Religion

Although I am a Hindu, I have both Muslim and Christian friends. My neighbor Zahir Khan and friend Philip Tirky are pretty serious in observing their religious practices. Mr. Khan offers Nawaz five times a day; Philip goes to the neighborhood church regularly. I have also a Hindu friend who prides himself on being a top-level Brahmin. The gentleman's name is Tankadhar Mishra who is a mining engineer but his supreme objective in life was to promote Hinduism by hook or crook.

In their unexpressed opinion, I am a godless person. All the three of them find it very obnoxious when I tell them that I am supreme and there is no one above me and no one below me. I would tell them simply what I had realized. 

 

Honestly speaking, we almost quarreled most of the time. My wife would be on tiptoe not to allow an outburst of our wild fanaticism to attract people's attention. Mr. Khan would give more weightage to Philip's views because both of them were People of the Book and followed monotheism. They often spoke disparagingly of Hinduism which allows the worship of thirty-three crore gods and goddesses.

In their opinion, “People of the Book" are superior to us Hindus. If I objected to their opinions, Mr. Khan would say, “Mr. Dayanidhi Panda hold that blasphemous tongue of yours..! You are crossing your human limits. Allah will never forgive you...! Never boast unnecessarily. Be as humble as a leaf." Philip would immediately say, “It is a great sin to say a man is God. Even Christ is not God."

My Hindu friend Mr. Mishra would say angrily, “We Hindus are also People of the Book because we have our holy Geeta and the Vedas." 

This would set me laughing because I knew true religion had nothing to do with books. True religion in my opinion is an internal transformation or attainment of one's own spirituality and has got nothing to do with religions or holy texts or scriptures or temples, mosques, and churches. They found my dismissal of holy books to be blasphemous. Even I confess that I read the Geeta only after I had got the concrete proof that God exists.

But now I must admit that most Hindus are turning violent and narrow in their religious outlook. We find YouTube shops in which self-proclaimed guardians of the Hindu faith, the Islamic faith, or the Christian faith are found venting their fury on religions other than theirs. What will happen if a Hindu acharya keeps attacking Prophet Muhammad or Jesus Christ? Or if a Muslim scholar would attack and criticize Hinduism and Christianity virulently or a Christian scholar would preach against Islam and Hinduism. The distance between Hindus and Muslims or Christians will widen and there will be unnecessary violence and mad violent activities of communalism. The great men of our times who are engaged in bashing each other's religion and adding to the number of converts to their respective religions are the real enemies of Bharat Mata or the entire human face.

"You say People of the Book are wrong..?" said Philip in challenging tones. Then I said, “You people cling to your books so strongly that your life becomes a veritable waste. You are told to read your holy books. You do that like a flock of sheep. I also include Hindus in your category. No Hindu today goes to temples to discover whether God exists or not. 

Followers of all religions certainly have their materialistic concerns. Godmen and religious pontiffs of today have turned religion into a most lucrative trade. In brief, religion is evil and is the chief source of anything dirty, nasty, ugly, or cruel. Every religion is bad; every religion on earth is a super-class Criminal. We have to execute this Demon if we have to live in harmony and peace. 

All the three devils were incalculably cross and upset with me. I started laughing like a mad man. 

I was wondering at the apparels of Mr. Khan and Mr. Mishra who dressed like a Hindu Goodman. They were prisoners and captives of their religions, being narrow and mean in their outlook. Why does a Hindu priest wear dhoti and kurta? Because he wants to show that he is different from the rest of humanity? Why does a Muslim man wear his shalwar-kameez and a typical Muslim beard? Only to assert that he is not like others; his own religion is better than any other religion. In European countries, there are ignorant Christian fathers who preach to their people that religions like Islam and Hinduism are inferior to Christianity. Religion however nicely one speaks of it, is an active volcano whose Supreme Objective is destructive, is to kill people who differ with them. Today’s intellectuals are worried about environmental pollution and climate change. They are not wise because they are not capable enough to see into the truth of how the Demon-called religion is going to destroy the beautiful creation of God. 

 "Then you don't deny believing in God?",

Mr. Mishra and Mr. Khan thundered at me 

together in one voice. 

My wife thought we were quarreling and came out into the sitting room. "Bhabhi..! Just listen to what your husband is saying! He says he doesn't believe in his religion. I am a Muslim but I love Lord Krishna and Lord Shriram. But he refuses to accept them being himself a Hindu..!" She muttered angrily and advised my friends to leave me alone. It was she who had introduced me to the worship of Sai Baba of Shirdi but she didn't like me paying any attention to any other god or goddess. I told her that Sai said humanity was the best and only true religion. I believe Seism is the religion of the world Man had to follow in the future.

Whatever your own religion and however fanatically you cling to it, be sure your forthcoming generations will not attach any importance to it. That you cling to this abominable disease(religion)stupidly and irrationally shows that you are fools of the supreme order. Though you were born sighted, after you had grown up you blinded yourselves with the cruel vicious knife of religion. The Lord offered you all an immense paradise on this beautiful earth, but like treacherous mean vipers, you chose to live in your cramped dirty murky holes. I hate religion hate religion! I hate religion! It is a bitch gone rabid. It wants to bite you so that it will glory in your agonizing death."

Mr. Mishra was livid with rage because I refused to read the Geeta and read Sai Sahuarita; Mr. Khan was very much upset with me because when he was doing his job in Kolkata

he had informed me about his wish to gift me a copy of the Quran but I had resolutely refused to accept his gift. My Christian friends had showered me with copies of the Bible of all sizes and shapes. I had accepted them long back because I was innocent of the scintillating truth that each and every religion was a slow poison and was meant to inject into man hatred for other people who had already been administered dose after dose by their narrow-minded bigoted parents and mentors. 

Both Mr. Mishra and Mr. Khan avoided me or it so seemed to me. My friend Philip was bent on dinning into me that Christianity was the best of all religions. He would explain to me again and again how Jesus died on the cross for the sins of man. Recently I had had a Buddhist friend from Sri Lanka.I don't know what he is going to say about his religion. 

After about a month, Mr. Mishra came to my house and waxed lyrically about laying the foundation for a proposed temple of Lord Jagannath. Finally, he wrote me a donation slip for ten thousand rupees! As he was going to hand over the slip to me, I said, “Brother I have already donated a sum of ten thousand rupees to Lord Jagannath...!" 

He looked at me with his mouth half-open and then said, “Receipt...! I haven't given you any as far as I remember?"

"I have handed over the money to the Lord personally...!" Next, he laughed and said, “Don’t joke..! The Lord has given you enough. Don't be a miser..!"

We were interrupted by a phone call. It was the laundryman. I said, “Yes I am at home. Do come."

Gangadhara Mishra then related to me some of his psychic experiences with Lord Jagannath hoping to extract the big sum from me. 

The laundryman arrived with a load. Seeing him, Mishra was incandescent with fury and ranted at the man, “You are a number one cheat. You have been withholding the delivery of my clothes for a week..! Who will trust an irresponsible person like you? Do you have any conscience?"

The laundryman said, “Sir you know that the cyclone Fan smashed my cabin and my only iron-box was stolen. I requested your support but you ignored me calling me a drunkard...Very few know how I had to manage my daily expenses..."

He kept his load on my drawing room sofa. I said to him, “Is your wife all right now? "

"Yes...Sir! She is all right.I bought the iron-box...!I am indebted to you forever Sir.' 

As the man turned to leave the place, Mr. Mishra roared: "Jagannath...!Return my clothes’ can't wait any longer.."

Jagannath said, “Please come and collect them Sir. I have no objection..!"

I was able to see Mr. Mishra’s reddening with deep embarrassment. He fled as if he had got the news of his house being on fire...!

The next morning, we were struck with limitless astonishment to hear that the CBI was raiding Mr.Mishra's house. Before the week ended Mr. Khan was proved guilty of an extramarital affair with his youngest sister's friend who was a saleswoman at a shopping mall and his marriage  was at stake.Tirki's daughter ran away with Mr. Khan’s son Ejaz in the first week of the ensuing month. I wondered at the hypocrisy of my friends.