Risks of Belief

With about five decades of worldly experience, I can state with utmost certainty that those who do not believe in anything will never achieve anything substantial in their lives. This is true in every phase of life. Those who do not believe in parents will never grow up properly and those who do not believe in spouses face the same consequence in married life. While those who do not believe in teachers shall never learn properly, those who do not believe in children will never lead a peaceful retired life. Belief in anything is like a catalyst that would accelerate our efforts towards its benefits. The chemistry of belief and efforts is something that can only be experienced. It can never be explained nor imposed on anyone. Quite often it is this peculiarity of belief that poses as the secret behind repeated successes of a select few and failures of some others.

The question of belief and unconditional surrender is central to all religions and ideologies. Death of any religious or ideological institution is guaranteed if atleast the top 25% of the hierarchy do not have absolute and genuine belief in it. There are numerous examples for this in our long history and it is still happening around us even today. The death of many religions, Soviet Union and so many local establishments in our own neighbourhood are nothing but classic examples of this natural phenomenon. Belief of followers is the ultimate fuel for the growth of any collective movement. But for belief, none of the major religious orders and their colossal monuments would have come up. Does it mean that tendency to believe is a desirable quality for all human being? Yes it is, but it is full of danger if the belief turns out to be for a false one ultimately. It requires a high degree of discretion and luck to finalise on something to believe in and then proceed to reap the benefits out of it.

Belief in Ideologies

All the religious and social ideologies have progressed thanks to the efforts of a minority who believed fully in them in the initial phase. Socialism, Communism and the various religious ideologies have developed only because there were a committed few who found complete identification with them at different phases. All the political and social ideologies originate in the fertile minds of a few individuals. And then the ideologies begin to flourish when these individuals come together and find ways and means to convince others as well. The dark side any ideology begins here. If in the first phase it is getting others to their side by conquering minds, it becomes much more aggressive by forcible conversion in subsequent phases. The proponents of competing ideologies are always forced to devise dubious methods to get people to their side. The game of numbers forces many positive ideologies into negative paths of coercive methods and eventually to certain demise.

The risk of belief to followers from ideologies is very common sight in the world today. There are millions of followers in various ideologies who do not really believe in them. Most of them are forced to live their lives within these ideologies by birth for the fear of facing the consequences of leaving them. In the highly connected world of today, it is very difficult to convince one’s own conscience so easily of the beliefs each of us inherit by virtue of our birth in a particular religion or community. To understand and comprehend any ideology it definitely takes years of learning and only a few among us get the time and facility to do so. What most of us do is to blindly follow the footsteps of our parents who were following theirs and so on. The situation is all the more pathetic in the case of social ideologies like Communism and Socialism. Invariably most of the virulent comrades realise the hollowness of their ideology late in their lives. It is too late then to do anything. Many of them go into the silent mode, but some others continue hypocritically with the ideology which has become a burden.

Belief in Individuals

Individual attaining the status of institution is a common phenomenon in many of the populous countries, especially in the developing world. In most cases it is because of immense attraction of public to the ideological thoughts initiated by certain individuals in their own lifetimes. Original innovators of extremely appealing ideas find huge following and the institutions set up by them develop in leaps and bounds. Identification of institution with the individual becomes so strong that it would become difficult to differentiate one from another. Individual becoming institution is no doubt something noble, but there is downside as well. The risk of belief becomes too much if such individual turns out to be an unworthy role model in later life.

The ordinary men and women flocking towards elevated individuals is a very common sight in third world countries. Almost all philosophical ideologies originating from Asia prescribe a teacher to guide us in life. Unavoidable difficulties in everyday life and promise of assured relief by easy techniques also provide reasons for so many men and women reposing their full belief in such elevated individuals. There is absolutely no doubt that many of them achieve what they want by doing so. The power of belief and catalytic acceleration it provides drive many people towards their goals without they being aware of it. But in the present day world of competition the believers can only trust in God that their role model survive the lure of evil unleashed by unscrupulous adversaries. Consequences of their icon of total belief falling from grace can be disastrous for many ordinary believers.

It is always prudent to be cautious in everything we do. God has given us the power to think and think we must before we decide to believe in anything. Our scriptures are cent percent right in saying that a noble teacher and absolute belief are must if we want to achieve anything in life. Each of us must definitely strive for both, but very cautiously. Do not fall into the pitfalls of publicity and public opinion while zeroing in on our own guru and ideology. Tread cautiously and find someone with whom we can interact directly as our guru. And our chosen ideology must be something that is cent percent rational and practical for each of us as individuals. Expectation and compromise should have no place in fixing our beliefs.

Temple Tamperings

The Temple Entry Proclamation by Maharaja of Travancore in 1936 is a shining episode in the history of our nation. The best part of this episode was the lead taken by top leaders from the so-called higher castes in Hinduism. At one stroke it abolished all restrictions on the so-called lower caste Hindus from entering any of the Hindu Temples. However, the next campaign for letting in non-Hindus as well (even those who believe in temples) did not get the desired support for those who wanted it. But the demand has never died down completely and it keeps resurfacing once in a while. Religious fervour in Kerala has peaked again in the last few weeks with the open demand by one of the ruling Marxist ministers for the entry of accomplished singer K.J. Yesudas, a practising Christian, into the Guruvayoor temple premises (where the temple customs prevent non-Hindus from entering).

The minister’s opinion (or direction) has been picked up by the issues-hungry multi-channel Malayalam media and ensuing debates have already started breaching all acceptable levels of religious tolerance and moderation. One such interesting debates involved two political leaders (Sebastian and Thomas), moderated by one John with ‘expert’ comments by two atheist ministers. While the panel and participation symbolised the pathetic condition of Hindu community in present day Kerala, the firm message emanating from most such debates is one of determined intimidation. Some people and certain ideologies have tasted blood in their design to push out the native beliefs from the soil of Kerala. And the ones to defend the eternal beliefs are disorganised and unprepared for any form of resistance. If the evil designs of interested parties follow the charted course, Kerala will soon pass into a different set of Gods’ Own Country very soon.

Real Purpose of Temples

Temples have always been contentious premises in Hindu society. This is partly due to the requirement of a minority and ignorance of a vast majority. For anyone who has bothered to study about the concept of God in Hindu religion, it is crystal clear that temples are not the only abode of God. How can something that is infinite in every sense confine itself to an insignificant area? God is an energy that is all powerful and all pervasive. The only attribute that we can undoubtedly assign to it is its uncompromising discrimination in favour of whatever is positively righteous (dharma). Life could not have started and evolved itself to the vast variety as we see today but for this unique aspect of godly energy. All other attributes and forms that we see now for God are born out of Man’s imagination, desire and convenience. Temples can never fully contain God but they can be definitely become special places from where we can focus our mind on God.

Then what is the real purpose of temples in Hinduism? It is nothing more than a place for thinking about God and doing something good for the community and society at large. To do something good for others we have to be good ourselves and that is what is attempted by going to a temple. The idol and ambience in any temple provide the right mix for those who want to focus their thoughts on the ultimate source of positive energy. Heat, light and sound energy charges up the confined space in all temples for the devotees to imbibe from. Modern science has reconfirmed the ancient Indian concepts of our body being an insignificant vehicle for the soul eternally dependent on the sources of energy (we burn off our dead bodies only because of its insignificance). In addition to providing the positive energy, temples also have the more important function of being the hub for distribution of wealth in the community connected with it. The flow of temple wealth must be towards doing something good for the underprivileged devotees and not into the pockets of temple authorities and priests.

Realise Temple Purposes

Realisation of the real purpose of temples is the only way for the survival of native beliefs. If we continue to hold onto distorted beliefs of benevolent gods in certain forms, shapes and sizes being resident only in specific temples, our enemies (within and external) will come again and again to loot them for the gold and diamonds. We have read about it in history and we are seeing it in front of our eyes in almost all the temple administrations. Even atheist politicians are interested in temples only because of the wealth accumulated in it. If there are systemic and systematic provisions to make use of it for the well being of a deserving society of devotees, the real threat to our temples will vanish in no time. There should be no business for non-believers in Hindu temple matters, just like in any other religion in a secular and democratic India.

It is quite surprising and saddening to note that much adrenalin is wasted for non-issues like entry of a particular person into a particular temple. In the current issue, the person who raised the issue is a self-proclaimed atheist speaks volumes about his intentions. In a way it is good that the famed singer himself called off the politician’s bluff. Any normal person in his senses would decline from visiting a house where he is unwelcome, for whatever reasons. Temples are private institutions and like all private institutions it should be the sole privilege of the limited public in that private community to decide about who should enter and who should not enter. In a non-communist country like India, the state has no business whatsoever in interfering in non-public institutions, especially religious ones. The very existence of state run religious institutions like Devaswom and Waqf Boards undermines the secular credentials of Indian nation. It is high time the government got out of temples and mosques, leaving them accountable only to Judiciary and a responsible public media.

All said and done, there is nothing new about the constant intimidation on the concepts, beliefs and rituals of native religions in any part of the world. Attempting to disprove the beliefs, ridiculing the rituals and threatening the believers are the normal ways for external forces to weaken an existing religious system in any country. The real strength of any system of belief will be tested during such external onslaughts. Money, muscle and manpower can bring about some momentum in any proselytization exercise. But the ultimate test of any belief system solely depends on the strength of its logic, rationality and conformance with Nature. No belief that cannot rule the minds of man can rule mankind. This has been proven many times and it is good for the temple aggressors also to remember this. In the meantime, we should definitely keep the temple gates locked for those who do not respect our beliefs.