Beliefs

Aroopjyoti Tripathy 

The Belief in existence of a super power, a creator, a power referred to as the supreme God, most believe is what runs this world. This belief had lead to creation of religions, sects, and numerous divisions based on people’s individual representation and perception of this Creator. Nevertheless, which ever religion we talk about, based on our individual beliefs and scriptures, we celebrate festivals, go for pilgrimage, do fasting, involve in charity, and do all that what according to our beliefs comes under “Good Deeds”, which again is believed to bring us closer to our Creator. Festivals in particulars are reflections of our beliefs and faiths. But then, do these beliefs, rather which one these beliefs; really ever bring one closer to God, I do not know. 

I was born to a family of believers. Both my paternal and maternal ancestry boasting of rich history of brahmanic traditions and achievements. Ancestors from both my sides held high posts in the then courts of the regional monarchs. They have been instrumental in building of temples some of which were built more than 300 years back, and stands functional till date. In short mine has been a family of firm Sanatana Dharmic who have been firm believer in the belief we call Hinduism. 

Having being born in a family as above, one is expected to be named in a very Pauranic manner , and so was I. They named me Jagganath, after the very epitome of Odia belief. Being named after the Lord of the Universe , as a child, whenever someone would ask me my name and as I responded , they would usually respond with a bright smile on their face “ Are wah! what a nice name you have!! Really lucky name!!” And this used to cheer me up (As I grew up I realized being named as Lord of Universe, does not really makes you the Lord of this Universe or anything close to the same. Moreover I am quite often mispronounced as Juggernaut by my non-Indian friends, many of whom think I am named so because of my astronomically huge physic) 

Now, both my parents are firm believers, but they are kind of opposite in their believing. My mother is more into satsang, bhajan, visiting temple every now and then, chanting slokas and mantras. My father keeps his belief to self, and is not much into bhajans and satsangs. He is more of a silent believer. I grew in close proximity to my grandparents, listening to epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana, listening to stories about great people and their works and teachings. These stories were believed to help motivate me and help me grow into a good human being. 

From as long as I could remember, I used to sit by my mother every evening at the Sandhya Arati (Evening Prayer). And she made me sing bhajans like “Ahe Daya Maya Bishwa Bihari”, which every Odia must have sung as a child. As I grew up, I started spending more time in the evening playing with my neighborhood fellows, hence I started missing out the evening prayers. And gradually during the end of my schooling life I used to go for tuitions in the evening, which lead to completely missing of the Sandhya Arati. But still, during rainy days when I was at home during Arati time, my mother used to get hold of me and make me sit by her at the Puja Room. 

Many people believe Sandhya Arati is the most fruitful time to convey one’s sorrows, happiness, demands and protests to God. As , it is believed the supreme power is more respondent during the Sun Rise and Sun Set time since Hindus believe that in the evening God goes around his creation to take heed of His devotees’ prayers and requests. Well, at least that is what most believe, I believed half an hour spent out there in the puja room, sitting by the side of my mother, putting in chorus to her hymic chanting of mantras , with the sweet smell of incense sticks and the warmth of the Arati Diya, was one the best things that one could have as part of his daily routine. 

In school days, festivals used to be both important as well as rewarding days. Important, as each of them had some important reason for being celebrated, as part of the beliefs in our religions. Rewarding as on some of these festivals we got to wear new clothes, and on almost every major occasion there used to be a feast and get together of family and friends. For students some of the festivals like Ganesh Puja or Saraswati Puja were the most important ones, as these are the Gods of knowledge and wisdom. On these days going to school early in the morning wearing your new dress, bowing down to every teacher, having couple of new pens touched to the holy idols, and most importantly lining out for the packet of “puja bhoga” (most of the times more than once). But then those were the days, and they carried some special beliefs with them, and I loved each one of them. 

Moreover not only the school, but children would also arrange for puja in their own localities. They would start preparing couple of weeks before the occasion, collecting donations, preparing for the big feast and the night before the puja day will be the one when we’ll work all night decorating the puja settings. People will put in every effort they could to make it a grand success, and probably these are the beginning of learning of the management skills for most of us (we usually ended up making a beautiful event out of the meager budget that we would be having. Someone correctly said- management is an innate character, you don’t need a degree to make you a manager out of yourself) Then on the day of puja we would go around distributing the bhoga (food that is offered to the Gods) , along with eating out bhoga at other puja locations nearby. And every such puja helped bring friends and communities together for a cause. 

As a child, there were a few other festivals which every child would be particularly waiting for every year. Two of these were Holi and Diwali. These happened to be days of amazing fun and togetherness. When we went for Holi or Diwali shopping, we would usually look for the strongest of the colors or the loudest of the crackers. And then on the day of the festival, friends and family would get together for the event; enjoy it with a big feast. Being an Indian, our national festivals, Republic day and Independence day easily becomes parts of one’s beliefs. And on these occasions we used to assemble at the school ground for the flag hoisting and march past. Marching out there was always a moment and matter of pride. 

There were many other such festivals that we welcomed and enjoyed with full excitement. Durga Puja and Rath Yatra were two such festivals. On Durga Puja, we used to go out in the city, to see the beautifully decorated platforms for Maa Durga. For Rath Yatra, we would go to Puri every year, stay there for couple of days and get in tune of devotion with the sea of millions of devotees who would have gathered for the occasion. So many Gods, so many festivals, so many beliefs! As a child most beliefs that we stand on were beyond my understating, but I liked one thing about them, they were all aimed at bringing people together, and at spreading of happiness amongst them. 

With time as I left home for post schooling studies, I had an opportunity of knowing and understanding people and beliefs beyond that of my family and relatives. In my undergraduate college I came across people from various parts of the country, each with their individual beliefs. There were the simplest of the simplest people whose strong believing in God, without putting on a single tilak or celebrating a single festival, amazed me to the core. And then there were also the rowdiest of bhaiyas and annas , who would not mind breaking the legs of people they did not like, but then putting on sacred tilaks and bibhutis everyday happened to be their way of believing that they are true to their faiths and their believes. 

But then staying away from home, it was difficult to keep count of the approaching festivals, other than about those of which my mother used to tell me about on phone (which were more of reminders from my mother about taking care not to eat meat on these days as these festival fell on that date). Gradually Ganesh and Sarawati Puja became limited to just an hour of visit to the nearest temple or the nearest celebration place. No more did we have the long Dussera breaks , and Rath Yatra was limited to watching it live from Puri on TV or in news later in the day. The national festivals were celebrated with far lesser excitement. But yes Holi and Diwali became the real hits. Holi became even more colorful and Diwali more loud. And what followed the celebration was a night in the pub drinking and partying. That is what happened to our beliefs and celebrations. 

But yes, even at college God was always remembered, though not always, but at times of need. Exams were the most demanding times that saw the need to awaken our beliefs and faith on God. Incense sticks were lighted once again, prayers were said, and requests were made. One very remindful exam I could recollect about was my C programming exam. Being a non IT student, C programming was just an unnecessary compulsion, but then we had to pass it anyhow. “Hey Bhagwan, pass me in today’s C programming exam, and I will never again call the faculty by names” Is what I prayed for, lighting a whole packet of 12 incense sticks before leaving for the exam(for which I had no hope and was sure of flunking in the same). And to my surprise I passed, with a D- though, but nevertheless for me, the prayers and the incense sticks worked, more importantly by beliefs worked. 

After college, life became more hectic (usually). With new exposures comes new outlook, and that many a times results in change of beliefs. When I had to leave the country for a job that I had to join, my parents, my mother in particular was concerned (what makes mother concern so much, and at most times unnecessarily, is a big unanswered question in my life) Well, she had concerns over where I will stay, with which kind of people, what food will I eat, and coming from a conservative Hindu family, an added concern for her was regarding whether I was going to be able to spend some time daily saying my prayers or not. 

Now it so happened that on my first assignment abroad, I flew, landing at one of world’s busiest airports. I was on a transit and had a second flight 6 hours from my landing. Being used to every hour munching, I must say I was starving and the first thing my eyes fell in such a situation was on the McDonald outlet at the airport. Being located in one of world’s busiest airports, the outlet was damn crowded. I was so hungry that I did not care; neither did I want to look for any second food outlet. And I joined at the long line at the McD counter. As I walked up to the counter, I looked for what possibly I could buy. I had been warned several times by my mother not to eat beef and anything un-dharmic. The item on the menu I felt most comfortable with was the cheese burger. But as an extra step for caution I asked the person at the counter whether cheese burger was pure vegetarian (not that I am a pure vegetarian, just did not feel like eating white meat either). I don’t know whether it was my horrible accent she did not understand, or whether because the person was a Central American and was not good in English, she nodded cheese burger to be veg. I was so hungry that I did not care to cross check the burger before eating. But just I had the first bite I realized that it was not okay and as I checked it and found it to contain some kind of meat which definitely wasn’t chicken (later I found out that it was beef). I didn’t dare to tell my mother about the incident, because it would have shaken her if she would have heard that I had a bite of beef, which was completely against Hindu beliefs and is considered to be one of the worst sins to do!! 

Now, the problem with our generation is that we usually are ignorant of our pauranic calendar and events indicated in the same. It is our parents and elders who usually tell us about festivities, ekadasis, sankrantis and other days of religious importance. Once I went from STD to ISD, due to job timing and difference in timing zones it so happened that I missed calling up my parents on some of the days. And it so happened that I gradually started missing out on important festivals. No more visiting temples on Ganesh Puja or Saraswati Puja. No more bursting of crackers or playing of Holi as we did in India. No more of enjoying Dussera with parents or going to Puri for Rath Yatra . I was limited to watching about the celebration of these festivals on news now. The Indian society in the city used to organize get together events, but in most occasions they were more of booze parties in Indian clothing and with Indian cuisines. Not only abroad, even in India festivals have become more of an ordinary holiday to spend watching television at home. Festivals being one of the important entities that help one care about and stick to one’s religious beliefs, I felt these beliefs being diluted. 

In work that needs travelling, one gets to see so many different kind of people, and it is interesting to see how diverse beliefs can be. It so happened that on one of my assignments, I had to move to the South East. After much search, I got a room on rent as a paying guest with an elderly couple who had emigrated from India long back. They were one of the most interesting and happiest couple I had ever seen. The old man, Mr Iyengar was an elderly Tamil gentleman who was a retired engineer, and he spent most of his time gardening. And Mrs Iyengar spent most of her time cooking or watching old tamil movies. She made some of the best Dosas I had ever had. But I wondered in the beginning, coming from a ordhotox vaishnavite background from Tamil Nadu, why I never saw him wearing the sricharam tilak on his forehead or wearing a sacred thread or doing Puja. Neither did I see Mrs Iyengar ever spend time in the puja room (later I realized they did not have a puja room). One day I ended up asking him the same. He told me story, about how orthodox a Brahmin he was. But then it so happened that he ended up falling in love and marrying Mrs Iyengar who was a Mohammedan. Family conflicts resulted in threat to their lives and they ended up leaving the country (sounds more like a bollywood flick..no??). Since then they have not been following any rituals neither Hindu nor Moslem. He said “I am not an atheist, but I don’t have to follow a religion to prove my belief in God” They were a happy couple and I realized they did not need a religion to follow to be happy. That was what they believed in. 

On one other occasion I was required to shift to the office of our client for a few months. The CEO, Sir De-Molay, being a multi millionaire was a highly feared, as well as respected man. He was highly respected because of the huge amount of charity and developmental work he was involved in for the third world countries. As I went to work there, the first thing I was amazed about was the kind of Christian architecture he had incorporated in his office. It had an amazing pious and serene feeling attached to it. I thought the man to be a highly religious person, and hence he has built such an office. As I worked, I came to know that it was his wife who was the religious one. It was interesting to know from one of my colleagues there that, Me De-Molay was a religious man when he was struggling as a entrepreneur and was trying to start a company, but he hadn’t been to a church since he started this company three decades back. It so happened that once at an official dinner I happened to get a chance to talk with the CEO. As we were talking, I gathered my courage and ended up asking him what I wanted to ask him for the past many days, about him not going to church for the past three decades. He answered “When I was struggling and I was failing in all that I was doing in building my business, I needed someone to give me a feeling of support in those days of helplessness. And it was in the divine that I sought that support. As I started building the company, I had to spend more and more time with my establishment to nurture and grow it. As I gained some success and money started flowing in, I started spending some money on charity. And gradually I started spending more on charity, for those who really need the money. I do not take weekends, but if I stop working on Sundays and end up going to the Church, that is around 10 hours a month, it will be a loss worth hundreds of thousands of dollars that I could earn by working for those 10 hours. God understands me not going to the Church and I don’t need to go to the Church to be close to God. Every time I work for the poor, that brings me closer to the God” This is what his belief was. 

Just recently I happened to be in Eastern Asia. I was called over for a project and I had to stay there for a few weeks. The company I was working for was headed by a guy named Lee Yung, a hardcore communist he was. But that person was a wonder. A down to earth person, a true labor union leader, even though was head of the company he never minded pulling himself down a damaged truck or climbing up a broken reactor. He was an engineer to the core. But what was interesting about him was that he was an atheist. He did not believe in God. It was interesting to me because he was the first person I had met who was reluctant to believe in God to this extent, and so were his followers. I asked him why it was so; he replied “I work with poor daily wage laborers who have come from various parts of the country. All they need to survive is two good meals a day, a pair of clothes every year, basic education, cheap healthcare and a one roomed house with proper sanitation. If all start thinking about religion, about festivals, about going to places of worship, that means they will lose some of their precious hours of working and thus their wages. Moreover people who have definitive religious beliefs start fighting with others every now and then, ultimately hampering their own progress. One does not need an occasion to enjoy or to get together with friends and family. I am happy with my life, and I did not need to believe in the presence of a super power or God to make me happy” This is what he believed, and to my surprise he was not wrong in what he said. 

In today’s highly dynamic and capitalist world, it is becoming more and more difficult to maintain the traditional beliefs and celebrate our festivals in the manner it was possible few years back. Beliefs has more of become a textbook definition and people are getting easily swept away by deceiving saints and prophets. Even though they have completely different beliefs, all the people I talked about are happy and satisfied with their individual beliefs, to the extremities of being conservative believers to that of the one who believes in the nonexistent of the divinity. Theist or Atheist, whatever we are, I guess the important thing is that our beliefs should be based on reason and should benefit all, only then we can make the world a better and beautiful place to live in. 

Lord Buddha has said: 

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the “good and benefit of one and all”, then accept it and live up to it.” 

Buddha’s saying is what I feel will help us re-discover what our real Beliefs are.

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