BE TRUE TO YOUR OWN FAITH






Pic.: Chetna Shetty

On this Sunday morning, my wife and I had been to the Global Vipasana Centre (Pagoda) at Gorai. For a long time, I have been longing to visit this magnificent piece of architecture. I love anything and everything inspiring… great work of architecture… be it commercial or residential towers or be it cathedrals, temples, mosques or gurudwaras… or even bridges and flyovers… I feel inspired by the thought that loads of passion goes into building them…

Another reason why I wanted to visit Pagoda was this: I have been, always, influenced by the teachings of Gautama Buddha, who, in my view, did not teach mankind any religion… In fact, everywhere around the Vipasana centres, you get to read this truth: Vipasana, the meditation taught by the Buddha himself, doesn't belong to any sect or religion…

But, then, somewhere down the line, the essence and the truth get polluted by us – the followers, the interpreters, the mortals, the gullible… We, invariably, end up making a religion out of what we follow… be it the teachings of Christ, Krishna, Mohammad, Nanak or Gautama… We tend to believe that our truth is the only truth, our teacher is the true teacher, and our God is the only God, the true God…

And, then, we go about propagating that belief of ours… yes, with an evangelistic fervor… aggressively, even if that means distancing ourselves from our fellow-beings and creating walls between us…

On Sunday, at one of the desks at Pagoda, there was this elderly volunteer. In the process of doing his ‘seva’, he asked us too many questions… One of them was this:

“Have you watched PK?”

“Oh yes.”

“Do you remember the bus scene?”

“Yes.”

“Can you tell me, in that scene, PK goes and sits next to whom?”

My wife and I looked at each other and started guessing…

“The widow in white saree?”

“That’s the point you missed,” the gentleman pointed to us with a teasing smile, “He sat next to a Buddhist monk!”

Now, that’s true… We remembered PK had settled down next to a young Buddhist-monk in the bus…

But, then, why was this elderly volunteer reminding us of it? That, PK, the alien, had found only a Buddhist to be a true spiritual being on this planet?


Every time a Westerner showed his or her interest to become a Hindu, Gandhi would remind them, “There is no need for you to become a Hindu… Be a true Christian.” There is, also, a poignant scene in Sir Richard Attenborough’s movie, Gandhi… A young Christian priest is giving sermon during mass in a church… He talks about Gandhi… a Hindu… how his philosophy makes sense and how practical spirituality that is… and, you can see the reaction: one by one, the members of the audience start leaving the church… Yes, they don’t want to hear what is being said about a Hindu by a Christian priest… that, too, from the pulpit!

Christ, Krishna, Mohammad, Nanak and Buddha… all inspire me…

In all of them, I find peace… a meaning to my existence…

Gandhi’s words, keep haunting me:
“You need not become a Hindu; be a good Christian.”


GERALD D’CUNHA



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