God of Small Things

This is not a book review. But I couldn't find a better title for this. I like to believe in God. He for me has been a belief system since my childhood. But it has took me many years to draw a line between God and Religion. Born a Hindu, I was into fasting and visiting temples quite often. I would even believe in mannats (special prayers offered to a deity) and tieing chunris (cloth made of net). And I must admit that one of my mannats came true after a year's time. Was it destiny or my intense faith in what I had asked for, I still don't know.

Now when I look at it, I have many questions. Do we need God because we are scared or selfish? Why are we always full of demands for a better job, better partner, better friends, more money, more cars and the 'more' list is endless. People who worship in anticipation of good returns can be termed religious but not God lovers. People who love God believe in giving and not asking.

I certainly love God and do not count myself among those who look upto this 'mysterious force' only for favours and gains. I like sharing my every thought with him. I would always tell him how I felt after helping a person in need and also how guilty I was feeling after hurting my closed ones... It's a way of life for me... Many people shun praying and believing after they have had many a heartbreaks in life but my faith on my father has grown in adversities...

I too have had my share of bitter experiences but why to put the blame on him...Nature takes its course... and we have to fight always! I am a nature lover too and so this whole connect with God and Nature has made me a bit more spiritual in outlook. I was inclined to Christianity in my early years and hence got this notion that God is our Real Father. I was attached more to him than my parents, whom I felt were God's chosen ones to give me life, and I believed myself to be God's own daughter. I never before articulated this so strongly but I knew my mother could feel it. It was only when I passed school and came out of my shell that I started looking at God and people differently.

I remember a conversation with a close friend recently about God and Atheists... It was a healthy discussion which turned into a debate and ended with a conclusion that Atheism (the doctrine or belief that there is no God) like Hinduism, Jainism or Christianty is also a faith and should not be challenged or questioned.

This only made me think about all those Atheist friends I have had who had been as happy or as sad as any other Theist on this earth. They have no 'God' in their lives and are living a life like any other normal being. Do people who believe in God more vulnerable to pain? Because when they fail in something, they immediately curse God, or destiny (which they may say is a product made at God's own factory). And they spend their whole life either depending on him or cribbing...But those who don't believe in him, are more free, and know whom to blame... I always felt how incomplete is a person's life without God but my perceptions have changed lately... God or no God should be left to a person's individual choice... Neither parents nor teachers should impose their religious beliefs on to their children... My parents, however, never did this in my young age.

But now when I have issues with religious extremism and don't support it in any form. People in the family make it difficult to have my own opinion. There are ideological clashes and allegations but I survive all of it. Because I believe, religion is a man made institution, made only to serve human interests. That is why religions are many but 'God is One'... All reach the same goal but from different paths...It's upto us which one we choose... And even if we choose to restrain from believing... we shouldn't be questioned... No one should impose...What is needed is not religion and fanatism but harmony and peace in this world...

Some quotes by Gandhiji:

"A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion."

"All the religions of the world, while they may differ in other respects, unitedly proclaim that nothing lives in this world but Truth."

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Faith... must be enforced by reason... when faith becomes blind it dies."

"Each one prays to God according to his own light."

Thousands of years have passed and people around the world are still fighting, killing, dieing in the name of God, whom they have not yet discovered in his true colour. The day they will, all this hatred would stop. Here I pray for World Peace. Amen