The Loss of our Gods

One of the biggest assets of Hinduism I have always felt is its decentralization of religious practices. And therefore I have always believed more than a religion, it is a way of life. We have more Gods than we can count and remember and while many believe that Hinduism is essentially a throbbing, living example of polytheism, I always believe it also has the traits of Monotheism and Pantheism. Which is why when someone from Europe wonders how I plan to celebrate Diwali, I itch to answer, “Just like the French wine connoisseurs celebrate Oktoberfest.”

Our different Gods help us to reach the One as we deem fit. And then we find our own unique ways to reach The One. But as I travel around the country, I see a strange phenomenon. Slowly the complex fabric of our culture is giving way to the worship of what I call the Mega Gods – The avatars of Shiva and Vishnu. Even the Incarnations of the Mother Goddess are losing out to the male deities of Monotheist nature. The local gods are slowly being forgotten. In Luka and the Fire of Life, Rushdie speaks of the Forgotten Gods from ancient religions who no one remembers anymore. Slowly the Gods in our ancient forests and lakes and mountains are facing the same fate. Time it seems is able to consume even divinity. Whether it is good or bad only time can tell. I just wish there was someone working on the forgotten Gods of India.

While the Gods leave, one by one, like the vanishing languages of the world, the ‘Godmen’ fill up their places. Feeding on our insecurities, they now control a vast swathe of our country and slowly blind faith and rituals replace the logical mind that once told us that paths to The One can be many and yet they reach the same destination.

Sometimes you need the light of Knowledge to show you the way. For darkness is powerful and all encompassing but always loses in the end.

Why He Exists

2011 was a strange year. Well, every year since 2001 has been strange and it never ceases to amaze me how much the world can conjure up moments and memories that live with you forever. But 2011 was strange because I could sense myself changing; for better or for worse only time can tell.

Exactly 10 years from my first trip outside Calcutta, I made my first trip outside India. I went to Pilani leaving every friend behind and made new friends who will last a lifetime. I learnt the meaning of sojourn that might last lifetimes. I hope Singapore does the same. But the me of 2011 is a different person and I can’t be sure if he is as nice and the innocent as the boy who went to Pilani. Or maybe even he wasn’t that good as I think him to be in hindsight. It’s strange – nostalgia not only makes me like my earlier self, it also seems to shade its many follies and blemishes.

2011 was crazy. I loved my work, messed up my personal life forgetting the small things that makes so much of a difference like ensuring to visit parents at least every few months. But more importantly, somewhere along the way, my unflinching faith had waivered. I have never been able to figure out if I am religious. But I knew for sure I am spiritual. I believe in a power beyond human imagination. Depending upon my world view at that point of time, I am at times a follower of Advaita, believing in the fact that I am His manifestation, at others I can’t believe that someone like me can be a source of infinite power and then I start believing in God in the more traditional sense of the word. Those are the times when self doubt begins to creep in about the absolute goodness in this world which must win, in the end. Or so I believe.

What was worse was that I looked around to find people around me becoming intolerant, argumentative and outright rude. And maybe people think of me in the same light. I really do not know. We rarely stop to hear others’ views. We want to shout and impose our views on others. The earliest Greek philosophers and the Indian saints knew the importance of the dissident voice. The Greeks might have fed a few to lions or given them hemlock but more or less tolerance was a virtue. Today, it’s seen as diplomacy, a lack of spine or even submissiveness. What many forget is that an arrow that has been fired or a word spoken can never be retrieved.

One thing that made a real difference this year was the viewing of Miracle on 34^th Street a few days before Christmas in China. When faced with the question if Santa Claus exists, the judge rules that the people of America have reposed their faith in God and on every dollar bill they proclaim, “In God we trust.” All was asked of us to have faith as small as a grain of sand. Sometimes, even that’s difficult. And we need to remember why He exists. This was the 1994 adaptation of the 1947 classic but good nonetheless.

Nat Geo had this brilliant article on King James Bible in the December issue. It was The Bible that defined the English Language. This year around Christmas as I was cleaning up my attic, I chanced upon my Bible from school.

Everyone interprets religion and gospel in different ways. Everyone reading this would remember the story where The Son of God says, “let who has never sinned be the first to throw the stone.” I always thought it was the best proof that God loves us. I have not found anyone yet who can throw a stone. Allowing such a species to exist is perhaps the greatest demonstration of a cosmic filial love.

When God Left Man

Since a few months I have been feeling a strange sense of Godlessness around me. It started the night I watched Percy Jackson and intensified when I watched Prince of Persia. Well, it might sound funny but I have always believed in Signs. I believe that once upon a time Man could actually read the will of the Gods through the Signs that were sent. And who can say whether Percy Jackson was not the Sign that heralded the beginning of the End.

Across the world Nature seems to be striking a balance. Legends have it when the weight of the Earth gets heavy The Titan adjusts it on his shoulders. Indian mythology goes a step further. It tells us when the weight of evil on earth gets beyond tolerance, Seshnaag shifts the Earth from one of his hoods to another and a new age begins on this Earth.

Do you remember Batman Begins? Do you remember the Secret Brotherhood who took it upon themselves to get rid of civilizations that had become corrupt beyond redemption? Today around me I sense the presence of that brotherhood.

The inner peace has been broken. No longer is there a sense of calm. There is an uneasiness that never leaves. The earth is parched waiting for the rains but this time it’s different. The wait is for deliverance.

And that’s why I am scared of Rajneeti. You’ll hear different reviews of Rajneeti. Some will love the way dynasty politics in India has been documented, some will rave about the reality of the first two hours of the movie, the intensity of Manoj Bajpai, the subtlety of Nana Patekar, the hidden shades of grey inside Ranvir while others might tell you that it reminds them of The Godfather and Mahabharata all mixed in one movie with mindless shoot outs in the last half an hour. All of them are true. In fact, if you would like a treatise on Indian Politics of the Heartland you might rather want to watch Gulal.

But Rajneeti points to a deeper flaw within humanity. It signals an era where honour is dead where something is rotten not only in the State of Denmark but in the whole world.

The day when the dividing lines between Shakuni and Krishna vanishes, that is the day we need to get worried. The reason Mahabharata is an epic is because within each character there was a strain of nobility which was unadulterated. Every character had his or her own flaws and that’s why Karn remains the Greatest Tragic Hero of all times. That’s the reason why Duryondhana was able to reach the heavens while all the Pandavas had to face their times in hell.

Where is the essence of Good in Rajneeti? Where is Hope? Where is the assurance of Krishna that He will come to deliver us? Rajneeti shows the triumph of greed over good, of ego over humanity, of manipulation over love, of power over honour.

I had to watch Shrek Forever After and the deal we have made with the Devil can only be broken by Love but then there is no longer any Love left in this World. Nightmares of Shutter Island fill our dreams and we try to live our life in a world created by a master director.

Mahaprasthan. – The last walk of Mankind is soon to begin.