[Reader-list] When was the first time you were told there is God?

[Pheeta Ram]

"You make me laugh Murali," says Jahanvi. There is a bit of childish
rashness and irreverant matter-of-factness ( though
totally misplaced) the way you make an offer. The options are not available
like some commodity in our nearest shop, or Mall
if you will. There are many such experiments that are going on all over the
world. People have also set up "gated communities" and profess to be
citizens of another world that belongs to another day. Can you suggest me a
list of communities in India itself that are experimenting the way i have
suggested? What i would venture to suggest to you "personally" is to find
out the reasons why such communities are still segregated and away from the
public knowledge. Are they really communities that profess no faith, and if
they do not, what is the nature of their faith in the first place. We are
fortunate enough that people in so large a number are gracing this
discussion forum; one rarely gets such dedicated readers who also spend time
responding to fanatical proposals (and run for alarm at the slightest
provocation).

With faith and religion are attached many other issues that have already
been debated in hallowed intellectual circles but their conclusions have not
been able to percolate down to the masses like us. The problems are as much
psychological as they are cultural. Take for example today's kewl college
going brats. They wear Che Guevara T-shrits and claim to belonging to no
religion live and act like hippies of 70s though fall far short of that
because of reasons too obvious to merit a mention. Now one might ask is this
the kind of "thing" that i am proposing. Certainly NOT! These guys don't
even know who Che was, somebody would as well tell you that he was a Harlem
pop star of the 60s or 20s if you will or just a "pop star." Moreover, they
would shoot a nearest temple at the first instance, whether for the sake of
girls or to crack an entrance test. I was shocked to see many kewl guys
fitted in branded jeans chanting Hanuman Chalisa when i dragged myself out
of curiosity to a temple in Delhi.

Things run deep under kewl T-shirts!
We need to understand many such paradoxical webs, not individually
but "communally" through such a forum.
Best

On Sat, Aug 1, 2009 at 9:24 AM, Murali V <murali.chalam at gmail.com> wrote:

> What you propose is already available in a faith called "Way of Living".
> One has to attempt this philosophy and things would be for the good.
> Murali V
>
>   On Sat, Aug 1, 2009 at 2:35 AM, Pheeta Ram <pheeta.ram at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>  Dear All,
>> I know this won't go down well with most of you but here it is:
>> Religions are the basic source of strife and as long as there will be
>> religions
>> (belief in this God and that) there will be such hostilities. By
>> professing
>> one religion
>> i simultaneously create an other being who, by inference, is either
>> follower
>> of some religion
>> or a pagan. The basic contradiction in all religions is that despite their
>> moral-ethical discourse
>> regarding oneness of all humanity they are the principal segregators. All
>> the saints who have
>> walked the earth deluded themselves with such fancies.
>>
>> Religion is not just a system of belief but also an economy. We depend a
>> lot
>> upon our religious capital
>> for our subsistance. A person who professes to be a member of certain
>> community (primarily religious)
>> also depends upon it as a kind of umbilical cord and draws sucour.
>>
>> By now earth has soaked so much blood because of religious strifes that
>> sometimes i wonder isn't it time
>> to abandon all religious badges and create a ethical moral code drawn from
>> all the religions and start believing
>> in one community: that is Human.
>>
>> I think we need to believe in our brother next door and one walking on the
>> street or the worker on a Metro site.
>> We need to believe that for the survival of humanity we need to believe in
>> each other and not on some transcendental
>> agency. I wonder why we haven't learnt from our history. The primary
>> reason
>> why we have failed terribly in creating a
>> community of all human beings that walk the earth is because we are
>> afraid.
>> Afraid to believe in somebody who is in
>> front of us in flesh and blood. I remember a man sitting in Blue Line who
>> was highly uncomfortable when a profusely sweating migrant labourer got in
>> and found a seat, to his great relief, by his side. It is certain that he
>> didn't know of the
>> religion of that worker but the stench of his sweat and his dirty clothes
>> were enough for him to get up and keep standing
>> for the rest of his journey. I wonder when we have such intolerence for a
>> 'fellow' human beings' honest sweat how would we
>> ever begin even thinking about such a Human community. The perils that
>> face
>> the earth now are reasons enough that we
>> start believing in each other and work for the future of humanity by
>> shunning all our sectarian tags. But strangely we are busy
>> inventing/refurbishing new messiah who would deliver us from the mess that
>> we have ourselves created on this earth.
>>
>> I wonder what stops us from creating a new religion of Humanity.
>>
>> The advice that comes from scholarly circles regarding all this religious
>> intolerance is : Tolerance!
>> That we need to tolerate each other. Tolerance is another form of fascism
>> or
>> nazism, what ever. I won't agree with substituting
>> the word toleracne with "respect" or "compassion". Why tolerate the very
>> root of strife in the first place.
>>
>> And yet, sadly, things are not as simple as that. But  a time comes when
>> we
>> have to call a spade a spade.
>> We have to shun God to love human beings. There is no other way. Just
>> visualize the situation: Two guys are standing in a big stadium in front
>> of
>> each other, just a metre apart but with their faces 'heaven'wards. Why are
>> they afraid to see each other directly.
>> Why does the need arise to travel so many light years and then come to
>> ones
>> brother standing just a meter away.
>>
>> I know it is plain foolishness to ask somebody whose bread and butter
>> depends upon religion to shun it and enter the fold of Humanity where
>> people
>> believe in people and work with mutual responsibility. But we
>> need neo-believers who are foolish enough to
>> believe in such a possibility and are ready to work for it. It's a
>> long revolution but a possible one.
>>
>> But, the roadblocks are mighty hard to surpass. Take for instance my case:
>> I have a primary school in my neighbourhood, a government one. And
>> every morning even before i have got up their assembly begins and the
>> chants
>> of sacred Hindu mantras begin. All this atma and parmatma stuff. Though i
>> don't dispute the sense inherent in the prayer yet aren't we or rather the
>> supposedly and proffessedly secular government entering into the business
>> of 'mass conversion'. When i have all these religious prayers embedded
>> into
>> my consciousness right from my childhood can you imagine how much i would
>> have to suffer to convert back to the religion of humanity if i convert at
>> all and not turn into some religious fanatic. Less said of the schools run
>> by one religion or the other the better.
>>
>> Though the proposal seems indecent yet i think there are madmen enough to
>> believe in this long long revolution.
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