Demolish All Holy Structures Made Of Stones And Bricks, And Install God In Your Inner Shrine
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
6 July 2023
Dairo-Haram Mein Hai Bhagwan Qaid
Khada Rakhvali Mein Insaan Mustaid
Pandit Brajnarayan Sharma 'Chakbast'
(God is imprisoned in a temple or mosque/
Guarded by alert humans)
The
Kamakura Buddha was lodged in a temple until one day a mighty storm brought the
temple down. Then for many years, the massive statue stood exposed to sun and
rain and wind and the changes of the weather.
When a
priest began to raise funds to rebuild the temple, the statue appeared to him
in a dream and said, " That temple was a prison, not a home. Leave me
exposed to the ravages of life. That's where I belong."
A few years
ago, a German philosophical journal carried an article on an independent
spiritual group of Eastern Europe. That group didn't believe in any type of
shrine and so-called holy or sacrosanct place. It didn't incarcerate its totems
and rudimentary scriptures in a particularly holy place. Mind you, at times,
cults or small groups are more advanced than the religions that have polluted
mankind because the moment a (spiritual) group gets degenerated into an
organized faith, all troubles and superstitions begin. That aforementioned
group believed in exposing its totems to the ills and ravages of the world just
the way, Urdu poet Jameel Mazhari once wrote, "Utar Ke Aa Zameen Pe,
Rah Bandon Ke Beech / Bada Shauq Hai Khuda Ban-Ne Ka, Hum Se Bhi Seekh"
(Come down from heaven and live with your followers / Don't be so toffee-nosed
as Khuda, learn from us as well).
Mystics of
all religions are also of the same view that god and humans should be on an
even keel and that's possible when the god is brought out of the shrines and
made (if not relegated) to hobnob with humans. That provides a certain kind of
a spiritual equality and mystical egalitarianism. Quoting Jameel Mazhari's yet
another couplet, "Jhukaya Tu Ne Jhuke Hum, Barabari Na Rahi / Ye Bandagi
Hui Ae Dost, Aashiqi Na Rahi" (You made me genuflect, I did, leaving
no room for equality/ This is worship, my dear friend, not love).
By
imprisoning god in a structure or shrine, we've alienated it and drawn a wedge
between humans and god. That way the original concept of Leela in Hindu
mythology is pretty relatable as its (imaginary) avatars like Ram and Krishna
mixed up with humans and lived like them. The problem cropped up when both were
deified and imprisoned in temples.
Quakers
Christianity's fundamental belief, " Let the divine spirit be a part of
human spirit " makes a modicum of sense in these religiously turbulent
times when we're sparring over your god, my god, your mosque and my temple.
Demolish all holy structures made of stones and bricks, and install god in your
inner shrine.
----
A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul
is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He
has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages
including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/demolish-holy-structures-god-shrine/d/130144
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