If God Stopped Giving, Would You Still Worship? :: The Unpopular View of Spiritualism, Materialism and the Modern Religion

“I give you A, you give me B.”  This, is a standard business transaction.  Interestingly, this isn’t limited to regular business dealings in the marketplace.  Modern religion too, mostly consists of such transactions; (1) between devotee and God, and (2) between devotee and temple management.

The transaction between devotee and temple management is P2P (Person-to-Person) and so is simpler to accept and understand.  The devotee usually transacts with the temple management through giving bribes or donations, and receiving priority access to worship areas and other religious facilities.

The transaction between devotee and God is P2A (Person-to-Abstract) and is tougher to accept and understand.  I devote this writing to discuss this relationship.

In this transaction, the person is making a transactional deal with an unreal non-person, who he supposes (or believes) to exist.  The devotee (irrespective of religion) approaches a God he believes in, and offers prayers and promises, in return for benefits that are primarily materialistic in nature.  A non-exclusive list of benefits most often asked for, would include health, career growth, marriage, children, property, money, help in legal situations etc.  On days when there is nothing specific, the devotee asks for a vague ‘happy life’, which is substituted with specific requests at other times as per specific need.

A line from the popular Ganesha bhajan effectively portrays this idea of asking God for materialistic favours, and probably even respecting God primarily because of his perceived ability to shower materialistic fulfillments on humanity.  The line goes as “Andhe ko aankh de, Kodhin ko kaya; Banjhan ko put de, Nirdhan ko maya”.  The English translation of this line will be:  (Lord gives) eyes to the blind, an able body to the leper, child to the barren, and riches to the penniless.  So the concept at play seems to be - Pray to the Lord, and ask him for materialistic benefits in return – this is what modern religion seems to have come to.  And what if God no longer promises such benefits? Do we abandon him in this case?  The weird conclusion is Yes, because that's what God seems to exist for.

If I reject this twisted conclusion, what then is the purpose of the theory of religion?

I’ll use the Indian context to address this question and to identify most of modern religion as a poor subset of religion’s original purpose.

The Bhagwad Geeta is a central discourse in India about a human being’s spiritual journey.  The discourse, narrated by Lord Krishna (the Supreme Godhead), clearly points towards the final goal of life as being Moksha (Nirvana) – the freedom from the repeated cycles of birth and death and a return to the state of bliss in the Godhead.

Religion teaches us about the three Gunas, and the path to break free from the clutches of Guna and the autocracy of the Karmic Debt in controlling our lives. 

So in fact, the entire benefit of religion points towards what happens post-death.  Religion requires human life to be lived “with the end in mind”, literally.  The Karma should adhere to actions arising from spiritual awakening of the soul – the understanding that we are not our bodies but we are souls stuck in a materialistic universe – this is the basis of spiritualism.  The entire remaining religious discourse highlights the path to achieving an escape back to our soul’s original Home – the Vaikuntha. 

Hence, the reduction of religion as a path to enjoy a happier life on earth, is not exactly a part of the intended Indian discourse on spiritualism.   

Unlike popular belief, I do not distinguish between religion and spiritualism.  I find them inseparable tag team partners.  My understanding is that religion and spiritualism are intertwined; wherein religion provides the structured learning roadmap through a guru, and spiritualism is an aware state of mind, an awakening, a sense of connectedness with the universe and being able to see the light that demystifies ‘Maya’ – the materialistic world.

Considering the above, one derived conclusion is that the idea of ‘materialistic possessions’ or ‘worldly happiness’, are not central to the idea of religion.  Spiritualism, is central to the idea of religion. 

Based on this, we return to our question: How has transacting with God (prayers for benefits) become so central to religion and religious rituals and practices?  Why are temples no longer actively involved in helping people evolve from mere transactional devotees into spiritually enlightened individuals? 

Modern religion definitely requires a shift in focus from materialism to spiritualism.  Without this, the true nature of religion has been reduced to that of a business deal between the devotee and the God.  And this gives the devotee the perception of being religious and even spiritual, but the end result is falling prey to yet another cycle of birth after death.