For ages, religious belief (faith) has comprehensively won the battle against “scientific thought”. The progress made by science in the last fifty years is equivalent to what it did in 200 years prior to that, but it is still nowhere near capturing the huge “mind share” of the human population that religion has been able to; and this is in spite of the fact that religion has remained more or less stagnant in terms of the number of new ideas or explanations that it has thrown up.

A dictionary defines “faith” as: (confidence / conviction / reliance / trust). Religious faith is usually a matter of “take it or leave it” and does not offer itself to any questioning. You either accept it or “get out of the room”. A scientific discovery or a postulate on the other hand, gladly subjects itself to intensive probing from all quarters and is equally happy at being proven wrong because that leads to a more efficient postulate. All religions have cleverly concentrated on [1] scenarios before birth or after death and [2] the presence of a divine power; both of which can never be authenticated by science. The common reason trotted out is that science has not yet developed enough to test the veracity of religious beliefs. One can understand this in case of uneducated people whose power of reasoning has not developed but it never ceases to amaze me when I see educated people (who otherwise consider themselves very logical) willingly suspend their judgment when it comes to religious beliefs. With little support from both these sections of the populace (uneducated and the educated), science is thus doomed to be a poor “second” in this race.

Municipalities all over India have to deal with the potentially explosive problem of removing religious structures (temples, mazaars or chapels) which obstruct roads or other developmental projects. Do we stall development because someone’s faith would be hurt? The SETHUSAMUDRAM problem, at its core, is no different! Scientists have confirmed that it is not a man-made bridge and that its estimated age (carbon dating) is very far away from when Ramayana was supposed to have taken place – but that does not prevent the managers of our nation from behaving like the proverbial ostrich. I can understand religious leaders being biased on the issue but if administrators join this illogical bandwagon – only GOD (pun intended) can save us.

I did a small survey last month and asked about 200 well-educated Hindus about why they called themselves Hindus. It took me only five minutes to summarize their replies. They were proud of being Hindus but could not cogently explain what Hinduism stood for and how its ideology was different from other religions. They were completely unaware that being a true Hindu meant [a] accepting the principle of rebirth; [b] accepting that deeds done in this birth will determine what you get reborn as; [c] striving to get out of this cycle of rebirth (moksha); [d] accepting the principle of “adwait” (everyone being a part of the same big entity. Most thought that being Hindus meant going to a temple, fasting on pre-determined days, celebrating Diwali & so on. Ironically, religious philosophy which is so full of the proverbial “nectar” has got completely overshadowed by what I call the “fast food COLA culture” of religious rituals. Why is religion not being presented philosophically instead of a bundle of rituals? Is it because there is no “commerce” in religious philosophy?

Ramayan and Mahabharat are great epics – so engrossing that they have kept readers glued to them for thousands of years - that in itself is a splendid achievement. But have you noticed that even in a predominantly Hindu country like ours, they are not a part of any syllabus (from primary school to post doctoral studies) of ‘history’ [as a subject]. It is entirely possible that scientific techniques presently available are not able to authenticate the incidents in these epics but like many other things, can we not wait until this happens some day. Why insist that they are so metamorphosed into the Hindu psyche that no historical proof is required? For the sake of comparison (& it is just that) how would you react to someone liking “Sholay” so much that he sets about the task of capturing Gabbar Singh to eliminate the scoundrel?

I entirely agree that these epics have a lot to offer in terms of how to live life happily and face the problems that one encounters at different stages but that is possible only if the reader transcends the characters in the epics and concentrates on the “moral of the story” (and there are myriads of stories wonderfully woven into each other). This is what most of us will not do. Why don’t you take this small test for yourself? Answer the following questions truthfully (& academically – they are not being asked with any ulterior motives) and find out if you indeed have this habit of suspending your judgment when it comes to religious beliefs.

1. If Lord Krishna’s maternal uncle Kansa knew that his sister Devaki’s eighth child was going to kill him, why did he allow her to stay with her husband Vasudeo, in the same prison cell? To allow her to produce eight children and then kill all especially the eighth, sounds so un-intelligent.


2. Which husband (even if impotent like King Pandu) will allow his wife (Kunti) to beget six sons (Karna and five Pandavas) from five different males (so what if they were GODS)?


3. How could the five Pandavas share a wife? Couldn’t Kunti have taken back her command (of sharing the prize equally) after knowing that it was a bride that Arjun had won (& not some material prize)? Why did Yudhishthir the epitome of fairness and justice keep quiet?


4. Would any mother (Gandhari) give some of her children (Kauravas) foul names like Dusshasan or Duryodhan? Did she know that they were going to grow up as tyrants?


5. In a traditional society why would Lord Krishna give more prominence to Radha than his own two wives, Satyabhama and Rukhmini?


6. Why would Lord Rama banish Sita to the jungles especially when she was pregnant with his children?


7. While building the bridge to Lanka, how did huge boulders float on water?


8. How did Lord Hanuman - a bachelor, have a son? Apparently his “powerful” sweat (unknown to himself) was swallowed by a crocodile to produce this son?


9. Did you know that Ravan was 20,000 years old (according to Ramayan itself) when he died at the hands of Lord Rama?


10. Did you know that Valmiki wrote Ramayan much before it took place, by asking Lord Vishnu (who later took birth as Ram) about how things were going to unfold?



Now when these questions were first posed to me I got rattled until it dawned on me that the epics were written to convey important messages to mankind but these had been neatly wrapped into interesting stories for easy reading and comprehension. If you read the stories to unearth a philosophy, you have helped the author achieve his main objective. If you get caught in the stories themselves, you have missed the “wood for the trees” and are likely to create problems like at SETHUSAMUDRAM.



11. What lessons, dear readers, do we take home?
    
    1. Our constitution has given each one of us the right to believe and have faith in whatever our religion says - so go ahead and exercise this right. We do not require scientific approval for this, since these are our personal beliefs.
    
    
    2. Personal beliefs have no public sanctity even if a large number of people subscribe to those beliefs. Public issues need to be settled according to secular principles based on administrative & managerial merit! Someone’s personal faith cannot be allowed to torpedo the development of our country.
       
    3. Religion and politics is by far the deadliest combination that can usurp a nation, especially a multi-religious one like India. So let us try and pass a law preventing a political party from using any religious issue as an election plank on the premise that religion needs to be practiced within the four walls of one’s house.
    
    
    
    

    "Mr. Prakash Shesh, the author, has done his MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad after his Masters in Physics from I.I.T. New Delhi. You may send your feedback to him by choosing an option at the top right corner of this page."