RELIGIONS VERSUS NUKES
(Part Two : FROM AIR GOD TO MAN GOD )
PROF. BIJON B. SARMA
AGE OF RELIGIONS :
In the first part of this article we have presented brief introduction
and history of some prominent religions of the world. Those might
reveal the contexts in which those religions were fabricated and
preached by the "men of religions". In this part of the article we
shall briefly explain the following :
(01) AGE OF THE RELIGIONS,
(02) OBJECTIVES OF PREACHING RELIGIONS,
(03) PSYCHOLOGICAL TECHNIQUES USED IN VARIOUS RELIGIONS,
(04) TRANSFORMATION OF GODS etc.
AGE OF RELIGIONS : As per scientific revelations of archaeological
findings, the maximum age of religions may be about 10,000 years. The
oldest representation of 'god' so far discovered is an earthen idol.
It was discovered in Zericho (Israel) and its age has been estimated
by Carbon-14 test to have been around 8,000 B.C. Even though some
blind believers may advocate of earlier religions on the plea that
"their remains have not still been discovered", such a possibility is
extremely grim. It is true that life appeared on this earth billions
of years ago and that, transformed of the Saharan apes to human
species took place millions of years back. However, men started
agriculture only recently, i.e. only 30,000 years ago. The age of the
oldest weaved cloth so far discovered is 20,000 years ago. The age of
the oldest civilization so far known do not exceed 10,000 years. It
should be mentioned here that men discovered and invented the
techniques of survival ever since their appearance on earth. In fact
they could not survive without those knowledge. In comparison with the
complex jobs men do now, those were rather simplistic and primitive
types. In order to do complex jobs men need quite developed brains.
Such development took place only 15,000 ago. Men need highly developed
brains for doing complex jobs like sculpturing the details of a
horses' head. The oldest sample of such a job (i.e. a horse's head on
stone) so far discovered is only 15,000 years old. Some of the
thoughts related to religion are :
(i) How to persuade other people to give their earnings to me without
any valid reason (Please note, it is completely different from the
sharing of hunted food by the team leader),
(ii) How to make other people to work for me such that I may become
their leader without being the strongest or best (Please note, earlier
to this leadership was determined on the basis of physical strength,
hunting skill etc.),
Such deviated and unnatural thoughts are completely different from the
previous savage but simple thoughts. Only developed brains are capable
of devising such deceptive thoughts and it cannot take place before
the brains were quite developed in say 15,000 years ago. We have heard
various preachers to shout or sing that "Ramayan was written 60,000
years before the birth of Rama" or "Prophet X was born so many million
years ago" etc. In view of the scientific revelations such preachers
should stop such absurd claims for the sake of self survival. By this
time they might have the bitter experiences about what happens if they
want to go against science.
OBJECTIVES OF PREACHING RELIGIONS :
The major objectives of fabricating and preaching religions at the
initial stage were the following :
(i) Personal gain (e.g. the Aryan Brahmins enjoyed commission, some
poor men became king),
(ii) Giving psychological consolation (Gautama Buddha's preaching was
mostly targeted for it) etc.
In the later age, however, some religions were fabricated for purposes like,
(i) To attract people from other religions (at this time it was known
that the greater is the number of followers, the more will be the
income through commission, contribution, pilgrimage etc.).
(ii) To stop the expansion of other religions (For example, Sikh
religion that was carefully formulated to stop the expansion of Islam
in India),
(iii) To take back the converted people (For example, Bramhya
religion was formulated to take back the converted Muslims and
Christians back to Hinduism).
It may be so that in the savage and uncultured society religions was
necessary for the purpose of organizing people in order to establish
peaceful and tranquil society. It has now been proved beyond doubt no,
I repeat, no religion of this world has been able to do that. On the
other hand some religions are constantly creating hazards and curse to
humanity. While this is one side of the scene, men have invented,
developed and refined knowledge on subjects like Democracy,
Administration, Secularism, Science, Judiciary, Human rights etc. and
these are capable of establishing developed and peaceful societies. In
such a reality only the fools may like to carry the burden of
religion, the rotten ideas preached by some for vested interest.
PSYCHOLOGICAL TECHNIQUES USED IN RELIGION :
The preachers of various religions have utilized many psychological
tricks in order to influence the common people. We shall mention some
of those hereunder.
(a) ARYAN AND HINDU RELIGIONS : (God acts as businessman. He gives
rewards men for contribution or prayer) : The Aryan preachers
(Bramhins) could not think of "god" better than a selfish entity alike
human being. So, they preached that "god would give reward or
punishment in this world only if he is given some material offerings".
The process of offering was to give the material offering to the
demi-god, Agni (i.e. burning), after which another demi-god, Barun
(wind) was to carry the offering to the principal god, Indra. In this
system the Bramhins acted as the commission agent of the god. The
inaccuracy of the claims of the Brahmins was revealed when some
intelligent people reported that they gave offering, but still did not
get the expected result. In such a situation the Bramhins introduced
the concept of "Heaven" saying, those who cannot be rewarded in this
world would be given in the same in the heaven after death. This time
people were really befooled because there was no way of knowing what
really happens after death. After this tricks worked successfully, the
Bramhins tightened it from both ends saying, those who would not give
offerings to god would be punished in the Hell. Being influenced later
by the Buddhists, the Hindus preached that men could also please the
god through prayer (i.e. by singing and shouting his praises).
(b) BUDDHIST RELIGION (God rewards men for serving his creations) :
During the time of Gautama Buddha some intelligent people suspected
the validity of "Heaven and Hell". In reply Buddha opined that both
heaven and hell existed right in this world.
As a matter of fact, Gautama Buddha fell great sympathy for the
distressed persons like patients, aged and poor men, orphans etc. He
thought of (i) devising an way to redress their pains, (ii) giving
psychological consolation to the common people and (iii) finding out a
logical explanation of the Heaven-Hell concept. He said that god was
to punish men for their bad deeds by sending them to a poor family
(which according to him was the hell) and to reward for good deeds by
sending them to an affluent family (which according to him was the
heaven). According to Buddha god's pleasure could be obtained not by
giving him any offering, but by serving god's creations (i.e. men,
animals, plants etc.). Those who believed in his teachings were
naturally attracted to good deeds and service for men. Such an
attitude helped to bring peace and happiness in the society.
The notion about intelligence or development of brain is, men are
getting more and more intelligent through subsequent generations.
However, it is not wholly true and there are considerable exceptions.
For example, even though some men in Gautama's age (about 500 years
BC) realized that there cannot be any heaven and hell after death,
numerous persons of the later age and even of the contemporary period
lack the intelligence to realize this simple issue.
(c) CHRISTIAN-ISM (God rewards those who take shelter of his son). It
has already been mentioned that the archaeological, historical and
scientific base of this religion is not strong. Endeavor to present
god in symbolic idols was first made in Greece. This practice is
capable of providing financial gains for the idol-makers and the
priests. However, the endeavor made by the idol-makers' of Greece to
introduce any religion miserably failed because of the presence of
intelligent philosophers like Aristotle and Plato. Alexander's attack
of India (3rd C BC) and collapse of some Greek states made some Greek
sculptors to migrate to India, where the priests established the
deep-rooted business of commission-agent. These two factors combined
together to introduce numerous idol-gods. With it what flourished all
over India were the temples. The temples acted as the key or central
hub for all types of activities like business, trading, entertainment,
service etc. The Christian religion stands on a peculiar philosophy.
It says that Jesus, the son of the god could forgive the sins of the
persons who would seek his shelter. What gave Jesus that capability ?
It says, it was the pains he suffered from crucifixion. This
philosophy is peculiar because here a man (say, X) torturing or
murdering another person (say, Y) can get rid of the offense by taking
shelter of the son of God. In this religion also god has been pictured
as a person having soft corner and biasness to his son. Also his son
has been pictured like a "businessman" who would arrange reward for
the sinner in lieu of praises and offerings. None of the religions
preached later could find out a more honorific position to god.
TRANSFORMATION OF GODS :
If we look at the physical typology of gods during the period 3000 BC
to date we find the following major types : (01) Air god, (02) Idol
god and (03) Man god.
(01) AIR GOD :
The 'Air god' was originally introduced by the Aryans. After their
leader "Indra" died they could not find anyone or anything to
represent him. So, they declared that their god with the name "Indra"
existed as "Air god", i.e. without any physical existence. Gautama
Buddha also advocated air god, because he told that god could be made
happy through services to his creations. At the same time he confused
people by saying "I did not say there is not, or there is any god",
probably because he himself was confused. In Christianity Christ, the
principal god is air god, but Jesus, his son appeared as replica or
idol god. Up to this period god was thought of as air-god because the
preacher could not think of confining the "titanic god" in any
miniature model. The Buddhists, Christians and Hindus, however, did
the same. After Hinduism, air-gods reappeared in Arab countries,
Punjab of India and West Bengal of India. However, the contexts in
which air-gods appeared in three different locations were completely
different. For example, in the earlier religions god was thought of
"air god" because the preachers lacked the skill to create idols. The
Greeks were excellent idol makers and those were introduced in the
Indian religions because of their venture.
The old religions like Aryan or Christian-ism were in need of
attracting the non-religious persons to the specific religion. As days
went on there were increase in the number of religions. At this stage
any newly appearing religion was in need of grabbing men from other
religions. In order to do this the religion had to have some
'qualities worth of attraction". In order to attract followers from
Buddhism, the Hindus had to add many attractive items to their
religions. Some of these are : (i) Beautiful deities, (ii) Decorated
temples (at times with nude sculptures), (iv) Temples full of gainful
activities like business, accommodation, services etc., (v) Temples
with entertaining items like delicious food, songs and dances
(including dance of the topless maids) etc.
In order to attract followers some religions endeavored to appear as
"strong" religion. One of the way to show strength was to destroy the
idol-gods of other religions. However, it was obvious that such act
was to be retaliated with revenge. In such a situation "Air god" was
extremely safe because it was beyond destruction. It is often alleged
that some air-god religions were fabricated for the sole purpose of
destruction of others' gods from a safe position. The fight between
some air-god religions with the idol-god religions is almost
perennial. There are many popular stories about their fights. We
mention here one of those.
Guru Nanak introduced Sikh religion in order to stop the expansion of
Islam in this land. Naturally he introduced the 'martial qualities'
like smart dress, carrying of weapon, equality and definitely the
safest god, i.e. air-god. In order to make his religion attractive to
the Indians, he however, made songs as its integral part.
Raja Rammohan introduced Bramhya religion in order to take back the
Hindus converted to Islam and Christianism. He understood the "safety
factor" of air-god and accepted the same for his religion.
One follower of air-god once destroyed the hands of a idol god and
boasted by saying "what can your idol-god do to me ?" In reply the
follower of the idol-god said, "all right, see what my god can do". He
picked up the damaged idol and started beating him severely. In reply
the follower of the air-god could only scream, because his invisible
god had absolutely no power.
It is often said that in order to compensate the natural weakness
existing between the material gods (i.e. idols) and the non-material
gods (i.e. air-gods) quite often the air-gods prescribe alternate
items. For example, the Sikhs always carry weapons for self-safety and
frightening others. Some other air-god community maintain birth-net
(i.e. once born in this community the person is allowed to change
religion only with the risk of life), evangelism, rigidity in rituals
and customs, compulsion in blind faiths etc. Experiences reveal that
in comparison with the idol-gods (with numerous attractions of views,
foods, fragrance, entertainment etc.) air-gods do not exist long. For
example, the principal air-god Indra of the Aryans disappeared within
the idol gods of the Hindus, Bramha the air god of the Bramhyas has
practically disappeared with the very religion and so on.
(02) IDOL GOD :
Idol gods have the natural advantage for being able to accommodate so
many attractive items in itself and around. Thus the idols can be
created with beauty, the deities can be decorated nicely, those can be
established in well designed abodes (temples), the deities can be
entertained with excellent food (all of which are in fact consumed by
the followers), those may be entertained with entertaining activities
like song, dance etc. (which again are enjoyed by the followers), the
deities can even be paraded on roads (i.e. Rathajatra) etc. The
culture and development of all the arts and skills related with the
above activities help to develop and improve various items of culture
(like, song, music, dance, drama, artistry, sculpture, construction
technology etc.). It is now well known that the reason for which the
standard of cultural items like dance, song and drama (later cinema)
etc. of South and Eastern India reached an enviable stage happened due
to the concept of idol gods.
With these contributions, however, there is no dearth of negativities
in idol worship. We shall discuss those in further details in the
later part of this article.
(03) MAN GOD :
In the contemporary society their exist several types of man-gods. The
most prominent types are the following :
(i) LIVING MAN GOD : All on a sudden a man declares himself as "God".
At times he claims it by showing some magical acts, and at times this
man's salaried agents preach magical and unbelievable things. Also, at
times the people belonging to lower caste love to have their own god
and themselves declare one from their community as god. Mohesh Jogi,
Sai Baba, Anukul thakur etc. are some examples of living man god.
(ii) REPRESENTATIVE OF RELIGIOUS-GOD OR MAN-GOD : The profession of
"living god-ship" is quite expensive and hazardous to establish and
maintain. Every time such a god appears, inquisitive and intelligent
men pay visits to check his god-ship. And in most cases such gods are
proved fake after a few days or weeks. In Bangladesh and West Bengal,
living-gods appear quite frequently. Whenever such a god appears the
relatives and neighbors endeavor their best to keep the god-ship alive
in their selfish interests. At present the safe and longer-living
"living gods" are the Saibaba's who live in extremely protected
shelters and the gods of the lower caste people.
In the above situation, a safer profession is the representative of
the "religious-god" or "deceased man-god". We already know the
representatives of various religious gods who roam around us as Saint,
Sadhu, Sanyashi, Fakir, Mastan etc. For being successful such
professionals essentially need two things : (i) some knowledge of
religion and (ii) human psychology. By using these two they earn their
livelihood and at times make empire.
The problem with the "representative of the religious god" is, this
profession does not flourish much in the land of multiple religions.
For example, Hindu sadhus may not have good days in the Muslim
dominated areas and vice versa. The concept of the "representative of
deceased man-god", has been introduced as a solution to this problem.
Thus a dead man is declared to have been "direct god" and friend of
people from all religions by his descendants or neighbors. They
maintain his photograph or some material remains (hair, nail, shoe,
dress etc.), they regularly manufacture stories of their miraculous
activities and find out ways of earning money. This profession is
relatively safe because it is free from the possibility of cross
checking. Thus a story manufactured today turns to have been legendary
after one or two hundred years. The descendants of "Lokenath baba"
have established one such flourishing empire. Baba's birth place is in
a village named "Chakla" in West Bengal. It is a Muslim dominated
area, where all the people of the village are given their noon-time
food from the temple. There is absolutely no reason why those people
would not spread stories of his 'miraculous' activities. We shall
finish this article after explaining the "million dollar trick" that
acted as the key of grand success of this "sadhubaba".
"Whenever you will be in danger in water, land or forest, do remember
me. You would not perish" (translation by the author) was the sermon
given by this baba. In that age baba got numerous followers from the
illiterate people. They used to remember him whenever they faced any
danger. Later when they met one another they used to say, (i) Yes,
last time my son was almost dead. I remembered baba and my son became
alive, (ii) You know, last time our boat was capsized, I remembered
baba. All my friends died, only I survived. From their stories it was
proved beyond any doubt that whoever remembered baba did not face
death.
What really happened was, the people with low level of intelligence
failed to realize that those who remembered his name and then died,
never comes to declare 'Well I remembered baba and then I died". Even
today, in our society there is no dearth of men with that level of
intelligence.
PROF. BIJON B. SARMA, ARCHITECTURE DISCIPLINE, KHULNA UNIVERSITY,
KHULNA, BANGLADESH
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