Looking Afresh At Religion

Two amazing works in the last few days have provided me a wonderful opportunity to look afresh at religion, and how I felt about it. Oh My God, and The Immortals of Meluha.

Neither question the existence of God. Neither ask you to be an athiest. Neither questions religion. But both provide such a refreshing modern look at what God is, what religion is about, why we need religion, why we need to be believe in God, and yet, in a way that is truly the way our sages and learned men would have wanted and imagined it should be!

The Bhagvad Gita, The Holy Bible, The Holy Quran. They provide all the answers man looks for in life. These are the teachings of holy men, learned men, who knew people needed a guiding light, rules for living in peace, in love and fear of god, because otherwise there would be chaos. God isn't responsible for taking us where we want to go, he simply shows us the way!

The Immortals talk of a great emperor called Lord Ram, who brought discipline and law to a lawless society, these rules resulted in prosperity and growth, and this was called Ram Rajya. Makes so much sense, right? The book talks about the Masculine and the Feminine, not good and evil. Just opposing, different ways of living. And both are needed in the world, to bring about balance. Masculine way is all about law and order, rules, unbending allegiance. Feminine is about intuition, freedom, malleability. When the Asuras (masculine) lost against the Devas (feminine), the world started living a very carefree, open life - resulting in chaos and indiscipline over time, before Ram brought back the masculine way of life. The Suryavanshis of Meluha follow that, while the Chandravanshis are feminine. And both think of the other as evil, until the Neelkanth realizes that they aren't so. They are just different! Today we have societies that are overly masculine, and others that are overly feminine. What we need today is balance! So very true! So very sensible!

Shiva is known as the ultimate fighter, the ultimate lover, the ultimate dancer. Why does he have to be an imaginary God? What if he was really such a person? A Mahadev? What if each one of us could be a Mahadev? That's what Shivaji's battle cry Har Har Mahadev meant, didn't it?
The Immortals talks about the caste system. People divided into classes as per their capabilities and roles. And the concept of the "Maika", where kids were born and then raised by the government until the age of 16... given equal opportunities, with no biases, no baggage. And at 16, they were interviewed for the best job, and accordingly alloted a cast! What a truly amazing idea! No matter who you were born as, it was ultimately your deals and capabilities, backed by equal opportunities. Can you find any fault in that?

OMG doesn't question God, it only questions the business of God. Why donate crores to ashrams and saints, who themselves lived absolutely simple lives? Why waste milk and oil and chaddars and candles on God, when these can help light lives of millions of poor? Why go to a temple when God exists in every atom? Why have "franchises" of the Tirupati diety and a "branch" of Shirdi Sai Baba in Pune, if not just to collect money from "devotees"?

How many of us have even attempted to read the Bhagvad Gita, the Mahabharat and the Ramayana, the Bible and the Quran, and tried to learn the lessons our holy men wanted us to learn? Why aren't these lessons taught to each one of us in school? Why don't parents teach them to their children? Why have we wasted the powerful teachings and learnings our religions try to imbibe in us?

OMG and IOM has really inspired me, motivated me to get in touch with my religion, and search for the real learnings. And as I came out of the theatre today (watching OMG for the second time), I also got a heartwarming feeling that there were many among the crowd that felt the same.