Sunday, September 19, 2010

A business called religion

There was a time when churches were meant for prayers and worship alone. Its still the same in most places, except Kerala, God's own country. Now Sunday masses means an opportunity to release an 'idaya lekhanam'(circular) filled with falsehood and which is meant to help the political and monetary ambitions of those at the top of the church hierarchy. These circulars are read out during the sunday masses in churches that fall under that particular sabha. And it has nothing to do with God. There were such circulars released by various churches during elections asking the devotees to vote for a particular candidate. Later they used it in the self financing colleges issue to further their propaganda against the Govt. Its a known fact that most of the colleges in Kerala under one or the other church. And now, the latest of those circulars comes out to condemn Professor T.J.Joseph, the man whose arm was cut off by islamic fundamentalists for the simple crime of setting a question paper for his students.

The question which caused all this controversy is a simple dialogue between God and a guy named Mohammed in which the students were supposed to add the necessary punctuations. Its borrowed from a famous book by P.T.Kunjumuhammed.
Here's the translation for the same-

" Muhammad : God, God.
God : What is it you idiot.
Muhammad : How many pieces will we get if we cut one Ayila(fish)?
God : You dog I have told you so many times that there will be 3 pieces.
"
Prof T.J.Joseph after his arm was cut off

There's nothing to suggest blasphemy in the whole dialogue. But, the fundamentalists thought otherwise. They took revenge by cutting off Joseph's arm. And if that was not enough the management of Newman college(where Joseph was working) dismissed him from service. The next week the church during the sunday mass, comes out with the circular supporting his ouster. A place meant for prayers is being converted into one for false propaganda. And it was sad that in none of the churches were this was read, no true believer rose up and said "this is wrong" and showed his finger to the 'religious businessmen'. The poor professor is being made a scapegoat in the murky games that goes on in the background. A lost arm, a lost job and lost pensions, still he's smiling. His interviews shows you the picture of a learned man with liberal views, not a fanatic who will spit venom on a religion. And the students of his class for whom he made this question paper are still supporting him. Its only the uneducated fundamentalists and educated religious pimps who find fault with him.

The whole episode did send shock waves through our increasingly fake secularistic mindset. Religion in modern times is becoming more of a burden than a boon. Intolerance is at its heights and any small deviation from the accepted line of thought is branded blasphemous and the person who originated the thought is hounded till his grave. A song, a slogan, an advertisement, a movie poster, a poem or even a simple question paper as in this case, can whip up that cliched 'hurt religious sentiments' in many of us. The Govt in Karnataka has banned beef saying its against Hinduism. What about the many Hindus like me who doesn't give a damn on what these bigots think and would prefer munching on beef? Even in our company bulletin board, I've seen (educated) people defending decisions like this, in the name of religious sentiments. And then there are those ugly boards in front of some Kerala temples which scream 'non-hindus not allowed'. Why don't we just throw away those boards and allow anyone who wants to pray to get inside? This kind of religious blindness is the biggest plague that has affected modern society. Religion has also become an excuse to flaunt. Celebrities increase their market value by secretly leaking detals of how much money they offered at a particular religious place. Come to think of it, almost all the ills of modern soceity can be retraced to their origins in one religion or the other. Certainly, God won't be happy to see us using his name to further our own secret selfish propagandas.

These lines from motherjane's song 'soul corporations' makes perfect sense in this scenario..

The cross maybe the ultimate metaphor
For religion sold as a brand
A sacrifice exchanged for the almighty dollar
with the tacit blessings of the Vatican

we all have guardians trading faith for power
businessmen by whom we swear
betraying everyone from eshwar to allah
with their holy wars for market share.

We're losing our religions, entrusting our gods
to corporates that protrate before balance sheets
Unsuspecting pawns inititating brethren
into the oldest MLM to stalk our streets

Behold the soul corporations, the spiritual supermarts
dispensing salvation with a price tag
mocking the truth that resides in our hearts
Paralyzing the human conscience with practised art

And of the various hues of desecration
this makes them the hardest to beat
the unsure can't endure the liberation
the pious don't discern the need

for if there's a truth to be told
religion's just a shadow of god
illuminated by thought and understanding
sullied by the ambiguity of words.

PS- Am not an atheist. But I believe religion is something personal, which is not to be flaunted and not to be fought over. And my religion won't be affected just because somebody somewhere drew a picture or wrote an article or made a film which throws a little mud on my religion. My religion won't be affected if some people ate beef or pig. If anyone thinks such things can be bad for his religion, then he must be worshipping a foolish God and a crappy religion. So, here goes for all you fundamentalists...shove your religion up your arses..

your crusader Praveen

12 comments:

Karthik Y.S. said...

Religion is the most pointless and harmful invention ever done by humankind. Religion, which originated by having a set of rules or code of conduct to live your lives by, has degenerated into something ugly, something which religious knuckleheads use to further their myopic vitriolic agenda. World would be much better without the concept of a religion.
Since I sport longhair and scraggly beard, some ppl tell me i should get a make over bcoz i look like a Muslim. I mean WTF!? What does that even mean? Does looking like a Muslim (dunno how anyone can "look" like a Muslim) be a crime? Im ashamed to say some of those ppl are my relatives.

Shaz said...

Gud post.And my heart goes out to the poor professor. Let God Almighty with you.

Jon said...

India has not been a pseudo secularist country for long...
Ppl have become more aggressive and assertive with regards to relegion

Idiots, Relegion, Politics, Business...is a very dangerous concoction...thts what we are seeing now

scorpiogenius said...

Religion is the most potent invention by man. I'd like to quote something I read on fb the other day.

"There is a 90% chance for life outside Earth, 50% chance that BigBang happened 20% chance for a God of some form to exist but 0% chance that any religion is right about that God."

I think whoever said this is right. I don't know about the first 3 percentage values but I'm 100% certain about the 0% fact.

Why can't people just open their eyes and look around after coming out of their opaqued divine shells? No religion is anything close to even 50% correct about the world we live in. lol, Attukal Radhakrishnan has a much more success rate than the religions combined. What an insult for God! :(

Ashwathy said...

You have said everything I've ever wanted to say...kudos!

Rakesh Vanamali said...

I don't believe we'd have the maturity to co-exist in diversity, unless that 1.2 billion is educated and liberated from shackles and prejudices with which they have evolved!

Timeless Memories - My Bygone ! said...

These days after hearing these kind of news, i feel india is in the hands of a bunch of religious monsters ... who is becoming more illiterate with the increasing number of literacy.
I guess i hav told b4 also.. that ur writing hit the bulls eye..!

callezee said...

Touched my heart,may god bless this professor.

Anonymous said...

well, it suppose to be in 3D, can I download and watch? will it show normally?

Praveen said...

@Karthik
Even I've relatives like that who have prejudices attched with a particular religion...there's a need for a true change in attitudes..

@shaz
hmm!yes..hope he in reinstated

@scorpiogenius
That quote does make perfect sense...
our religions are becoming increasingly twisted in their definition of God...and what means disrecpect to God..

@ashwathy
thnks

@Rakesh
but what you say about those educated among us who exhibit fundamentalist behaviour:(
Its not education alone...

Praveen said...

@devil incarnate
monsters they are...very true!

thnks for tht :)

@callezee
hmm..hope soo..

Anonymous said...

Hi, very interesting post, greetings from Greece!