It was
‘Dhanteras’ that day and an article in the newspaper said that if you buy
something this day, the goddess of wealth, ‘Lakshmi’ (as if she exists!) will
bestow her generosity upon you. Logically, if you buy something, you’ll have to
pay for it and you can only get a little poorer! If buying something can make a
person richer (nonsense, but still let us somehow assume), the rich who can buy
will be richer and the poor, poorer. So god is the one (actually he isn’t
one-there are 360,000 in Hinduism alone) directly responsible for the divide
between haves and have not’s! God!
God is no
good, and people know it. The difficult part is accepting it. Had god been
good, would there have been natural calamities, where thousands die,
irrespective whether they are saints or terrorists? Would there have been
criminal tendencies in people’s mind-for crime, corruption and dishonesty?
Would there have been disease and illness like cancer and AIDS, wiping off
lakhs off the planet? Any explanation? Still believing that god exists, and
that too he is ‘good’ is like believing that earth is flat and sun revolves
around it!
If you see a
mother crying her child’s dead body or a terminal stage cancer patient being
consoled by his relatives that it will be all right despite knowing that it
won’t, or a handicapped child trying to stand up and fall instead and you still
believe in god being good, you need to consult a doctor. A mental one.
Urgently.
All that’s
there is nature, and its creator, who is up to no other good than ensuring
continuation of survival of species. Survival of the fittest, not the ‘best’. On
this very context, you can’t call a tiger sinful for killing a deer, despite
the emotional strings attached to it. (Animals have emotions too, remember?
Sometimes better than mankind.)
Doing good
won’t get you anywhere. This concept that doing ‘good’ is indeed good was made
only so that there isn’t a total anarchy (to keep people from slitting each
other’s throat and ending up alone). Believe me when I say evil will make you
more prosperous than by doing good. Pick up any famous personality, successful
businessman, each has an evil story behind him. And once you achieve success,
no one cares about your sins. So there are only two types of people on earth:
the rich and the good. Choose one.
Anyway, getting
back, all of us have come across the supernormal devotion (?) people have for
god. Unnecessary is a better word. They pick up bells and that metal plates and
bang it at the top-decibel ranges, in a hope that god will hear them directly
from heaven. Like you can shout your voice to your relative in Delhi, while
sitting in Ranchi. Instead first confirm whether a relative exists at all in
Delhi. Even if after knowing there isn’t, if you need to contact this
non-existent being, try the cellphone. Same way, you can close your eyes and
feel closer to god, then you can talk in a normal tone to him, if need be. No
need of carrier waves.
I once
quoted the example of a temple in my state, and I state it again. There, in a
room about 10 feet by 10 feet, about five dozen people pray together at a time,
many not even getting to touch the holy ‘stone’. How can you concentrate on
connecting to god when you are in a suffocating room, with your soul desperate
to leave your body and hence the room? It is far better a pray, if you do that
from your home, in front of His pic. And if they are so much bent on believing
in god, why don’t they let him rest peacefully, instead of banging bells and
shouting hymns day and night long.
Just imagine
yourself smeared with all that milk, sticky honey, leaves, inhaling incense
smoke 24x7, people singing the same song to you in a terrible voice (most
religious agents have a croaky voice, like mine) throughout the year, no time
to sleep, waking up at daybreak, with people cutting goats at your feet,
offering you the most delicious food but you are not able to eat it (have you
ever seen god eating the ‘Prasad’ you offer?)….and the list goes on. Students
are a step ahead in disturbing god’s peace, the last bits of what’s left of it.
We wake him up a three in the night, praying to get better marks in the exam
the following morning. This is the reason, I decipher for my meager marks. It’s
a revenge god takes for disturbing his peace.
Why don’t we just let him be?
Why’s the
need to give this ‘godly’ treatment to someone who hasn’t given you anything?
To get it straight, whatever little or phenomenal achievement you have, it’s
all because of you and you deserved it. No one can take it away from you. If
you’ll be successful, you won’t start giving a heavenly treatment to the first
stranger you meet on the road for your success, despite having no contribution
in your it, apart from being the fortunate stranger to cross you on the road.
Just do good
for yourself, your family and well-wishers, obviously without causing anyone
else any discomfort, including the almighty, and good will happen. If you shift
your focus on god, obviously you’ll lose focus on the job at hand. So don’t
lose your focus to god (yeah He is a distraction, and a good one at it). Work,
learn, earn, enjoy.
Those
understanding that they have what they deserve don’t need god. It’s for those
who don’t. For them, it’s just a symbol to blame, to ask strength from. I said
good is god. But the good don’t need god.
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