God, Almighty... what's the exact word you use to refer Him or Her?? When do you remember Him or Her the most?? And for what?? Well you need not answer.. We have been getting instances of the various 'times' when people remember Him or Her..
I don't really know whether I believe in God or not. Never felt the need to engage myself in the laborious and sometimes extravagant religious practices. But my family does.. My aunts and mom are a religious lot, who thrive on vegetarian meals on specific days of every week, fast at Navaratri, perform religious rituals throughout the year, visit Puri Temple almost once every year... They never forced me to do the same and I too never had objections in their beliefs and practices..
But the communal violence, the suicide attacks which find their base in the difference in Gods people worship says a different story. Very different from my story and I am sure different from many of yours too.. The intolerance, the hatred, the killer instinct that comes free with religion nowadays is something that I can't identify with. In none of the religious texts that I have come across ( though I have not come across many) since childhood that I can faintly remember spoke about violence against humans.
The idea of God have changed today. Yes.. and different people has assigned it so many dimensions. I shall just mention two most recent incidents.
First Incident: After the collapse of the under construction Vivekananda Flyover yesterday, when the media finally could reach the IVRCL ( the Hyderabad based building company who held the contract of the flyover) officials for their statement, one of them clearly stated there was no negligence or faults in their part, but the collapse was "An act of God"! So when there is no one to blame, Almighty is there! Such an easy way out!
Second Incident: Amit Jani, a functionary of Meerut based Uttar Pradesh Navnirman Sena have been threatening to kill Kanhayia Kumar and Umar Khalid for some time now and had even declared on Facebook to do the same if they didn't leave Delhi by March 31. When contacted yesterday, he said as the deadline has already passed, the two shall be gunned down during the holy period of Navaratri by ten of his boys who are also JNU students. He has also proudly declared that his boys have already smuggled weapons inside the JNU campus and he will soon be visiting Vaishno Devi Temple to seek Her blessings! Its as if Vaishno Devi will say... "Go my child! Go and kill those two and come back glorified!"
So the one Amit Jani uses God as an excuse to kill and the IVRCL official uses God to escape the charge after killing! God is just the name that people are using today to kill, thrash, assault and escape! The concept of God that our mothers, aunts and grandmothers used to believe in, the one in which He/She used to undo all the wrongs, usher well being...has been erased and re-written, redefined.. and the definitions are too many! None for 'Jan-heet'...
