Religious Taboo

Recently, I met an old friend of mine. We were catching up after a gap of 3 years. She stayed abroad with her husband and she couldn’t attend my wedding so I owed her a treat. I took her to her favourite restaurant and asked her to order. She had a sweet tooth and crazily fall for Gulab Jamun. But she didn’t even ordered sweets. I noticed it because she was fond of sweets. Especially in that restaurant, her all-time favourite Gulab Jamun with assorted flavour was really delicious. Well, I didn’t ask her anything initially but when I tried to order ice cream Gulab Jamun for her, she said it again- “No sweets please!”

Really? Now I got worried. Did she develop some serious health issues like Diabetes…

But my assumptions were not right. She explained afterwards that she had stopped eating sweets because during her visit to Sai Baba, she was supposed to quit eating one thing which she loved most, in order to live a happier life and a better career growth of her husband. And since she loved Gulab Jamun the most, she decided to quit.

“What the f*ck!” I almost said out loud. To which she replied don’t say anything it’s against God and God will punish her and her so called Pooja will go unheard. That was another stupid thing she said out loud. And honestly, I couldn’t hold it anymore and I asked her straight away, “How does this stupid act of yours have the eligibility to fall under the category of sacrifices? Can you please explain?”

As expected, she had no proper answer and in the end, she blamed me for not understanding the concept of God and devotion. I may not be intelligent enough to understand such deep sacrifices but they seem very stupid to me.

Why would God ask you not to eat the food you like? How do you benefit society by quitting a particular food? How do you get any health benefits from this?

Thousands of people may be visiting the temple daily, so is God going to keep a track of everyone quitting their favourite food? It would be a sacrifice if she fed a poor and hungry person without a second thought, even if she wasn’t in a position to eat afterwards. What’s the logic behind quitting some food item and expecting all the problems of life to get sorted out by God? My God!

I have seen many people not eating onion on a particular day of the week. It shows respect for God. How? You don’t eat onion on Saturday or Tuesday but you speak lies on those days, you cheat someone on those days, you break traffic rules on those days, many people even drink and smoke on those days. Now somebody please help me understand why eating onion was a sin on Saturday or Tuesday?

One relative of mine is extremely religious and she believes that prayers are powerful. I believe it too but compared to my faith, hers is strong. So strong that she starts doing Puja in the morning that continues for complete two hours. Her husband doesn’t get breakfast at home because he has to leave early and his wife is praying. Is this the way to worship God? We can’t take care of our own family just because our God wants us to sit in front of him and pray! When did God tell you this? Why do you create a superstition and then call yourself religious?

I love my religion and I believe in God as well, and I believe that Work is Worship. I always fail to understand such concepts of worshipping God which allows a person to be ‘good’ with so much hypocrisy attached. I don’t intend on hurting anyone’s sentiments. But I feel like writing.