Hindu society and God

Human beings are the most intellectual among all the creatures of the world. They have discovered many mysteries by study and research. Still, we do not know the secret of life and death, the mystery from where we came and where we are going. We come to the world, act some plays for some decades, and disappear from the scene as if it is a drama, play. It has been going on, and it will be going. The game continues one after another. Only the participants and actors are changed.

In this context, when we see the many mysteries of the world, including the mystery of life and death, which are beyond our understanding, knowledge, and wisdom, we are bound to think that there must be some conductor who is behind the scenes. We call him a God, the creator, the conductor, the preserver. Though all the religions and faith in the world believe that God is the source of your life, the head of love, kindness, mercy, and compassion, it is not easy to understand why people often take him as the source of fear instead of the origin of love. Even the Christians, the believers of Jesus Christ, the head of love and compassion, seem to believe that you go to hell if you do not baptize your child, you go to hell if you do not trust him, you get punished if you go to the church of some other denomination different from the one you belongs to. Similarly, it seems that they have such a profound faith that all the people of the world who are not Christians, maybe Lord Buddha or Mahatma Gandhi, are necessary to go to hell as they are not Christians. To them. God created hell only to send Non-Christians, even not thinking of good or bad, honest or dishonest, benevolent or wicked. To them, God created heaven only to send Christians, not even thinking of bad Christian or good Christians. Newly-made fresh Christians in Nepal are taught and told not to put Tika (vermilion) on the forehead, not to eat anything linked to the puja (prasad of worship) of Hindu rituals, not to even clean and wash the religious utensils (Puja

Patra) - candle stand, plates while doing dishes in somebody's house telling them that they will go to hell if they do that. My Christian lady helper once said that she got severe stomach pain after washing our worship plates (Puja Patra). She was not supposed to do as preached by her pastor. Happily, she would do the other dishes but not the worship plates. I often hear from my Christian friends that you go to hell if you do that; you go to hell if you do not. People depict God as a cruel punisher. But the most fun part of the society to understand is that people seldom think they would go to hell if they do not do good Karma. That is hard for me to believe. This type of fear of God, superstition we see not only with Christians. You see them with all the religions. It seems that the people of the Hindu faith of India and Nepal have more superstitions. The lesson of fear of God is more embedded than the lesson of a love of God in their hearts. Hindus have many rituals from birth to death. There are many Hindu rituals and saying linked with the fear of God.

I am a Hindu by birth. Here in our country, when I say I am a Hindu means not because of your faith, education, or knowledge; my all generations - great grandfather, grandfather, father were and are Hindus. So, I am. There is no question of not being or not knowing or any other things.

Our religion is not the way of baptism or faith but the culture of generation to generation. There is no fixed ritual for that though there are several other rituals in life. I saw and heard many times the creation of fear of God regarding the day today's activities. People talk about God gives you trouble if you do this; God gives you risk if you do not do that.

We have thirteen days of continuous death rituals for the deceased after the death of someone. After it, the practice is performed once a month up to one year, then after once in a year. There are many gifts to be given to the priest for the deceased - pots, pans, knives, utensils, rice, cereals, lentils, butter, oil everything needed for the kitchen, a full set of clothing and ornaments including the shoes and umbrella, a complete set of sleeping - bed, quilt, mattress, pillow, and many more. It is said that if you do not follow the procedure, the deceased would not go to heaven and would not have comfortable living there. Fear of God is created even in this matter.

Among Hindus, many of them establish God like an ordinary human being. You can please him by offering cash, ornaments, fruits, sweets, etc., and you could quickly achieve his blessing for your health, happiness, and prosperity. Many of them think they can please him with extended ritual puja (worship) by sacrificing animals - chickens, goats, lambs, buffaloes, etc. for fulfilling your wishes. People make Bhakal (promise, vow) to the name of Gods and Goddesses that they would do this or that for him if he could fulfill their wishes, like bribing the officials to get the works done. Though I was born and grew up seeing this culture, I could never accept and agree. Sometimes we hear about India's tragic incident that even the human sacrifice by force was offered to Goddesses, on the blind faith for pleasing him to achieve the goal. What a shame it is.

I know they have faith in the treatment of sicks in the Christian community. Some people believe that even the seriously sick could be treated by group pray in the church. It seems this idea is more propagated among uneducated people in Nepal and other countries.

It is more practised in newly created tiny churches in Nepal. I have a lady helper who is Nepali Christian. She often goes to her church as the group participant for this purpose. She is very poor, but she would do this even leaving the work she needs for money. She is hypnotized for this purpose. This program is organized very often, at least once a week, and the pray hospital is called. She thinks she must go to that prayer by any means. We all know this method disapproves of the necessity of hospitals and health workers. It must have harmed the patients very often.

There are many believers of this method among Hindus, and they go to temples with worship and sacrifice. Not only this, many people are there to think that they got pain or trouble because of the curse of God (Dosh) or ill eye or bad wish of God - Naga (snake God) Kumari (virgin Goddess). Many people think they got into trouble because they forgot to offer big puja (Satya Narayan Puja) to God Narayana. After worship, the God Narayan would be pleased as if God is in the world to have our puja for his living. We have many traditional healers called - Swamis,

Jakris, Dhamis, Matas, etc., cheating the people in the name of cure and treatment, creating fear of God. What a lousy concept.

From our common sense, we can analyze the facts and tell that because of our wrong concepts of any faith of any religion - Christianity, Hinduism, or others; it would be unwise to blame any faith. God is the head of love and Justice. That may be undoubtedly true. Your Karma (good deeds and evil deeds) earns his love and justice. It may be right. But I think that we cannot blame God for our misunderstanding, misconception, harmful activities. He must not be the one who could be moved by your flattery and bribery. But we can be a person of his love and justice by our Bhakti (selfless prayer) and good Karma. We must have a fear of him for doing bad Karma, nothing else. I am not an enlightened person. So, I do not know much. But I never did his worship because of fear of him. You respect your father because of your love, not because of your anxiety or fear. My conscience tells me," Never fear of God and always have Bhakti in your heart.