India, Idols and a Rat

Following is taken from a mail (my reply) to one of my friends...Yes, copy righted by me. That friend (lives in another country) saw a TV program about Indian culture where they say we Indians eat food with rats (sharing same plate) and we worship animals as God. My friend wanted to know whether I am such a person or not...Interesting

Selamat Pagi !

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Understanding Indian culture is not easy. Hinduism is not a religion founded by somebody but it’s a way of living. Christians follow Bible, Muslims follow Koran and what about Hindus?

Hindus have 4 Vedas (or may be 5, when we consider Ayurveda, the Indian system of medicine), over 108 upanishads, Smritis, 4 Ithihasas including Ramayana, 18 Puranas, Bhagavat Gita (its part of one of the Ithihasa – Mahabharata), more than 4 Agamas, 6 Darshanas…there is a scripture about love making (Kamasutra) there are books about how to construct buildings (Vaastu)…I really don’t know how many scriptures we have got..we have scriptures dealing with every aspect of our life. What I know very clearly is that one human life is not enough to study all these.

One of the most popular  ways or learning  basics of arithmetic is by way of using counting frames or Abacus. Initially, a student physically see what is 1 or what does it mean when we say 2.  Once the skills are achieved, a student moves on to mental math. The more skilled you are the more you can do mentally ( for example, the Indian math genius  Shakuntala Devi can perform  all the math YOU teach  your students using  black/white board or paper and pen/pencil, just mentally).

In a similar fashion, in Hinduism, the idea of a supernatural force (God) starts with forms (pictures, idols etc) and end in a formless God. When a person finally realizes that God is not just a creator but he is there in his creation, they sees God in everything around them and this includes trees, animals etc. Sounds stupid?

Consider that somebody prayed to a formless God and his/her prayer got answered. Had that person prayed to a tree with same intensity and devotion, then also the prayer would have answered. If first one did not work, the second one also would not work. 

As per Bible, one is not supposed to worship idols. But as you can see these days, there are lots of Christian denominations (mainly catholic) who worship  the idol of Jesus, Virgin Mary, and the Cross. Same with the  Hindus too. They go to temples and offer prayers. Are they just fools and idiots?

No, they go there coz their prayers are getting answered (I am not saying every prayer..why is it so? this universe has some subtle logic). It doesn’t matter to whom you offer your prayer, to Allah, Christ or Krishna, it goes to one direction. That’s the reality.

Enough introduction. Now you know why some people worship a snake or a tree, I mean the logic. Some people say the worship or snake started from fear. That has some sense, possible. Worshipping the form is the easiest way of worship. For a 5 year old child, if we show the an idol of Krishna or Jesus and say ‘ That is God’, they can understand it better, than we pointing our finger to Sky and telling there sits the God (An Indonesian’s up is an American’s down. When an Indonesian and American points to sky, they point in opposite direction. When people from different parts of the earth points their finger up, they point to different places of the universe. Either this (God concept) is total nonsense or it means God is everywhere, there is no third possibility)

Then why can’t we directly worship the formless? It is not easy to digest. Osama Bin Laden may be able to recite the whole Koran without looking the Koran. But don’t you think he miss the whole point of spirituality? Did he understand God? When I say this, I am not telling that only those who worship idols understood God better. There are millions who get stuck to the idol itself for their whole life and think that idol is God. On the other side, there are millions who worship a formless God (since they are taught worshipping God in form is sin)and never sees the presence of God in his/her life here (on earth) when they are actually living. For them, God sits up in the sky and stuffs related to God happens only after their death. There are some others who believe God is giving some test here and he/she is going to get the result on the day of final judgment.  As a teacher, you know why you are giving your students a test. It is to measure how much they learnt/understood, right? You are testing them because you don’t know to what extend your student know. Why is God giving us a test? Coz he don’t know what we humans know? After all it is He who created us. And he need to give us a test? Then I would say he is not worth calling God.

Now, the straight answer to your question – No, I do not worship a rat or a monkey nor do any of my Hindu friends or relatives (I am very sorry to admit that I had even killed snakes). We do not share food with a rat, which is not at all hygienic (some people eat rats, you know that?). I have never heard of anybody in India doing that. May be some minority sect somewhere might have done that and that TV people got it.

Outside India, people will hear only the bad side of India. India is a nuclear nation,  every software you use has some Indian connection, including the one which helps you read this mail, India sends the satellites of many other countries into the space, zero was invented here, we have thousands of years old scriptures which deals with math including trigonometry, airplanes, architecture,.. the first brain surgery was done here (thousands of years ago by Sushrutha). Thousands of years ago, Indians knew that earth is round in shape and it is the earth that is circling the sun and not the other way…we have books on astronomy and astrology.....it’s a long list. But outside world see only the bad things, even today.

A Russian friend of mine thought that in India there are no toilets. Another friend of mine from Paris did not believe me when I said I live in 11^th floor of my apartment coz she thought India is a poor country and we Indians live in small houses and huts.  That is how India is being promoted by the west with some vested interest.  After that ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ movie couple of my friends from abroad asked me ‘ do you still have such slums?’ they did not ask ‘do you have such brainy boys in your slums?’, do you see? So I am not surprised if you saw such a TV show about India.

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Rgds

Jay