The Word of Man
An Essay by Vaibhav Srivastava
There were ages, all of which are now
history. There were the dark ages - traces of which are still brand new in some
minds. We continue to be savages in many ways. ‘I’ coexists here with a
collective the perception of which is built by the ‘I’. My understanding of
‘everything’ is seemingly limited to an absurdity without any realism. My words
are a plea for humanity, but pleas for humanity often result in irrational fits
of mad faith. Resignation from social change, on the other hand, seems awfully
selfish and individualistic. Here lies a contradiction which religion has
addressed since the dawn of mankind.
Renaissance, Liberation and Independence
have all authorized people’s belief in social change. Our generation is only moving
forward. It must be walking along those same lines of change that made it
easier for communities to coexist otherwise we are nothing but a component of
the force causing regression.
Today, coexistence of distinct communities
has come to be considered impossible. If coexistence of communities is negated
how are individuals going to coexist within any singular community? I assume
that laws determining the human condition beyond a point are universal. An
emphasis needs to be laid on the determined nature of universal truths about
the human condition.
Instead, only misinformation and lies are
spreading to people. The problem is grave and so a majority of people look to
religion for answers. On close inspection, I find religion hanging by a thread
between secularism and atheism. There are no universal truths in the existence
of anything for an uneducated mind, and people will never be interested in
finding any answers to the questions ringing within them. This, particularly,
is my fear. On one hand people have a system of belief which validates
everything their mind can imagine and reasons for them a theory of origin on
the basis of morality. On the other hand, they have an absolute disbelief in reality
due to their critical analysis of the world. Here it should be said that the
gift of the will to reason isn’t unique to human beings. Even other animals
possess a developed set of reflexes that help them survive. While these animals
may not be aware why they will do certain things to live an extra day, human
beings know very well why they have developed a particular set of habits and
belief systems that will help them survive. On the passing of several thousand
years we know how to physically survive. Now, it’s the act of understanding our
psychological afflictions that trouble us. We need to survive our own madness.
For many years religion helped us understand our own condition but now it’s
simply run out of answers.
Are we limited by universal truths about
our human condition or are we capable of changing natural order? Still, many of
us have given up on reason altogether. We bring into existence systems which
challenge power structures already in existence. In our contribution as
individuals, we have accepted ‘immorality’ as an essential quality required for
achieving personal excellence. Instead, modern society while being dependent on
technology has mistaken perfection and excellence for happiness and self-esteem
as emblems of moral purpose. We seem to have forgotten that we are still living
in a world which has an insane amount of inequality and injustice. In those
terms we are no longer children of god! Far from it we are all closer to
atheism than having any faith at all in god. I lost my father a few years ago
to cancer and that is how I was introduced to Hindu rituals. As a child I was
made familiar with the teachings of Kabir and the books of various religions
were put in front of me. Kabir taught me repeatedly to question religion. Even
though I had access to various religions nobody ever asked me to choose one out
of the lot though. I now think it was childlike, even sincere and naive of me
to rely so completely on god for help in times of trouble. I was absent minded
and fragile. This idea of a creature called god made me lazy and wishful. The
idea and the absence of god eventually became a joke, but just at the right
moment the absurdity of having faith became apparent too. I’ve stopped
believing in the existence of god ever since the passing away of my father even
as my mother never stopped praying. She wanted me to offer prayers too. Not
knowing I had only bitter words in my heart for a god that had betrayed me. I
now feel grateful I did not stop her from praying. Who was I anyway? Over time
I learnt that religion can mean differently for different people. But what is
religion? We see the world in parts. We see it one frame at a time in this
entire reflection of ‘everything’ - traces of consciousness; those parts which
fit best with our image of ourselves seem most appropriate and become allies
with our virtues. They hold god’s morality intact when in fact god’s morality
is really our own morality. We’ve been told we are part of something whole and
so we tend to personally associate with organized religion.
We the people are slowly filling up to the
brim with criminal intent. Such is the reality of our society here. We take
note of our mistakes only when we see similar wrong doing in the world around
us. I do not wish to mix crime with corruption. We go to great lengths to
correct our behavior and that of the world around us when we empathize with a
decadent world. We do this almost religiously, I’d say. In the end our actions
are our own, always.
Still, to impose any one definition of
religion onto others, on massive scale, is entirely unethical. This is I’m
afraid the habit of some egoistical men hungry for power over a majority of
people by hook or by crook. They want others to slave after them so that they
can live a life of desire, happiness and satisfaction. Religion can never be a
person’s only pursuit in this world! Life is full of multiplicities and
pluralities. We are forever trying to understand more than just a single
phenomenon. Everything, it seems to me, confuses us utterly. Nothing, in my
opinion, can ever just have a single definition. Even a dot can have many
interpretations. Here, I am not advocating for ambiguity. I simply do not wish
to go with any one religious practice. Everyone has a right to abstain from
religious practice, thus, giving it no significance whatsoever. We are all free
to do as we please but there is a system in place to keep us in check. What we
choose to do will show how flexible we are willing to be towards laws ascribed
to our religion by society. We are essentially committing crime perhaps by
letting go of religion. Those who are corrupted by power, blinded by greed and
washed with hate follow these laws in good faith and do not change their
propensity to interfere in the matters of others. They continuously define
religion and translate its law to the rest of the world because it makes the
common people look like fools and feel miserable. This is followed by an
eternity of promising the masses an antidote and consequent beating around the
bush. There are always severe punishments too when few questions are raised
about laws. Generosity of the ruler decreases as the dissent turns to
disobedience. Such is the way of an organized set of rigid beliefs. Such forms
of authoritarianism sometimes remain undiscovered and are thus very easily
misused by the middlemen of religion. They brush aside minorities into
isolation, stomp on them and make them slave after their selfish motives.
If one is unaware of others, their way of
life and the challenges faced by them, s/he will one day become audience to
unexpected introductions. If they are full of savagery and neglect in the face
of coexistence of languages, cultures, religions etc. the introduction can
easily become confrontational. Our thoughts and our voices play vital roles in
deciding which way our religious beliefs are going to go to accommodate the
beliefs of others. We belong either to a unanimous chant or not even to a
careless whisper. We can call it the making of an outcast. Here, we may
consider secularism a liberal practice. Or we may say, for the sake of
understanding, that it is like business, the goal of which is to achieve
communal harmony. We are forcing politics, literature and history onto ourselves
so that we can clearly see in midst of chaos. We are building a social science
of who we are and who we ought to be. The need of the hour is that young minds
should come to consider religion personal. Young minds are the most powerful
weapons lying with any civilization (since they are looking to learn). Never
should we let religion give us comfort, rather it should make us work hard
towards a better world because of the many flaws of organized religion. Here, one
must perfect their religion, on an individual level, not that of others. Is
religion then not personal? We should not be told that only gods are strong
enough to pull us out of all this conflict. We must look to each other, without
prejudice, to safeguard this peace and form a community that can exist in the
cocoon of the natural order determining our human condition.
Everyone has an equal right to this kind of
hope and worship. I know it’s too much to ask. Many of us have lost their
homes, lost loved ones, lost meaning and kindness but the world is still one
big kin. Those we do not consider family have potential to be equivalent to god,
that god which we consider to be holy, a god that we consider reality, a god
that will not harm us when it comes to light. More than being one kin, I think,
we want to avoid awkward interactions with one another. Respecting each other’s
beliefs has so far successfully presented itself as a milestone in human
consciousness. This is where the concept termed secularism demands to be given
a mental image similar to that of coexistence. We have come a long way by
respecting what is sacred to others. But it is also true that safeguarding
religion, a set of moral values dear to us, has made us proud. We look to like
minded individuals and, meanwhile, throw truths and knowledge at them to make
them opinionated towards certain things. Thus we include ourselves in a common
collective. Instead, we should encourage others to cherish the art of discovery
rather than the process of mindless consumption. Age, afterall gives us nothing
other than suffering and experience. There is a danger here of isolation but we
need time to surface as the champion. Above all, we must speak diligently in
times of conflict.
Secularism alongside influential ancient
and modern ideas has its own significance in shaping the contemporary
narrative. Throughout history civilizations have found their roots despite all
the pillaging and plundering done to their cultural achievements. Modern India
is based on the secular philosophy and will not shift its inclination to
promote the integration of ideas despite all the changes made to its
foundations. Today, voices advocating coexistence are being given a bad name. A
note should be made that there are adverse affects of suffocating voices. Some
of these are depression, loss of freedom, grief and eventual ‘triumphantism’ in
the hearts of those unethical individuals possessing power. We tend to think we
have lost perception because we are trying too hard to make sense of what’s
going on in the world around us. We tend to feel awkward at the thought of
something new. That is when it is easiest for us to become prey to
misinformation. Those who know our weaknesses take immense pride in testing our
faith. Pride, with power, in a world made of uneducated and misinformed people
always will destroy reason. Faith cannot stand alone in the absence of reason.
And one thing religion does for the masses is that it gives people reasons to
believe in things. Though these reasons are all irrational, people take these
explanations up because no one wants to stay confused for far too long and they
don’t want to rethink what they already know is the truth. No one should be
allowed to take away from people their reason to believe in something. That is
how we begin to question our faith and our identity. If on one hand we have
fundamentalism on the rise, if not at its peak, we must not let go of
secularism, for it is the answer. Our generation needs education so that we can
differentiate between political awareness, engagement and activism. A special study of the curriculum of school children will be prefered over that of university students since universities offer broader knowledge and vast resources for individuals to cultivate autonomy.
Determining the human condition, each one
of these categories, leads into a reality which has a boundary of its own. Similarly,
we should grasp the true meaning of religious freedom. We must not ignore the base we are standing
on to see what this world is looking like. We are witnessing an incredible
mix-up between politics and organized religion but we are like trees. Our roots
are deep within the soil. Fruits of our laborious worldly toil fall on that
same solid surface which nurtures the soil.
Don’t we decide after a while what’s best
for us? Does it come to mean that we are free from religious duties or rather
that we decide what our religion (Dharma) grants us? The key is hidden in the
mysterious workings of time, and time alone. Our wealth, our social being, our
concept of what’s right and what’s wrong will change as time progresses. A lot
of our present state of existence depends on our doings from the past. Our
religious preferences undergo transformation with the passing of time.
Organized religion is trying to resist global progress to keep itself intact.
But we must resist organized religion among other anti-globalization movements,
to carry on with progressive – rational – scientific global patterns that will
benefit the human condition.
When we look back at our own life, we
remember everything we have ever learnt. Remembrance is a feeling which spreads
its roots deep into our consciousness, not revenge. Maybe, it is impossible to
seek revenge with the invaders that damaged our identity and we need to recall
our tradition. Here, remembrance is full of lofty thoughts and insights on who
we are and what we do as a living being. The narrative becomes almost
metaphysical. But, there is plenty we have to learn. We are not just different
samples making up tiny insignificant categories. Our togetherness is of much
greater value than difference, discrimination and despise alone. My attempt
here is not to perfect religion or do away with the ills of it. I wish to
emphasize on the real value of togetherness which is at stake.
Still, there are things which make us want
to just believe. Everyone should have that feeling regardless of which nation
and caste we belong to. That feeling of belief should belong to everyone. I
respect all which is to come and idealize the future because we must let our
brain imagine things meanwhile not losing sense of what’s aligned with morals
and reasons. We should all be able to communicate with our world the identity
we are seeing for ourselves. And we should not have to choose between a poverty
of the mind and a poverty of the general human condition. Everyone has their
reasons. I think we put up resistance to misuse of power when it makes us do
all those things which try to snatch away from us our essence. Being an Indian,
I believe secularism is in my essence. But
today, in the quest to understand, even achieve power we have allowed ourselves
to reason with ethics. We have limited change to something predetermined. In
the recent past, there are movements that have occurred not with the intention
to seize power but to bring about considerable change. India’s acquaintance
with truth and non-violence is not new. These are ideals that shape our
psychology first and the world later. It is the truth in my opinion, that change
cannot be determined. We cannot foresee the future. Idealism fails us here.
Time keeps progressing like an incurable disease, revealing results of the
experiments set in place by us.
We spend our days
imagining how something can come to be a uniting force for the people. Should
we hail religion as the ultimate achievement of human civilization in the
context? No. Marvels of architecture, healthcare, education, agriculture,
democracy are the better picks. Losing our self confidence at the loss of our
self esteem has made ethics look outdated. We dwell in philosophical ramblings
and political heat but even in following philosophers and politicians we
disallow ourselves to think about what is best for suffrage.
So in letting the word of
god resonate within us we forget that religion, the art of doing good for
others, makes our free will most dangerous. Our ability to reason with the
human condition – to propose apologies for crimes has made us forget our own
wrongs. We are repeating the same errors we committed before, enjoying this
experiment go horribly wrong. Instead, we are trying to escape our world.
Society as a collective is
moving towards an absolute corruption instead of conditional morality. By
conditional morality I mean our tendency to justify wrongdoing if it corrects
something else that is wrong. If God is unkind to someone who believed in the
utmost goodness of God then it is relatively easier to rule out the existence
of God and reason with the crimes committed against one man’s faith by god itself.
Are we letting the idea of power override us to the extent that we form
alliances to restructure power systems? I find it better to rely upon reason
and logic than on fiction and myth for an insight into the flaws of the human
life. Is there another way of perceiving the movements around us? Only an
absolute belief in something can replace the worship of god, right? Will one
have to be so blind as to torment the human race into embracing the death of
god? Is the “respecting all religions” theory really so liberating a force that
it puts a full stop to anarchy? Will the world keep falling apart like this
into enemies, till there isn’t a subtext to conflict, till there are only ashes
left to burn? So we find ourselves at the mercy of a change in the order things
while time simultaneously passes. We say often that we are helpless because of
inevitable circumstances. We hopefully wait for resolve. The same old argument
comes to mind about the discrimination of birth and the equality of death.
Here, death being the end of time. Needless to say without any reorganization
of social, political and economic order we cannot find a new religion – a new
nation. Here, we are stuck with an old definition of ‘everything’ and we aren’t
allowing change to enter into our lives.
Authoritarianism banks on
religion because of the stubbornness of religion. In the name of god it finds
it easier to name stranger religions as close enemy forces. Then, this conflict
becomes everyone’s business once again. All in all, the medium helping us
understand this world is a composition of a set of educated ideas and it shapes
our identities. Just like our identities this medium too has certain traits.
Secularism, as part of plurality, does not encourage asserting one’s own
identity rather it stands for equality amongst all religions. It stands for the
exchange of mythological narratives between cultures about ethics and morality.
It does not stay away from the battleground where religion and politics is
tactically mixed to belittle and nullify the beliefs of others. It stands its
own ground, right there, at the centre of it all. Equality is a virtue perhaps
found in death, not in being born a certain identity. Taking birth only ever
comes with an injustice of determinism, meaning and identity in the end. We
think we know what something new means, but we don’t know what to do with it
yet. Isn’t the concept of time a concept of utmost importance then? Today, if
one resorts to taking time in understanding reality he is called a mendicant philosopher.
If one is speaking alongside thinking it becomes too chaotic till the point of
suicide. But suicide is the highest form of violence. We need liberalism and
secularism instead of authoritarianism and fundamentalism since the latter does
not allow even freedom of thought. Will knowing all this help in changing the
political outfit currently in possession of power in your country anyway?
We need a narrative which
opens this debate to the people, to a possibility of change, even if the
political outfit in power does not change for decades to come.
Imagine a world where we
simplify truths and result in the betterment of mankind. It’s been a distant
dream, an unachievable dream but one with many milestones on its way here.
Organized religion has been the nemesis to all those milestones. It has negated
them only to resort to the purpose of life seen through the lens found in the
eye of god.
Today, organized religion
has secularism opposing it at its every step. Our ethics are our own but our
religion is towards others. Religion does not call for preaching anymore.
Today’s discourse is centered on a common foundation used to bring the best in
humanity. To be kind, gentle, polite and resist injustice and inequality using
knowledge instead of power.
While depending on all the
good things human to summarize how I see the world, I wonder how not to sound
patronizing, I wonder if there is an alternate manner of speaking that does not
make the reader feel inferior. Anyone and everyone attempting to sum up what these
times are made of automatically becomes a part of a social mechanism set in
place to check the sanity of consequent thoughts relating to identity and the
hierarchy of power.
The more I think about the
role of religion in the evolution of the human mind, the inevitable pressure
built by society on ordinary people to stay in line with authority reveals
itself to be the number one obstruction to the new evolution. In the end it
does not matter if governments change, newer technologies arise or people’s way
of mingling with one another, our vision of a world suited to our liking and
the room for us to express ourselves remains at the centre of seizing that
freedom which is so dear to us. We need belief to help us break free from the
chains of religion as we know it. Religion with an agenda cannot give us that
freedom of thought.
Stateless tribes and
anti-government anarchists reason with morals in order to find their own, but
we know that in a secular democracy finding one’s own roots, knowing our identity,
making our soil fertile and cultivating a trend that will integrate us with the
rest of the world without disproving universal laws of the general human
condition makes us let go of inequality and injustice. We forget about it. Still,
we seek to correct this particular formation of people. So in trying to counter
a community of people which hasn’t yet fully taken shape in contemporary politics
is like the killing of a larva. It is this crime that is being committed
without empathy by organized religion. They keep going back to committing this crime
every time they think of a resolve to the problems of inequality and injustice.
They forget about the importance of their direct action in the matters of
systems of beliefs. Our voices must integrate into many opinions instead of
nullifying the voices in the minority. The current state of affairs in the human condition are embarrassing. I cannot help but suggest that the sheer lack of ethics and morality in the world hints at the non-existence of any ultimate source of good whatsoever. I argue that makes us at the best mere agnostics.
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