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Thursday, July 3, 2014

Oh My God! Is this necessary?

In the news today:

Sai vs Shankaracharya: Conflict may turn ugly

 "NEW DELHI: An unusual confrontation is building up ever since Dwarka Shankaracharya, Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati, ran down the followers of Shirdi Sai Baba, saying they ought not to worship the 19th century mystic who was no god, and remove his photographs and idols from temples where he gets the pride of place with Hindu deities." TOI. 

Sai Baba just a "Muslim fakir", can't be worshipped: Shankaracharya

PTI  Haridwar, June 30, 2014 | UPDATED 04:38 IST

I think God has created more wars than all the Devils combined. Come to think of it; I feel all the caretakers of religion behave more like Devils themselves rather than the God they preach about. I prefer to be labeled as an atheist as I am unwilling to align with the so called God and nowadays the Devil worshipers. 

This is a personal conclusion that I have reached from reading about quite a few spiritual leaders - neither of the gurus Gautama,Mahavir, Nanak, Christ or for that matter even Sai ever wanted either religions nor places of worship be built on their name. They preached a path for humans to attain enlightenment - freeing it from their own self created misery. All preached there is one God and unfortunately the interpretation of their teachings were churned into a religion. None of them said they were Gods and yet they were made one. The result seems to have been contrary to what they wanted and no one seems to have learnt anything from them. When Christ said " I am Son of God" it surely meant each one of us are children of God and yet we try to differentiate between the superiority of one religion over the other when there is none. Why? simple answer control, wealth and power. 

All of us born have one destination - death. No "God" has helped any of his followers to escape it nor escape the pleasure and pains of daily life. It is human faith in the concept of God to deliver that delivers and that is what we label as "miracles" in daily lives. It's good to have faith - any faith is better than none. 

I do agree with the Shankaracharya that Sai Baba's pictures or idols must not share space with those of Hindu deities. If at all Baba needs to be enshrined or worshiped as God then it must be in a place of worship solely of his own; for he has achieved what none of Hindu Idol God have achieved singularly or collectively - that is bring people of all faiths, class, creed, or any distinction to come and bow their head before him in ardent respect. Yes a fakir he was; and yet everyone goes to beg from him. He had no wealth when he was alive nor cared for it; yet today there are more temples, trusts, corporations, and means of accumulating wealth named after him. If he was alive today and just collected franchise royalty for his name used - he would probably end up as the richest man in the world. That would make him a king of Kings.

So what if Baba ate meat or smoked tobacco; there are many more important things dogging Hindus right now including the price of vegetables and this controversy started by the seer is quite unnecessary.  It is not for him to "protect" the Hindu dharma or religion - let the Gods do their job in protecting themselves. Hinduism has done well for itself in India despite being ruled by Muslims and Christians. In Hinduism even a rat, snake, stone, water, and other living and nonliving things are worshiped in a temple and to say that a picture or an idol of an evolved soul in a temple is sacrilege is quite laughable actually.

Buddhist, Jains, Sikhs and many more don't believe they are part of the Hindu sect anymore and think of themselves as part of a separate religion. What if the followers of Sai form a religion after him - there would not be many Hindus or for that matter other faiths left then. Think about it.

Oh My God! I am reminded of the lyrics of "Imagine" by John Lennon...

  

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one




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