THE FACTS, THE MYTHS AND THE THEORIES

For people who believe in solely science for the functioning of the universe, it is all a matter of whether a person or an object follows the laws of physics or not. They do not believe in magic, they do not think that somebody can use the Force with bare will, they proclaim that we are all but a collection of tissues that suck on energy. They call religious people “simple”. They are full-bloomed atheists. God, according to them, is just an excuse for when they are in trouble. Thinking that a superior being is controlling their lives and that offerings, sacrifices are a way to please him. Faith, love, happiness, hate- all are just a bunch of chemicals and electric signals going around in our brain. But I’m neither a believer in God nor do I don’t believe in him.

I go to the temple frequently to pray with my family. But looking at the different types of statues of the eternal beings, I wondered- if Christians believe in one God, if Muslims believe in one God, then why do the Hindus believe in so many? I mean, if God is so powerful, then why do we have different Gods for different things. Brahmá for creation, Vishnu for maintenance and Shiva for destruction- what is the point? And that was just the beginning.

Just thinking would have led me nowhere. So I took a deep interest in reading Hindu mythology, and what I found was eye-opening. I read many books and stories, even ones that were unheard of. Of course, I read the Mahabharat and the Ramayan and have my thoughts on them, but that is a story for another day.

First of all, in Hindu mythology, people do believe in God, but they personify it for story reasons. That means they try to teach moral values and ethics to people, especially children, through these stories. Though at first glance, it may seem as though many stories don’t revolve around moral values, but after some time it starts to make sense. Secondly, when something happens in history, it is usually recorded in scripts and books. But the stories we hear are not recorded, rather passed down generation to generation. And human’s basic nature to exaggerate things come into effect, making additions of magic, holy beings, when in reality, there must have been some logical reason. Thirdly, even after all the talk of Gods and entity’s ruling over people, there is one God who I think is the most logical and motivated guy ever- Krishna.

When I first read the Gita, I was confused. And I’m sure many are like me, with zero clue of what is right and what is wrong. Because during these teenage years, we are maturing mentally, and many small things in life start getting weird for us. We think about popularity, how to look good, self-consciousness is at it’s peak, and we are in a maze of problems. And we shouldn’t be ashamed, a lot of people tell us.

“Don’t worry, it is all just a phase.”

“Don’t worry, it will soon pass away”

But what I heard from the Krishna, was something a scientist would never say;

“Just shut your mouth and do what you think is right.”

Though these are not the exact words. I could sense the meaning with my teenage mind and encrypted it into teenage words. This I think is what people call enlightenment. It didn’t exactly solve all my problems, but rather gave me a nice method to solve them. I recommend reading it if you haven’t yet. But after reading it, I experienced what you would call the perceptive of the primitive man. This is where science jumps back in. In the future, I will talk about how people saw mythology with the eyes of someone who did not have phones and internet to give them a message, but only the medium of stories.