I wonder very often that why is it that most people around are staunch religious believers. Well, it's not that I do not respect their faith or their beliefs, but I just wonder why does a free will to choose our own beliefs not exist. Very clearly, the believers all around are divided into a few chosen faiths and beliefs. How often do we find new faiths emerging? Why do all individuals not have a different, personalized faith each? How can a whole race be so naive as to follow blindly the established religions, norms, traditions ceremonies, etc.
I got my answer this morning. Well, at least a part of the answer. I was visiting the orphanage in my locality, with a contribution of three litres of milk. The caretaker or Sister, a lovely selfless middle-aged lady greeted me with incredible warmth - she knew me from my childhood. So, I sat with her for a while, telling her how I had been, talking about my late grandmother who was a regular visitor to the orphanage, and asking her about the kids and their studies. During this little while, came crawling a little girl, mere two years old, and Sister told me in a line how she landed up in the orphanage. Her mother died and her father, a rickshaw-puller, left her there because he could not manage to raise her. After that, she went on to make me realize how lucky I was to have a family, and so, how thankful to God I should be.
No problems with that. Yes, even being an atheist, I do not deny I'm very privileged to have a family, and many comforts. But, thankful to God...no I am not. Simply because I do not believe in God yet. But, I could not escape thanking God in front of Sister, because of the humbling realization she inflicted on me. I nodded in agreement to whatever she said, just because it was very humbling. But when i gave it a thought a little while later, I remembered I do not believe in thanking extraordinary powers, or asking from them.
This is the kind of environment in which all the kids in that house are living in. They're taught to thank God for everything they have, and thanking God or praying to him is the best virtue, they're told. They grow old with that education fed into them, and become believers in faiths without even realizing why they are doing so. They pass on the same education to their oncoming generations, in most cases without even being confident of the reason in their faith.
This story is not limited to that orphanage only. It happens everyday in our very homes. My mother wants me to recite Ram's name every morning because she thinks it is a good habit. I am sure her belief is so strong only due to the fear which her mother made her feel. Nonetheless, I respect her opinions and beliefs because everyone is entitled to their opinions. But I don't see a reason why I should also believe in the same things. Yet, just to escape the horror-stricken face of my mother when I announce that I'm a non-believer, or when I refuse to follow her religious practices, I act as if I'm doing what she wants me to do. But see, here's the catch. I am doing what she wants me to do, a reality which won't change even if I turn into a believer overnight, a reality not separated from most believers.
It actually is a multi-level scam. Beliefs are imposed everywhere, at all levels, and seldom to people realize whats being done to them. Take for instance, the common belief, that a God-fearing man is a virtuous man. Now, where does that assumption come from? Yet, who can deny being influenced by such assumptions in their lives?
I concluded that I am thankful that the environment I grew up in was not too stringent in these matters, and that is why i managed to grow up with my own set of beliefs, based on experience, thought and reason. But those, who I could not understand as to why they believe in things staunchly and unquestionably, now to me seem unlucky, because the fear or the deception which they are victims of, has been imposed on them so strongly, that they can not escape it.
I've seen it happening all around me, and I'm sure all of us have. This is a universal concept, and the thought has left me disturbed today, because the most important gift of being, free will, is being marred by it.
