EVEN A DULL RIVER HAS A DEEP RELIGION









"This dull river has a deep religion of its own." 
- NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE


In matters of our religious faith, all of us are encouraged to ‘believe’, mostly, without questioning. And, hence, we call ourselves - ‘believers'!


This is true of all religious faiths…


As a Christian (Catholic), to me, Mother Mary will, always, remain a ‘Virgin Mary’, even though she gave birth to Jesus. I shall, always, believe, that she was ‘physically’ taken up into Heaven, by God’s angels, at the end of her earthly life… I shall, always, believe, that Jesus rose to life on the third day from his death… I shall, always, believe in the simple theory of how God created this Universe, including  Adam and Eve…


I am a 'faithful' Christian, if I accept all these myths and stories as ‘truths’… Yes, if I question less.


And, that’s how it is in every religion. The other day, I was at one of my friends’ place. They were Sikhs. While I was there at their place, they were watching the ceremonies related to Kartarpur Gurudwara in Pakistan. Apparently, my friend’s wife, earlier, had been on a pilgrimage tour to all the important Gurudwaras in Pakistan, including Kartarpur. So, she animatedly began to explain to me about the significance of this place… the legend of Guru Nanakji’s death and how Hindus and Muslims, both, had argued over whether Guru’s body was to be cremated or buried… How, as per the legend, the body had turned into flowers… and how Hindus had taken half of them to cremate and Muslims had taken the other half to bury!


The same kind of legends are there for us as followers of Shirdi Sai Baba or even Kabir. You name them, and you have them… I mean, the ‘Beliefs’, the myths, the stories and the legends. But, as ‘believers, we do not call them so… We call them ‘truths’…


And, that’s it…


Is it harmful?


Personally, I don’t think, that any of our personal religious-beliefs are harmful, either to ourselves or to our society. No matter, how hard we try to erase them from our minds, we shall, always, have some myths and stories, tucked inside our hearts as our eternal fairy-tales… I think, that’s something beautiful about life… It’s harmless. It’s the sign that we are humans… We are intelligent but stupid, too… That, we all know only 'so much' which is unearthed by someone, so far… And, what is ‘unearthed’ is just the ‘scratching of surface’… That, we all shall, always, remain little babies when it comes to ‘understanding’ this entire story… this mystery!


So, let our personal beliefs remain our personal beliefs. Let me continue to believe, that Jesus was born to a Virgin, just as my Hindu brother believes, that Karna’s mother Kunti conceived him by worshiping the Sun… May the legends of Nanak, Shridi Sai Baba and Kabir continue to keep us childlike. Yes, may that be so… So beautiful, and so human, always...


At the same time, let’s pray for the simple wisdom – never ever to mock at someone else’s faith… or, to make a mockery of our own faith by its 'ugly display'…


Only then can the myths and stories of our religious beliefs shall remain harmless… Only then we shall remain 'intelligent'!







GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Walter Ellem/Pixels

Video: Papon

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