My friend was cynic at his best: “So according to you, these religious

institutions are just a bunch of sheep lead by a wicked shepherd. Do you

underestimate the thousand years of belief and faith, these religious foundations
carry with them? These aren’t started just days ago. The history of these
establishments points to lost years beyond your knowledge. These were founded
with a strong background of one or the other holy philosophy written by god.
These were built with a great purpose of making people aware of their ethics and
get nearer to Him. These sacred temples have always guided people with their
spiritual turmoil. The teachers who sit on the holy chair of wisdom are well versed
with all the holy books of eternal knowledge. And they aren’t just philosophical
geeks who know to recite every holy verse off by heart. They are blessed by god
Himself with many of His powers to do good for mankind. The people who follow
them come from almost all strata of society: doctors, engineers, businessmen,
rich and poor. Do you like to tell that such millions of people, including the
educated ones who follow these institutions, are fools?”

I hate fools like him. And it’s not because of him being a fool; it’s because he
doesn’t know it. But what he knew was that I was in his house on that day. I was
forced to go there for lunch on a religious occasion. Why do we need to celebrate
godliness on a single day? This was the first question with which I started my day.
I was welcomed into his house by his widowed mom, his religiously ill grandpa
and religiously hospitalized grandma. I got to know that his mom wasn’t such a
religious person like his grandparents. She was moulded by his grandpa to carry
out all the rituals. Why do theist people force others to do things like this? Even
my friend was rather influenced into being a theist. Entering that house seemed
to me like entering a temple. So many pictures of god! Why do we need so many
different pictures when we know that god is only one? Why do we Hindus
worship the different incarnations of our god when know they are all same? Are
the god’s powers distributed among these? Why can’t the mighty god handle all
powers within him?
 I was growing hungry. Before the lunch, some rituals were carried out by his
grandpa. My friend said that his mom was made to eat nothing since morning by
his grandpa because of this ritual. I hated his grandpa immediately. I don’t
understand which god would enjoy his devotees pleasing him by remaining
empty-stomached. Thanks to that same god, the ritual wasn’t as lengthy as I had
thought.

As we returned, my friend stomped on a ‘The Hindu’ newspaper unknowingly and

then did the thing which he did every time: Pressing his fore head to it. I don’t
know why people think that god could be in papers. How will he fit into that thin
sheet? Does he become a rectangular plane and enter the sheet? Do ‘The Hindu’
guys pay him to be in their pages?

As I moved across the room, I saw a portrait of an old man in his white beards,
smiling. There was a bright circle created behind him using some photo shop
software. There was a flower garland put on it. Was he god? - was the question
asked by me to my friend. He said that the old man was an incarnation of god. But
how can such an about-to-die-in-next-second old man be an incarnation of what
people call as immortal god? Why do such people have all those beards and
saffron robes? Why doesn’t god come in the form of a clean shaved, suited up,
smart person? We people don’t think about all these. Do we? I suddenly had a
smile and was ridiculed about it by him. I said: “Being in such a logical era, you still
believe in such stupid persons? Such evil minded people make use of poor
devotees to raise their bank balance, that’s all. There is nothing in world called as
god. It’s just that science is making delays to explain everything. What’s so godly
about these teachers anyway? These all religious institutions are just a slaughter
place of human beliefs”. I could see some uneasiness in him. The theist in him
woke up for a fight. So he began praising his teachers and ended up in saying: “Do
you like to tell that such millions of people, including the educated ones who
follow these institutions, are fools?”

I had now a chance to take out everything off me. I hadn’t gotten any chance to
share my views with anyone. So I started: “No wonder those religious people have
lots of dolts like you following them! Anyways, it’s like this. Suppose a religious
institution has to be established. Well, let’s just not call it religious; it’s an
institution where morals and practices are taught for an ethical life. Let there be a
wise man for this institution to teach things. Our so called teacher is heavily
educated; a noble man who can lead people in same noble way and also a
speech-magician who knows to influence people by his words. I’m a person who
has been helped by this teacher with my troubles. I think this teacher is worth
gaining global recognition after he preached my troubles off. So I plan to raise an
institution in the name of this teacher for the same purpose. To execute my
desire, I need funds. To raise the funds for the institution, teacher needs a
following of people. So I reach you. Let’s assume you to be either dumb-witted or
a person who believes in miracles or a person too desperate to get his problems
solved. If you are a superstitious, then that’s an added advantage. So I start telling
about this teacher I found to be knowledgeable, full of preaching skills and that he
can lead you into a happy life and all the other appraising adjectives about him.
Would you become a follower if him all of a sudden? Just say- Yes or no?” I was
expecting a yes to win this.

But my friend knew that I’m out for a war with him. He knew that I won’t settle
for a mere ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and I needed explanations. He thought for a while and
said: “Well, if I’m really dumb-witted, or a person too desperate to be free of his
troubles, then I would fall a prey for any fishnet anyway. I see many oldies and
uneducated ones running behind those kinds of bogus teachers. However, if I
were a bit rationally thinking and educated, I would not follow your great pot of
wisdom for sure. Why would I spend my fortune over a philosophical overdose? I
mean, he can just deliver a speech about good life and moral principles; an easy
job, after you have run through books on those subjects. Lots of such teachers
turn Mr. Money bag in most of the cases. Even I can learn some moral jargon
from old books and try to be the next messiah; but I can’t. People follow the holy
teachers for their ingenious wisdom and miraculous aura. The true holy teachers
are next best to god. Not anyone can make up to it. But if you say your teacher is
a noble man, I might start to get acquainted with him for his knowledge but not to
the extent of funding his institution of course!” he finished and drew a breath like
a kid finishing the homework.
I got irritated. “Huh? I needed a mere yes or no. Why do you have to explain
everything? I didn’t ask for such an explanation; just say- yes or no. That’s it.” I
snapped.

He stared at me like a spoilt first year biology student looking at cross section of
male genitals and wondering- ‘wow… I thought I knew about this thing; but I
don’t.’

I continued: “You’re right anyhow. A normal person wouldn’t follow this teacher
just for the philosophical and moral gibberish he provides. But what if I say that
this very person can perform a miracle? What if I say he created a pond of water
in a village by just pulling a dry grass off the ground? What if I say he has cured
many diseases by merely smearing his sacred potion on people’s forehead? What
if I say he is talked with by God himself every night? What if I say he is sent by god
to wash out the problems of his beloved devotees? What if I . . .”

“Hold on your horses.” He cut me short. “The belief in god has been into human
minds since the Vedic ages. Do you mean to say that the Vedic people were that
dumb to fall in for these? They were more intellectual and rational than people of
our age will ever be.”

Genuine doubt, it was.

I said: “When I talked about people, I never meant the Vedic ones. The picture of
god raised by Vedic people, unlike us, was of an infinite power that surrounds the
world much like the ether. A quote from the Vedic times says ‘tat twam asi’,
which meant: ‘that is You’, where the world ‘that’ signifies indefinite. The word
‘that’ was used because the people found no words to define it: Indefinite world
or indefinite power or indefinite anything. Also it can’t be said in surety that the
word ‘You’ referred to god. It depends on your interpretation. You may make it
out to be praising the absolute power of god. I might sound boring, but in my
view, it’s much of a philosophical statement implying a common man and that he
has all powers within him; you know- the motivational types. Anyhow, Vedic
people just portrayed god as an assimilation of all powers in the nature- Just like
the scientists since times of Einstein in search of a single theory or phenomenon
that unites all the forces in the universe. Although I don’t support Islam or any
religion in general, I do have a fair corner for one of their beliefs: Their god ‘Allah’
has no face. Even that’s an implication of indefinite supernatural power that
cannot be portrayed. I guess even the pagan way of worshipping the nature as
god has its roots in Vedic philosophy. Vedic people aren’t my target. I meant the
people in the later ages. Age since when the new idol version of god took birth
and people began to think that god could be in flesh and bones, rather than an
undefined power. That age prevails till now. We do believe god to take birth and
respire like a mere mortal. I’m asking you to be in shoes of such people.
Remember everything I told about this teacher. So would you follow this teacher
by knowing by me that he could perform some charms to cleanse you up? What if
I say he’s an incarnation of god himself? You will for sure, right?”

He smiled at my widened eyes and said: “Ok! As I’m playing the role of my
grandma and her friends who stick themselves in front rows of any philosophical
gobbledygook concert that comes in town and also of a typical desperate,
dependent, help seeking person, I might end up being a follower of your teacher
provided he proves he’s worth of it, fine?”

“Very fine! You sure will get impressed by this teacher going by the knacks of
gaining the faith of people, he has. Now think that you get acquainted with this
teacher for many days and weeks and become a hardcore follower of him. You
might even feel guilty for having doubts on him at first. You find this particular
person was far more effective than others you met in your life. You find his
spiritual knowledge to be helping you in finding real happiness in life. You feel his
teachings need to be spread across the directions so that many people get the
benefits of his knowledge. So in short, after some days, you become just like me.
What would you do next?”

“Next? I guess just like you: telling my friends and others about this amazing
person I’ve met.” He had no idea where this was going to.

Seriously, it’s always great to have a friend who answers in the way you want.
“Yes, exactly” I said. “So how will you introduce this teacher to your friends so as
to make them run into him?”

“Just like you did it to me- Praising about how he solved my problems and him
being a knowledgeable and noble man who could guide them into a better life
and you know, all the other appraising adjectives.” He tried a smile.

But I didn’t. “Ok. But listen, when you meet such a wonderful person, it’s normal
to get desperate to flaunt your acquaintance with him in front of others. For that,
you might even need to exaggerate about that person so that your friends
develop a curiosity towards him and a jealousy towards you. So you praise about
his unparalleled knowledge and knacks and try to make them impressed about
him. But what if they don’t agree to that just like you did? What if they aren’t
interested in following a philosophical overdose? What would you do then?”

“Ok. I know what you are trying to tell me!” he began. “So I tell them about him
being a miraculous person and that he performed many of such divine things or
even to the extent of him being an incarnation of god himself. All I want is them
to follow the person I believe in. After some times, even they’ll continue the
tradition. Then many people start to follow the teacher. The stories about him
spread out. Is that all you want to prove?” Cynical again, he was.

“Exactly! Believe it or not, this is how a mere teacher gets to be called as a divine
preacher. This is how his stories turn into legends. This is how his lessons about
moving towards happiness in life turn into moving towards heaven. And even if
the followers come to know that all the stories were built up, they won’t care for
that anymore. They would have gotten what they wanted-spiritual teachings.
They don’t reveal this to others in the fear of getting ridiculed. They transfer the
stories to people and convince them into following their holy teacher. Even the
teacher, although not everyone, might get the taste of being called as god and
start to behave like one. Who doesn’t like popularities? He might even rock and
vibrate in unimaginable modes, speak unintelligible language and make people
believe that he is welcoming god into him. Can god enter anyone’s body? How
stupid is that! But poor devotees have no other way than to accept it and yield to
the mighty power he has. This is how gradually a philosophical education
institution turns into a religious establishment. This is how beliefs with no roots
grow among people. This is how a sphere of divinity develops around a mortal
human being whom your grandmother and her friends would start calling as an
incarnation of god!” I finished and took a breath. Now my homework was over.

After a while, he scratched his head and said: “Hmmm. Probably you are not
wrong” and kept his silence, which meant he was thinking. His narrow eyed
viewing of the ground said me he was preparing for a counter-attack.

But I wasn’t done yet: “…and have you noticed the pictures of so called ‘divine’
creatures? Why do they have to be picture perfect always? Why do the Hindu
gods always have a perfect body with a chiselled and graceful face? Why do the
goddesses always have such an allure? Why are even the religious teachers
portrayed with a bright circle behind them? Have you ever noticed the portrait of
Jesus the Christ? You see an angelic face beaming with golden glow and eyes full
of kindness. Watching that graceful countenance would assure anyone for sure
that, Jesus would protect them. But do you know that there was a research over
how Jesus looked like, based on some secret and unrevealed documents about
him? What they found out was a rather surprising result. Jesus, like an average
shepherd, had a stout nose, bloody red eyes, unattended hairs, weather beaten,
rough skin and wasn’t fair at all like he’s shown in the portraits. It’s hard for his
followers of this age to swallow the fact that he was really unpleasant to look at.
Even you know that there’s no relation between looking crooked and being noble.
Jesus was noble but not so pleasant to look at. The creation of a glowing face for
him was again to create a perception that he’s messianic and spread his
popularity. Who would accept a crooked looking person to be god anyways?
Would you? The same is the case with Hindu gods and goddesses. When we were
small, we used to see those pictures and feel protected and free of fear. Such is
an effect of impressions of divine images on our minds. A common psychological
effect: everyone trusts on a good looking man for any work rather than an ugly
one. If you have a saintly face plus some miraculous stories built around you
which could be spread by a fraternity following of yours, then you are good to be
god, my friend!” I said and felt like being a god myself.
But my friend still had worms in his head. “So you think those stories are built up.
You don’t even believe that god can enter into a man’s body and provide him with
some of his strengths. But you have seen the people who are believed to
welcome god into them, right? In that divine trance, they lift the stones
impossible to be lifted by them when they are normal. I’ve seen a man who had
invited god into him, to be breaking a stone into pieces by his mere hand. How
will you account for such strength all of a sudden? A person, who doesn’t even
talk a bad word while normal, starts cursing people. They say those curses are
really powerful. I have heard that a boy received such a curse and died some days
later. There must an explanation, right?”

His eyes were as wide as they could possibly be. I have found out a fact: theists
never give up easily on god. They bring in many things to counter-attack; those
things, which science has got no reason to explain about till date, and people are
forced to accept god as the only reason. But there is one thing they need to find
out: neither do the atheists give up!

I smiled at such an attempt by my friend and began: “Let me tell you about
something. There is a power in every human being that can work wonders if
discovered. It’s the thing we all know to be dwelling in our mind. But very few of
us make use of it. That awesome power is called as ‘belief’. The same belief also
has the name confidence. Now don’t try a yawn, thinking that I’m proceeding as a
boring philosophy driller talking about confidence. There is a different angle
through which this belief could be seen. There are many cases in medicine where
the patients get better by merely believing strongly that their diseases would get
cured gradually by a rather inert, much ineffective medicine called placebo. What
I’m telling is an observed truth. You can check this out from your medical friends.
This observation is called as ‘Placebo effect’, which became the centre of
discussion when it was believed to cure even cancer in some places of Africa. Such
is the power of belief. You must be familiar with the mundane advice people give
you: to have belief in self in order to do anything. Apart from being ethical, this
believing in you has a scientific explanation too. There are different degrees of
beliefs in our mind to do different things. These beliefs are affected by our senses
to a great extent. The moment you see a small pebble, your senses give you a feel
that you can lift it with ease. The degree of belief in you to lift the stone rises
above the threshold. So you can lift it easily. But the moment you see a big heavy
stone, your senses make you believe that it’s too heavy and you can’t lift it. The
degree of belief to lift that comes down far below the threshold and you can’t lift
it. But the awe factor is that a man can lift things which he thinks are impossible
to even move, provided his belief rises over the threshold. Do you know how a kid
training for karate could break a brick easily and you can’t? He is trained to
believe that he can break it easily but all you see is a hard, tough brick. You must
have also seen an elephant tied with a chain. Do you think that miserably thin
chain is too tough for that mighty creature to break? The fact is, that elephant is
trained to be tied with that chain since it was young and is made to believe that it
can’t break it. So it fails to believe that it could break it even after growing to be a
huge elephant. Its degree of belief to break it has been reduced by the trainer.
This belief thing is wonderful, isn’t it? So let’s come back to your godly issues.
Have you noticed that the people who welcome the god always lift the things only
just a bit heavy for them? If god had really entered their body, they can lift even
the temple or uproot a large tree. Then why don’t they? The induced power is
because they believe god to provide them with strength. So they can lift heavy
things. But they can’t lift the temple because it’s physically impossible for them to
do it albeit having the imposed belief to do it. It’s impossible for even the black
belts in karate to break an entire house into pieces. The belief just helps people to
give their 100% of their physically possible strength. This is what elder people
mean by having belief in one’s self.

Then coming to god entering the body, many people in the world
are recorded to have seen their dead parents and relatives. They believe they
could actually talk with them. There is a term for this behaviour called as
‘hallucination’. The same happens with such poor uneducated devotees. They
imagine god to enter them, with a belief above the level of threshold. Have you
wondered why god doesn’t enter the body of an educated sceptic person in a
metropolitan city? Why does it have to be a dumb woman in village always? It’s
all the play of blind beliefs. I at least hoped you to think a bit on these. And then
regarding the curses they give away, do you even know what talking even means?
It’s the generation of sound in larynx of the speaker, propagation of sound as a
longitudinal wave in air, hitting the tympanum in the ear of the listener, setting
into motion of hair cells in organ of corti, in turn causing movement of perilymph
fluid, creation of electric potential and transmission of such potential across the
auditory nerves to brain where it is sensed as the sound. Did you ever find any
word ‘god’ or ‘curse’ in between these transmissions? No! Nothing even travels
from speaker’s mouth to listener’s ear! It starts with biology, propagates with
physics and ends up with biology plus physics. That is all. There is even a Greek
term for this mentally instable behaviour called as ‘glossolalia’ or ‘gift of tongue’
where the affected person speaks unintelligible jargon in the force of a religious
trance. As these curses are just a result of mental instability, then how can these
affect anyone? But it’s very true that you feel uneasy if anyone says bad things
about you. It’s the same reason why we cry when our angry father scolds us. It’s
just the psychological effect of these words that cause the harm, if any. These
curses are mere fear building tricks. If the curses and boons were real facts, then
please tell them next time to curse me to death. I want to see if I die by
longitudinal vibrations produced by a mentally ill person!” I said and threw a
careless smirk at him.

My friend wondered which god had entered my body now! I was talking without
catching even a breath. I seriously don’t know why I talk so much. Is it because I
have lot of things to tell people and I normally never get a chance? I consoled
myself thinking that I don’t do this in front of everyone. I just do it in front of very
few of my friends. I regained my thoughts and waited for his voice to speak.

I think even my friend waited for his voice to speak. He couldn’t find words to
start. I guess the session was getting too heavy on the theist in him.

Thankfully, his mom came in and called us for dinner. We sat in a circle and
started to have it. My friend and his grandfather performed the pre-food rituals
and looked at me. I don’t know why I felt embarrassed for having forgotten those
rituals. The food was simple and full of vegetarian dishes. The only thing I like
about Hindus is the food style. Hindus have a disgust for non vegan foods which is
really a good thing. But I do have disgust for Hindus because they don’t eat non
vegan just because they think it’s impure for their religion! They don’t think it to
be full of cholesterol and unhealthy fats. They don’t fear about their health. They
fear ending up in hell for eating what their god has told them not to. The religion
that taught the world about health is now under darkness about such things. I
have seen many Hindus eating non vegan. And as per my knowledge, their god
hasn’t done any harm to them till now; but their cholesterol sure has. The
ancients had told us not to eat them just in grounds of a good health and not
because it’s unholy to eat other living beings. Some Hindus say that god resides in
living beings like cows. Trees and plants are living beings too! But we eat them
because we have to survive. Is it not unholy to kill the living tree and plant?
Doesn’t the omnipresent god reside in these plants? Why it is that god dwells only
in animals, cow to be specific? What wrong have pigs, giraffes and lizards done?
When will these god-blind Hindus come to know these things? But ironically,
thanks to our thousand years of belief on hell and heaven and existence of
godliness: people do good things at least because of their fear. But why don’t we
do good things just because it’s moral; without the desire of heaven or fear of
hell?

After the meal, my friend was back with his grandfather for a moral support. I
guess he felt like a lion beaten in its own cave. His grandpa seemed to have a
horrible urge to criticize me for forgetting our great valued traditions. He had
even learnt that I took the holy thread off me once I came to know about the
trivial reason of using it: the threads were actually used just as a mere everyday
reminder for an unmarried Hindu to do his three duties and a married Hindu to
perform his six duties in life and nothing other than that. The horrible divine
stories about it, being a godly entity and that, the Hindu gods reside in it, were
built again just to popularize it. But how many of us know this? Isn’t it enough to
have god in our nails and hairs? We still need more of god through lockets and
such holy threads. Anyone who doesn’t want a reminder can remove the threads
off him, isn’t it? But we make our crying child to wear it and feel proud to have
completed one of the sacred traditions in Hindu religion without even knowing
the real purpose it was used for. The other question that eats my head is: why
don’t women get to wear it? Don’t they have duties too? Don’t they need
reminders? I’m not a true feminist but in this obscure, male dominant religious
society, where the traditions were written by some male religious snobs, women
don’t get to enjoy heaven as much as men do. Why don’t we have traditions
written by any woman? The Hindu religion sometimes turns out to be a certified,
legal way of suppressing women. Why are woman made out-cast for three days
during their menstruation cycles where as men aren’t done so during their
periodic ejaculations? We don’t care for a young girl who cries during her first
out-cast period full of embarrassment. Do we? How many of us know that the
sacred ‘shivalinga’ in fact represents the sexual organ of lord Shiva? We speak a
lot about Hindus being too knowledgeable. But the great era of knowledge in
Hindus has died like ages ago. All we are left with are self appraising snobs who
love their incomprehensible rituals more than wife and children. We are growing
too blind about the ideas of god. All we want is god, not knowledge about him.
One day if I start eating grass and tell people that according to ancient mythology,
god resides on the inedible starch tissues and he is testing on us if we could eat it,
I’m sure more than a thousand will follow me. I was seeing one of those possible
thousands sitting right in front of me; aged, muttering hymns and thanking god
for providing the food for that day. Thank your poor daughter-in-law at least
once, you idiot! , I thought. The snobby grandpa sensed that it was time to set my
screws straight and began with the cliché I hear every single time I run into an
oldie: “You people of this age think you can outsmart everyone with the computer
knowledge you have. You disprove some superstitions with science and think you
have proved the non-existence of god. But as you run in your life with this speed
and negligence, you will gradually retard and come to know what a fool you have
been. I have seen many people like you who started out to disprove god. But they
forget one thing: there is someone over us who sees everything we do. He just
waits for the correct time to prove His existence. And to speak in your language,
your great Albert Einstein himself had accepted that there is god. You don’t
believe him too? All you immature idiots know is one thing: learn a new formula
in science, apply it to nature and conclude that this whole world can be explained
with formulas. But you fail to see the true reason for all those beautiful
phenomena. Have you ever wondered who created those forces? Who made the
earth round? Who provided sun with the light? Who makes the atoms combine?
No matter how much science proceeds, there are always many things that remain
unexplained in nature. Mind my words: you’ll gradually lose your battle and
come to know that there is only one absolute reason behind all these, and that is
god. God is good for only those who believe and worship his powers and not for
every single insect like you. You better stop these idiotic thoughts in disproving
the almighty or else you’ll suffer a lot for sure.” He almost spat on me. I saw lines
arising on his forehead. He then finished the last of his hymns, prayed with his
eyes closed and was found alright at last. I seriously admire the positive vibrations
those Sanskrit hymns provide. The grandfather’s belief in god, as I myself saw,
was immense. He believed that all the wealth he got was due to grace of god. He,
being a grandfather of my friend in every aspect, believes god to exist in sheets of
papers and every time he stomps on a sheet, he picks it up and touches his
forehead to it and asks god to forgive him. He says touching your feet to god is an
unforgivable blunder. Then why does he wear footwear? Doesn’t god exist in it
too? Don’t the paragon company people pay god? Sometimes it gets too difficult
to opine your thoughts in front of such people. They adhere rigidly on what they
think is correct. They listen to you only if they sense that you are going in their
way. It’s even difficult to raise your voice or strongly emphasis on your beliefs in
front of these. They don’t discuss things; they ridicule you directly. Like I already
said, these theists bring in many things to prove their god. The thing is they don’t
give up. But as you can remember, I have told the other thing too!

“I’m sorry I came across as a rude juvenile.” I started in a polite way. When fishing
the sharks, be careful. “But I just want to be free of god and religions. That is all. I
don’t believe in god. The religions in the world weren’t born with us. They are just
made up by us in an attempt for a distinguished and cultural style of living. I don’t
like to be branded as a person from such trivial religious system. This even turns a
bit socially moral, that I hate religions. Everyone has rights to live their own way,
right? I like to live without a religion tag” I said and looked at the ground. I really
wonder how short spoken I become in front of elderly people.

The old man seemed to have sensed the advantage of my respect towards him
and smirked. He spoke like a winner analyzing the faults of loser: “Look at you!
You don’t even know what religion is. It’s a boon you had obtained in your
previous birth that you ended up as a Hindu now. And you say you want to be
free from religion. I can give nothing other than a disgusting look at such
numbskulls. It’s a sad irony that some people don’t understand that they have
what other unlucky, lower cast people crave for. And regarding god, I don’t even
like to talk about such unexplainable things with pretentious idiots like you. You
immature snobs don’t even understand that. You think the sacred traditions we
follow are just some derisory customs. Then what’s the difference between you
and the stray pigs that eat dirt in gutter?” he barked. His eyes were throwing
flares at me.

I seriously didn’t get the logic with which he compared me with a dirt eating pig.
But I could see he used such strong adjectives towards me with a deliberate
intention: to insult me. This is the problem with some theists: they make you
vulnerable by such techniques. This was getting too much. It was my turn to talk. I
brought my parts back to me and heard myself speaking: “There is a story I read
in a book sometimes ago. Please listen to it correctly. Let us assume I put two
monkeys in a cage with a banana at its roof. Let there be a ladder for the monkeys
to reach the banana. So after sometime, one of them starts to climb the ladder
for the banana. If any monkey does so, I start pouring cold water on both the
monkeys. I don’t want any monkey to grab the banana. So after certain number of
futile tries, the monkeys stop trying for the banana. They know why the banana
shouldn’t be taken: because I’ll pour cold water on them. So they sit quiet. Now I
replace a monkey by a new one. Now this new one tries for the banana. But the
old one tries to pull it back because it knows what would happen if it tries to
climb. So even this new monkey sits quiet without even knowing the reason. It
just knows that the banana shouldn’t be eaten, that is all. Now I replace the
second old monkey by a new one. This new one again tries for banana. But the
previously added one pulls it back. It had seen the old monkey doing the same to
it. So now the latest monkey sits quiet without knowing the reason. In fact, both
the monkeys don’t even try for the banana. They were told by the old monkeys
only not to grab it, but not the reason as to why! These have exactly followed
what the old monkeys have done: not to try for the banana. The only difference
is: old monkeys knew the reason for it and the new monkeys don’t! So these two
pass on the same knowledge for the new monkeys to come and if asked the
reason, these start building up their own stories. The safest reason would be
telling them that god has forbidden them to eat it! Nobody would question them
again. The same godly reason travels through ages and then becomes a belief.
See, this is what has happened to us. We follow what our ancestors have done;
the only difference is that we don’t even know the reason why those things are to
be done. We don’t know why we wear the holy thread. We don’t know why a
person’s head is shaved after his parents’ death. We don’t know why we don’t eat
non vegan food. We don’t know anything. But we surely know the safe way of
escaping from such ‘why’ questions: god. That’s all! We don’t think for once as to
why god wants us to look ugly by shaving our head. Doesn’t he love us? Do you
know the reason why this is done? Any man who has shaved his head knows that
he’s looking ugly. It’s totally boyish but he knows that no girl would look at him.
He starts to think about other things. He gradually gets serious. This is what
expected of a person after his parents’ death: get serious in life. So such a custom
is followed. But you say that it’s god! We light a lamp at evening in our home. The
reason we say is god enters our home at evening and he wants the way to be lit.
What would be god doing the whole day? Why only evening? The actual reason is
way too obvious: there wasn’t any supply of electricity then. So people used to
light the lamps at evening when it got dark. See? Too simple a reason and we
again think it’s related to god!

And now the religion! You think the religion was made by god again. Starting with
your concept of religion, it’s totally absurd and adulterated version of the
definition given by your ancestors. You think religion is worshipping a certain god
and performing some bloody rituals you don’t even know the meaning of. Do you
know what a religion actually means? Take an example of an employee. What
does he do daily? He wakes up, has bath and breakfast, goes to office, works for
the company, comes back home, watches TV, and finishes his pending jobs and
then sleeps. He does this everyday without missing. This makes his life organized.
THIS is what religion means! : Doing a certain job or a sequence of jobs everyday
so that your life is organized. Do you know how this god affiliated religion practice
began? For that, go back to the lost ages of sages. People had no IT jobs, no bio
tech business, nothing. The lazy and so-called-educated Hindu people were just
meant to do the worshipping and other rituals. So a typical Hindu used to wake
up early, have bath, perform the morning rituals and then have food, perform the
noon rituals and have lunch, perform evening rituals and have dinner and then
sleep. He had no other jobs than these. He did the same things day-by-day. Even
his son was made to do so, and then his grandson. Thus grew the custom of doing
these rituals daily. But again! We think god has told us to do it. And also regarding
women, we treat them…”

“Shut up!!” he suddenly snapped in the middle and I felt an instant electric shock
in my body. “I gave a chance to talk and you are barking away like a dog.” He
looked at his grandson and almost shouted: “You don’t have any other good
friend? Why this great person of wisdom who thinks him to be greater than god?
Don’t ever bring this idiot in our home again. He’s polluting the atmosphere here.
Dare you talk with him again!” he barked and stormed away. It was like his words
reverberated in that room. I could feel the heat of his fiery anger. So did my
friend. He had seen his mother suffer under his grandpa. Seeing him, somehow I
felt that he thought I was right. See? This is why I prefer talking these things with
people of my age. They think about it. And they don’t mind being insulted about
their beliefs as much as oldies do.

My friend spoke in a low voice: “What’s wrong with you? You didn’t have to talk
that much in front of him. I can’t blame him for getting angry. When people talk
bad about anything you consider sacred and holy, it’s natural to get upset. Isn’t
it?” his words were less of a debate and more of a concern.

May be, he was right. But I was in no mood to apologize to him. If anything, he
should apologize to me for calling me pig for no reason. There were some words
left in me to speak. When I say some words, it means a whole paragraph. So I
began: “I seriously don’t know why people think these god issues are sacred. Do
you know that many of the inscriptions about god and other things point towards
sexual issues? Do you…”

“Please, don’t talk so.” My friend stopped me. I don’t understand why his family
members cut into people’s conversation. “See, I believe god. Even if you don’t
believe, I’m telling you, please don’t talk so about god. Why do want to compare
god and sex? Please don’t do it” he seemed troubled just like his poor mother.

It feels horrible to speak when people turn mellow. I spoke anyway: “I don’t know
why we take such issues about sex as dirty? You think god condemns us from sex?
I and you wouldn’t have born if this was indeed dirty! And while talking about
your god, let me ask you a question: what does the word ‘linga’ specify in
Sanskrit?”

“Gender, isn’t it?” he wasn’t sure.

“Yes. Gender, correct. So which organ in our body specifies the gender?”

He gave a sheepish smile and told: “genitals”

“Right, so linga means the genitals. Would you agree?”

“Okay” he was speaking as less as he could.

Here came the question I wanted to bring out: “So what does ‘shivalinga” mean
then?”

Silence; Complete silence. I enjoyed his awestruck face more than ever. It was like
his beliefs were being uprooted one by one. The theist in him was wounded a bit.
I had to speak again: “This is what your sacred shivalinga is all about. It’s nothing
but the genital of your lord Shiva. And the oval thing that surrounds it is genital of
parvathi. The shivalinga is just the representation of their union. But now we
think that talking about genitals and god in a same sentence is next to hell. Totally
our problem again! It’s nothing but the symbol of reproduction, the only real
miracle in the world. It’s just to signify the union of male and female. But we
again think it as what?” I looked at him.

He looked away and said: “God”

“Eggjyactly!” I got dramatic. “And have you noticed the erotic sculptures on the
towers of temples? If godliness is really sacred and sexual issues are indeed dirty,
why would they be on the towers? The reason is simple: remember the times we
used to watch girls’ pictures on internet? After watching for some time, we would
get bored of them and change the page. Remember?”

“Yeah, we used to see them with lot of interest and curiosity at first. But after
some time it’s natural to get bored of watching the same thing.” He said.

“THIS! This is the reason of such sculptures. Every person has ‘that’ naughty
feeling in him every time. As he sees these erotic sculptures for some time, he
would lose interest in them and start thinking about other things for some while.
This was indeed expected from everyone who enters the temple: to be pure in
their minds. Ironically, thinking about sex was derided as impure. This was also
expected from students who enter the temples because the temples were
actually a centre for learning, rather than a place of god. The god idols were
brought in just to create a positive atmosphere in them. As I said, the impression
of divine image on us is immense. And if god exists indeed, why doesn’t he stop
me from talking so? Why doesn’t he prove himself? Has anything happened to me
after speaking so bad about him? No!! Why is that? This is because, my friend,
there isn’t anything like god. It’s just a belief about an entity in heaven that
protects us from all evil; we built up to comfort ourselves. If you know that there
is someone who looks after you, you sure are to stop worrying. Isn’t it? And going
by your grandfather, Einstein believed in god because he couldn’t complete his
mission to explain the world. This is because science is way too young to explain
everything. This earth was born some billion years ago but science? Just some
thousands of years ago! I’m sure there’ll come a time when we all get to know
every unexplained thing about this world just like we know now that sun isn’t any
god; it’s just a star. We Hindus say that world that world is created by our god.
Muslims say it’s Allah. Who did it actually? If being asked such a question, we get
an answer that all gods are same. If all gods are same, then why don’t we worship
Allah? There are many such things ambiguous about god. Just like force acting on
a falling body, there always exists something that holds reason for everything in
world and that can be explained with scientific acumen. But as we are ignorant
about its explanation, we think it to be some entity with human dimensions that
runs the world. Isn’t that absurd? Is the gravitational force a god? No! Same case
holds for that force. It doesn’t have any eye or sense organ to know what we are
doing. So it can’t punish you for stomping on a sheet of paper. I just want people
to know this and stop being absurd. Why would you worship gravitational force
isn’t it? Same way why would you worship this force, albeit unexplained.
Anyways, it’s up to you to take my words on a serious note. Otherwise, if you
again think about god being your saviour, then I can’t help. I need to go back now,
or else your grandpa will kick me out for sure. I don’t know if I’ve failed or
succeeded in convincing you. But at least I feel light for taking out whatever I had
in my mind.” I smiled at him and got ready to go.

He stood up some seconds after me. He didn’t open his mouth. As I stood up, I
deliberately dropped a newspaper on the ground near his feet. He was looking
away and stomped on it while going towards the door. He suddenly saw what he
did and looked at me. Even I was looking at him. He picked it up, tried to raise it
slowly halfway to his forehead, looked at me again, smiled nervously, just cleaned
it off and placed it on the table. I smiled at him too.

Gradual changes are always good.

-abhijeet jalihal.