeleteActually you will be glad to know, this coming from HH Dalai Lama, about that no clear cut demarcation between religion and spirituality issue you raised, he said, religion is a part of spirituality, rather other way round; so your intuition serves you right there, according to HH! any further insights (of which none is left now) into this issue, and i will feel like a condescending moron now. :)
ReplyDeleteBut, that Kuran burning story, interesting times ahead in a country that prides over it being so liberal and protective of other people's freedom and faith... dearly miss a Boston Legal episode on these happenings; right now imagining a long Alan Shore speech on this one with Denny sleeping on it ;) Kelley was always so contemporary, intelligent and unafraid to make an irreverent mockery such rubbish, irrespective of the icons involved. Am waiting to see if the arc-bishop has his ways or not (surely tell what happened there!), around the already boiling and touchy issue of the mosque near the WTC memorial issue :)
Regarding the difference between religion and spirituality, these are His Holiness Dalai Lama's exact words:
ReplyDelete"Spirituality, or moral ethics, some people believe should must be based on religious faith. Another view, spirituality, also moral ethics, (be based) without religion, without faith, just using common sense. So I think religion, generally speaking, religion is one of the important parts of spirituality. But, spirituality itself can be more wider than religion. This is my view."
Reference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3wUo4vv4ZQ
(Timecode 2:19)