SIDE KICKS

GOD LIVES IN OUR FEAR!!!

-edits by Jasmine Groves (Ameet Anand Unnithan)

“Mwone!Daivaninda kaanichalo, daivathe smariichillelo, daivam ninnod kopikkum!!” (TRANSLATION: Son! If you disbelieve or disrespect god, He will be mad at you.). These are one of those cliché lines which parents frequently exercise over their children.

Before expounding on this worn out exchange, let’s assume the scenario which brought forth such apprehensive exclamations. Imagine a closed world under a dictator rule. One day, the king decides to enrich his power over his fellow countrymen and wants himself to be praised over and over again. The world under his rule, consisting of different economically distributed men, won’t be having the same kind of opinion about praising the lord. The individual standing right under the power of the lord would definitely wish to overcome the lord, the poor may not praise the lord as they are struggling to fill their stomach twice a day, the middle class may not praise the lord for settling them at that constant state. There are definitely many a million other possible positions. So, how could the lord possibly formulate all of these categories to unanimously praise him? A drastic measure would have to be adopted and brought into action. Simply speaking, there are possibly two ways to make this happen-

1) To give and fill their heart with all the needs that they ask for - practically speaking, we can ignore this impossibility theory as for most of the men, need can be reflected as proportional to the resources. Their demand will go on increasing as much as luxuries they grab.

2) Force them - that is, to establish new laws and rules according to the lord’s concern and bring them to effect by stamping the power on the face of every individual or by severely punishing whoever is not willing to comply with the terms.

Ignoring the first possibility, we can straightaway step on to the second one in detail. If it was forcefully imposed on men, then, there could have been intense punishments carried out through out that period. Sons and daughters would have been taught to kneel down, or stand with heads bowed or half naked with hands folded. The fear for the lord’s punishment would have asked the next generation of men to praise the king by his name and continue this practice till it becomes part of one’s lifestyle and day-to-day activities. It was the fear; and the one who feared would never want his future generations to succumb the way they were subdued.

After pondering upon the above context, let’s imagine that Gods once really existed. If He/She was the creator of everything, then what was the need to create a whole lot of different criteria of living things? Okay! One may confidently say that it is because every living thing has its own vital role to play to balance nature and keep the creation stable. Flowers and verdant fields augment to the beauty, trees convert Carbon dioxide into Oxygen, and Ocean decides the life of aquatic beings and so on. But the question is, what was the need to build up these complications? If the lord was the creator, he could have created a single being, irrespective of whatever form it could be, that can substitute for all the diverse beings that roam the surface of Earth and it would have easily negated all the complications.

Now let’s assume that the one who we had always misunderstood to be the creator was just a part of the creation of the biological matters. Then what is the real possibility that we are still praising their names? Either he was a good one who stood like a common element in the midst of all other elements or he was a bad one whom we always fear. As my focus is on the assumption that he was the ruling member, we can proceed with that. But it is true that I can’t go further without explaining why I had ruled out the assumption of him being the good one.

Imagine that you are having an uncle who is very much close to your family. Let’s think that he has a helping mind and will stand along with you to find some solutions to your entire crisis. It can be imagined like a real vision that if he had been so much kind to your family, then there would be no reason that any of your family members may ask you to wish him every time you saw him by telling you that he will be mad at you if you don’t respect him. Moreover, respect is a feeling that needn’t be reinstated every minute by high praises and pretended reverence. So it rides us back to the assumption of the dictator rule.

Now, it’s the assumption that he had been that dictator who had ruled over our ancestors who had brilliantly passed us the message to praise him unless you want to be doomed for eternity. And that message contains the fear that lies well concealed among other silly matters our mind is indifferent or ignorant to, and hence none of us will ever notice it. Why should we really pray to him for our good, when we have all those facilities to live a certain period of our life? We all go through our ups and downs even though we may dedicate ourselves to him and at those times we blame it on those innocent stars which are always present at a constant place to spread light. Why is it so much necessary to praise him to give us good luck for our future? Suppose you were that good, kind hearted god, then would you demand to be praised for helping those poor people out there? It’s your turn to think whether to praise those gods in fear of getting cursed or to let yourself live for those few seconds in happiness of freedom.

-- NIKHIL V P