God, Religion and Temples

In the previous articles, I debated about the issue of individual temples not allowing non-believers to enter inside their premises. This issue was in the limelight after the Guruvayur temple carried out purification rites after a non-Hindu (union minister's son) according to the practices of the temple entered. Also, controversy was roaming after entry of a woman (again a celebrity) inside the Sabarimala temple in Kerala which doesn't allow women inside.

I sent the article to some of my friends and colleagues. One among them, Sumit wrote a long reply. I never thought that being a senior Finance man by profession; he would have such a nice and clear thinking on matters of religious and spiritual interests. I am quoting him unedited, except a spell-check:

Q1) Is it ethical on the part of a Doctor to take commission from Pathological Labs by recommending patients? If you look at the Doctor as a Businessman / Commercial person it is justified, however if you consider the nobility of his profession this is not acceptable.

Similarly if you look at a Temple as a Congress or a Club it has the liberty to frame its own rules. Religion for me is for everybody. God (I call it my inner conscience) is for all. Who are we puny human beings to decide that it is for me and not for others? Can a Muslim, Christian, Sikh or anybody following any other religion be denied the Blessing of GOD? GOD is a concept. How you attain him is left to you, the treaded paths till date are Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. However all roads lead to the same inner conscience within you.

Q2) I come from a very different school.

A. The role of the Govt is to govern to masses and facilitate infrastructure and thus well being. It has nothing to do with Religion. It should only get into this if there is any unrest / violation of law in the name of religion. Otherwise the relationship between Govt and Religion is like that of the Donkey grazing in Madhubani and the Queen of England.

B. Once again, Hinduism as I understand is very different from other religion. Islam is a set of Rules for Discipline, Christianity is somewhat similar except that it has a very faint tinge of philosophy. But Hinduism is no Rules, it is pure and probably the world’s richest philosophy. The rules were framed by medieval Priests and Brahmins. If you look at the various rules of Hinduism it is highly influenced by the socio-economic- political scene of the period.

So, a Temple should be a platform of likeminded people; influenced by the common philosophy. Human spirit cannot be bound by Rules. Why have rules while seeking the ultimate?

Q3) The disconnect remains. To me a Hindu is a person who says he is a Hindu. Again as I said above God is universal and omnipresent, why restrict him to the precincts of the temple.

Q4) I think I have spoken my mind by now.

I kept writing the above spontaneously as I kept reading. Having read the Interview I ask a very Basic question, I do not have an answer; Is God and Religion same or different? If they are same, God cannot be partial, he will bless all those who come to him, the corollary, if he is partial he is not God.

The Head Priest is within his Rights. Hence in this case Hinduism is not God.

Another Question, How many Gods do we have? As many no. of Religions? or only One. If there is only One, then all religions are same. In case there is a plethora of Gods as there are religions, the Earth should have long vanished while they fought. And if they fought why should they be God. And if there are many and they never fight why do we fight?

I sign off with a Story I heard long back:

In the most Powerful place of Universe, i.e. the Cabinet of Brahma, there took place a stormy meeting. Everybody kept saying and complaining to Brahma that ‘Devatwa’ has become very easy and it seems that all and sundry are attaining it. Also since it is easy to get the Demons are destroying it easily. Hence ‘Devatwa’ needs to be put beyond the reach of humans. Hence there were endless suggestions and debates. Some wanted to keep it beyond Seven Mountains while others wanted to keep it millions leagues under the sea and a few more had other innovations. However it was concluded that the will of manpower is enormous and some day or the other all this will be found and nobody could reach a conclusion. Brahma had all these while been listening and spoke nothing. When everybody was done with he presented his mind to which nobody could find flaw, it seemed foolproof to all the intelligent minds. He said………………" It is natural for Humans to seek ‘Devatwa’ and they keep looking for it. Implant the ‘Devatwa’ deep into their heart. They will look for it all round the world but will never look inside; thus Godness gets implanted in all of us before we are sent to earth and we measly creatures keep fighting within ourselves to find the correct path to attain it.

Bye

Sumit

In case a Riot breaks out I am a Hindu for survival since no other religion would accept me; else my Religion is Humanism. Humanity does not permit conflict among Religions………. hence I am at a loss.

Thanks, Sumit, for taking care to share your views. While I agree with you, I have tried to chalk down my points in the most simplified manner possible:

God is one.

Religion is a means to attain God (the state of purity of soul, which I call perfection or Godness).

Different religions with different set of practices are for people of different tastes and different ideologies.

Ideally world should have consensus on only one religion. But since there are numerous cultures that developed on earth at the same time, all very-very different from each other, therefore the different cultures and different civilizations tried to reach that perfection (Godness) through very different means. Therefore, some basic differences will always remain in the different religions of the world for some more time to come.

Temples are not at all near to God or Godness. These are places which are far better than the usual places, when it comes to concentration and devotion, but are never a prerequisite for attainment of perfection. In the ideal case, a truly spiritual person doesn’t need a temple. God is everywhere.

As you said, some parts of our religions were influenced by the 'socio-economic- political scene' of the period they established or they grew. Therefore, they have some basic differences among them.

All human beings are same when it comes to humanity. The temples which restrict people don’t say that they are restricting non-believers because they are “not good” or they are “bad”. They are simply saying that it has never happened before, and the tradition of the temple doesn’t allow them. The non-believers are welcome to enter those temples where there is no restriction!

I truly agree with you when you say that government should not interfere with religion unless there is some “unrest / violation of law in the name of religion.”

I think we all agree with this set of views. In case I need correction, please let me know.