Faith, Fear, and Superstitions

Indian rituals have long taught us that one must visit their respective holy places, irrespective of caste or creed. Over generations, we have come to believe that every new beginning, marriage, childbirth, or even patient recovery must start with a visit to a religious place.

I still remember the first year of my marriage, there was confusion and conflict over whether we should visit a Temple or Vihar as a newly married couple. I was told that one must first visit their Kuldevata or the family deity where we called it our own God. This line is such a Paradox, have God has created us? or we have created our own Kuldevata ?

 

Every major religion claims that their God created the universe. If that were literally true, the logical outcome should be one God or at least one universal truth. Yet we have thousands of God’s, each tied to geography, caste, community, clan, or family tradition. This only projects these deities has evolved only from human culture, not the other way around.

 

The irony deepens when we look at India’s social history. According to the 2011 Census data on caste categories, a sizeable population historically belonged to communities that were either denied entry into temples or having limited access to it. These same temples are now presented as compulsory gateways to divine blessing.

 

Caught between beliefs and these contradictions, I found myself unsure what was genuinely “right.” Instead of surrendering to old conditioning, I chose to pause & question.

 

Years later, when Kabir (my son) was born with a critical lung condition and his oxygen levels kept crashing, baby went through 6 days of NICU treatment before he was handed over to us.

 

During his last and most critical admission, fear strikes again with similar episode of drop in O2, friends & relatives around us began making navas (vows) and bargains with different God’s, each hoping their chosen deity would intervene. I have no objection with their faith and in fact I feel genuinely glad and deeply grateful to be surrounded by so many people who wished for Kabir’s speedy recovery in their own ways, through prayers, vows, and heartfelt hopes.

 

As parents we were sure, “Kabir will heal with the help of medical science, but I am no longer sure if society will ever heal from its superstitions”

 

Superstitions are tolerable only to the extent that they act like a placebo for the patient, beyond that, they become harmful.

 

It’s not really anyone’s fault. This belief system has been passed down from centuries. We were taught to fear the divine as much as we were taught to respect it. This is nothing but dogma, which conditions us to think that every outcome depends on appeasing God through priests or rituals. And if not a Brahmin, then some other religious intermediary a baba, a mullah, a pastor, a monk.

 

The “priesthood business” is perhaps the oldest in human history. It thrives on people’s vulnerability when someone is sick, when a loved one is on their deathbed, or when life feels uncertain. That’s when faith becomes fear, and belief turns into dependency.

 

The Priesthood Business: Selling Heaven in the Name of Faith

 

Every religion claims to have mastered the mysteries of life and death. They tell us they know where we come from before birth, where we go after death, and what determines whether we achieve Moksha, Nirvana, Parmarthika, Jannat, or Heaven. These are different names, but the business model remains the same.

 

Across traditions, a class of people has positioned itself as the middleman between human fear and divine promise. They convince us that salvation, peace, and even our next birth depends on rituals, offerings, and prayers that only they can perform correctly. And, of course, for a “fee.”

 

This priesthood industry thrives because it exploits two of the deepest human emotions fear and hope. When people are most vulnerable grieving & feeling hopeless.

 

Questioning the Right Way to Pay Homage

 

As I am mentioned in previous blog, what’s the best way to pay homage & I am still unsure what’s the right way to pay homage truly is.

 

When someone close passes away, you are left helpless surrendering to the will of something greater. In that moment, all you can do is offer your respects and say goodbye with the deepest sincerity.

 

Yet the question lingers how should one do it?

 

Through religion, we are taught to believe in life beyond death (in the form of holy soul) and to perform rituals that guide the departed to a transcendental world. But I often wonder are these practices truly for them, or are they simply a way for us to find comfort in believing we have done our best?

 

Knowing that we all began as nothing more than a single zygote, nurtured within our mother’s womb for nine months, transforming into an infant.

 

When we are born, we are being thought that we are product of reincarnation and have carried forward in this life with the baggage of good or bad karma. I simply wonder how the astrologer knows it, how quickly a priest finds the way can clean my bad Karma?

 

Does that mean, my Karma was not settled in my previous life by my loved one?

 

If this tally of Karma is not happening with the rituals, why are we doing it?