January 08, 2014

Should we let people become God?

Note: This article is what I think about God, and the trend of worshiping man as God. Some of the 'facts' might be wrong due to my ignorance and I don't intend to hurt anyone's sentiments.

We all know what's going on with Asaram Bapu's case, so I am not going to repeat the known. Although personally, I think that even if Asaram isn't guilty, what he did during the whole episode has made sure to me that he isn't that 'saint' he projects himself to be. But this whole controversy has made me rethink about a very important issue : Should we let ANYONE, howsoever good or bad they may be, become God? 

Let me start by stating who I think a God is? My own definition varies, but in general sense I think God's someone who is the Supreme Being. Someone who can never do ANYTHING wrong because he's the Creator and he's the Destroyer. Someone who doesn't need to prove anything to anyone because, well, he's God!

Now, man is an innocent but utterly lazy creature. We always have problem making peace with the concept of GOD. So, instead we try to find an analogy with something that makes more sense. Like a human being for example. 

The Hindus have hundreds of millions of Gods and deities that they worship. So many that if each Hindu chooses his own deity we might still be left with some 'unadopted' Gods!  One of most popular amongst them is Rama or Purushottam Ram (The ideal man) as we like to call him. But at the end he was a man after all; someone who sent his same wife, who endured everything for her husband, into exile. Even after knowing the truth, and just because he wanted to 'prove' he was "Purushottam" in front of his prajaa. Ram, a great man? Definitely. A God? I don't think so.

Prophet Mohammad, even though being 'just' a God's messenger, enjoys God like status all over the world. In churches, we pray to Jesus who was son or messenger of God, and not the God himself. Sai Baba, even after always pointing that he was just a fakeer trying to help others, has his idols all over the world. He might probably be one of the "richest Gods" with 100s of Kilos of gold in his temples. 

Are any of them corrupt in their behavior? No. Do they deserve to have their idols all over the world? If it helps us remember them, then Yes. But we shouldn't forget they all were human, and we poor chaps instead of concentrating and contemplating their message try to glorify their conjurations instead, hijacking their very purpose.   

Buddhism and Sikhism, on the other hand, have their Gurus (teachers), but the religion doesn't preach to worship them (although some of us do anyway). Instead it asks the followers to to actually follow and worship their teachings, that too after experimenting with it.  And I think that's the way to go. The greatest respect you can pay to a person is to respect and follow their teachings, and not by touching their feet, putting garlands on their photo, and doing their aarti.

So, what's the point I am trying to make? I mean to say that this trend of considering the 'super' humans or the more wise amongst us as God, is a very dangerous act. None of the persons mentioned above would have wanted to be given a God-like status. They all taught about stuffs like loving each other, striving to find the truth and sacrificing for the greater good. 

Now, what happens is that "new-comers" of today, the "not-so-holy" ones, take advantage of the blind faith of humans and carefully channelize it for their own profit. I think human is not intelligent enough to catch falsity amongst the abundance of 'truth' that he wants to hear. Asaram might be the most popular case, but certainly not the only one. So, what happens when your faith get broken? It leads to heart-break and then you start to doubt even those people who deserve your trust.

There will always be people in your life, whom you love and respect to the point that you are ready to sacrifice your life for their sake. That's understandable. But does it mean that we start to think of them as as absolute God, the "Untouchable",  the one who can never be wrong? Does it mean we should start idolizing them, and crushing anyone who tries to question them?

I am not sure if we should even believe in God, but I am definitely sure that we shouldn't make a God out of an ordinary man. Giving so much power to a single person, howsoever good he may appear, can never be good.

On the other hand, I like the concept of God becoming human! But that's just me. 

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