“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.
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