God is my...???

First of all to anyone reading this...I am a believer...with my faith not under scrutiny I’ll go on...

What relationship do we hold with GOD? Is HE my friend? Is HE our Father? Is HE a king whose decisions and whims cannot be questioned and we the subjects; And is HE a king who likes to play dice? Is HE the giver, doer and all that can be, and if this is the case the question is again what relationship do we hold with HIM?

There are beliefs and rituals. Rituals seemingly consolidate our beliefs. Don't eat this, do that, don't do that, do this in a particular way and so on....agreed, this is tradition, but what about our relationship with GOD....does he want us to do all that..

My Dad says that no one can understand HIM completely. The analogy he gives is; imagine your mind like a matchstick and GOD of the size of earth and beyond. Even if you try it is not possible to measure the whole earth with the help of a matchstick. QED.

Now with this matchstick size brain of mine, I question whether GOD really wants us to do things that tradition asks us to...HE (if HE is) would not be someone who wants the whole humanity to sing praises of HIM, and if the person who doesn't would face the wrath of GOD...no ways...Would our father do that? Would our mother...our friend do that....? Yes, the head of anarchy could well do that. The king.

I questioned myself sometime ago....we sing bhajans, all praises of the Lord. I thought why do we do that? Then came the answer from the most uncharacteristic of places and yet the most obvious one for me. Cricket. When we talk of Sachin Tendulkar, what do we talk....great batsman, won us matches, his poise, his abilities and few standout moments....now, when we talk of GOD......GOD ok....what else will the matchstick be able to conjure up? Just what we believe HE has done and sing praises...it's not that HE wants us to do that but the thing is that we can do nothing else...

What we Hindus believe are GOD's words are what are there in the Gita.... HE gave the supreme philosophy of KARMA......DO...for me that is what GOD wants us to do...whatever else we do is for our own pleasure or to keep ourselves in company with GOD....no one can make me believe that an atheist would be punished by GOD just by virtue of being an atheist. He might be DOING a world of good to so many people and adding to his punya. This makes us believe that GOD could be a CEO ;)..He just wants KARMA and HE,like a doting CEO keeps track of all our activities.As I write this another thing that strikes me is that an atheist avoids the privilege of reading pious texts which in turn might push him towards feeding him tamo-guna.

Now, back to the question of rituals and ceremonies....should they be abandoned altogether?? Well, that is not for me to answer. As we have our own set of beliefs which our convenient to us, that is what we like to follow.

I always wanted to question one thing...we do a satyanarayna katha at home......the crux of all the lilavati-kalavati tales as is portrayed is that if you don't pray to GOD bad things would happen...GOD would punish you for not praising HIM......now doesn't that sound absurd? The way I would put it (and what would seem very obvious to some people with nobler thoughts) is that, in all these tell-tales, the characters betrayed...they betrayed themselves and once their motive was accomplished they forgot what they had committed. How would it feel if a fellow human being would do that to you? So, it is not GOD who wants to be praised....it is a lesson of honesty, of integrity.....it is completely in accordance with one's KARMA....So, it is not out of fear that we should be praising HIM but out of love.

The very obvious point where I started was our relationship with GOD.....there should be no fear that what will happen if I don't do this or don't do that as long as your intent is honest, and that one cannot hide from oneself. Again, as a Son would not abuse in front of his father, though both know that he can...he still maintains certain decency, certain respect... that needs to be maintained which is again what I said earlier, according to our convenience :)

I am again questioning rituals. Even Lord Krishna did....he asked maa Yashodha, "Why do we pray Indra? Why don't we pray Goverdhana who gives all we need?" he was Lord and could manage, we are told to shut our mouths :-.

People fast endlessly for one cause or the other. My Mom does. Now where would I put this in the modern context? Something I don't speak about? something I can't question? something that needs to be done as it is being done for centuries now? or something that is a superstition or idiosyncrancy of mind?

In one of my earlier articles I had mentioned that we are all Abhimanyu and can't live or die on behalf of someone else. But at the same time, good wishes and blessings do come in handy. Navratras, janmashtami, ramazan or any other festival for that matter...I donno why but fasting seems to form an essential part. Fasting for husband's long age, husband is a drunkard....means what is the sense.....and here comes an argument which no one can defeat......"Main manti hoon, issliye"...it's my belief....ok ok....what can be said about your beliefs; everyone has a right to opinion and practice it too. That's why I said, we are told to shut our mouths.

I say this, and I believe quite coherently, why fasting is done? Husband's long age( an example).....otherwise....he won't have a long age......who keeps account...GOD...that means you are GOD fearing....and what about the punya that that poor guy has accumulated.....that go zilch....his long life depends on whether or not his wife has observed the sacred Karvachauth.

Cotradictions?? Or no.....all in the grey area.....I fail to make a point again. As far as I am concerned,I argue with GOD like a friend, listen to HIM like a son and am even scared of HIM at times...but he assures me in all my discussions with HIM.....it's your KARMA son that stays...