Sitting in the
waiting area of a car dealership, I heard an old lady ask me “Do you have trust
in God??”, and to be honest, I could not react to this question. Perhaps a bit
shocking for many of us, considering I’ve lived in India and belong to a
religion which believes in the actuality of 33 crore Gods!!! Possibly many of
my peers are facing the same predicament, do we truly believe in Divinity? It’s
true that we attend religious rituals, visit temples and bow in front of idols,
also make a wish or two but then, how many of these actions are an individual faith
and how many just to respect the custom or elders in the family?
As children, we
were taught to respect God, to fear, pray & believe. Our predecessors told
us stories from the folklore, all glorifying the Deities as we know them now.
Growing up, we know our traditional mythology, but then are we certain those
events actually occurred? We have grown up associating ourselves to a
particular religion, instructed to follow its customs, and expected to stay
loyal to the religion of our birth. But how appropriate is it to our actuality?
If whatever my religion says is true, if my God is true, then does it imply
that other religions are false, that their God is false? Then won’t they
believe in the same? That my religion, my God is false?
I know from
personal experience that not all things that happen around us is under our control.
And for the times when I really don’t have an explanation for a particular
occurrence! Depending on the
significance of that event in my life, I term it God’s grace, luck, destiny or
whatever. But a lack of explanation does not prove the existence of God, does
it?
Personally
speaking, I am a believer, not in a particular entity or religion, but I do
believe that there are some things beyond my will or control and in such times,
I just wait and watch. I believe in the positive energy and I believe in doing
everything in my power. Maybe that is what some people describe as God. Maybe
for some, the personification of this energy is necessary in order to believe.
But then how does faith have anything to do with this??
My science
teaches me not to accept anything without a rational justification. But this
same science is still unable to explain a number of natural phenomenon. Does
that mean I shouldn’t trust in science? Or should I generalize the same logic
and believe in the existence of God?
I met with a
small accident due to the Snow Storm in Detroit. I wasn’t hurt, but it could
have been much worse. The incident freaked me out, to the extent that I stopped
reading a book on atheism that I was carrying in my bag at that time. I still
haven’t touched the book. In retrospect, it seems silly now, or probably makes
it look like I do believe in God. I was scared then, for my life, for my family
and such strong sentiments turned me into a believer, I was thankful to be safe
and alive, and I expressed gratitude to God, not a particular God, but to me it
was the energy of the universe, the power of the good, as I like to think.
Perhaps that is
what makes people have faith in too, the fear of the unknown, of the things
they can’t control, the hesitation in their world. Maybe believing in some
higher power gives them the strength to move on no matter what. Maybe that’s
why, people believe in God!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment