Gods Beloved Clowns

N. Arunkumar *

I recently came across a pleasant young gentleman who had lately converted to a religion of his choice by abandoning his religion by birth and into which he was born. The young gentleman was indeed very pleasant and charming in all respects of contemporary dignified existence. His honesty to his new found religious belief was evident in every action of his and I could sense that he was entirely at peace with himself and his beliefs now. His whole lifestyle had changed dramatically following his conversion and the story he recounted of his past, before he embraced the new religion was surely interesting to hear. He frankly declared that he was an alcoholic, tobacco chewing, cigarette smoking youngster who was surely reeling towards hell in top gear. At one significant point in time during his collapse towards the hellish alleys of the Devil, a savior came into his life and helped him to realize his follies and pulled him back into mainstream living. Damn good! I congratulate this young man and also offer commendations to his savior who had the heart to reform the life of an otherwise shattered young man.

Now, I heard him make this speech about his reformation due to the impression that his new conviction made on him and yet, I must admit I was a bit saddened with the manner in which he damned his parent religion. He declared to the small congregation listening to him that he had been led astray by the wrong God, who had not helped him find his true mission in life. Following his new found formula for success he had smashed the parent icons of his belief in his house and around him declaring that it was not the true path. Now, it created a thought in my mind. I would wish to remind all converts that it is not religion that misleads our path of life and instead it is the other way round, as we are the ones with the handicaps to allow good things guide our paths. Why are our Gods so mean and lead us astray by not delivering us into the proper mainstream belief that is his own creation, but place us in the so called wrong households? Why does he not have the means to advertise his superiority over all of us mortals and help us to find the true meaning of worship naturally, without resorting to human advocates to tell us about his generosity to any particular group? Why is He indulging in this type of partiality? Is he a politician too, who believes in the policy of divide and rule? Why does he not want universal peace, which is very much within his means? Or, is he so weak and helpless to influence us and our lives for the betterment of his glorious creation?

Coming back to the story of this young man, his attitude to his parent religion, the religion in which he was born and his ancestors from time immemorial belonged to has been found inadequate by him now, in his perspective. He spoke of his life being in darkness due to his wrong beliefs, and that he was glad he was saved by allowing light into himself. This is a disturbing statement he made, as far as I am concerned. We are all welcome to embrace any ideology that we feel suits our life best. However, it does not mean that a person has the liberty or the profound wisdom to declare a verdict so profane and call the parent religious stream a journey in darkness. We are dealing with human intelligence in the first place and downgrading a religious faith as dark or light is something that even God would not perhaps summarize as. If at all any God of the various religious torrents declares something to that effect, it will certainly be questionable. Any convert to any doctrine must realize that religion too is a question of intelligent choice once a person becomes mature enough to make a choice as such. It does not give anyone the liberty to accuse his earlier beliefs as dark, bright or with any such euphemisms to that effect.

The scientific fact of religion is something different and does not confirm to theology or abstract thinking. Practical approach to religion is also not possible as it is a subject that deals with our inner spirit and that is not a thing that can be quantified in realistic terms. The inner psyche requires many avenues to supplement its growth. It actually varies from individual to individual and the intensity with which we may perceive our belief depends on that unique platform of individual enigma. A religious philosophy may seem appealing to one but absolutely anathema to another. If we wish to achieve world peace like we profess to try and achieve by mere lip service today, the ideal commencing point would be to accept that a philosophy of life is best left to individual taste and there should not be damning verdicts from anyone, however big he may perceive himself to be. A stray case here and there of a wrong doer refining himself does not mean that the religious philosophies of his ancestors were wrong and faulty for what he had done or did in this lifetime. That’s like absolving one’s self from all accountabilities for one’s own actions.

A person who has converted must realize that his ancestors were responsible for his deliverance to this world in this lifetime. Had they been wrong, then the convert’s family tree would have been turned off long ago. They all would have been consigned to the flames of hell, had it been the case. Religions are a matter of individual choice, and believe me you, we are fortunate to be born in this secular atmosphere here, as I have seen what religious fanaticism and singularity can do to nations that follow it. How poor they seemed compared to an averagely intelligent person like me was shocking to me. They were stereotyped to deny and lived in a paradise of huge ignorance of many things else which are beautiful in this universe. So, let us be mature about our ways of devotion and accept that what God had tried to achieve over many millions of years, of achieving universal peace and happiness is more of a Utopian dimension and something that has not yet happened. Strife, war, mistrust, hatred, murder, rape and all other such crimes that leave a mark of the Devil on us is still ripe among us and continue to plague our globe, immaterial of pursuit of the one true healer who will put an end to all these evils we have to deal with every moment of our lives. Practical, mature, sensible people will not condemn others, but would rather follow the call of their own hearts honestly and stop making irresponsible statements of censure of other tenets. That way, perhaps there will be more universal acceptance of each other in this world, and peace will get a real chance. If not, the chasm will widen further and further, and the twain shall not meet at any point. Peace will be just a commodity fondly hoped, but never genuinely wished for.

On this subject, I also wish to remind our social and moral educators to stop confusing our young children by telling them that God lives in every creature and living thing in this world. We are misguiding them by telling them this fact of life. The fact is that the children wonder why we are then eating creatures made by God. Everyday, millions of chickens, cows, lambs and many other animals of every shape and size are being slaughtered all over the globe to satiate our ever increasing hunger. If we are led to believe that God is present in every creature and living thing on this planet, is it right to slaughter and eat God everyday in this way? How many Gods are thus being eaten everyday by us? Is it not worth a serious thought? So, what is the truth about this statement? Moral Science textbooks are replete with such confusing references taught to our impressionable young minds. They perhaps grow up thinking that slaughter is also an epitome of remembering God, in albeit bloodthirsty ways and that it is completely acceptable. Instead of fearing God, we should rather have a God whom we can love without preconditions and be allowed to play with like true children. Why is God so grave with us? I wonder about it often and want to believe that God is not so unsociable after all. He has created many amusing things to have fun too. Just look at things around you in a lighter vein and you will find the colorful clowns and comic sketches he has created around us all. Include me as the first clown on that list if you wish. I can laugh at myself for many of the stupid things I do and consider to do in an ordinary day of living my life. Seriously!