Confessions of a confused mind
The waves of religion and religious belief, hope etc have never been calm for me from the time I realized that Hinduism(my native religion) was not the only religion in the world. Using the word native religion seems a little funny since I could not be born native to any religion. But Of course since my family religion is Hinduism (funny!!!) it makes me a native Hindu.
Though the storms have never been what I would call timid, they have never actually influenced me as much as they have been influencing me for the past few weeks. I could humor myself into believing that the sudden surge of interest in this matter may be due to the smoggy cold weather that my place has been experiencing in the past few says but the truth may (I am almost sure it is) stranger (or maybe even trivial) than this fiction.
Anyway whatever be the reason for this interest I thought I should out into record the questions and the reasons for the questions that have been shadowing my mind.
Like I said I am a native Hindu. I used to consider my religion to be the best. The past tense of the previous sentence must be noted. I have tried in my small way to try and prove or even disprove that thought I had in my mind. What I feel right now is that its not like any religion is right or wrong, actually its more like a question of left and right, with north, south, NW etc thrown in for fun ;). A person searching for a religion that’s purely white may end up disappointed. Certain paths may be wrong or right in their own way but we can’t really grow on that since it’s unlikely that a clear answer may emerge out of all this darkness at least in my lifetime. I could attribute this to the fact that I am materialistic.
YES!!! I love my parker pen and my Honda unicorn and countless other items that a alien to our plant may discard as crap. Yes..that does make me materialistic. But like a thing I once read in an Isaac Asimov novel, Humans have this "guilty pleasure" concept. Through out history what ever makes you happy is considered evil. Maybe it’s because someone wise must have found that making something enjoyable illegal, you have squeeze more pleasure out of it 
. So if being materialistic is going to make me not understand the meaning of life all I have to say is F word OFF
Here I could use my favorite ‘what if light is dark’ question.Please see my other post on that
Coming back to religion…living in a "secular" country like ours….and unfortunately being a member of the majority community who is really a minority is really stressful. Like I said earlier I am not one to decide whether one religion is good or bad and thus my stand towards each community was done on a ‘person 2 person’ basis. Still I have tried to read up on some religions and frankly some have scared me. We have some verses in my religions proclaiming a particular deity (off about 33crore) to be the true one and to worship him. The content of Christian philosophy as I understand stands on the fact that JC must be followed or we will not gain entry to God’s kingdom. I know there are other branches in Christians that don’t believe in that and that JC is only a messenger…gotta look up on that. I think it’s similar in Islam.
Now I used to believe that tolerance was the key to any ‘popular’ religion. Of course we have small sects like KKK which is different but then again they are not popular. Now how can we have tolerance with basic aims like above? This is quite a paradox.
Personally I feel that majority people don’t give a damn. They want to believe that there is some better palace waiting for them after the wretched life. I wouldn’t blame them because I too believe the same. Then you could say that Religious zealot in the name of principles is a load of crap. But I would not condemn the people doing that since it’s just an avenue for the venting of anger and frustration caused due to ‘other’ reason. The outlook of each religion towards the other is important and order (as in "new world order") for that is absolutely necessary. What this means is that the struggle for Ram Temple is not a silly struggle for constructing a temple over a piece of land rather its just a culmination of the frustration that the Hindus feel over the treatment melted out to them in other spheres of life.
I guess I have asked enough questions for now and answered a few of them I hope. For this is the answer that calmed down the waves I spoke of and hope they don’t catalyze other storms in unknown waters. I think I will deal with my concept of religion in another post
You said it, people want something that they think would improve their life. If not now later in a perceived after life. Since they are confused on what they want, they fall to the temptations of mischief-mongers, so much for religion.
Comment by Adarsh — June 19, 2006 @ 9:21 am
“”The content of Christian philosophy as I understand stands on the fact that JC must be followed or we will not gain entry to God’s kingdom.”"” this comment shows that u havent understood wat christianity says…..and while reading th ebible.if u simply convert the words into meaning,without looking into the inner ones..u will be mislead like this….it only says that unless u repent u wont be saved…and christianity is only a path for it…and JC want thi sto be spread world wide,wo that every1 will come to know abt it…
Comment by prince — June 19, 2006 @ 9:54 am
then why is a large part of christainaity so adament on converting everyone…..and why does the pope come to india and make “harvest of souls” speech?
I am not attacking any religion….just saying that I see a contradiction between some of the fundamental priciples and tolerance with other religions…..
Comment by cafm — June 19, 2006 @ 11:57 am
first of all “large part of christianity” is not adament on conversion….”harvest of souls”(problem of going by word meaning) doesnt mean conversion,it only means hearts which repent….JC want evry1 to know that theres a better life after this one and to acheive that we shud leave the path of sin and repent….how many christians are doing it is a matter of debate..still tats wat christianity teaches..
Comment by prince — June 19, 2006 @ 1:37 pm
hmm….i get you point…..my attitude towards a person is strictly based on attitude todwards me and religion was never a problem in any of my relationships….But when i explored the religions in the way they are practised by a lot of ppl… this is what i got and thats why i wrote like that….
Like George bernard shaw once told…Islam is the best religion and Muslims are the worst followers…. for a ousider to any religion….its how the religion is practised that counts….and from that where he makes his outlook…for me I have had “Bandacoust”(dont know spelling) ppl come to my house and tell me that christainty is the only path and I should adopt it….thats not tolerence to me
and what JC said…i think most religions promise the followers a after life if the lead a proper life……
but what is proper life is the big question….
Comment by cafm — June 19, 2006 @ 1:49 pm
hmm….u seem to be confused between Christianity and the Church. Both are different. Christianity would be the philosophical system that JC preached. The Church is a group of people who claim sole proprietorship over this philosophy. Of course, the claim is false…
Same applies to all religions. What the religion really is all about and what its evangelists/”governing bodies” talk about often tend to be different.
Comment by Gingerjoos — June 19, 2006 @ 5:01 pm
Ur missing the point GingerJoos…
…. Just because the principles of a religion is good…wat good does that do to a outsider? Church to an outsider….and most insiders too represent chirstainity…. and saying just blaming them for all the wrong is not going to help… Now the average person is not that spriritual…as long he hes daily worries of his own….so church represents his religion to him….
also like you say if chirstainity was this far removed from church….i dont think they would be having the kind of decision making powers they are weilding right now….
Comment by cafm — June 19, 2006 @ 9:34 pm
read my blog….the bible says that JC is THE only way. whether you believe that or not is left to you. There are people who believe just this. So being tolerant includes acceptin people and respectin their belief which may include non pluralistic tendencies..Tolerance includes acceptin ‘bandacost’ people……sayin that u don like them shows that ure intolerant..as long as they don’t do you any harm..
Comment by sam — June 20, 2006 @ 2:09 pm
@sam….i never said i did not tolerate them….its my home…i can refuse addmission to anyone….as long as they dont have a warrant
….and yes they did harm me….by saying that my religion is useless and has done nothing for me…but still its not like i assualted them….i am just saying what they are doing i dont approve as tolerance….u can not like a thing…and still tolerate it cant you?
by the way that what i told….these statements make it really hard to follow the conflicting ideals of tolerance and true path
Comment by cafm — June 20, 2006 @ 11:32 pm
okies..if they did try to harm u … u should have done just that..no difference of opinion on that..
Comment by sam — June 21, 2006 @ 2:43 am