How good a devotee are you?

 Yes, we are indeed talking about devotion to GOD! 

Most of us would equate devotion with prostrating before an idol of our favourite GOD or then keeping a "fast" (say on करवा चौथ ) or going to a temple on predetermined days or then carrying out a सत्यनारायण   पूजा   or going to holy places like Shirdi or  attending religious orations (the ultimate fashion these days) . Do you think this is what real devotion is? 

(1)    Are you confusing devotion with rituals? 

 All religious rituals are supposed to create the right mental ambience to enable more effective communication with GOD. So, if you are a good devotee, don't feel satisfied at just following the rituals - keep track of the ultimate goal; that of communicating with the ALMIGHTY. 

(2)    Shouldn't Communication with GOD be strictly personal? 

Every individual has to have a personal equation with GOD. This is not something that can be done collectively.  Community Projects which require tangible assets  (money, clothes, crutches etc.) need to be done collectively because the demand for these far outstrips the supply and a single individual, howsoever rich, will never be able to provide these. Praying to GOD is not a community project - it is an individual and a strictly personal activity and therefore should be done singly. The joint singing of devotional songs (आरती ), consuming the महाप्रसाद  and doing जागरण  can by no means be classified as PRAYERS.  They are at best, group exercises. The moment you realise this truth, you will also realise that praying does not need to have a fixed time or day. There is a permanent hot line of your own, available to you all the time and always at zero cost. Haven't you heard that a first rate mind always thinks alone! A first rate devotee always prays (communicates) alone. 

(3)    Do you follow religious practices, out of fear of the unknown? 

Devotion is not the monopoly of persons who are "religious" by nature. I conducted a small survey (which may not have a statistical significance, but which does indicate a trend) in which the following five questions were asked. Why don't you rate yourself on the same queries? Be truthful, though! 

•      गणेश , the elephant GOD "likes"  मोदक (sweet eatable made out of sugar and grated coconut). For a change, will you be comfortable offering श्रीखंड  पूरी  on the day of गणेश  चतुर्थी , this year? 
  
•     You perform the पूजा  everyday, in your house. Will you be willing to give it a weekly holiday? 
  
•     Your family has been performing the traditional (nine days) नवरात्रि  पूजा  at home, since the days of your forefathers. This year, can you agree to donate an equivalent amount to an orphanage, instead of celebrating this traditional पूजा? 
  
•     You go to the शनि  मंदिर  every Saturday.  The coming week, can you go there on a Sunday, instead? 
  
•     There are two sets of pundits (पुजारी)  - those who perform the auspicious "पूजा " and others who perform the religious rituals after a death. Are you willing to invite one of the latter groups to solemnize the marriage in your family? 
  

An overwhelming percentage of respondents were unwilling to do any of this and could not explain why. Ask yourself if you are a good robot or a good devotee? 

(4)  Are you the type who prays to ask for a favour ? 

We sometimes put GOD in an impossible situation. We either want to strike a deal with HIM (I don't know why GOD is always considered male) or want to leave everything to HIM or want to berate HIM for favours supposedly denied. A good devotee prays because he feels "peaceful and contented", after doing so. This state of mind ultimately leads to better performance in whatever you do and these could be the real benefits of devotion. 

(5)  Do you make it a point to "understand" the philosophy behind the rituals that you carry out? 

You will be surprised, but most of our children (and adults too) do not know the full meaning of our own national anthem. Imagine them singing something that they do not fully comprehend. How can we expect them to be filled with pride for the country, if they do not even know what they are uttering? This has been the bane of our education system. Parents do not help their children to understand what they insist the children must compulsorily learn to say (आरती  or श्लोक  for example), because they were never helped by their own parents to find these meanings. My survey says that more than 60% of the people who sing the most common गणपती  ची  आरती  in Marathi (सुख करता , दुःख  हरता …) do not know its meaning. Good devotees recite only what they understand and conversely, first understand what they want to recite.  

In conclusion may I remind you of that pearl of wisdom from Mahatma Gandhi? 

It is not those who do not have eyes who are blind! 

Blind are those who inspite of having eyes refuse to 'see'

Is our attitude towards youth, fair?

Most elders (say above 45) look towards young people with "coloured glasses".  Many of our pet theories about what is wrong (note the negative connotation) with these youngsters can be traced to this attitude that we harbour against the young ones.  I can't fathom what happens to us as soon as we step into this side of adulthood. We start being critical of the beliefs and behaviour of the young - fully forgetting that we ourselves, not so long ago, resented this trait in our elders.  I am sure that if we bring about a change in our attitude, the younger generation will cease to appear as a bunch of rebels - as it presently does to most of us.  Let us examine some of these typical mind-sets that we adults possess:

 1)  Youth as a Problem versus Youth as an ASSET.   Biologically, younger people are stronger and this sometimes builds up a psychological resentment amongst the elders.  With rapid progress that science and technology has made, elders sometimes become "obsolete" in their own homes (remember how efficiently your children handle the computer or video games and how sheepish you feel when you can't do it). The oldies react by "downsizing" the young ones just because they can't stomach getting "overshadowed". So, don't rush to the conclusion of youth being a problem.  Try to make use of their superior strength and smartness so that they are an asset to you.  This change in attitude will do wonders for both. 

2)               Youth as UPSTARTS and breakers of traditions versus youth as harbingers of change. Nothing is permanent except change.  The dynamism and energy that the young ones possess make them try out  various alternatives to a given problem (in a short time) and we sometimes interpret this as disrespect for the traditional approach adopted by us.  No risks - no gains, they say.  Many path-breaking discoveries have come about only because somebody decided to try something new.  We all agree that without change, our society will wither.  Why not think of the young ones as harbingers of change instead of berating them as upstarts?  Try this change in attitude--it will do wonders for both. 

3)                  Youth as morally corrupt versus recognition of the fact that moral standards could have changed. If you read history and literature written down the ages, you will realize that every generation has condemned its youth as morally corrupt.  At this rate, the youth of today should be corrupt beyond all limits.  But if you look at this from a different angle, you will realize that every succeeding generation has had slightly looser definition of moral standards of behaviour.  With the onset of AIDS, this trend seems destined for a reversal.  Soon, each succeeding generation will be more prudish. The “pendulum” of social norms would have then come back a full circle.  Someone has said in a lighter vein that parents are not so concerned with why norms of moral behaviour changed but about why this happened so late? 

4)                  Youth as selfish versus youth as responsive to only problems concerning themselves. A large percentage of adults feel that the young ones are selfish and show interest only if something concerns them.  Being selfish is not a vice though being excessively so is not a virtue either.  We must realize that a young mind lives in the immediate "present" and is more concerned with what's happening "here and now", as against "there and then".  It is natural that it gets involved with its own problems rather than those of others.  Later in life it realizes that solving others' problems leads to a greater satisfaction.  Surely we can't blame the youth for immaturity -after all they are young.

5)                  Youth as disrespectful versus youth as more knowledgeable. All generations have complained about the young ones being disobedient and disrespectful towards their elders.  It is difficult to digest that  the younger mind is better informed and would not want to respect those elders who clearly appear less knowledgeable.  Before accepting this theory, I would request all of us to truthfully assess whether in a given situation, we indeed are being confronted by a better informed mind.  If it is so - let's not blame the whole generation.  Respect is earned and cannot be demanded.

            So my dear fellow - oldies! Let's resolve to stop looking through these coloured glasses and re-examine our pet attitudes and biases before forming an opinion about the young.  Remember, the younger we are, the more we want to change this world; the older we get, the more we want to change the young.  Let's remain perennially "young" in our thoughts.

        I came across these unbelievable videos shared by Arvind Virmani, my IIM batchmate. They are symptomatic of the power of youth that we are talking about though frankly there is no age bar when it comes to befriending lions.  E N J O Y...

 

Can you figure this out? (Edition 3)

So strong has been the response to the earlier two editions of "Can you figure this out?" [published on CLEAR FUNDAS on 11th September 2008 and 22nd March 2009] that I decided to post EDITION 3. Read on...

(1) Does celibacy increase spirituality?

Every religion gives a lot of importance to celibacy when it comes to choosing their preachers. As examples, we have nuns and priests amongst Roman Catholics & "sadhvis" amongst Jains. Is there any research study that indicates a positive correlation between celibacy and high spirituality? Suppressing natural urges in an unnatural manner should actually lead to problems - we all know how the church had to settle (out of court) hundreds of cases against priests who sexually abused children in their parish. The original purpose of having un - married preachers was surely due to the expectation of single-minded devotion (without family pressures) to spread religion. Surprisingly, Hinduism does not insist on lifelong bachelorhood for its preachers.

(2) In a predominantly Hindu country like India, why are the epics "Ramayan" & "Mahabharat" not included in the syllabus of "History" in schools and universities?

Isn't it surprising that these pious stories on which all of us have been raised since childhood are not included in 'history' syllabus anywhere? Every university has a department of "ancient history" but even there, these epics are never taught or researched upon. Is it because there is little or no evidence that could stand academic scrutiny?

(3) Why do we lock our temples?

Isn't  it strange that GOD who is the "PROTECTOR" of everything in this world cannot take care of himself? Leave alone rich temples which have many items that could be stolen - even those that have nothing much to attract thieves - are securely locked. How come all devotees presume that the same GOD would be capable of granting all their wishes when they come and pray to HIM in the same temple.

(4) Is the caste system any different from racism?

I have heard many Hindus fervently explaining why the caste system started and how scientific it is - in terms of division of labour. They are never able to explain why large sections of people were mercilessly exploited for centuries, on the basis of their birth - something that was out of their control. I have never heard of any Hindu religious leader apologise to vast sections of fellow Hindus or those who left the fold of Hinduism (more importantly fellow human beings) for the treatment that was meted out to their forefathers- ironically in the name of divinity and religion. I see little difference between our caste system and racism that is practiced elsewhere.

(5) Why was Lord Ganesh given an elephant - head?

As the story goes, after creating Ganesh out of her body-dirt, he was instructed by Parvati to prevent intruders while she was taking a bath. True to his duty, Ganesh challenged Lord Shiva from coming inside the house. Shiva in his anger beheaded Ganesh but after finding out his identity, revived him from death and stuck the head of a passing elephant on to his torso. Now what intrigues me is that if Shiva had the power to revive people after death, he could also have stuck the original human - head back on to Ganesh's body. Why did he have to kill a passing elephant? More importantly how come the all powerful Lord Shiva did not know who Ganesh was?

(6) Why is it necessary for a crow [& not some other animal] to touch the "pind" (balls of cooked rice that represent the departed sould during post death Hindu rituals) of a dead person, essential?

The crow has indeed been given this important task of pecking at the rice balls to indicate that un fulfilled wishes of the departed person have now been satisfied. It is a common practice for relatives of the dead making   various announcements during this ritual [eg. Your daughter will be well looked after and so on] until the crow pecks at the rice balls. According to Ramayan, when Sita was once bathing at Nashik (when Ram was banished to the forests for 14 years) a crow looked at her with impure intentions. Ram then cursed all crows that they would forever be despised & shunned by humans. When the crows begged for mercy, Ram partially offset the curse by proclaiming that  human beings would not be able to complete post death rituals without their help.That is how the poor crow gets his moment of glory. Now go ahead & believe all this and continue waiting for crows to peck at those rice balls.

(7) How can GOD be omniscient (knowing everything about everyone's present and future: having infinite knowledge and insight) & omnipotent (supremely powerful to do anything) at the same time?

I quote Richard Dawkins: " If God is omniscient, he must already know how he is going to intervene to change the course of history using his omnipotence - but that means he cannot change his mind about his intervention - which really means that he is not omnipotent." 

Karen Owen has captured this paradox in a witty verse:

                                                         Can omniscient God,

                                                         Who knows the future,

                                                         Find the omnipotence,

                                                         To change his Future mind!