Friday, October 10, 2008

The significance of Dusshra for an agnostic

Being a true agnostic, I do not get the same feeling of reverence and devotion on seeing an idol of Goddess Durga or Lord Ram which a devout Hindu normally gets.So, for me, Navratri and Dusshra do not bring any special joy to my life. However, I strongly believe in the message these festivals represent. The victory of good over evil, which is symbolically represented by these festivals, is the root of human conscience.All religions originate with the pursuit of goodness and benevolence.However, as it happens, over a period of time, all religions have the tendency to degenerate into meaningless rites and rituals and the true message and motive behind the religion is lost somewhere.The unquestioned and blind faith in any religion enables the vested interests to exploit the religious feelings of masses for their narrow sectarian ends.
The increasing communalisation of Indian society where there is a frantic race for proving ones religion as the best one is a manifestation of this phenomenon. While the symbolism of the festivals is necessary to reinforce the pursuit of goodness, the believers should also extend this symbolism to their day to day life as well and understand the true message of their religion.As an agnostic, I may not worship Lord Ram's idol, but I definitely try to imbibe the values which Ram represents. This is not because I am accidently born to a Hindu family but because these values of compassion, love,morality,commitment appeal to my human conscience. So when I greet my friends on dusshra, I also wish that the spirit of goodness spreads wide and deep and not just remains confined to the symbolism.

4 comments:

~anu~ said...

excellent thought anand! nice blog you have here..

Anand Singh said...

thanks Anu.. just sometimes try to express..your appreciation is motivating me to try to express more often.

Lav Grover 'MUSAFIR' said...

Dear Anand,
Nice piece of writing indeed.
You have highlighted the LATENT FUNCTION of the festivities. The problem with us as humans is that we have an inborn tendency to overlook or ignore the underlying thoughts and expressions of any thing and give more importance to the MANIFEST FUNCTIONS of those. By doing this we make ourselves more comfortable as it helps us to keep our stereotyped image and identity intact. If otherwise would have happened, we would have witnessed a muslim celebrating diwali and a Christian celebrating eid and a hindu celebrating christmas, and we all as humans celebrating the spirit of humanism.
Lav

Anand Singh said...

Thanks Lav for joining me to celebrate the spirit of humanism!!