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

[Kshmendra Kaul]

Ram! Ram! Pheeta Ram Ji
 
There is no unease over your contribution to the 'threads'. It was on the contrary interesting to see how you 'view' religions and the role played by them and what you would like to be done about them.
 
I only wanted to understand why were you '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.""""""
 
- were you shocked because they were 'guys'?
- were you shocked because they were 'kewl' guys?
- were you shocked because they wore 'jeans'?
- were you shocked because the jeans were 'branded'?
- were you shocked  because they were in a 'temple'?
- were you shocked because they were 'chanting'?
- were you shocked because they were chanting 'Hanuman Chalisa'?
 
I also found it interesting that it took your being 'dragged' (by yourself) 'out of curiosity to a temple' to have this "shocking" revelation dawn upon you.
 
Maybe you are not in touch with the realities around you. Please do 'drag' yourself around a bit more.
 
Kshmendra

--- On Sat, 8/1/09, Pheeta Ram <pheeta.ram at gmail.com> wrote:


From: Pheeta Ram <pheeta.ram at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] When was the first time you were told there is God?
To: "Kshmendra Kaul" <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com>
Cc: reader-list at sarai.net
Date: Saturday, August 1, 2009, 10:08 PM


Is it necessary to reinvent the wheel Kshmendraji? Please refer to the threads i have been following and let me
know "the point" of your unease. I would like to be corrected if there is scope.

Yours sincerely
Pheeta Ram






On Sat, Aug 1, 2009 at 3:47 PM, Kshmendra Kaul <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com> wrote:






Ram! Ram! Pheeta Ram Ji

 
You wrote:
 
"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."
 
Could you please elaborate on why you were "shocked"?
 
Kshmendra
 


--- On Sat, 8/1/09, Pheeta Ram <pheeta.ram at gmail.com> wrote:


From: Pheeta Ram <pheeta.ram at gmail.com>
Subject: [Reader-list] When was the first time you were told there is God?
To: reader-list at sarai.net
Date: Saturday, August 1, 2009, 2:35 AM





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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