"God"...Myth..Fact or Fiction...?

As an adolescent in India, one thing that is going to fascinate you the most, or may be become the topic for the most enthralling group discussion that you have ever part-taken_is probably the Existence of Superpowers-God and the Evil. As u grow up, you tend to become a vehement audience to your granny's stories delineating the bravado of many Superheros overpowering the devil, or their own experience with the Devil himself...!! And obviously there are Ramayana and Mahabharata, both of them legends, and both of them so much ingrained in the fabric of society that you wouldn't dare challenge their authenticity. Most children would gleefully accept these “facts”....So did I. And then, in comes Science, the unanimous favorite among students in school, and teaches you perceive everything rationally, teaches you the “Act” of seeking reason behind every physical phenomenon around you. Consequently, you start identifying certainly the Devil and may be God as mysterious entities and start questioning the theories put forth by your granny....well.. so did I...

Most of you might have indulged yourself in verbal tussles with your friendly contingent endeavoring to keep your perspective afloat over theirs. Most of you might have ruminated long and hard about it...so much so that you can pen down a thesis on this.....guess what...here is mine...

To start with, the Devil, to me, comes across as a purely fictional character, cooked up by desperate guardians of notorious kids, in an essay to pacify their outrageous annoyance. Most obviously, if you haven't seen anything that suits the description detailed to you, there is no point succumbing to the belief that they exist. As for my single self, I have never had any experience of any intangible power, doing me any harm. So there is hardly anything apart from a very enthusiastic “NO” that I can let out in this regard.

Moving on..the concept of God definitely has kept me profoundly engrossed in. Every time I m about to get a question paper in the Examination Hall, I think about Him. If someone in my family falls ill, I pray Him for the speedy recovery of my blood. When I proposed a girl for the first time, the only 2nd person that I was thinking about after her was God...!! :)

It is as arduous a task as anything else to sculpt a physical appearance for God. There are many “Avatars” of Him in Hindu Mythology but what we see on Television are essentially fancied versions of the directors. No one knows where He dwells. Probably only Puri, India is known to be the abode of Lord Jagannath. Some say He is omnipresent...!! We are all oblivious about His way of life, about what He wants, about what He does, but still He is the one we trust the most...Incredible...!!

But what we do know(or at least what orthodox beliefs will tell you) is that He seems to be the one who has designed the very rules of life. People are born, grow up and die. He set the sun, planets and stars into motion...Everything that seems impossible for common Man is accomplished by Him. He is the judge to everyone's good or bad deeds and sees to it that justice is meted out to everyone. So basically we have all reasons to pray to Him, even summon him by extensive and convoluted rituals to bring glory, affluence and grandeur to our lives.

All said and done, the number of Atheists, or people who eschew belief in God, is always increasing. Most westerners would ridicule most things that we take as facts. Obviously, they have their reasons, they can vindicate their stance as well...

Science can elucidate more things than ever before. The entire history of Evolution of life, or how everything works in outer space is no more an enigma to Learned Man. There remain very few things, hardly anything significant that doesn't come under the purview of Science. All the conundrums in the world, have been duly deciphered by simple physical phenomenon and chemical and/or biological reactions.

So what this spells is myriad questions for us...Is the saying “you can never say whether god made humans, but, certainly, humans made god” true...? What would the future generations be knowing God as..? How do we define God...? How important are the rituals that we perform...? Wouldn't a entirely rational attitude be best for our development...?

The advancements in Science are not going to refrain me from remembering Him when I m about to get the question paper, or when me or any close one is unwell. Any girl that I propose is safe to assume that I m thinking about God as well while I m doing that....

Personally, I don't have any problem with people saying “Maine toh bahut koshish ki...ab hua nahin toh upar wale ne mere liye jarur kuch aur aacha socha hoga...”...But when you say “Maine toh ummed hi chod diya hai..ab sab kuch upar wale k haath mein hai”...most often that not, you will be running into disaster.