Religion: To believe it or not?

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Religion: To believe it or not?

In this fast modern world, when we hardly have any time for ourselves, the word 'religion' seems a fading instance. Can we really disregard the existence of god? What about the facts that follow it? While religion alone can add meaning in our lives.

CJ: Kinshu Sinha

Sat, Apr 19, 2008 21:45:34 IST

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religion and ethics :

AN OCTOGENARIAN somebody, raises questions on the existence of Ram in the public media. Me, just 23 years of age and much less experienced in the matters of the world, find myself gripped in a twinge of sadness for several hours that followed. Did Ram exist? Haven’t I always looked up to Ram as the divine embodiment of man’s righteousness? Hasn’t my family sung “Bhaye pragat kripala…” at the birth of every child in the family? Haven’t I remembered his name at all moments of fear, suffering, joy and almost all human emotions that I have experienced in my lifetime? Haven’t I chanted “Ram naam satya hai” while taking people who were dear to me on their last journeys? Did Ram exist or not?

To be honest, I don’t care either way. For me he not only existed, he still lives to this day in the hearts of every Hindu, who promises himself every single day that he will go to any extent to fight for his dignity. The way Ram went to the other corner of the world to bring back his wife.. Somewhere in their hearts, Ram inspires a confidence and strength that nothing else does; a confidence which enables the Mahatma to stand up for his dignity and fight for the freedom of his people. He aptly describes it in his autobiography: “Nirbal ke bal, Raam.”

None of my statements in this write up can shake my faith on Lord Ram. As stated in the Bhagvad Geeta: “The shine of thousand suns in the sky, shouldn’t match my lord thy brilliance” But I don’t fear putting my beliefs to question and analyse the situation in newer lights. This is by no means an attempt to convince the reader on my beliefs, or to influence any one with my faith – which is beyond scope for tests or empirical experimentation. I am just putting forward what my humble being can infer from the facts around me.

In the preamble of the Kavya Ramayana, sage Valmiki mentions that he was “Inspired to write this ’shokat shloka’ (song of sorrow) after watching a pair of love birds separated by a hunter’s arrow”. Ramayana is actually that – a song of sorrow – the sorrow of separation of a son from his father, of a husband from his wife and of a king from his subjects. Valmiki brilliantly uses his creative insights to embellish the epic with mysteries and allegories. Given the supernatural nature of these events, as such, there is no reason why the story cannot be categorised as purely a “work of fiction” if not a “mystic exaggeration”, probably more the latter than the former.

Historiographers have always had a hard time in India trying to figure out what exactly is fiction and what constitutes fact. The major reason for this difficulty is the unorganised nature of the ancient text, with absolutely no conceivable interrelation between the authors, yet a great degree of overlap in the characters and stories. For instance, in ancient Sanskrit text, the name Krishna appears for the first time as a teenage uncle-slayer followed by a full-fledged biography some 500 years later in Bagvad Purana; again followed by the inclusion of Srimad Bhagvad Geeta into the Mahabharata another 1000 years later.

Again, in case of Ram, Tulsidas’ Ramcharitmanas eulogises him and makes him an ‘incarnation’ in the Bhakti movement, a few thousand years after the Valmiki Ramayana was written. Between these two greater milestones, there were thousands of texts and stories mentioning Ram and other characters of the epic. Besides that there was the Kamban Ramayana in Southern India. Apart from that other forms of the epic were also written in the different parts of the world. It seems that every author has had his chance to play with the stories and characters, thereby creating newer stories with newer morals.

What then could be the secret behind such a massive populist success of these characters? Sanskrit, in the Indian parlance, was never the language of the masses. It was always the language spoken by the elite and any person well verse in Sanskrit was considered to be an intellectual. The epic of Ramayana was written in Sanskrit by Valmiki, one of the most revered sages of his time. It not only captures the cultural traditions of the erstwhile dominating Aryan society but also lays down the foundation of several moral and ethical concepts for the future civilisations in India.

To name a few, concepts like monogamy, responsibility towards ones’ family and the culture of joint families will survive in the Hindu society for a long time to come. Although, the epic was written in Sanskrit, it was narrated to the masses in vernacular forms. All gurukuls, which taught literature had the Ramayana in their syllabus as an instance of the highest degree of literary genius. Valmiki was the Shakespeare of ancient India. Even to this day, his works are revered by Hindu saints all over the country.

On analysing the nature of the writings in the time of Valmiki, one hardly finds anything written ‘purely as a work of fiction’. Although, there used to be a creed called ‘Bandi’ who sang eulogies for their kings and princes in order to popularise them among the masses. Yes,, there was a lot of ‘mystic exaggeration’ in their hymns. These exaggerations were targeted to make people honour and devote themselves to the king. The world over, man has had the tendency of worshiping the supernatural. Jesus dies and raises again on the third day, to lead mankind on the divine path. He cures diseases like cancer by the touch of his hand. Prophet Mohammed rides on a horse to heaven.

There are many such mystic stories associated with almost every god that man has devoted himself to. If this was a deliberate effort to make gods the ’god’ that we know today; then what a profoundly successful strategy it was! But it should also be noted that none of these supernatural stories about the gods can prove that these men, as individuals, never existed. There are explanations of at least some of the mysteries popularised about them.

Reiki, telepathy, proper use of mental prowess explain but a small part of these mysteries. Just because science has no means of proving it, it is not a good reason to disqualify what has been the working belief of thousands of men right from the ancient times – some of them as great as Aryabhatta, Patanjali, Chandragupta, Vivekananda and Gandhi.

Religion and mysticism have always gone hand in hand, the world over. Despite of this fact, historically, religion has provided the foundation for governments to rule over people. If religion were not there, someone among the great statesmen would have created it. The ethics and morals of a religion give the legislators the means of controlling an otherwise savage man within a society. It will not be an exaggeration to say that religion makes civilisation possible.

Apart from that, where science gives a mechanical explanation to man’s existence and evolution, religion provides meaning and objective to his life. It is difficult to presume for thinking men, that they were created by mother nature without any higher design in mind. Religion fills that gap and provides the sense of importance of an otherwise desolate but a brilliant mind.

Modern history of India has had people like Nehru, ’rajaji’, Patel, Rajendra Prasad and others who made no secrets of their religious inclinations. Were they not secular? Well, they were the very people who laid the foundation of secularism in India – only to find it getting confused with ‘atheism’ 60 years later. They made no secrets of their faiths and honoured it to the end of their lives. Why then scathing people’s sentiments over faith is becoming a fashion in a country, which has had a history of tolerance for all beliefs.

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Posted comments (2)

	Very well written. I cannot agree more that religion is the keystone for any civilization. By the way do you have the translation of the hymn "bhaye pragat kripala". I really like it but i dont understand the complete meaning of some sentences. I learned sanskrit in my high school but still...
	\| 17 January 2009 Reply to Comment \| New Comment \| Report Abuse

	Your essay is very well writtne and it does a good job in conveying your message. It was inspiring and thought provoking. As an atheistic/agnostic, I have no qualms with anything you have said and quite frankly agree to what you say, but you should delve a little more in the injustice committed by religion and religious heads against humanity. How innocent devotees are scamed and defrauded of their poor existense. And how in a chain of events leads to the backwardness of a nation. Hindhuism was well meant but it has not really done a good job in ridding India of all the evils that existed in Indian society, infact it was just a silent observer of all this. I have come to a conclusion that if you compare the negative effects ot the positive effects of religion as a whole, the negative aspects completely outweigh the positive ones, destroying the very need for having a religion in the first place. It is just my opinion, but it stands contested.
	\| 13 May 2008 Reply to Comment \| New Comment \| Report Abuse

Ram, Thanks for your review and comments!My idea in this piece was around the impacts of religion on human mind. It�s not about its� being good or bad, neither about making the society a better place or otherwise. It�s just the fact that people live their lives on it. And there are valid reasons for that � at least this is what I believe.Having said that, I might add that I agree with you on the existence of evil in the society, but is that really related to religion? On the contrary I think that the moral codes and conduct of religion are the enablers of a great part of all that is good in the society. Hinduism, and for that matter all religions, was meant to do well for human lives, but the trouble is half knowledge which leads to biased judgments which in turn crops up crime, hatred and evil. There can be ways to eliminate this, but the influence is still there!

Kinshu Sinha | 15 May 2008

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