Just last week glorifying Indian culture and traditions in mains and now being cynical about same culture and traditions, boy oh boy what a turnaround, Let me just give brief background about origin of these seemingly divine things to show in reality how divine they are.
Religion was a tool invented by primitive man to appease nature which scared him and he was awed by its might, which showed its manifestation in the form of storms and thunder, this along with spirit worship gave rise to animism and naturism, which eventually grew to become modern day religion. What I mean to say is man created God and its not the other way round, religion was a tool created to bring solidarity between people, reduce anxiety, through rituals provide some time to get out of routine mundane activities. Religion was created for comfort of man.
Caste as a system of practice finds its first mention in purush sukta of chapter 10 from rig veda, it talks about four-fold division of society into brahmin, kshatriya, vaishya, shudra. It was intended to create self-sufficiency and interdependency among members of society. Caste was just for divsion of work among members so that all the essential jobs are performed by concerned persons, it was not a rigid system and people could change caste based on merit. But over a period of time the system created for comfort of humans itself became an evil system.
Language as everybody knows is a tool for communication, thus developed differently in different geographical locations.
Culture, Customs, Traditions etc. were all created, modified depending upon needs.
Gender is the most cruel form of social construct by this patriarchical society. In the name of culture, suffocating a women curtailing her very identity.
Man created all these for his own comfort, but these very tools of comfort have now become so independent of their creators that they have gone beyond control of man himself. All these traits have become so heavy that humans are crushed under its very weight of carrying on with them, feeling suffocated, killing personal liberty.
Wise man that he was, Ambedkar called for annihilation of these cultural traditions which are against spirit of humanity itself, bringing in rationality and some sense into activities, making every person equal.
Every person should be judged for their individual abilities, and not primordial identity of religion, region, caste, language. Hope this change happens for the good.
This reminds me of a story. Long time ago there was person who used to perform early morning prayers and a cat used to come and drink his milk which he kept for prayer. This continued for many days, finally the man decided to catch the cat and put it under basket while he was praying, this practice of putting cat under basket while praying continued daily. He had a small kid who used to observe that his father puts cat under basket while praying, father dies and the child grows up. To continue what he thought was a ritual, his son used to go out daily catch a cat, put it under basket and pray. Next generation thought it is tedious to catch a cat daily so they purchased a cat and put it under basket. Further generations, the offsprings could not afford to buy cat as cats became very costly. Then they made dolls of cat and put it under basket while praying.
What started as a solution to the problem of that time, blindly followed by future generations without going into rationality of that act, is what is the state of traditions and customs in present day India.
Am i a athiest?? No, absolutely not. I am firm believer in divinity. But my divine is that infinite cosmic energy that is the source of all life and matter. My divine can be realised in meditation, it is present in all matter but human mind clouded with superstition cannot see it.
As kabir had rightly said if a piece of stone is your God then i shall pray the mountain..
This reminds me of a story. Long time ago there was person who used to perform early morning prayers and a cat used to come and drink his milk which he kept for prayer. This continued for many days, finally the man decided to catch the cat and put it under basket while he was praying, this practice of putting cat under basket while praying continued daily. He had a small kid who used to observe that his father puts cat under basket while praying, father dies and the child grows up. To continue what he thought was a ritual, his son used to go out daily catch a cat, put it under basket and pray. Next generation thought it is tedious to catch a cat daily so they purchased a cat and put it under basket. Further generations, the offsprings could not afford to buy cat as cats became very costly. Then they made dolls of cat and put it under basket while praying.
What started as a solution to the problem of that time, blindly followed by future generations without going into rationality of that act, is what is the state of traditions and customs in present day India.
Am i a athiest?? No, absolutely not. I am firm believer in divinity. But my divine is that infinite cosmic energy that is the source of all life and matter. My divine can be realised in meditation, it is present in all matter but human mind clouded with superstition cannot see it.
As kabir had rightly said if a piece of stone is your God then i shall pray the mountain..
