Friday, July 24, 2009

Soap and God

I always had some basic question. "How is religion related to God?"
"If God does exists, does he so tied up with a religion?" In short does every religion has a God and God is not one?
"Is religion more important than God?"

All religions do claim that "their" God is omnipotent, omnipresent and benevolent.
If that is so I would assume that he would not be so tied up with a particular religion and would not
differentiate people from other religion.

A good friend of mine in his conversation said that the religion is way to reach God.
So tries to answers my first question. Religion is a means to reach God.
And could that mean all roads are trying to reach the same destination. May be or May not be.
If they are all trying to reach same destination (God)
then is the road that leads to God is important or the destination?

My Good friend answer this too for me. "The road is equally important as destination."
Some road are short but hard. May lead to destination quickly. Some may be long with easy ride.
But one would reach the destination before he/she ends his/her journey,
if one tries to reach the destination. So this leads to more queries,
If I am eager to reach destination, should I change my road in the middle of the journey.
May be my pace early in my journey is slow and I may have realized that I may not reach my destination when I end my journey.

By this time you might have realized that the discussion is already heading towards controversial topic of conversions.
My friend suggests that instead of changing the path, it would be advisable for a person
to pace up to reach the destination. He reasons that the person has to start all over again with the new path
and also he would not known the length and easy till he walks the path. He also suggest that it could be will of the God (destination itself)
for our choice of the path at start of our journey. And he questions "should be go against the will of God?"

So as you guessed my friend is not all for conversions. He opposes conversions.
Rather would suggest to look for his/her God in chosen path.

There is flaw in above theory of Path and destination. One would reach destination at the end of his/her journey.
So I can never see God's benevolence till I reach the destination.

I would like to look at God and religion in different way.
I think God or the concept of God is like a soap which promises to clean all dirt every day with each bath.
Soap is a cleansing agent made from the interaction of fats and oils with alkali.
God is an agent who cleanses our sins, guides us to look at absolute good and absolute bad.
(I feel Good and bad are relative terms)

And all religions are like the companies that make the soap and sell it to customers.
Like soaps marketed by companies are in different sizes, made with different oils and have different combinations,
so is God marketed by a religion.
Some companies make many soaps and other make only one and strongly market the same.

Every company claims that their soap is better than others.
Their soap clean dirt better and protect skin(soul) better than others with every bath (prayer).
But none of them actually does.

Some companies are new, some are old in this business of selling a soap (Concept of God)
Each company is at war with each other trying to grab the market share.
Every company is trying to grab the market share, more loyal customers.

Some companies are loosing the market share some are gaining. Some have strong marketing capabilities. some don't
Some companies which actually cannot package their soap better, cry fowl practices by their competitors.
They cry saying that the packaging done by competitor is better but the product is not.
And how they are luring their loyal customer away with free bees.

Basically all companies actually forget to provide what the customer wants. So is the religion.
The basic need of the customer is cleanse himself of dirty. In case of religion one expects salvation and reach god.
Neither soap company nor the religion does what they claim.


How can you be keep yourself clean. No matter what soap you use the most important factor is you take bath(prayer) at least once preferably twice. The same is true for religion. It is more important to prayer God (omnipotent, omnipresent) daily and not bother about what religion. Religion is basically a tool (like soap) to reach God. But unfortunately it gained more importance than God himself. It so pitty.


So you may be asking which soap do I bath with. Do I bath or stink? Yes I do bath twice daily and clean myself as frequently as possible, but I don't bother about the soap I use. It can be anything that is available in market.

1 comment:

JAJISARMA said...

Dear Om's nonsense,

I just quote Valmiki Ramayana to answer all your confusion you have in mind about God and Road to Him.

In Ramayana, when Sage Valmiki tried to describe the ferociousness of the War between Rama and Ravana, Sage Valmiki did not get words to describe the war. So what he did finally.

He said "The war between Rama and Ravana is like a war like between Rama and Ravana" He left it like that.

The whole of your confusion is centre round about the destination. There is no confusion about the Road you choose to reach your destination. Since you are not sure whether you reach the destination viz., God, you are little bit confused and compare taking a small example of Soap etc., For a Sage like Valmiki it was very difficult to describe the only a war, will it be possible for a lay man to describe the experience of the Almighty. You have to experience HIM, then only you will be able to tell the world that you reached your destination.
So,it is wrong to assume and presume that God is only a cleansing agent. He is also a remedy for all ills and evils that are plaguing the whole world. If you take bath, it may cleanse or may not cleanse, but if you meditate on God, it will definately clean your millions and millions of papa krityas from millions of millions of births. So, choose the path given by your culture and practice it daily for some time and lo you are there already with HIM. God Bless and your Family. It good you posted this and I felt that you are in the right path, but getting deviated due mis-conceptions given society and their doings. If some one does a mistake as a cultural head, it does not mean that entire culture is bad and so on and so forth.

All the Religions preach the same and the Heads to have some eqanimity describe that these are like roads leading to a centre of point.
It is true to say that God is an experiecne which can be got only by sincere Sadhana. That what all our religious leaders preach. The example of Soap and God is only applicable to Advaitam to some extent upto cleansing, but Adi Sankara says, you practice whatever, but do it sincerely, regularly and honestly. Adi Sankara assurs fast results., viz., reaching the destination. Sometimes the more we read about religious books to know more about the Almighty, you will land in more confusion. So it is better to surrender to the Almighty. That is POORTHI SARANAGATHI. The total surrender. "Prabhu!, I do not know anything. I surrender to you and you protect me. That's what finally Arjuna said " Nashto Mohaha smruthirlabdha, twat prasadat maya achuta, sitosmi, gata sandehaha, KARISHYE VACHANAM TAVA"
(chapter 18 sloka 73 of Gita).
I will do whatever you say, said Arjuna.

So take shelter under His Lotus Feet. Take POORTHI SARANAGATHI. TOTAL SURRENDER is only thing I learnt and practiced and practing.

GOD BLESS YOU AND YOUR FAMILY.JAJISARMA