Faith Based Confusion

 

Photo Credit : ACCandFS

Faith Based Confusion

It is very well known that we assume the language, the religion, the society to which our parents belong – when we are in the womb, we are blissfully unaware of such complicated subjects like our religion or race. It is only after we take birth that these questions start arising as our parents try to teach us about our religion or religious practices.

The topic is complex simply because in my view religion is a deeply personal thing – how can my communion with God have anything to do with anyone, in the same way who am I to question anyone else on his faith and belief. In India unfortunately talking about Hinduism or the Sanatan Dharma is considered to be an attack on secularism and studying about Christianity and Islam in Christian or Islamic schools is considered to be secular. There is so much of animosity against the Sanatan Dharma, which is the oldest surviving ancient culture that the Abrahamic religions probably feel threatened by it.

The child does not ask about God, the child is fed the perceptions about God by his parents, siblings, teachers and so on – an innocent child accepts what is being mentally fed to him as the truth because he implicitly trusts these people. There is no room for doubt in his mind and with time the impressions about God which are fed to him become a part of his personality.

Unless a person has attained self-realisation and then God-realisation he is not knowledgeable to tell anybody about God. He does not have the experience, so whatever he is ‘teaching’ is from book knowledge or from what has been fed to him by his parents and teachers. The modern child would question these theories as so much information is now available on the net.

It will be so much easier to tell the child that I have faith in a Supreme Power but I have no experience of that Power nor have I experienced it. But to say that one needs to be humble – telling your child that you don’t know something is very difficult. The child looks up to you as a source of knowledge and you not knowing the answer is an insult to your ego. But the child keeps questioning and ultimately out of frustration you become angry and hurt the child – so much easier to say, “I don’t know, I will tell you once I find out.”

I feel meditation sets you free – it would be best to teach the child to meditate from an early age so that he/she can find out the truth about God for himself/herself. The sooner the inner journey commences the easier it will be to dispel all the faith-based confusion, specially when each religion claims that their God is the only true God. How can anyone slot God into some category when Supreme Consciousness is all-pervading and experiential, omnipresent and omnipotent? Strange!