Tuesday, March 21, 2006

What Hindus should not expect

A dinner-table discussion that I had about a month ago suddenly veered to religion. It suddenly occurred to me that some Hindus have been having all the wrong expectations of other religions. Some Hindus complain that while they see the same God everywhere and visit mosques, churches of every denomination and pagodas, gurudwaras, etc., their reverence is not reciprocated. We got to see the facts as they are and not get emotional and expect everyone to fall in line with an all-embracing way of thinking. People of other religions who do not bow down to Hindu deities are not bad people or do not want to take away your right to worship (except the fanatics who resort to crooked means to get their point across). Not everybody will like you or your religion. If the holy book of some other religion prohibits idol worship, why would they ever want to be a part of your religious ceremonies even if they respect you as a human being and your right to your way of life? If their book claims that theirs is the only route to salvation, why will they ever take you as an equal?
It may be hurtful to be told that you are a heathen/pagan doomed to hell because you do not believe in so-and-so but hey, when one is sure of one's beliefs, that we are going to be judged by our deeds and not by our creed, why should we bother? The more all-embracing one does not lose out on anything as long as s/he is not physically threatened.
Don't have unrealistic expectations - you will not be disappointed.

No comments: