Radical Thoughts - 1 (Please read with an OPEN and BROAD mind...)

Yes, I am in a 'pravachan'ic mood! And I can feel that urge to type everything that's there in my mind... (If I do that, I might get into trouble. So for more 'radical' explanations just mail me!) Religion, spirituality, morals, culture, good and bad, duty, dharma, faith, devotion... These are the words which are flashing in my mind right now. People's definitons, my definitions, my views, my arguments, oof too many things at a time... (going to be looooong -will post it in several parts)

Ok, where do I start? Let me start with the story of Dhruva, the boy who became the pole star. Even as a child I used to disagree with the fact that the child was great. I mean the kid performed penance to seek vengeance from his step mother and brother who pushed him away from his father's lap. I would ask, revenge is wrong... Even if he does perform penance, is it good to be avengeful? Will God like such a boy? Doesn't God expect us to forgive and forget? And in the end when the boy's 'devotion' is rewarded, I used to get confused all the more!!

I have always questioned 'penance'. Because in all mythological stories, there is 'fruit' for penance. And God becomes pleased with such 'devotees' who have come to Him for a reason. Whatever happened to unconditional love? Even here it was like, you give something you get something, which is human! (Yes, I know some devotees used to trouble God with penance, I can say that from illustrations in Amar Chitra Katha and the Sagars' mythological serials... The earth rumbles, there is thunder and Lo Behold!!) Anyway, my point is, why call it devotion when you have some expectation out of it? I used to dislike Kalidasa for the same reason. Here in this story, 'devotion' was demeaned further because, Kalidasa used cheap means of blackmail to become 'learned'! But my questions were unanswered...

My favourite stories of devotion have always been that of Ekalavya, Prahlada and Nachiketa. Nachiketa's story was beautiful... Nachiketa is 'sacrificed' to Lord Yama by his father in a fit of anger, but Nachiketa just goes since he is devoted to his father! Ekalavya... I'm yet to understand how someone could behave that way...Prahlada could see God everywhere, but sometimes I can't help but wonder if he would still love God if God hadn't saved him...

That brings me to 'faith' and 'belief'. How can I explain faith? Is it trust? Going to a story again... That of Markandeya this time (I used to and still hate the fact that Lord Yama is the villain in most of these stories. He is the epitome of Dharma! More on that later!) Would Markandeya have faith in God, if he hadn't saved his life? No. I don't know about Markandeya, but the story wouldn't have become famous!! Coming back to day to day life... We say I have faith in God. He will not let us down. By saying the second sentence aren't we contradicting the fact that we say that we have faith?? Then what is faith?

The only answer that I can give to my own question (strictly MY opinion): having complete faith is believing in myself. Irrespective of whether or not I get let down. If I don't, great! But if I do? I have enough strength in me to keep going, to face anything and learn from it... Whoa all this sounds great on paper (technically monitor!) But to practice it is almost impossible! But I can still give it a try!! I hope...

Anyway, I'd like to end this article with a justification. These are my thoughts. Spirituality for me is what I'm within, what I believe, what I learn from... Religion for me is practices that other people believe and something I don't comment about, but totally respect. Both are very personal and each person has her/his own thoughts... Do feel free to comment and tell me what you feel!