Emotions vs Logic....

The other day I ran into a discussion with one of my teammates as in…What is God for you? How do you see God?

I know so many people who look for God in their prayers, temples, fasting and so on. When my friends see me not praying, not visiting temples and not fasting, they conveniently categorize me an atheist. I am not here to question the existence of God, so I am a huge believer in God, where I differ is the way I see him. I see him as a faith, I see him as a belief that someone is there to take care of me and whatever is happening is happening for good, a fence that divides right from wrong, a fear that someone is watching, which stops me when I do wrong, and an encouragement to do good. He is in no Temple, no prayers, no fasting…he is within me, my faith, my belief, my fear, my encouragement, my CONSCIENCE and I worship them all and that’s God for me.

So is God the holy figure with a halo on his head sitting somewhere in the sky on a lotus flower with a rat or frog or swan as his bearer? Is he the Lord Vishnu who in his “Vamana Avatar” measured the earth and heaven in two strides? Or is it Lord Rama who is believed to have made the “Rama Sethu” with a battalion of monkeys?

Can we dismiss “Vamana Avatar” by saying that it’s difficult to believe that a man could step on entire earth and heaven on one foot? It is easier to believe that Narsimha, the incarnation of Vishnu never existed because it is hard to believe that a man could actually take the shape of a lion. Nobody actually asserts that the “Asuras” and “Devas” actually churned the sea using a mountain and a snake with a tortoise as a base to get “Amruta”. Also there is no proof of Lord Rama’s existence. He is said to have existed in the Treta Yuga which is some 1.75 million years ago when Homo Sapiens(Humans) were not supposed to be existing on the planet. At that time there existed Proto Humans whose brain size was much smaller to ours and you could categorize them into apes.

But we Hindus tend to believe that our epics are science in itself. And in a country like India is, we cannot dare challenge this science. There are certain believes that our forefathers carried and in they are still being carried till date without any scientific backbone behind. The caste system for example, there were major 4 castes based on the roles they played in the society then....the Brahmans , the Khastriya, the Vaysa and the Sudras. The Brahmans were into Puja Patha and lived on alms, Khastriya were the rulers and warriors, Vaysas were the traders and Sudras were the untouchables who were supposed to do mean jobs. But I see no Brahmans doing religious rituals these days, no Khastriyas fighting with a sword in hand, Vyasas and Sudras are going places with the kind of reservations that our generous government has provided them. So basing on today’s scenario why can’t we redefine our caste system basing on the roles we play in the society today…lets divide ourselves as Software Engineers, Doctors, Bankers, Army Men, Business Men and so on. Why carry the burden of the earlier caste system that doesn’t exist today. It doesn’t help you any way, just helps the politicians to give mouthwatering reservation quotas to the so called backward classes and the reservations seems to increase by each election.

I am not here to question the existence of God or caste system. The point I am trying to make is why are we still following those things which hold no scientific backbone. Why do we have to carry those things which pull us backward and not let us move ahead or grow in life? Why aren’t we open to logic? Don’t you think its high time now?