By Akanksha Mittal:
“So you believe in God, eh?”
“Uhh…umm…Yes…No…umm…I don’t know!”
But, what I do know is that I don’t know who is God. Or, what is God. Perhaps It is a belief that justifies our existence and the occurrence of every event. Perhaps, a concept that our super-human ancestors cooked up so that they could weave innumerable stories around it about hell and heaven and morals and ethics. Perhaps he is a super-human himself who controls each of our actions like a puppeteer would do. And, why exactly am I using “Him”? “He” could just be a “She” or perhaps just an “It”. I choose not to discriminate and shall use “It” for any further reference.
So, we have never seen It. But, we had occurrences which are mysterious to us. And, so we think It is there. Where? We don’t know!
To avoid hurting people’s sentiments that I may cause by my rhetoric statements, I shall now only present my Agnostic viewpoint:
I think and choose to believe that it is really just about Faith. Faith in something, anything that lets you believe things will be fine. There are people who trust a small coin more than their lives and think that it is this coin which will solve their problems. Hindus have faith in idol worship, Muslims in Allah, Buddhists in themselves, and so on and so forth. Essentially, all of them lead fulfilled lives, as long as their faith is strong. It is not the coin or the idol or the universe that does peoples’ work. It is they themselves who do it! They are the center of their own universe. But, to be able to take charge of their lives and not be bogged down by problems, all they need is faith. Anything, anybody who helps them draw courage from within, and helps them realize that they are the sole owners of their lives. There is no one pulling strings from the heaven. We are the puppeteers who pull at the strings of our life!
However, most often what we end up doing is placing the object of devotion on a higher pedestal than us. Something Above us, instead of Within us. Hence, when we have problems that we cannot find a solution to, we pray. No, we beg! We kneel down in front of something that we are not even sure exists and beg for our own lives! Not too difficult to really look for a solution from within ourselves, I say! Here, it is worth mentioning and I hope we will agree to this that, sooner or later we do find a solution to our problems. It does not come from thin air! No super-human comes inside our head to plant those solutions there. It comes from us. It is that simple and that complex!
My livid mind cannot help but begrudge all those people who take this faith of others for granted. Trying to show someone a better way of living by introducing them to a philosophy/object of devotion that has worked for you is really different from forcing them to do the same! But we are Humans and not God (pun intended) and so we fall for the trap. We fall so deep in it that we donate all our life savings to a piece of stone and beg for the same thing again! If stones could get us what we wanted, money growing on trees would not be difficult to believe!
No religion propagates killing. It is the concocted interpretations of religion by some ill, power-seeking minds that do that! Somewhere, in the quest for power, we have forgotten that religion was meant as a quest for God, which I interpret as the quest for one’s own self! You don’t credit for the number of Jews you killed, in the “house of the God”, if there is any. But it sure helps you gain power over the scared minds of the survivors!
Taking a detour from preaching, it is important that I mention the concept of Karma, as known in a few religions. For those readers who are followers of a different philosophy, trust me, you know about it too. Your “religion” says the same thing, perhaps in a different language! Quoting from Sri Guru Granth sahib, “As she has planted, so does she harvest; such is the field of karma.” While the cycle of rebirth and death is something that I wish to stay miles away from discussing, I think this concept perfectly fits even if we are talking about one single birth. If we are all believers in religion and God, why is it so difficult for us to believe in this simple concept of doing good for others! Now, it is nothing but unfair to follow sayings that suit us and not follow which don’t! A lot of religions regard intake of alcohol as unethical. How many of us believe in it? Yes, I tried counting and the numbers really don’t seem to end!
Cutting it all short, here is what I believe in – Faith. One may have no reason to believe in God, but then, one does not even have a reason not to.