THE OLD GODS AND THE NEW

I always compared Christianity to android. It seems to have been designed as an ideal conquering religion, with great adaptations and regional improvisations ranging from Christmas, conveniently placed on the date of the pagan festival of sol invictus, to margam kali which is essentially a modified version of the Hindu Thiruvathira. Making it very similar to the user friendly android with a high marketing value.

Islam, on the other hand is complicated. Though it is strikingly similar to Christianity, their concept of a god who has no form though is a spiritually beautiful idea, is not really easily understood by everyone, especially the children sent to “learn religion” before they learn the alphabet.

I never considered Hinduism a religion. It’s a culture, a way of life. Time has come that we stop referring to the Ramayana and Mahabharata as the holy books of Hindus. The very word Hindu means one who believes in the Vedas. The Vedas and the Upanishads, once read through their literal meaning will reveal themselves as textbooks of science and philosophy.  And as for Ramayana and Mahabharata, they are stories, and absolutely amazing ones. Probably the greatest stories ever written by man. Action, love, fiction and philosophy brilliantly architecture into literary masterpieces.

Hinduism also has the concept of the Param Purush, the ultimate god Which forms a part of all living creatures. This beautiful view of Thatvam Asi, the god within was too complicated and thus, there had to be simpler ways for commoners to worship a superior power. So we considered everything as god. Fire, water, sky, the hills, celestial bodies and even time. New gods were added in the course of time, and old ones forgotten. Some gods were indigenous and some more popular. Lord Ayyappa, whose best friend was a Muslim definitely is from a time after the Muslims came to India. But what we fail to see is a message of secularism hidden there. It does not matter which god we worship, what matters is that we all nurture the humility to accept the presence of a superior power.

ye yathā māṁ prapadyante, tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham, mama vartmānuvartante, manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvaśaḥ

“Whosoever comes to me in whatsoever form, I reach them, All men are struggling through ways that in the end leads to me.”