A casual skim through my often ignored twitter page has put me into a great dilemma….A tweet from one of my long lost friend with some “right wing” leanings was a link to a blog entry from Mira Bhupathi, mother of well know tennis player Mahesh Bhupathi. It was her personal memoir in public web space about the awakening of her inner spirituality and her religious calling. Apparently most of the writing was not "objectionable” to either my friend or me. But a very straight and rather blunt reference of the 30 million Hindu Gods was getting him agitated.In her blogs she prays to her god and says that her “fight” in Hindu India was not against one,but all those numerous Hindu deities whom she does not recognize as gods to begin with. As expected my friend was visibly agitated by this perceived attack on his belief and his gods.My obvious consolations to him were the usual statements like “is your/our religion so weak that it gets offended by a blog post” etc.But the telephone call and subsequent discussions left a lingering feeling in me.
Coming from a family that laid high emphasis on spiritualism than on rituals, I enjoyed a certain freedom to question most of the standard religious beliefs. This enabled us in taking a rather unconventional and pseudo-philosophical approach to most of things religious.The apparent distress of my friend put me through a dilemma over the content of this blog.To understand it better i ended up reading it thrice and to my surprise i was amused at the end. I respect her freedom of speech and freedom to propagate her religion that is guaranteed by indian constitution. But it was the fact that she was in a self declared war against the hindu gods that i found “amusing” unlike my friend who found it offensive.
The perspective that you gain when you look at things via common sense is far pretty than when you look them through the eyes of conventional wisdom.Wearing the “Custom built Religious Goggles”, a person who is bound by religion is expected to have a very skewed perspective and a “one upmanship” attitude.Its a malice that the mainstream media suffers from when they report religion and religious activism.Mira’s blog has to be looked under the same light.The amusing part in her blog is the very fact that she does not recognize the Hindu gods.I call myself a genuinely confused Hindu and thanks to this religious flirtations i tend to look at things in a way that iam sometimes afraid of being branded an agnostic.Its important at times to think like an agnostic soul to enjoy the subtle amusement that people like Mira and their thoughts provide. American Standup comedian Ricky Gervias called himself an Atheist because he didnt believe in the single God theory of the Christian faith.When challenged by a priest about this ,he asked the priest if he recognized the 30 million plus gods of the other world faiths.The priest said he does not recognize them and said there was one god and it was the god in which he believes. Ricky congratulated the priest on being a better Atheist than him and having beaten him 1 to 30 million on that and walked away ……..
4 comments:
I enjoyed reading this post.
My opinion - I believe that people who strongly associate themselves with their own spirituality or religion are the ones who are more inclined to get offended or defensive, when another questions or makes a criticism towards it. It gets interpreted as a personal "attack" and it's a natural human instinct to guard something we hold dear to our heart. For example, the petition, from a while back, against an American company that marketed slippers with images of Lord Ganesha on its soles, in turn causing an outcry among the majority of the Hindu population - that may be an extreme case and I agree that what that company did was very wrong, ignorant, etc. - but why did we Hindus react strongly ?
While it certainly helps to carry that objective perspective in discussing such issues, its especially important to realize where the other person, or so-called "attacker" is coming from, and what their intentions might be in asking these questions. Is it to insult/mock the other person, or is it to genuinely understand the views from the opposite side? If the purpose is to gain a better understanding, and both of them know that, it makes it easier for two people hold a logical debate with each other - as opposed to one reacting emotionally and taking the stance that their identity had just been questioned.
thank you for visiting.You have summarized in a nut shell what exactly a rational via medium should think like and facilitate a debate.Awesome.
There is a well known saying that where intellect stops, faith takes over. Us mortals have very limited intellectual capacity to process extreme thoughts.... we all need faith.. whatever that encompases. Even atheism, Agnosticism is a form of faith. We cannot discard a faith unless we fully understand it. As such, most of us are not in the position to discard most beliefs. As humans we can only hope that the embrace or discard of any belied happens gracefully, peacefully and with empathy.
There is a well known saying.. where intellect stops, faith takes over. As humans, we possess limited intellectual capacity to grasp the many intricacies of life. As such, faith is a natural inclination. Even Atheism and Agnosticism is a form of faith in itself. One cannot discard a faith unless one fully understands it. Since we are not able to fully understand it, as humans we can only hope that any embrace of a faith or discard of a faith happens gracefully, peacefully and with empathy.
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