Gods and Godmen of India (4 page)
Dil bahlaaney ko khayaal achha hai
(It is a good idea to befool the mind)
I go along with Job in believing that God (if there is one) is above notions of fairness and moral rules, that apply to us mortals. He is in fact (if He is) one who is the
wadda beparwah
– the uncaring great one. However, men of faith never tire of preaching that you should look within yourself and you will find all the answers to your questions.
The book of Job ends with Job’s wife praying:
The candles in churches are out. The stars have gone out in the sky. Blow on the coal of the heart and we’ll see by and by.
Strange coincidence, almost exactly the same is expressed in an Urdu couplet in almost the same words:
Bujh rahey hain chiraagh dair-o-haram
Dil jalao ke roshni kam hai
I have burnt my heart thinking about the existence of God. And the more I think the more I am convinced that He is an illusion. And even if there be an all-powerful creator and a destroyer, He is not a just preserver according to the norms of justice as I understand them.
3/4/83
Religion without God, Prophets and Scriptures
I
f you examine religious systems closely, you will discover that though all of them pay lip-service to God as the Almighty – Creator, Preserver and Destroyer – who really matters more to them is their founder described variably as Prophet, Messiah, Messenger or Avatar. In short, God’s human manifestation is given more importance than God himself: Abraham and Moses over Jehovah, Zarathustra over Ahuramazda, Rama and Krishna over Ishwara, Jesus and Mary above the Lord, Mohammad above Allah, Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh over Waheguru.
This is entirely understandable because while we know nothing of God, we know a lot more about the founders of our religions. They were mortals like us: born to women, ate and defecated like we do, were subject to diseases. And died. We do our best to distort their human qualities by making legends about their superhuman powers to distance them from ourselves and make them as powerful as God as His vicegerents. They had undoubtedly enormous powers to sway the people and bring about revolutions in their thinking and ways of living and thus contributed to our perception of them as akin to God, sacrosanct and beyond searching inquiry about their human frailties. You can jest about God but never about His Prophets. The attitude is well expressed in the Persian adage:
Ba Khuda Diwana Basho/Ba Mohammed hoshiar!
(You can say what you like about Allah, but beware of saying anything (derogatory) about Mohammed.) It is time we took a more objective view of the founders of different religions. By all means give them the respect due to great thinkers, philosophers, poets and leaders of men but worshipping them is neither fair to them nor to your own intellect.
We should also take a closer look at the traditional attitude to our scriptures and prayers. You will notice that more obscure the text, the more religious fervour it rouses in the readers’ minds. Hence the use of Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, Pali, Sanskrit and
Santbhasha
– understood by a small minority of adherents of the faith. Read them translated into a language you understand and you will find them repetitive, banal and boring. Some passages will read well but even these rarely compare with great works of secular literature: Shakespeare, Goethe, Kalidas, Iqbal and others. In addition to being largely incomprehensible some passages of religious scriptures are invested with magical powers to ward off danger, heal the sick, exorcise spirits and banish fear. Just as the Hindus have the
Gayatri
Mantra, Muslims have the
Ayat-ul-qursi
and the Sikhs their
Sohila
to recite as the last prayer at night. It cannot be denied that prayer has power to infuse self-confidence but it can, and its often, known to achieve wrong ends. Even dacoits and thugs are known to pray before they embark on their nefarious errands.
One does not have to go to places of worship like synagogues, churches, mosques and temples to pray. Without exception they have become places of commerce from which professional purveyors of religious dogma earn their livelihood. Prayers are best said in solitude and should be addressed to oneself. The most effective form I have discovered is to look yourself in the mirror before retiring for the night as it is very hard to stare into your own eyes and ask yourself, “Did I wrong anyone today?” You will be surprised how effective it is in preventing yourself from doing it the day following.
All religions are creatures of their time and were meant to meet existing social problems. Thus, when the world was sparsely populated, there was religious sanction to go forth and multiply. Since wars generated shortages of men, men who survived were allowed to take as many woman as wives as they could afford. When India was a land of plenty, it could sustain sadhus and holy men who did no work but spent their time in prayer and meditation. Working people were happy to give them alms. Our problems are equite different today. The world is overcrowded; India has become the second most populated country on the globe. Nevertheless a sizeable proportion of this population continues to do nothing and live on beggary. Able-bodied people take to
vanprastha
or
Sanyas
with a clear conscience and do nothing but still enjoy religious approval. We have to evolve new moral codes, a new religion which takes note of our present problems.
Our new religion must be based on work-ethic. Those who do not contribute materially to the well-being of society should have no rights. Institutions of sadhus, yogis and holy men living off earnings of others must be discouraged. Only the physically disabled should be permitted to retire. Religious holidays should be cut down to the minimum and everyone compelled to work as long as his mind and body are able to do so.
Our highest priority is to control our explosive birthrate. Our slogan used to be ‘two and no more’. Now it has to be ‘one and no more’. Just as a couple getting married are required to take vows to remain faithful to each other, they should now be asked to swear before their gods that they will have no more than one child. And on the birth of that one child both of them will submit themselves voluntarily to be sterilized. Legislation has not proved very efficacious in controlling our population. Perhaps a religious code enshrining necessity to restrict bearing of children may prove more effective.
Our second highest priority is to conserve our environment. Our forest wealth has fallen to dangerous levels causing enormous erosion of soil and silting of our dams. Our river and coastal waters are heavily polluted. We have to impose an immediate ban on the felling of trees and the use of wood for making furniture and buildings. There are plenty of synthetic substitutes to replace timber. Trees were an object of worship in olden times: some communities like the Bishnois of Haryana and Rajasthan still venerate trees and forbid them being cut down. We have to revive the tradition of sanctity accorded to trees. Enormous amount of wood is wasted in cremating the dead. There is nothing in the Hindu or Sikh religion requiring cremation by wood.
Annadurai and M.G. Ramachandran were buried. Many Hindu communities in south India bury their dead. Most Jain munis are also buried. In towns and cities where there are no electric or gas crematoriums, provision should be made for Hindu-Sikh cemeteries. No graves or tombstones should be made on them and the land ploughed over every five years and returned to agriculture. In coastal towns and cities, the dead should be immersed in the sea. Tree planting should be made a religious obligation as well as incorporated in our educational system. No school or college student should be issued a school-leaving certificate, his degree or diploma unless he or she can produce evidence of having planted a specified number of trees and nourished them. Tree planting should also be given the top priority in bequests for charity.
This is almost unknown in India. In Israel, on the other hand, you can see miles of dense forests of pine and fir lining both sides of the highways. All of them were planted in memory of the dead. That is how Israel has become green while its Arab neighbours dwell in the desert. Tree planting is as important as donating money to build schools, colleges and hospitals. We can, if we have the will to do so, make our country green and prosperous. That must be the aim of our religion.
9/8/1992
I
have often maintained that as a system of belief Sikhism is much closer to Islam than Hinduism. And that despite the fact that the vast majority of Sikhs are converts from Hinduism and even to this day form an integral part of the Hindu social system. I came to this conclusion because of the Sikh Gurus’ emphasis on monotheism, rejection of idol worship and the caste system, all of which are basic to Islam. Many people have taken issue with me, amongst them my employer, Mr K.K. Birla. I reproduce his views on the subject and invite readers’ comments. Mr Birla writes:
“Many Hindus regard Sikhism as a part or offshoot of Hinduism. Even if that is questioned, there seems little doubt that Sikhism is much closer to Hinduism than to any other religion.
“To begin with, how do you define Hinduism? There are several sects in Hinduism based on different philosophies of the religion, such as Advaita, Vishiciltadvalta Dwaita, etc. It is, in fact, difficult to precisely define Hinduism. Hinduism is like a vast tree with several branches of all shapes and sizes; and yet the root of all these branches is common. Likewise, Hinduism has many sects; but their basic tenets are the same.
It is also wrong to say that Hindus do not believe in one God. It is correct that, according to Hindu mythologies, there are perhaps 33 crores of gods – Devatas and Devis. But even according to these mythologies the three main deities are Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. But if one were to go deeper into the matter it is clear that three gods are, in fact, only different names of the One Supreme Being. That is why the Upanishad says:
Ekam Sad Vipra Bahudha vaaanti!
(God is one. But Brahmins,
i.e.
the learned, call him by different names.)
“There are however some sects of Hinduism which do no believe in Devis and Davatas and worship one God – that too as a formless Being. Take the case of
Arya Samaj
which is very much a part of Hinduism.
Arya Samajis
believe in one God, like the Sikhs. They recognize only one Holy Book – the Vedas; like the Sikhs, they believe neither in caste nor in idol and image worship. According to the criteria laid down by you, Sikhs should then be closer to
Arya Samajis
than to Muslims as, apart from what has been stated above,
Arya Samajis
and in fact all the sects of Hinduism have many other things in common with Sikhism. Hindus believe in the doctrine of rebirth and the theory of ‘Karma’. Sikhs also believe in these philosophies. In fact, all religions that have branched off from Hinduism like Jainism and Buddhism believe in the doctrine of rebirth and theory of ‘Karma’. Other religions, not having originated in India like Christianity, Judaism and Islam, however, do not believe in the doctrine of rebirth. To me, therefore, your conclusions that Sikhs are closer to Muslims than to Hindus, appear to be ill-founded.
“I would like to point out that prior to judging how close the two religions are, one has to examine not only what the respective scriptures ordain but one has also to study the ways of life – customs and rituals of the people belonging to these religions. If one were to analyse from that angle, one will find that Sikhism is much closer to Hinduism than to any other religion. I shall give a few instances from your book in support of this:
“You have stated that most of the Hindu families of the Punjab respect the Gurus and read the
Granth Sahib.
Which other religious communities do that?
“Till recently, many Hindu families of the Punjab brought up one of their sons as a Sikh. Why? Surely because Hindus did not differentiate between the Hindu and the Sikh religions.
“Many Hindus willingly gave their daughters in marriage to Sikhs. Likewise, Sikhs too gave their daughters in marriage to Hindus. Which other communities did so?
“When the purely religious and pious Sikh community turned militant, one of its missions was to save Hinduism and help in its upliftment and propagation. One of the Gurus said:
Jagas dharam Hindu, sakal Bhand bhajae
(Hindu religion should awake. Let all the false doctrines flee.)
“Would the Guru have expressed the hope about the awakening of Hinduism if he regarded Sikhism as separate from Hinduism?
“The
Granth Sahib
contains a larger number of verses from Hindu saints and scriptures than from any other religion. This shows the close affinity of Sikhism to Hinduism.”
“You have rightly pointed out that the teaching of the Gurus was against the caste system; yet the caste system is still prevalent amongst Sikhs as in the case of Hindus. Sikhs also venerate the cow and abhor eating beef. If the
Granth Sahib
is silent on this, the reason may be that the non-slaughter of kine was so apparently a part of the religion and so much a way of life with Hindus that it did not seem to be necessary for any of the Gurus who, in opinion, did not differentiate between Hinduism and Sikhism, to specifically ordain that cows should not be slaughtered. Guru Gobind Singh did regret the slaughter of kine and advocated the protection of cows, as you have admitted. That the killing of cows was strictly forbidden under the Sikh rulers follows from the example of the Sikh Gurus who never ate beef.
‘As mentioned by you, Sikhs observe all the festivals celebrated by the Hindus of northern India. The other day, I was told that in Gurudwaras Sri Krishna Janmashtami and Sri Rama Navami festivals were very solemnly observed till recently. Even now, I am told, many Gurudwaras, if not all, celebrate these festivals. Sikhs also visit Hindu temples. I have myself seen many Sikhs visiting our temple at Delhi and prostrating themselves before the deity with the same devotion as Hindus do. Many Hindus too visit Gurudwaras. Even otherwise, whenever devotional songs are sung on any occasion in a Hindu family, the bhajans of Guru Nanak are sung with the same fervour as the bhajans of any other Saint. You state that a Sikh marriage is patterned after the Hindu marriage and differs from it only in minor detail. Sikhs also cremate their dead and the funeral pyre is lit by the son or near relatives as in the case of Hindus. The ashes are then immersed in sacred rivers, again as Hindus do. The majority of Sikh names are of Sanskrit and Hindu lineage.