Faithful's Religious Upbringing Is An Outcome Of Socio-Cultural Beliefs
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
21 October
2022
"If We Get Wealth Only By Worshipping Goddess
Lakshmi, Then There Would Have Been No Billionaires And Trillionaires Among Muslims.
Muslims Do Not Worship Goddess Lakshmi, Are They Not Rich? Muslims Do Not
Worship Goddess Saraswati. Are There No Scholars Among Muslims? Do They Not
Become IAS Or IPS?"
Lalan Paswan, BJP, MLA from Bihar
Kudos to
Lalan Paswan for going out on a limb in brazening it out. This question
occurred to many sane people but hardly anyone dared speak out because this
issue relates to one's faith, particularly, the faith of the majority.
It's a very
valid question and if you extend it to other walks of life and disciplines,
you're all the more baffled. Doesn't a 'sensible' Hindu ever think as to
whether a Muslim, Christian or Parsi also undergoes Saadhe Saati (a
useless astrological term in Saamudrik Shastra)? How does a non-Hindu
cope with it? What are the precautions and remedies a non-Hindu should be
taking to ward off the perceived ill
effects of various planets? Does Shani
target only the Hindus and spare non-Hindus? Then, why on earth does one
remain a Hindu? Embrace Islam or Christianity to save yourself from Shani Maharaj's
divine wrath! Absolute fiddlesticks! Polytheistic Hindus have been believing in
Pagan departmental deities for ages.
I remember
reading Talal Asad in the NY Times years ago. By the way, Talal Asad is a
Saudi-born cultural anthropologist who is currently a professor of Anthropology
at the City University of New York Graduate Centre.
While
studying at Oxford, Talal asked the same question in the Semitic context of Iblees
(Shaitan in Arabic and Lucifer in Christianity). He asked his
Professor, whose name I can't recall at the moment, that the followers of non-Semitic
religions have no concept of a Devil. It means, Shaitan doesn't and cannot
tempt a follower of an Eastern religion? Does Shaitan check his victim's
religion before leading him up the garden path? Who creates 'morally weak and
vulnerable moments' for a non-Muslim?
The
Professor was very happy that young Talal asked such an intelligent question
despite his structured religious upbringing (read Islamic upbringing).
Professor told him that religion was more of a socio-cultural construct,
peppered with local and geographical perceptions and symbols.
A
faithful's religious upbringing is an outcome of his/her socio-cultural
beliefs. A Hindu will relate to his/her Pagan deities, a Muslim will be
apprehensive of Iblees, a Zoroastrian will be wary of Ahriman
(spirit of evil, chaos, destruction, daevas/ The word is traditionally always
written upside-down in Pahlavi script ) and a Christian will relate to Lucifer.
This is what we call Subjectivity in Religious Behaviour (SRB). You'll be
affected as per the religion you belong to. The so-called Saadhe Saati
will turn a Hindu's life upside down but a Muslim shall remain unaffected
because he has no knowledge of Saturn and its destructive ways.
In other
words, ignorance is bliss. This is how respective religions with their specific
beliefs regulate ill-evolved and crawling humans. By the way, I never cared for
Saadhe Saati and it never affected me. You're affected by a phenomenon
when you believe in it. I gave two hoots to an imaginary Saturn and his (or
its?) shenanigans. Nothing befell me.
When
English rock musician John Lennon wrote and sang last century's greatest
number, 'Imagine', a famous Christian apologist wrote to him, " The song
is beautiful but humans will continue to believe in religion and god." The
quick-witted Lennon wrote back, " Humans will continue to believe in
religion and god because most of us are accustomed to bearable bullshit and
tolerable trash." Spot-on, I must say.
-----
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
world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/faithfuls-religious-social-cultural-beliefs/d/128231
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