(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!
1 comment:
Dear Sir,
Your messages are most thought-provoking. Hinduism, as it is followed by the vast majority, has become a bundle of ancient dogmas and rituals, whose original significance has been lost in antiquity. This has led to two broad categories of people among Hindus-
1. Believers, who believe blindly and continue to indulge in the myriad rituals and practices prescribed by the scriptures and/or traditions, without questioning their authority
2. Non-believers, who reject the traditions outright, pooh-poohing them, although nominally they continue to proclaim adherence to the Hindu fold.
I tend to fall in the latter category most of the times. But I realise that I am losing out on something. Rejecting our ancient system of living in an outright fashion is like 'throwing the baby out along with bath water'. Your attitude of subjecting every tradition of ours to rational scrutiny, without walking out on religion itself, is very much in keeping with the spirit of the times. I hope more Hindus adopt this attitude
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