There are two kind of people. One who have been raised up in a family that is religious and the other who come from a family that has never been much into religion. I cannot speak for the other half, but can give a small sneak peek into the former category.
I come from a middle class Bengali family and from childhood have seen my mother praying twice a day. She occasionally keeps fast and there are days when the entire household is not supposed to have non-veg. When I was a small kid, my sister and I would often sit along with my mother and try to imitate her. It had become some kind of a game for us.
As we grew a little older, somewhere around the age of 14 or 15, my mother once tried explaining me the concept of God. She said, there’s is some superpower out there who looks after us from above. She asked us to keep that superpower in mind whenever we are about to set for some task, be it exams or simply riding the scooty over to a friend’s place. So, to me, that was God. A superpower. It had no form. I would stand in front of the idols and pray to a formless entity. I sucked at memorizing the hymns and always would ask that entity to look after the people I cared for. Sometimes I would get a little greedy and ask for good grades, but my rational brain knew, that grades and marks were completely dependent on the effort I put. Nevertheless, I would still thank the Entity for anything good that happened in life.
Then, a few years back, I went through a difficult phase. Somehow,everything stopped making sense. Bad things were happening and I couldn’t figure out why. I had tons of questions and no answers. I looked up at the Entity for some kind of explanation, and I didn’t get any. Months went by and I was still in a haze. Then a doubt start creeping into my mind.
If there is some Superpower looking after all of us, why is it that I get to have so many privileges, and not the kids in Africa? Why do I get to have more food than I can consume, and people are dying because of starvation? Why do I get a job with a higher pay and not that girl or guy who is any day better than me? Why is it that some die young and some have to live long enough to see everyone they care about leave one by one? Who gets to decide what kind of life a person deserves?
The more I thought about it, more questions came to my mind and the entire Superpower and Entity concept, couldn’t answer these questions. I don’t hate the concept of religion, I just don’t believe there is somebody looking out for us. I will anyday bow my head to my parents and the freedom fighters who fought hard to free us and all those great humans working endlessly and tirelessly for the betterment of humanity, but no more to the Unknown.
I come from a middle class Bengali family and from childhood have seen my mother praying twice a day. She occasionally keeps fast and there are days when the entire household is not supposed to have non-veg. When I was a small kid, my sister and I would often sit along with my mother and try to imitate her. It had become some kind of a game for us.
As we grew a little older, somewhere around the age of 14 or 15, my mother once tried explaining me the concept of God. She said, there’s is some superpower out there who looks after us from above. She asked us to keep that superpower in mind whenever we are about to set for some task, be it exams or simply riding the scooty over to a friend’s place. So, to me, that was God. A superpower. It had no form. I would stand in front of the idols and pray to a formless entity. I sucked at memorizing the hymns and always would ask that entity to look after the people I cared for. Sometimes I would get a little greedy and ask for good grades, but my rational brain knew, that grades and marks were completely dependent on the effort I put. Nevertheless, I would still thank the Entity for anything good that happened in life.
Then, a few years back, I went through a difficult phase. Somehow,everything stopped making sense. Bad things were happening and I couldn’t figure out why. I had tons of questions and no answers. I looked up at the Entity for some kind of explanation, and I didn’t get any. Months went by and I was still in a haze. Then a doubt start creeping into my mind.If there is some Superpower looking after all of us, why is it that I get to have so many privileges, and not the kids in Africa? Why do I get to have more food than I can consume, and people are dying because of starvation? Why do I get a job with a higher pay and not that girl or guy who is any day better than me? Why is it that some die young and some have to live long enough to see everyone they care about leave one by one? Who gets to decide what kind of life a person deserves?
The more I thought about it, more questions came to my mind and the entire Superpower and Entity concept, couldn’t answer these questions. I don’t hate the concept of religion, I just don’t believe there is somebody looking out for us. I will anyday bow my head to my parents and the freedom fighters who fought hard to free us and all those great humans working endlessly and tirelessly for the betterment of humanity, but no more to the Unknown.
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