There was this big puja at my house today, complete with a priest, havan, katha, idols and all the other jazz. Something had told me that this was not going to be an easy experience for me. It all started when I lit the first agarbattis. I rushed into my room to eat, inhale and gulp all the anti allergy medicines I had ever been prescribed. After all those would be much needed for the smoke storm(havan) that was to follow.
But my inspiration for writing today did not arise from my own miseries but rather from something much different. After bathing the idol of Ganesh ji in various liquids and sticky semi solid materials, I was told by the priest, "Ab ganesh ji ka dhyan kijiye". (Think of the Lord Ganesh now). Somehow, such sentences have always failed to bring divine thoughts in my head. But this time I just did as I was told. I thought of Ganesh ji, poor Ganesh ji...
I started thinking how someone would feel if he was indeed treated like our lord. Have you ever known someone who just says two kinds of things to you. First a lot of meaningless flattery just to make you happy. None of which comes from the heart or being even a semblance of what he actually feels. And then comes the motivation for the flattery. He needs you to do something for him. It may be ok if someone does it the odd time, you would probably get irritated with the person if he does it again and you are best advised to maintain your distance from him if he does it again and again!
Yet hundreds of millions of us have been treating our "Gods" in this mean selfish way for thousands of years. We pray to them(flatter them) in f***ing Sanskrit. Obviously we have no intention of meaning those things from our hearts, we don't even know what the hell these lines mean. We even go to the extent of outsourcing the flattery we want to do to a different person, and he mumbles things that we don't care about in a language we don't even understand. He then declares that the lord is pleased and will in-turn bless us with prosperity and health and anything else that we may desire. Hypocrisy may be an intrinsic fabric in Indian society, but this is the sheer height of it.
And then there is the immediate physical and mental trauma that the representation of the Gods(the idols) have to go through. Imagine having smoke thrust right into your face by a plethora of followers during so called arties and all the smoke of the agarbattis burning right under your nose, then there is the baths in all kinds of funny materials, curd mixed with sugar and milk and other sticky stuff. Imagine being the god of a big temple where thousands of worshipers will put you through this every day of your existence. And the top it, constantly being in the middle of high decibel worshipers. Doesn't it all that make you feel lucky that you are 'a mere mortal'.
To all the sincere followers, if there is indeed a God and if there is indeed an afterlife, I get a very strong feeling that you will be in for worse punishment for treating your Gods in the way that you do than me for just choosing to not believe in him. Beware!
