Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Religiously Yours


After a hard days work there is nothing more enthralling than looking at results in the laboratory. I finally got results after two hard grinding unforgiving months. I was wondering about what I should write on my blog site and a conversation I had with a friend of mine suddenly popped out. The conversation was about spirituality, faith and science. My friend is a devout Christian, the bible is his guide and he leads his life according to the Ten Commandments god handed out to Moses on Mount Sinai more than two thousand years ago.
I am exactly the opposite, though brought up in an orthodox Hindu Brahmin family; I completely hate to be associated with any caste or religion. I remember the days when I was recognized by my caste. These days, I am recognized by the country I am from, another form of discrimination. I have never understood religion or caste or what attracts people towards them. I have always been an ardent science fan, and try hard to find a logical explanation to what nature has bestowed the world with. But, I am not an atheist. I believe in god. I believe that there is a higher energy that pervades the universe that will certainly not fall in confines of a scientific explanation. I do not believe in using religion to separate myself from the rest of human civilization.
It is very perplexing that there are so many religions in the world with such ardent followers for each of them. Which one of these jokers is right? Why should we follow any religion at all? Should our lives be decided by our religious beliefs? Should religion determine an individual’s morality? Should religion determine marriages or sexual union of two human beings?
We live in a scientific age. Our life spans have increased two fold or greater just in the past two hundred years. We are at the peak of scientific achievement. We have left our barbaric past behind us and are moving together as a species towards a more peaceful world (at least the majority of us are I hope!). In this day and age what is most important is not caste or religion. What is important is compassion for the fellow human beings. I remember a song by Phil Collins that moves me every time I hear it… “She calls out to the man on the street, sir can you help me?” I might sound like a communist from my attack on religions and my call for compassion to fellow human beings. If it sounds communist, then I would say that communism is the best thing that happened to man.
Human beings are a supposedly social species. If we truly are, there cannot be a place for such things like religion in our society. What we need to do is fight to eradicate hunger, poverty, educate people, and create a healthy environment for fellow human beings.
Humans gather together a thousand times a year in the name of religion or politics. How many times do we come together as a species to discuss reforms or to set things right?
I can sleep now that I have passed on the burden …
Adios

10 comments:

Robbie said...

I agree with you prabz.., good and evil have to live side by side and there, but lets hope that we move on towards more and more progressive thinking for the future.

pk said...

Very though provoking post. I dont think there is anything wrong in being associated to a particular religion as far as you dont become a fanatics or disrespectful to other religion. I think religion over the period of time has been misunderstood and misinterpreted. Thats why we are where we are now i guess.

Phil Plasma said...

I'm leaning more towards kaleidoscope's POV - religion in and of itself does no harm, it is fanatics who are always subsets that do the harm. I can think of many different religions that have done lots of good in the world, that maybe that good would not have happened were it not for the religious organization.

As for singling people out due to caste, colour, age, sex, height, weight, eye color, shoe size, language, religion, fashion sense or hair style - nonsense!

It is pure nonsense to say the blacks are one race and whites are another, we are all part of the human race!

Anonymous said...

Very good post on casteism which reflects a broad mind and refined ideas.The world for sure will be a better place to live if human compassion surpasses religion with blind beleifs that normally get along with it.very good writing!

Ganesh said...

Robbie
I agree and disagree with you on this.
This requires a long post. I also strongly believe in science and spirituality.
To me a jnani (a self realized soul and a scientist is no different)
Ramana Maharishi and Einstein are both required for humanity.


Being agnostic doesn't make you a communist. There are great Indian rishis who questioned lot of these God things but where respected and not burned.
At least you are not one of those weird science fanatic.
Believe me there are folks who think everything can be answered only through science and nothing but science.

One more thing, if you are not willing to associate yourselves with 'religious jokers' then why are you associating yourselves with communist. They are also a dangerous cult.
To them Karl Marx, Lenin and their leaders are their God, try talking sense to these jokers or trying putting a different thought.
In India you will be labeled as intellectual, and welcomed into their elite club as long as you deride religion esp. 'Hinduism'.

Lot of time folks are so ignorant they confuse things.
The true purpose of Spirituality (sorry religion can only takes us only to an extent) and Science is the pursuit of Truth.
Who are we ? Science try to answer the question ‘How’ but the question ‘Why’ is a tough one to answer, Quantum mechanics gets close, so does our Vedanta
The scope of this pursuit in science and spirituality is little different while science pursues it on the outer world, spirituality (all eastern religions) do it on the inner world
Connection between the 'I' (individual) and the cosmos.

Anyway science and religion without humanity are bound to fail.

I will stop here and later will reply in detail
in a separate post.

Robbie said...

Ganesh,
I am not associating myself with anyone. The point of the whole arguement was about how obsessed we all are with our religions and in trying to establish a religious identity in the society. We often forget in the process that we are in this world for a bigger cause, which being religious unfortunately makes it trivial. We do not need religion in this day and age and as I have pointed out we have too many religions in the world and to really try and decipher the truth from all of them will only make it more confusing. What we need is a logical, open minded outlook of the world and be more proactive individuals.

Ganesh said...

yes, now how that going to happen
where do one start.
Everyone has their own agenda its going to be tough.
We are living in a dangerous world where it is "my way or no way"
kind of approach is going on.

Ganesh said...

Robbie
there is a new info my blog
check it out
may be you should tell your videshi friends too.

Cathie said...

the reason you may be identified by your nationality is because you find refuge in those of like nationality. like attracts like, basic human nature.

the ten commandments are jewish first. they were written 4-5000 years ago, 2-3000 years before christ. except for the first one, they are good, secular rules to live by.

Robbie said...

Yes! they are secular rules excepting for the first one, but how many will look beyond the first one? Therefore, people who have never read the ten commandments do not know to live life or they cannot live a clean moral life? These are the questions I am trying to answer here. We talk about a united world and separate ourselves based on nationality, yes like attracts like but do we make that a barrier to reach out?