Raison d’être

I always have been pronouncing myself as a true ‘Agnostic’ person, but to do so without taking opinions of the believers & the atheists equally would just be a prejudice. I always wanted to get the perspective of our great religious manuscripts ‘Bhagwadgeeta’, ‘Koran’ & ‘Bible’ equally. Being a proud Hindu I eventually started with ‘Bhagwadgeeta’ to know what really drives the people to believe in God so blindly. The reason I am a proud Hindu is that I believe that Hinduism is not a religion but a lifestyle in itself & the most important value it preaches is Tolerance. That is one quality the world needs today in abundance.

Let me first explain the true meaning of the word ‘Agnostic’ before I go ahead. Agnostic is a person who believes that you cannot know the whole & complete truth by any means, neither by science & nor by religion. After reading the “Bhagwadgeeta’ I have become even a stronger Agnostic than ever before. There is one biggest reason why I say science cannot help you know everything - the Birth & Death. Science till now has not been able to explain the phenomenon of beginning & end of life as we know it. What exactly happens when you are born or when you die? Today’s science has reached to a stage where you can replace each & every organ of the human being but there is no way to put the life back in a dead body, at least not that I know of. So the science cannot give you the complete knowledge.

But again neither can the religious books; at least I did not get any such enlightenment from ‘Bhagwadgeeta’. I never said I’m an Atheist either. I believe in Lord Ganesha for umpteen reasons. But there are many references in ‘Bhagwadgeeta’ where Lord Krishna says to Arjuna that he is the true origin of everything & you should only pray to him & not to other deities. This is so much against the Tolerance that I believe in. How one God cannot tolerate praying to other God, I cannot know. There have been umpteen references of the ‘Karma’ in ‘Bhagwadgeeta’ but most of them were pejorative. Lord Krishna says that ‘Karma’ binds your spirit in your body & prevents you from getting Moksha (The ultimate liberation of spirit). There have been references where it says that caring too much about your family your mother, father, wife, children is an obstacle in achieving Moksha. It also says that you suffer excruciating pain in your mother’s womb & that’s how the suffering of life starts & you should try to get rid of these cycles of life & death. & there is only one way to achieve it, Yoga (In the version I read the translator interprets it as Praying to Lord Krishna, which I beg to differ to).

All these views are so much against the beauty of life. There are so many beautiful things you can do in your life, such as love, to your mother & father, to your wife & children & to the whole concept of life. If you live life just thinking about the death (& Moksha thereafter) then where & how do you fulfil your Karma? If you cannot truly & fully devote your love to the people who love you & care for you, then how can the God offer you Moksha for doing such heartless deed? There is absolutely no mentioning of the concept of love in ‘Bhagwadgeeta’, if there is anything close to it, it’s again derogatory. Also there has been no emphasis on the females in the ‘Bhagwadgeeta’; not even Goddesses. There has been no mentioning of right & wrong or sins & good deeds as we know them. I can surely say these things thanks to 3 years in my High school when I learned Sanskrit, so with little explanation of tougher words I can understand ‘Bhagwadgeeta’ myself & I’m not completely dependent on the translator’s view for that. (I knew it would come into use some time in life & I’m thankful to the fact that I learned it devotedly at that time!) I must say that these are my personal views & If they hurt anyone’s feelings, then that is not my intention at all!

So in conclusion, this reading of ‘Bhagwadgeeta’ has made me think deeply on a spiritual level. Yes, I do have lot of earthly ambitions that I have to achieve & I am like a million miles away from it, but then again the satisfaction in life does not come from money (& other earthly things) alone. & the sooner you understand this the better for life, as there would be fewer things to repent about later on. I seriously am trying to understand my Karma here, but that surely is not only praying for Lord Krishna alone & may HE forgive me for that.