VT’s blog

Prelude: Of late, I have noticed a hot new trend in the society. I get to see a whole lot of religious fanatic sons of liberal and agnostic fathers. Saffron flag bearing, trishul-dhari sons of University Physics Professors; Bearded-Mullah look-alike sons of a sufi, ghazal singing fathers.

Surprising that it may sound but I see a renewed interest in religion and religious matters. It is surprising because religion is something which the 70s and the 80s (big city, radical) generation did not care much about. This is a global phenomenon and is happening across ALL faiths: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and everything else.

Purely on an Indian perspective, here is my take on Hinduism- what it could have been and what a caricature it is fast becoming. I write about Hinduism because that is the fold I was born under and I am most familiar with.

Another 'inspiration' to this piece is a recent post from Savi about her impressions about Lord Krishna's relationship with Radha, and I use Lord Krishna as a pivot to my ramblings.

Religion and faith are always touchy subjects. The problem is that those esoteric religious texts are open to so many interpretations; and everyone seems to believe that they know the best. Isn't it true that the most religious fanatics are also the angriest of the lot? The result: an inevitable chappal-throwing session!

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I am a completely irreligious man and a skeptic to the core. I have great doubts in the concept of God itself. So the so-called merits and demerits of religions do not really bother me. However, there are a few things I am particularly fond of ' history, politics and mythology. That is what attracts me to Indo-Greek myths.

Speaking of our own (Hindu) gods, I begin with the assumption that most of these so called gods are purely mythological characters. There are no historical evidences that conclusively prove that they actually existed. That is the reason our Universities do not include too much about them in their History syllabus (there starts the 'Macaulay did it all' debate!).

Those characters may well have been creations of fertile human minds and poets. They may be completely imaginary. In that regard, the gods and goddesses of Hinduism are no different from the ancient Greek-Roman gods and goddesses. Or even the gods and goddesses of ancient Egypt.

Having said that; let me try and attempt to say a bit about the Hindu faith.

The Indic faiths or more precisely the Hindu (aka Sanatan Dhrama) way of looking at things is radically different from the religions of Middle-Eastern origins. 

The Middle-Eastern religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam are all ‘Religions of The Book'. They provide you instructions and commandments to do things the right way. They also warn you of the consequences if you don't follow instructions written in those books of faith (I say this not to demean them in any way, although this sounds like a comparative paragraph).

In that sense, Hinduism is not even a religion.

There is no such 'The Book' in Hinduism. It is collection of texts which are (like all esoteric verse) often interpreted in the ways that suits the reader. Like everyone else, I too look at them the way it suits my ways.

Hindu set of beliefs are more grayscale there are no rights and wrongs here. Hundreds of scriptures do not show you any specific 'points' or commandments to follow. Quite a few 'suggest' a few practices, but they are mere suggestions. Most of the texts simply tell stories; it is up to us to understand what is there to be absorbed.

Hindu gods do everything human- they womanize, they drink alcohol, they dope, they eat 'non-veg' (I absolutely love that word) and they display a lot of human follies. I use the word 'folly' because I am not able to find a better word, the Hindu way does not even explicitly considers the above mentioned acts as 'vices'.

In other words, there are NO clear-cut 'good' and 'evil' categorically defined in Hinduism. This is quite unlike Islamic concepts like halaal and haraam, or the Christian concepts of a loving God and an evil Satan. The Hindu way leaves a lot to conscience and imaginativeness.

If we look at the concept of Lord Vishnu's avatars* - Matsya (fish), Kurma (turtle), Varaha (pig), Narsimha (half human, half beast), Vamana (a dwarf), Parashuram (emotional, learned, prone to anger and violence), Rama (ideal-virtuous man), Krishna (a more complete man) ' we notice a striking similarity to Darwin's concept of evolution (amphibians, to reptiles to mammals to hominids/apes and finally Humans.). In other words, as life evolves, it comes closer and closer to a complete form. A Complete Man- with all his virtues and vices.

Only humans have virtues and vices. There are no evil fish, virtuous pigs, and sinful turtles. These are purely human concepts, so we end up having a hell lot of good and bad humans.

As per the (mythical) division of time; Rama walked in Treta-yuga, whereas Krishna was born in the next yuga, Dwapar. Krishna comes after Rama. Rama is a quintessential virtuous man, Marayada Purushottam and all. In that way, Rama is more 'godly'.

Krishna is more human ' he romances, he is a great politician and he conspires. He speaks great wisdom, flirts, does music and kills his share of demons too!

It is this aspect of Krishna's personality that makes him interesting, perhaps 'cool' too.

Purely on this coolness quotient, I think no other Hindu gods beat Krishna and Shiva. They were powerful and vulnerable at the same time. Isn't this the trait that even modern day babes find killing- a man who is powerful and vulnerable at the same time?

Coming back to Krishna's love with Radha and why Radha attracts such attention and not his wives. One answer to this can be the half witted joke: great love stories are remembered because they never culminated to marriage I won't go into what would have happened if Laila-Majnu actually got married, made babies, paid bills and taxes!

Sick jokes apart, I think the love story depicts only a phase of Krishna's life, not his entire life. It acts as a metaphor for his love for people and the world. His love for simple joys of living. Acts like butter-stealing, gopika-teasing and flute-playing reflect those aspects of a man's life. What in today's management psychology lingo is called a 'Child Ego State', which is considered to be the ego state which makes life colorful and fun. This is the reason the bal roop of Krishna is perhaps the most popular deity. Krishna as a child (Govinda, Kanha) is not the quintessentially boring good boy. He is naughty, chilled-out and does normal pranky stuff what one would expect from a young boy or a teenager.

Concepts like 'pre marital' and 'extra marital' affairs are much later developments in the evolutionary history of man. Back then, polygamy and polyamory were done things and were completely socially acceptable. Monogamy was widely adopted as the norm only a few decades back in India, and a few more decades earlier in Europe.

Of course, the Victorian sense of morality that the Indian middle class practices makes us seek 'justifications' for acts of gods. It is an attempt to make gods confirm to social practices and rules which did not even exist when those religious texts were written.

What makes Hinduism different is this aspect of it. It is not a digital device where you can neatly categorize an act as 'good' or 'evil'. Quite simply put, Hindu religious texts tell you some brilliant stories, they may not even have a 'moral of the story'. They are plain and simple stories, it depends how you and me interpret them. Whether we kill each other over our interpretations and leave the stories to themselves is a matter of choice.

Real Hinduism (if such a thing exists) does not look at the world through narrow prisms of black and white, good and evil.

It is this aspect of Hinduism that makes it perhaps the most misunderstood and misinterpreted faiths. There are simply no 'User Manuals' here. Hinduism expects us to 'find our own way', whereas most humans just want to follow 'instructions'. That makes the Hindu set of faiths a bit too intellectual for the hoi polloi, who try to find answers in mindless rituals.

In an attempt to answer specific questions raised by Savi, I just rambled a few generic observations about the set of philosophies that pass off as blanket Hinduism. Each one of the questions she asked is valid and correct. It all depends on the frame of reference. Whether we choose that 'frame of reference' to be a hill-top or a pin-hole is entirely our choice.

* While mentioning Lord Vishnu's avatars I have deliberately not mentioned Buddha and/or Balaram (there are different schools of thought on them and some debates as well). I have omitted the yet-to-arrive Kalki too.

Over the years, I have known several folks who have succumbed to one the deadliest diseases of the times. They all succumbed to their strange fetish for ideologies, belief systems and a whole lot of isms.

What is it that drives perfectly sane people to stop thinking about trifles like earning enough to feed their kids, securing their own futures, being a bit careful about the environment, paying their taxes, exercising their voting rights and getting a life?

What is it that makes them start worrying about huge issues which are destroying our planet, ruining our culture and dooming our oh-so-great civilization?

Three of my very good friends Amar, Akbar and Anthony are cases to point.

All the three became rather strange when they realised that their faiths are not personal to them, and they are obliged to spread their faiths all across. Now they carry the baggage of enlightening the ignorant ones.

Amar ji, was the nice guy next door. He lived, loved and laughed - before he discovered the virtues of his religion and decided to join a movement to revive the lost glories of Hinduism. He could not read all the books (how many of us will have the time and patience to read all the Vedas, Mahapuranas, Upapuranas, epic poems, Chalisas and stuff). So he went to a Guruji who would explain everything to him in short-cut. He even joined a political-cultural organisation to learn how to save our glorious country and its rich cultural heritage.

Now a days, he starts foaming at the mouth when someone even mentions "Valentine's Day" to him. His new hobby is to raid film theatres that show decadent movies inspired by the decadent West.

Last heard, he was seen beating up love-birds in the neighbourhood park. Those poor boys and girls were trying to cosy up a bit, which Amar ji thought was against our great sanskriti (culture).

Akbar bhai was this friendly guy who served the some of the best food I ever had. He sang wonderful Ghazals too. Till the day he rediscovered Islam. It had a curious effect on him, his beard started going longer and his pajama started going shorter. All his wives were nicely packaged under cloaks. He loved to find out the correct Islamic way of doing just about everything! His ablutions, eating, not eating; everything is decided by the Book.

Like Amar ji, he hates the decadent West too. He has problems with the infidels. He is damn angry and cares more about what happening to those poor chaps in the Middle East, than his own native village where people walk miles to get potable water.

Last heard, he became a famous wife beater, and he even contacted a maulana to find out the perfect Islamic way of wife-beating. He was also seen battling water-cannons at a demonstration held against the evil Zionist state of Israel.

Anthony, oh I loved that guy. His wife baked the best plum cake in town. A happy go lucky, well educated and a perfectly reasonable chap. He was rather nice during his once-a-week-to-the-Church days.

One fine day he decided to become a preacher and went around quoting Psalms to the hoi polloi and the riff-raff.  He loved to circulate badly translated books among them [and I love reading the Hindi version of those books - nice vyakaran (grammar) and typos]. He really wanted to change the world. Finally, his zeal took him to some tribal area in Jharkhand.

Last heard, he got beaten up by hooligans, who were Bajrang Dal activists, because he was trying to rescue the poor tribals from the clutches of their pagan faiths and the rotten caste system.

I mourn the loss of my dear friends Amar, Akbar and Anthony. May their souls RIP.



P.S. Wanted to write a PS saying “no personal attacks intended” and all that, but will not. A pseudo-secular rat like me is capable of only this much.