actions that belie faith

ACTIONS THAT BELIE FAITH

For the faithful God is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent.

Omnipresence

“KaN kaN me Bhagwan” (in every smallest particle there is God) is a universally accepted fact. 2.12 of the Gita is “never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in future shall any of us cease to be. (*1) Kabir, our greatest philosopher saint said in the 15^th century “a deer roams the forest searching for the musk, which is present in his navel, we roam the world searching for God, even though he is present everywhere.” (*2). For Anna, the irreverent child protagonist of Fynn’s “Mr. God, this is Anna” going to church to meet Mr. God is preposterous. After all, if Mr. God wasn’t everywhere he wasn’t anywhere. In the Holi story, King Hiranyakashipu (*3) declares himself supreme. His son, Prahlad quietly but firmly denies it and venerates lord Vishnu and declares His omnipresence. The king ties his son to a pillar and on pain of death asks him to prove that the so-called Vishnu is inside that pillar. God bursts out of the column in his Narasingha avatar, and the rest is legend.

Omniscience and omnipotence

He set in place the immutable laws of nature. As science advances, we discover more of the physical laws.

-          When Archimedes stepped into a full bath, some water overflowed. He was so elated by discovering the principle of buoyancy that he ran naked through the streets, shouting “Eureka.”

-          When an apple fell on Newton’s head, he was jolted into discovering the laws of gravity.

-          When Becquerel accidentally found that uranium emitted radiation even without sunlight, serendipity led to his and the Curies’ discovery of radioactivity.

 

God works in mysterious ways his wonders to reveal. Even now, there is much to discover; we do not even know what we do not know. (*4)

He also set in place just as immutable ethical laws. Great seekers and thinkers are completely convinced that they have discovered some of these. Various scriptures expound on them, some with brevity, some at great length. It is difficult to find even reasonable clarity in exactly what they say. The ‘holy’ books also change with time. Hinduism concurrently has the Vedas, Vedaant, Upanishads, Ramayan and Mahabharat and its offshoots – Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. Christianity, Judaism and Islam are called the Abrahamic religions because they have common characters such as Moses and Abraham. Christianity ranges from Greek Orthodox through Catholics, new and old testaments, the Bible, Protestants and the Church of England. Islam before Mohammad had the same Abrahamic culture. After him, muslins were divided into 2 camps – the Sunnis, who believed that the senior leadership should be chosen by an elite within the religion; and the Shias who wanted a descendant line by choosing Mohammad’s cousin and brother-n-law Ali. There are also a handful of other sects.

There is much debate about what exactly these ethical laws are. This is not only between different religions, but also within subsects. Sadly, if opinions differ, there is complete conviction that their interpretation is the only correct one. There is, however, absolute unanimity that God’s rules are well and truly in place.  What is more, his laws are universally applicable, even to people of other beliefs. God is himself bound by these laws. Krishna said in 3.22 of the Bhagvad Gita “there is no duty for me to do in all the three worlds, O Parth, nor do I have anything to gain or attain. Yet I am engaged in prescribed duties.” (*5)  

Harivanshrai Bacchan, a few decades ago, said “If things go the way you want it is good, but if they do not, it is better” One easily accepts that things do not always go the way we want, but why is it better to go the way we do not want? To this seemingly obvious objection he answered “If things are not going the way you want, someone is directing events – God. And he knows better than you, what is good for you” (*6)

 

Temples, mosques, churches, etc.  and Idol worship

In the Upanishads 4.19 (*7) says “No one can catch hold of Him either from above, or across, or in the middle. There is no likeness of Him. His name is Great Glory.” In the bible exodus 20:4 the second commandment is "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth"

In 1875 Swami Dyanand Saraswati (*8) founded the Arya Samaj, calling for a return to vedic religion and decrying idol worship. In 1900 Nobel Laureate Gurudeva Robindrinath Thakur penned ‘Deeno daan’ - A king spent 20 lacs golden coins to make a temple that touched the skies and consecrated it with all the prescribed rituals. A hermit came along and declared there is no god in the temple. Like the pied piper, he led his followers to the open fields.

 

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Yet, yet….

You build grand temples in all faiths. It is impossible that there is an iota of more divinity in the place of worship than in the sewage treatment plant outside. Inside the temple there is a sanctum sanctorum, where the ‘holiness’ is placed – be it a statue or a book or a crypt.

You pour vast quantities of milk over shivlings that then run into a gutter, while a child somewhere dies of malnutrition. You put chadars on the graves of muslim saints or revered figures while a woman somewhere has but one small garment to cover her modesty. You burn candles in churches, while a student somewhere has not enough light in his home to study.

Some of you debar people of other religious beliefs from entering ‘your’ temples. Others refuse to accept that there is a god in the temple of another religion. You fight amongst yourselves to the extent of ‘holy’ wars with genocide of thousands of people in the name of religious ‘cleansing’. History is replete with this persecution – from ancient Egypt through the Crusades, the violent spread of Islam, the Jews of the holocaust, the driving out of Hindus from Kashmir……

The only countries to be formed on religious lines are Pakistan in 1947 and Israel in 1948. Almost a century later, these are among the most violent places on earth, with different religions as the cause of atrocities and killing. Where is the supposedly omnipresent god?

 

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And you pray - in the solitude of your own homes, in temples and even religious travels. Some Gods favour the rich and well-connected in granting them ease of access and a longer audience.  In temples, there are priests who have studied the scriptures and lead the prayer, often in a language, Arabic, Latin, Sanskrit, etc. which the faithful do not even understand. These padres and imams hold a special place in God’s eye. They can approach the ‘holiness’ more than others and in fact, deny others a closer audience. They sometimes act as proxies – praying on others’ behalf. They also act as agents of God, sometimes being paid to convey requests. There are specific times of the year, month, week, day which are more ‘auspicious’ for sermons and prayer. Some of you do not eat for a few hours to a few days, or give up certain foods or drinks for specified periods, as priests have told you this will please the Gods in general or sometimes a specific deity. Some of you enter into deals with God. The simplest and at least functional contract is that you will come and give your respectful thanks for the birth of a male child. There are also contracts in paying percentages of profits to that deity. And there are the dalals who get handsome rewards for brokering the deals. Does the supposedly omniscient God not know what you want and will not the omnipotent God do what he is bound to do?

 

CONCLUSION

Actions that belie faith.

Although he is omnipresent, you build places of worship, where he is ‘more’ present. 

Although he is omniscient, you tell him what you desire, sometimes conveying it in a language that only the dalals know.

Although he is omnipotent and will act in accordance with his own rules, you ask him for boons or outcomes

 

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*1 na tvevaham jatu nasam na tvam neme janadhipah na chaiva na bhavishyamah sarve vayamatah param

*2 kastooree kunDal base, mrig DhoonDe ban maahee. Aise ghaTi ghaTi raam hain, duniya dekhae nahin.

*3. King Hiranyakashipu’s did severe penance towards Brahma. The lord appeared but denied his request for immortality, so he asked for and got the boon that he could be killed by neither man nor beast; neither at day, nor at night; neither indoors nor outdoors; neither in heaven nor on earth and by neither the living nor the dead;. Vishnu reincarnated himself as a creature that is half man (nar) and half lion (sinh) Narsinh; at twilight; dragged the hapless king to the door of his palace; placed him on his lap and disemboweled him using his nails. This gives a new meaning to “being too clever by half”

*4. As late in the time of the universe, in the 1780’s a British clergyman and a French scientist theorized that there could be such large stars that their intense mass would have gravity more that the speed of light. After Einstein brought the theory of relativity in 1917, research on this ‘black hole’ from which nothing could escape gathered force. It is still not fully understood. What else could be round the corner or take ages to discover? We do not even know what we do not know.

*5.  Na me parthasti kartavyam trishu lokeshu kinchana nanavaptam avaptavyam varta eva cha karmani

Salman Khan’s character in the 2009 film “Wanted” was called Radhe and he said “Ek baar jo maine commitment kar dee, uske baad to main khud kee bhee nahin suntaa.”

*6 yadee aapke man ka ho to acchaa hai, naa ho to AUR acchaa hai. aapke man kaa nahin ho rahaa to kisee ke man kaa to ho rahaa hai – oopar vaale kaa man kaa; aur vo aapse behter jaantaa hai ki apke liye kyaa acchaa hai

*7. nainam ūrdhvaṃ na tiryañcaṃ na madhye parijagrabhat /
na tasya pratimā asti yasya nāma mahad yaśaḥ //

*8. Swami Dayanand was also a freedom fighter who coined the term swaraj, meaning self rule. It was formally taken up by Dadabhai Naoroji in 1906 and taken further by Bal Gangadhar tilak “swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it” and the Congress asking for “purna swaraj” in 1929.