Do You Know Your Religion?

Every time I meet a stranger I have to explain him/her that I am a Sikh but I don’t wear a turban. That doesn’t mean that I don’t respect my religion, perhaps I am just a moderate sikh who molded the fundamentals of the religion according to my comfort; to support my point sometimes I articulate “Its more important to be a sikh than to look like a sikh” But do I really know what a sikh is and what my religion is?

 “Were you taught your religion in schools?” One of my German colleagues asked me during a coffee table conversation.

“No” I said feeling proud of Indian secularism.

“Why?” He was amazed because in here Christianity is being taught in schools.

“Because India is a secular country and there are number of religions. So its better not to teach religion in a school than to burden students with lot many books about lot many religions” I tried to explain a bit, to him and to myself as even I was not sure about my explanation because I never thought about it.

“Then how do you get to know your religion” He was surprised on my answer and interrogated further.

“I inherited it from my parents and that’s it”

“Ya, that’s right but I mean to ask, do you know your religion? How can you say that, whatever you are following is correct?”

I was mum on that. Because I never tried to read about my own religion let aside the others, I never tried to read Guru Granth Sahib or other holy books so how can I compare or say which one is good?

In a while the conversation diverted from the topic and he went busy with another colleague, but I was stuck there till days. Same thing had happened few years back also, when I was in Seoul – one of my Muslim colleagues asked me “Why I follow Sikhism? Is it better than other religions? Have I read about Quran?” The way he asked me was not impressive; it was more like marketing Quran than to give me some insight into the word Religion, so I didn’t bother about it.

This time the question by this German guy hit the right cord. It made me think about my principles of life, my fundamentals, my ideologies. I know, I am in no position to tell anything about my religion as even I don’t know much, all I know is what I was told by my elders. I go to Gurudwara and bow to the Guru Granth Sahib, I visit temples and I bow to the idols even when the idol worship is prohibited in Sikhism (I do that for the respect of the other religion) and that’s it. That’s what I know about following a religion and most of us do only that, without giving a thought to what I am doing and why I am doing?

I believe in God. But the question here is not about the existence of GOD which many people confuse with; the question is why were these religions created? Obviously not by the GOD, but by the people. So, now it’s my job to know about what I am following and why I am following - But how?

I choose to read; presently I am reading ‘A History of the Sikhs by Khushwant Singh’. Will surely try to read and understand Guru Granth Sahib and other holy books in future and will try to implement their teachings to my life and that will be the day when I will be able to say “I know my religion and I know what I am following”

so kyon manda aakhiye jit jamme rajan

Guru Nanak Dev, founder of Sikh religion, believed men and women are equal and therefore women cannot be considered inferior. To woman we married, of woman are we born, of woman conceived, by woman is the civilization continued. It is by woman that the entire social order is maintained. Then so kyon manda aakhiye jit jamme rajan (why call her bad? From her Kings are born)

It seems present India has forgotten this teaching of their mystic Guru like other teachings by the other holy persons. The crime rate against women in India is alarmingly high, India is among the top rated unsafe countries for women, either count it by annual rape cases, dowry killings, home abuse or any other. And after that to cover up their faults the so called matured politicians make such stupid statements “90% rapes are consensual sex” “Women should be married early”. I want to ask Mr. Chautala, will it change the mind set of the rapists? Do the rapists check the marital status of the girl before doing such an inhuman act? The culprit here is the rapist not the girl, so if Mr. Chautala really want to make such statements then, should not he say “Men should be married early”? Or should not the police have made such a law that, men are not allowed to go out of home after 8O’clock in the evening, as they said few months back after Gurgaon debacle. Instead of chanting such dictates against the victim, they should amend their rules to nail the culprits.

I really can’t think – what’s the problem with such youth, and moreover what really is the mind set of these politicians? Does education is one of the reasons or the lack of implementation of strong laws against such crimes or the lack of girls because of female feticide or that Indian mentality which considers pre-marital sex a crime? The problem with India is that it is moving fast into 21^st century, but the male-mentality especially of the politicians and law makers still belongs to 20^th century. Our laws against such crimes are old, and the judiciary staff is even older. Our politicians are old (Avg. age of Indian Parliamentarians is 53 years, Mr. Prime Minister is 80+ and he is ruling the youngest country of the world), and their thinking is even older. We Indians need to change our thinking otherwise we will not be able to survive in the fast pacing world. It’s better to discuss some practical steps to alter the situation then to make such dictates.

Please for god sake amend the age old laws, make hard punishments for such crimes and moreover enforce those laws effectively, this is most important for Indian judiciary.  And our politicians and police need to be educated; they should be given moral lessons for good behavior and understanding the change. Those times are left far behind when the lady of the house was considered only for making chapatis and washing clothes; now they are going out in the world and you need to learn how to behave with these new age ladies. I think Indians are as afraid of the police men as they are from criminals, our police department needs to work on their reputation.

Not related to this topic, but still I want to mention it just for a change in Indian mentality - Stop considering love affairs and pre-marital sex as a taboo, its just a physical need and don’t forget India is the land of Kama-sutra, so what culture we are defending with stupid inhibitions? Presently the average age of marrying is going up, but the age of need or say urge for making love is getting lower, so we need to change with the changing times. But that also seems to be very difficult in a country where honour killings are so common; these people can’t understand love let aside need for sex.

This may also help a little – Legalize prostitution. Accept it or not, prostitution is there in every major city of our country; Don’t the police & politicians know about GB Road in Delhi, Infact Calcutta is one of the major cities for prostitution in Asia. Then why not legalize it? The people who are crazy about sex, they can go there and can satisfy their lust. It will make life easy for the prostitutes also; presently they are living on the mercy of police and mafia. So, legalization will give them a good safe and hygienic life and it will reduce rape cases as the human beasts will be able to get legal paid sex.

I know, It's easier said than done; but we have to at least start somewhere otherwise the time is not far when the Maa Durga or sheranwali will have to go somewhere else as even they will feel unsafe here in India, or they are already gone?

Will YoU ?

As usual I was on the jogging track along the Mainz River just to kill my free time. As I was walking, admiring the beautiful river along side and the sunset on the farther bank of the river, a family of four along with their pet dog crossed me. Just few steps ahead, the dog stopped to relieve himself from nature’s call. I was surprised, not on the dog’s shit but afterward the man pulled a poly-cover on his hand and collected the dog’s poo and delivered it into the nearby dustbin. Its strange for us Indians as even I will not feel comfortable doing that, so I can’t ask you - will you do that to keep our country clean?

I remember few years back, there was a news in some paper that Chandigarh administration (one of the best in India) was also thinking about charting a rule like that but now I don’t know why that didn’t materialize, may be those Indian inhibitions came in the way. I am not writing this for this dog’s shit but for the overall cleanliness of India, and I thought of writing this after watching Satyamev Jayate – Every Drop counts.

To all the foreign lands I have been, one thing was common – Cleanliness and their love for the nature preservation. I have no hesitation in claiming that we are the dirtiest people on planet. We have grown up being told how important it is to be clean, in the past it was mandatory to take bath before entering the kitchen. But that’s all where it ends, it ends within the four walls of our house; look around and you would know that we never understood the word cleanliness. Outside our house we assume the whole place to be a dustbin; and not only us, our government and all the administrations and industries treat our rivers as a waste dumping zone. Where on earth you will find the sewage lines converging into rivers without any treatment system; in which country you see the industrial waste running into their holy river or in which part of the world people poo in open?

The best places of the big cities I visited are their river banks – as it was in Seoul, Frankfurt, Paris, Zurich name any; infact these rivers enhance the beauty of the already beautiful cities. And look at our Indian rivers, Ganga the holy river seems to be a sewage drain except only in Rishikesh and Yamuna’s pathetic status within the capital city is known to everybody. Only few days back I watched Satyamev Jayate on Youtube and got to know that there is no Yamuna in Delhi, all its water has been diverted to two canals way-before entering Delhi and the river flowing through the capital city is hundred percent Industrial waste and sewage water. I couldn’t believe it at first, but that’s our India.

Its not only about water, we don’t even have a proper waste disposal systems. All our residential waste - plastics, food, electrical, glass we dispose off as one, which means there is no recycling. Everywhere in India you can see the ban on plastics (That’s another thing no where it’s implemented), but I will say why to ban it? It’s a useful thing, use it and then dispose it in proper manner. There is a huge dearth of waste management system in India, and a big lack of cleanliness friendly public.

Despite all the progress we seem to be making elsewhere, this is one area where things are getting bad with every passing day. Either blame the Government or civic administrations or your neighbors but, it is we, the people, who need to introspect. There is no dearth of ideas and suggestions, but now is the time for action whatever you can take at individual level or a group. Stand out and make a difference, let yourself be proud of you.