A direct hotline with God in Covid times

My grandmother was a religious person and would insist on offering daily prayers. She would be elated seeing us recite a sacred verse from memory. She would converse with priests with folded hands and absolute humility contrary to her pushy personality.

Though conservative in spending, she was largehearted when it came to donations for religious places or functions. It was mandatory for everybody in the family to visit a holy place on festivals. The performance of rituals and her reverence for sacred books often outweighed the message in them. Grandmother represented the vast majority that does not draw a distinction between religion and spirituality.

Dogma is the end of enquiry and a hindrance for enlightenment. As I came of age, my mind began to question religious practices made obligatory for us. I believe in a higher source of creation, realising we’re all just part of nature. Given the fear of being ostracised, I chose to tread the beaten track based on a set of dogmatic rules, disregarding my aspiration for self-realisation through inner consciousness.

Then emerged Uncle Corona; a gift from Mother Nature, forcing man to see life in its entirety. As this invisible Satan unleashed its terror, places of worship lay desolate with their headmen found wanting in providing succour. The wealth amassed in treasuries of religious banks was unable to alleviate sufferings of the destitute. Social distancing left the pious believers in the lurch. They had no option but to establish a direct hotline with God from the precincts of their dwellings.

For a while, people strayed from their doctrines and went back to divinity during the lockdown. Religion once again became a private affair.

Man’s quest for deciphering the cosmic code has resulted in numerous systems, each propagating a different path to the destination that’s common. Unfortunately, simple as the truth may sound and easy its path, it usually falls victim to the complexities of religion.

In his search of a spiritual experience, man identifies himself with religion; an inherited manmade institution. Soon, rituals and dutiful convictions overshadow spirituality preventing him from getting attuned to the universal rules of the divine. Religion based on fear speaks from the mind and often outshines spirituality, which is based on trust and faith and speaks from the soul. Religion is certainly an excellent crowd control mechanism but it is spirituality that eventually connects man to God.

Will man get any wiser after the pandemic? Perhaps, he requires time and effort to realign his mind, programmed over the generations. It is not easy to overcome the stigma of sin and guilt propagated by religion and turn towards the path of emancipation advocated by spirituality. But the ordinary man must make a spiritual start somewhere, sometime; we are after all greater than our habits. Dogmatic errors can be overlooked, but not spiritual blindness which is an anathema for mankind. It is time to realise that we are essentially spiritual beings, going through a human experience.

RELIGION IS AN EXCELLENT CROWD CONTROL MECHANISM BUT IT IS SPIRITUALITY THAT EVENTUALLY CONNECTS MAN TO GOD