That is how much we seemed to pride in our ability to have faith in God. But would it be criminal on my part to state that we have made a mess for ourselves using religion as a tool rather than using it for the good that it was supposed to be used?
We all are well aware of the plenty of arguments laid out before, saying how do people kill in the name of God, which reminds me of the dialogue from Mani Ratnam’s Bombay (If all religions head to the same destination- God; why do they have to kill each other?). That much of common sense has eluded us in the past, and when I went to India, what I have seen is an alarming amount of delusion among the people- not realizing that they have turned religion into a business center of sorts.
What I may say here might make some of you uncomfortable; I am not trying to hurt religious sentiments, but merely commentating on a system that has slowly but certainly, contributed to India’s rich-poor diversity- the country’s imbalanced landscape that leaves your stomach lurching with discomfort and your eyes sore with the images you see at times.
In the country, I was first taken to Kanchivaram to a temple that was deemed powerful by our guide. The first thing I saw at the temple was a signboard at the entrance- non-Hindus are not allowed. There goes the religious unity many of us are beginning to hope for in the 21st century. Religious constraints still exists vastly in the country, as that image first indicated to me as I laid my steps into the temple. And what followed is a very tight ‘tour’ around the temple. The last time I checked, temples are supposed to be places where we could walk freely and spend as much time anywhere within its premises in order to nourish our spiritual deprivations, but here in India, there is a line that we have to follow without any choices, there isn’t any freedom left for us to move around. You walk, you get a glimpse of the God, and then you walk away. Anything more than that, you’d better pay. Cameras? Pay for it. A blessing? Pay for it. A pooja? Pay for it.
But what tops this disturbing image is in Vellore, where lies an enormous, elegant, Golden Temple, as they call it, a temple made, entirely out of pure gold. The sight of it wonders you. But once footballer Diego Maradona said, “I’d rather the money that is spent in building golden churches be used to help poor kids.” Rare words of wisdom from a footballing legend, but this quote is no peripheral matter- it actually makes sense. You are walking out of this Golden Temple and you see a beeline of beggars, and poor people waiting for you to donate them money. You turn around and you wonder something is so essentially wrong about all this- religion is about faith, guidance, seeking aid from an entity we do not see with our eyes but rather feel with our hearts, our souls. Since when had religion discriminately determined a luxury barrier for faith? Why it is that, only we could enter this temple, and those poor people are unable to do, but are rather turned away at the entrance, limited to a peripheral sight of their own Almighty? We live in a postmodern society where monetary gaps has placed such a huge divide between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’. Religion is possibly the only universal aspect that doesn’t separate these flawed and misleading, intangible social classes between people. It is for all, in equal measures. How could it be right then, when only the ones affording it are allowed to offer a prayer to Lord? And that too in a monetary perspective? A puja in this temple, trust me, is very expensive, why does one’s quest to see the God be so materialistically expensive?
I was stunned, to say the least, by a row of office-attire wearing staffs sitting at one corner of the temple, in front of computers, like technology geeks, and offering to place booking for our pujas. Now, we even have to make appointments to offer the Lord a prayer. ‘VISA and Mastercard accepted’- that was the obvious sign placed there. I have only one word to describe this convolution- a sacrilege.
Why is this the case? Why aren't we using religion to boost knowledge? Isn't it supposed to be that way?
Not only that, a common feature, as I have mentioned previously, in almost all Indian temples that I have visited, is a strict ‘line’ or ‘queue’ that you have to follow all around the temple. Since when has religion become rigid? Since when, have temples placed its own exclusive brand of divine meterials shopping outlet purposely on the path of this rigid, no-other-way line in a blatant act of PR, that ones again, makes a mockery by tying up business and religion?
If I were a poor man with no means of a good life- religion will probably be my only form of escapism, the only direction I would look to for some miracle, for some guidance. Wouldn’t it be unfair to deny me the pleasure of visiting God’s shrine by asking me to pay for that as well? When I couldn’t afford anything else in life, and now I couldn’t afford religion as well- where to I turn to? What will, ultimately, keep giving me my hope? Will I keep having faith?
Look at this mess through that poor man, or that poor kid’s eyes- and you will understand the sacrilege I am talking about here. There sits a mass figure of pure gold- imagine how much architecture, funding, government approvals, donations, and exclusivity would have taken to build something of that magnitude- yet ultimately it falls way short of serving its purpose- being an indiscriminate shrine of Lord where people could visit and spend as much time as they wish to. All that crores of rupees, if even a tenth of it was directed to this very street full of needy people- how many lives would the entire cause have improved?
Bill Maher once said in the opening sequences in his highly acclaimed documentary called ‘Religulous’- Religion is proving to be detrimental to the progress of humanity. When you see images that I have seen- you will feel a strong urge to agree with him. Though I give credence to his words, I don’t echo his thoughts. Just like how the Pope’s Cemerlengo says in the final scenes of Angels and Demons- ‘Religion is flawed. Because men is flawed.’ Yes, religion is indeed flawed. But its not flawed by itself, its flawed because we made it a flaw. Instead of using it as a gauge to improve ourselves in a whole, we are using to further regress and mess ourselves up. Religion is used in the right direction will channel all the right energies- but it seems we are doing almost entirely the opposite way nowadays.
Yes, men are flawed. But lets stop making religion a mirror to our flaws- lets stop making it reflect our flaws. Make it reflect the best in us, the strength in us instead.
