Secular, I am not

Being an Indian, I have a habit of reciting a stereotypical opinion that ‘we are a country with unity in diversity’ irrespective of the fact that this diversity costs exorbitantly. Another clichéd term that I am supposed to believe ‘sorry’ display is that I am ‘secular.’ The oxford describes the term ‘secular’ as the one who is not connected with religious or spiritual matters. However, in Indian context secularity means to recognise all the religions. A practise to detest your religion and embrace all the others is being politically ‘secular’. The diversity is so dear to us that for the past 67 years our governments have sidelined the pertinent issues to protect this diversity and the rights of the people who contribute to the diversity.

The idea of God and religion evades me! The more I introspect the easier it gets but diverse to what I have witnessed all my life. I have always been mesmerised by The Ramayan and The Mahabharat, because of the goodness, sacrifice and love exuding from the characters. Even the treachery, fallacy, lust and war epitomise the bare human desires and emotions. I love the magic (science whose logic is yet to be proven), the celestial beings and the delicate intricacies of relationships complimented with the dharma-gyana. I find them very contemporary, universal and timeless. But I fail to recognise the Gods or their nemesis, so I should be recognised as a theist or atheist.

I idealise the characters, their dharma, their dilemma, their strengths and weaknesses. But refute the idea of escalating them to the podium of Gods, brandishing them as mere effigies who crave for our offerings and barter to grant our wishes for their worship. I remember meeting one of my acquaintances who was anxious to categorise me as per the form of God I believe in. In the quest of deciphering my inclination to the form of God I believe in, the revelation upon me is that there is no one God. Each one of us has our own Gods, who are an embodiment of our beliefs and we put a part of our soul to immortalise them. Then begins the eternal journey of getting approval of our beliefs, convincing others to believe our Gods. It fuels the desire to make our God supersede the others. Believe me, my God is different to that of my mother and my husband. Their’s are ideal, enjoy rituals and bless, but mine is lazy who loves nature, music, follies and confused with rituals.

We fight in the name of Gods because we all have different Gods. The only saving grace is the Gods are clustered together by lowest common factors, therefore the riots are limited between the big clusters. This helps us to prevail the domestic differences (like the ones between me and my mother) and focus on our differences with Gods of other clusters. Secondly, I am also not secular because if God is what is described in the religious scriptures, then I have read none. I don’t believe in interpreters who push their interpretations down our throats. Owing to all the religious cleansing and proselytism, I don’t think that all the religions preach same and lead to only one God. However, for me I prefer not to be secular, than to unfurl the superfluous thoughts of diversity metastasizing the undercurrent of religious animosity. Our vulnerability on religious issues empowers the oppurtunists to plague the milieu with viciousness. It is time when we should stop displaying our allegiance to various religions and boldly deem them as our personal choices.