Religion-- Blessing or Curse

I am sure many will raise their eyebrows on seeing the caption of this post. No, I am not an atheist, I believe in God though I can not claim to be a very religious person. The dictionary meaning of religion is belief in God. It also means a particular system of faith and worship and in terms of this meaning of the word of religion there are many religions in the world practiced by different people. It is the belief in God which is the basis of all the religions of the world though manifestation of this belief varies from religion to religion. A religious person is one who believes in God and worships God.

The importance of religion in our lives can hardly be overemphasized. Its impact on our lives and our societies is profound. The major religions of the world have given us great scriptures, the Vedas, Upanishad, Gita, Bible, Koran, Zend-Avesta, Granth Sahib containing noblest messages, loftiest ideals and purest thoughts.  They had helped the mankind to overcome its base instincts, become civilised and understand the virtue of honesty and truthfulness, the love and faithfulness, kindness and compassion. Religions have produced great saints, prophets and preachers who taught us to love our neighbours, not to harm any body, not to speak harsh language to anyone, be tolerant to others’ beliefs and ideas. In fact had there been no religion, civilisation would not have flourished. Belief in God and man’s eternal quest for the Almighty, the Omnipotent, the Omnipresent, the Omniscient led to many great works of art, literature, music, philosophy enriching our minds and purifying our hearts. Religion has given us courage to meet the challenges of life, the strength to face adversities and not to loose hearts in failures. Our religion has taught us the concept of universal brotherhood.

But is religion an unmixed blessing to us? Religions often have been the cause of animosity between people. Whenever a new prophet arrived and tried to preach, he had to face the wrath of the followers of the existing faiths. History has been witness to the tyrannies and tortures of the followers of the different faiths of religions at different times. Religion instead of creating harmony among the people has often dug chasm between man and man. Religions have led to bigotry, fanaticism, sectarianism. Wars were fought in the name of religions through the ages killing thousands of people and drenching the earth with human blood. Religion has been a useful tool in the hand of our so called leaders and politicians to divide and rule over the people and the nations. India has been one of the worst sufferers of religious violence through centuries.  Even today in this twenty first century when there is no dearth of so called rationalists and secularists, if we scan the world we will find that religious animosity rules the world either because of hostilities between different religions or between different groups and sects of the same religion.

Rituals have been integral part of all religions and it is not found unoften that these rituals get more importance than the core values of the religions. These rituals many a times lead to superstitions and tend to make the people fatalist.   These rituals when followed blindly ( and it happens most of the time ) instead of broadening the vision of the people, narrow it, create mental block, curb the creative faculties, restrict liberal ideas, encourage fundamentalism and in the process hamper the well  being of the people and the society. People tend to think that by worshipping their own God or Goddess as per the rituals prescribed they can get away with the most heinous crimes committed by them and get a licence to do whatever they feel like doing. This leads to increase in dishonesty, crime and violence in the society.  We are witnessing the demon of fundamentalism raising its ugly head in different parts of the world in the name of religion creating tensions and often shattering peace. Against this background can we blame anybody if he thinks that we would have been better off if there was no religion?

As an English poet once wondered how the same creator can make both lamb and tiger, it is indeed perplexing to find religion which has helped civilisation to flourish can be also the cause of death of innocent human lives and unending hatred among the people, how it can be one of the biggest causative factors for unrest world wide. As the power in tiny atom can be harnessed to the immense benefit of people and also can be the death knell of millions of people, similarly religion can create civilisation, it can destroy civilisation. It has the potential to make earth a heaven but if misused can convert it into a hell. Religion is and indeed should be blessing to all of us but if used by the vested interests, the fundamentalists, and the greedy politicians as had happened in the past and is still happening, religion can turn out to be a curse to all of us. Let us hope that will not happen, saner elements will prevail, people will realise that God is the same for all religions as Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa used to say that Hindus call Him Ishwar, Christians call Him God, Muslims Allah but He is the one and the same as water is described by different people as jal, pani, water, aqua etc. Let us believe that Vivekananda’s hope which he expressed in the concluding session of the Parliament of Religion will come true one day that upon the banner of every religion will be written, in spite of resistance: “Help and not Fight”, "Assimilation and not Destruction”, “Harmony and Peace and not Dissension”.  

           

 Sri Ramakrishna, the Man-Gods

The year 2013-2014 has been the 150th birth anniversary year of Swami Vivekananda. The person who exerted the greatest influence on Swamiji and who in fact transformed the young restless Narendranath to the great yogi Vivekananda was Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa. Had Ramakrishna been not there at the appropriate time in the appropriate place, the world probably would not have seen Vivekananda, the great sannyasi,the great prophet, the great patriot, the great orator, the great reveller of Indian culture and religion before the world. Romain Rolland the great writer and philosopher had rightly said that the torrent forming the remarkable destiny of Vivekananda would have been lost in the bowels of the earth, if Ramakrishna’s glance had not, as with one blow of an axe, split the rock barring its way, so that through the breach thus made the river of his soul could flow. It was Sri Ramakrishna who saw in the wayward, tormented and storm tossed as Narendranath then was, the future leader. As Sri Ramakrishna used to say that whenever we think of fire, its burning power comes to our mind, whenever we think of milk its whiteness comes to our mind, similarly it will be appropriate if we say that whenever we think of Vivekananda, Sri Ramakrishna comes to our mind. Vivekananda described Sri Ramakrishna as his master, his hero, his ideal, his God in life. Romain Rolland described Ramakrishna as Man-Gods, the incarnation of the Divine Essence.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa worshipped as Thakur (God) by millions of his devotees was born into a very poor but pious orthodox brahmin family in the village of Kamarpukur, set in the midst of rice fields, palm trees, and lakes in the Hooghly  district of West Bengal. His parents were Kshudiram Chattopadhyay and Chandramani Devi.  Kshudiram while on a pilgrimage to Gaya had a dream in which Lord Gadadhara (a form of Lord Vishnu) appeared and said that he would be born as his son. At the same time in Kamarpukur, Chandramani Devi was said to have had a vision of a ray of light entering her womb from Shiva's temple. Her husband on his return from Gaya found her transfigured. She had conceived and was said to hear voices that she carried a God. The child, whom the world was to know as Ramakrishna was born on February 18, 1836 and was given the name of Gadadhar.

Ramakrishna experienced his first spiritual ecstasy at the age of six. While walking along the paddy fields, a flock of white cranes flying against a backdrop of dark thunder clouds caught his vision. He reportedly became so absorbed by this scene that he lost outward consciousness and experienced indescribable joy in that state.   Ramakrishna reportedly had experiences of similar nature a few other times in his childhood, while worshipping goddess Vishalakshi, and portraying god Shiva in a drama during Shivaratri festival. From his tenth or eleventh year on, the trances became common, and by the final years of his life Ramakrishna’s samadhi periods occurred almost daily.

Ramakrishna's father died in 1843, after which family responsibilities fell on his elder brother Ramkumar. Ramkumar started a Sanskrit school in Kolkata and also served as a priest. Ramakrishna moved to Calcutta in 1852 to assist Ramkumar in the priestly work. In 1855,  Ramkumar was appointed as the priest of Dakshineswar Kali temple built by Rani Rasmani.  Ramakrishna, along with his nephew Hriday, became assistants to Ramkumar, with Ramakrishna given the task of decorating the deity. When Ramkumar died in 1856, Ramakrishna took his place as the priest of the Kali. The young priest who was twenty years old began to look upon the image of the goddess Kali as his mother and the mother of the universe. His relationship with Kali, the Goddess was beautifully described by Romain Rolland and I quote him Quote He did not know what a terrible mistress he had elected to serve. As a purring tigress that fascinates her prey, She was to feed upon him, playing with him for ten long enchanted years passed beneath her gleaming pupils Unquote. In the words of Sri Ramakrishna himself one day he had a vision of the universal Mother, as "... houses, doors, temples and everything else vanished altogether; as if there was nothing anywhere! And what I saw was an infinite shoreless sea of light; a sea that was consciousness”

Rumours spread to Kamarpukur that Ramakrishna had become unstable as a result of his spiritual practices at Dakshineswar.  Ramakrishna's mother and his elder brother Rameswar decided to get Ramakrishna married, thinking that marriage would be a good steadying influence upon him. They could find the bride at the house of Ramchandra Mukherjee in Jayrambatii, three miles to the north-west of Kamarpukur. The five-year-old bride, Saradamani (later known as Sarada Devi) was found and the marriage was duly solemnised in 1859. But by the time his bride joined him, Ramakrishna had already embraced the monastic life of a sannyasi; as a result, the marriage was never consummated .  Rmakrishna regarded Sarada as the Divine Mother in person, addressing her as the Holy Mother, the name by which she was known to Ramakrishna's disciples. It is believed that he even worshipped Sarada Devi as the mother Goddess. Sarada Devi outlived Ramakrishna by 34 years and played an important role in the nascent religious movement. 

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The most widely known amongst the spiritual teachers of Ramakrishna was an ascetic woman, called Bhairavi Brahmani skilled in tantra and vaishnava bhakti and an advaita vedantic ascetic, Tota Puri who taught him non-dual meditation, and according to Ramakrishna, he experienced nirvikalpa samadhi under his guidance. Ramakrishna also practiced other religions, notably Islam and Christianity, and came to the conclusion that they all lead to the same God. He was comfortable with all faiths, with all modes of worship as he believed that ultimate aim of all religions, all faiths was to seek the Almighty, the omnipotent, the omnipresent, the omniscient,  the Brahmn of the  Hindus, the God of the Christians, the Allah of the Muslims. Ramakrishna was the embodiment of universal toleration and acceptance, the essence of Hinduism and Indian culture.

 Ramakrishna did not preach any new religion, he did not write any book, nor did he unlike Vivekananda deliver public lectures. Instead, he chose to speak in a simple language using parables and metaphors by way of illustration, drawn from the observation of nature and ordinary things of daily use. His conversations were charming and attracted the cultural elite of the then Bengal. He had only rudimentary education but the best university graduates of that time found in him an intellectual giant. Sri Ramakrishna by practicing different religions and different faiths realised the basic harmony among all religions their outward differences notwithstanding.  He in fact can be called the originator of the pluralism in religions. It was left to his greatest disciple Vivekananda to spread this message of harmony among all religions and faiths in the whole world.  

The last phase of his mortal life was both poignant and profound. It was poignant as he suffered intense pain because of the throat cancer he developed. Ramakrishna was advised by the doctors to keep the strictest silence, but ignoring their advice, he incessantly conversed with visitors and his admirers. During his last days, he was looked after by his monastic disciples and Sarada Devi. According to traditional accounts, before his death, Ramakrishna transferred his spiritual powers to Vivekananda and reassured Vivekananda of his avataric status. Ramakrishna's condition gradually worsened and he expired in the early morning hours of August 16, 1886 at the Cossipore garden house. After the death of their master, the monastic disciples led by Vivekananda formed a fellowship at a half-ruined house at Baranagar near the river Ganges, with the financial assistance of the householder disciples. This became the first Math or monastery of the disciples who constituted the first Ramakrishna Order. Today Sri Ramakrishna’s disciples, followers and admirers are located across the globe and Ramakrishna Math and Mission founded by Swami Vivekananda  to serve the humanity as embodiment of God has its headquarter at Belur and branches located across the world.

In the words of Maxmuller the great German orientalist and scholar, the fervent love of God, nay, the sense of complete absorption in Godhead, has nowhere found a stronger and more eloquent expression than in the utterances of Ramakrishna. According to British historian Arnold Toynbee, Ramakrishna’s religious activity and experience were, in fact, comprehensive to a degree that had perhaps never before been attained by any other religious genius, in India or elsewhere. Sri Aurobindo had said that the world could not bear a second birth like that of Ramakrishna in five hundred years.Writing about his guru Swami Vivekananda had said that for the first time he found a man who dared to say that he saw God, that religion was a reality to be felt, to be sensed in an infinitely more intense way than we can sense the world.   

Compromise, Boon or Bane

There are many words which sound innocuous but have profound impact on our lives.

Compromise is one of such many simple frequently used words that can be found in the dictionary. Compromise means as per Oxford dictionary an agreement reached by each side giving way on some points. The word is used by us very frequently causally and at times loosely. But if we pause for a moment and think over it we will find the significance of this word is enormous.     

Compromise is a part of life, we compromise day in and day out knowingly or unknowingly, consciously or unconsciously, voluntarily or involuntarily. Compromise is a must between various relations in families, between husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters, couples and their in-laws, lovers and beloved, leaders and followers, buyers and sellers,  between friends and neighbours. It is the concept of give and take that is the foundation of societies formed. If I think that I must stick to my views and act as per my own whims I must also realise that others may also be rigid in their stand and if all become rigid in their stances then we may have no other alternative but to lead jungle life. It would not be an exaggeration to say that civilisation would not have flourished without compromise. Whenever different groups, factions and people fail to reach compromise among them disasters have taken place. If there was compromise between Mahatma Gandhi and Jinnah, between Congress and Muslim League in the forties, post independent India’s history would have been different and the partition of our country could have been averted. If a compromise between Netaji Subhash and the members of the Congress Working Committee would have taken place in 1939 the history of our freedom struggle would have been written in a different way. Mohammed Ghori would not have been able to achieve victory if there was a compromise between Prithviraj and Jaichand.  The Mahabharata War would not have taken place if some compromise was reached between Pandavas and Kauravas. The world would not have experienced the hollow cast of World Wars and the Atom bomb if there was compromise between Japan and America, between Germany and Britain.

Tolerance is the essence of compromise. A tolerant mind appreciates other’s views, his problems and constraints and is therefore amenable to compromise. Intolerant mind does not accept other’s views, his customs and belief and is therefore unable to make compromise with others. Intolerance breeds hatred, religious and linguistic fanaticism leading to wars and destruction often drenching the earth with human blood. Intolerance and rigidity digs chasm between men and men, compromise brings them closer.  Compromise between different countries, communities and groups leads to peace, progress and prosperity. Compromise between the Management and the Workers is essential for the harmonious environment in any organisation. It is said that compromise is oil which helps the various organs of the Government to run.

Indian mind because of the profound influence of Hinduism which is the most tolerant of all religions appears to be more tolerant and amenable to compromise. That is why probably Indian culture has been able to accept, accommodate and assimilate in it different cultures and values. Different tribes who came to India as invaders at different times like Shaka.Hun, Pathan and Moughals were ultimately absorbed within our country not as foreign invaders but as Indian.It is because of the tolerant Indian culture that people of all the major religions of the world find our country conducive to live.No wonder Swami Vivekananda proclaimed in America that he was proud to belong to a nation that has sheltered the persecuted and refugees of all the religions of the world.

People are gradually realising the importance of compromise all over the world. That is how we find today Presidents of U.S.A and Iran have come to almost hand shaking distance. U.S.A and Syria have entered into compromise on the highly sensitive issue of chemical weapons. The military regime of Myanmar is coming to a compromise with the leaders of democratic movement there.  Maosists in Nepal have entered into compromise with democratic parties in that country and are taking part in the election process. India and China are trying to make compromise with each other, so also India and Pakistan. We are also witnessing compromise between Socialism and Capitalism in countries like China and Russia.

Compromise is however not an unmixed blessing. Compromise with status quo often retards progress, makes the people inactive, creates mental blockade. It is the uncompromising mind of the great men through the ages that has helped the mankind to progress to new heights. We have read in the pages of history how Galileo refused to compromise with the belief of the then Church with regard to the rotation of earth and sun. The uncompromising attitude of Raja Rammohan Roy and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar in the 19th century Bengal was instrumental in banning widow burning and legalising widow re-marriage. Mahatma Gandhi refused to compromise with the poor condition of the Indians in South Africa in early 20th century. India was able to regain her freedom form the foreign ruler because the people refused to compromise with the British rule and many brave men and women sacrificed their lives on the altar of freedom struggle.  Swami Vivekananda who proclaimed in his address to the Parliament of Religion in Chicago that he was proud to belong to a religion which had taught the world toleration and universal acceptance was intolerant and uncompromising against all the evil practices that had crept into the then Hindu societies.

So, while the societies formed and civilisation flourished on the foundation of compromise between men and men, it is the uncompromising minds of the great scholars, scientists, poets, writers, philosophers, social reformers in different ages and different countries that have made the world what it is today.