धर्म का धतूरा - Indians living in Toxicity

24th January 2026 - Communal Hatred at its Peak

 

The vandalism of Baba Bulleh Shah’s shrine (मज़ार) in Mussoorie is deeply disturbing. It forces us to question what drives these lunatic fringe to attack the legacy of someone who dedicated his life to love, unity, and harmony between Hindus and Muslims.

Yes. Bulleh Shah.

His poetry survived centuries, but basic understanding didn't.

 

Man said “I am beyond labels”

Bullah ki jaana main kaun

Na main arabi na lahori

Na main hindi shehar nagauri

Na hindu na turak peshawri

2026 humans said “Cool, let’s break things in the name of labels.”

All this drama happened in the same week, we celebrate our Republic Day, when the Constitution of India came into effect in 1950.

The only document which gives freedom to practice our own religion in India.

Surprised ?
Let me explain. 

Practising religion during the British period wasn’t treated as a guaranteed right, it functioned more like a permission. Religious practices were allowed only as long as they didn’t make the rulers uneasy or threaten their control.

 

Article 25 of Indian Constitution said:

Your religion is your personal choice, not the state/nation’s identity.

You can follow any religion.


You can switch religions.


You can also say “No thanks” and be an atheist.

It also means you can criticize religion under freedom of speech, but how you do it matters significantly under Indian law and social context.

Criticism without hurting religious sentiments

Without attacking people


Without damaging property


Without violating others rights

Freedom ≠ hooliganism.

The Indian Constitution creates a careful balance between freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

Article 19(1)(a) guarantees every citizen the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression. This includes the right to question, debate, and critique religious practices and social customs.

This constitutional balance made it possible for India to legally abolish social practices such as Sati, child marriage, Tripple Talaq, Forced religious conversion and untouchability.

Religion Got Freedom, But Not VIP Status.

Just as India has no official language or official sport.

India has no official religion

Which means:

Religions can exist.


Religions can flourish.


Religions can guide individuals.

But religion cannot sit on the Constitution’s head like a crown.

Whenever someone screams,
“MY RELIGION IS ABOVE THE CONSTITUTION!”

They’re basically saying:

“I enjoy rights, but I reject the document that gave me those rights.”

The word “Secular” Was Added in Preamble 

Not because India suddenly discovered secularism in 1976. But because apparently, we needed a reminder label.

The Irony

The same Constitution that protects your right to pray.


also protects someone else’s right not to pray.

The same freedom being used to shout
“Religion is in danger!”
was given by a system that clearly said.

No religion will rule this country.

 

The freedom you are defending in the name of religion.

Religion didn’t give it to you.


God didn’t notarize it.


Saints didn’t draft it.

The Indian Constitution did.

And vandalizing shrines of people who preached unity on the birthday of that Constitution.

This shows we understood neither Indian Constitution nor Baba Bulleh Shah, and instead choose to live in toxicity.

Confused Humans : Born Intelligent, Trained to Stop Thinking

 

Of the roughly 87 lakhs species believed to exist, we have formally described only about 15 lakhs.

And among this limited, incomplete catalogue of life, this blog is dedicated to examining one especially curious species:

Homo sapiens.

The funny part is, science gives us just one name no sub-category at all.

No classification of male or female, no caste, no rich or poor, no LGBTQIA+. Just one clean label.

Thanks to science for not dividing us.

We proudly call ourselves Homo sapiens “the wise species”.

That name always cracks me up. Because if this is wisdom, then stupidity must be some next-level superpower.

We are the only species who can find ways to land on Mars, but still fight over whose God is real, whose religious book is final edition, whose food rules are more holy & whose content is morally correct.

Let’s start with one uncomfortable truth and understand what we know.

There is no morality in nature.

Nature does not care fairness, innocence, or justice. 

A lion does not feel guilty after killing a deer. 

A virus does not stop and think, “Oh no, this child is innocent.” 

Earthquakes don’t check your religion before shaking your house. 

Floods don’t ask if you prayed properly.

Nature is brutally honest. 

Survival, reproduction, end of story.

That’s it. No ethics. No mercy. No cosmic court.

So the idea that this entire universe was specially designed for humans and that a divine being carefully installed “morality” just for us sounds less like truth and more like human imagination at work.

The universe is about 13.8 billion years old. Humans have existed for roughly 300,000 years. If morality was the grand purpose, I have no idea why this delay from God to create humans and its morality.

Morality is not written in the sky. It is written later by very confused humans.

So where did morality come from?

From us. From society. From fear. From convenience. From rules that helped groups survive. From Constitution. Not from the sky with background music.

Morality is a human tool, shaped by biology, culture, fear, hope, and the need to live together without killing each other.

God of Gaps

We humans hate uncertainty. Our brain itches when it does not know the answer. And here enters our favourite solution, “God of the gaps”

Don’t know how lightning works? God did it.

Don’t know why sun rises? God did it.

Don’t know how disease spreads? God is angry.

Don’t know why universe exists? God again.

Every time science said “we don’t know yet,” religion said “relax, I know everything.” Very comforting. Very efficient. Also very dangerous.

The God of gaps keeps shrinking.

Earlier, God lived in thunder. Then science came.

Then God moved to diseases. Science came again.

Now God mostly lives in places where science has not hoist its flag, like before Big Bang, after death, and inside people’s feelings.

Religion did not just say “God exists.”

Religion said, “God exists and I am path to reach your destiny but after death.”

One religion said, “My God is true.”

Another said, “No no, my God is true.”

Both agreed on one thing: “Others are wrong.”

Slowly, belief became identity.

Questioning became sin.

Doubt became enemy.

Logic became “Western influence” or “demonic thought” depending on geography.

Religion trained us very well.

From childhood, we were told stories before we learned to ask questions.

We were rewarded for faith, punished for doubt.

Fear was marketed as faith.

Hope was sold as heaven.

And curiosity was kept on silent mode.

And here is the best part. God always agrees with the believer.

God hates the same people you hate.

God loves the same rules you follow.

God conveniently supports your politics, your caste, your gender bias, your wars.

Very flexible God.

If morality truly came from God, then why did morality change over time?

Why was slavery once holy?

Why were women once property?

Why was caste justified?

Why were heretics (विधर्मि) burned?

These questions are making the humans morally confused. 

Did God update his terms and conditions? Or did humans slowly grow a spine?

Religion alone did not make humans moral.

Humans slowly made religious text moral, after enough damage.

Today we stand as a confused species.

Science in one hand.

Superstition in another.

Phone with internet, but brain still on airplane mode.

We want evidence for everything else in life, but blind faith for afterlife.

We want logic in office, but magic in the place of God’s worship.

We laugh at flat earthers, but believe universe was made in six working days.

Maybe Homo sapiens means “wise man.”

Or maybe it means “wise enough to survive, foolish enough to believe our own stories.”

This is not anti-God.

This is anti-confusion.

If God exists, he surely gave us a brain.

And if we never use it, that might be the real sin.

भागो भूत आय !

 

It’s been very long time since I watched any horror movie. Last one I remember is Tumbbad (2018). I watched it alone at home, TV on mute, only reading subtitles because my courage has limits.

 

Movie was brilliant and totally worth watching. But this blog is not its review.

 

This blog is more about me thinking how I look at Bhoot & Tantrik in real life. Not on screen, but in my mind.

 

Ask a Tantrik, he will tell you ghost is 100% real.
“It is wandering spirit,” he says, very upset about unfinished business… maybe to solve property issue of the under construction building he has a possession or a pending love affair.

Ask a priest, he will say God & Bhoot both are real.
He says, “Offer one coconut, chilli or lemon ,”  

We accept it coz coconut, chilli and lemon are cheaper than our problems.

If you ask a psychiatrist, he will simply say both are “serious symptoms.”

Though they have evolved to name this symptoms from Split personality, Hysteria to Dissociative Fuge. They are pretty sure and rejected the claims of Bhoot.

 

No points for guessing, I was diagnosed with it. But today’s blog is not about that too, because if I start that story, it will travel all the way to Amritsar and beyond.

 

If you ask your own mind at 2am, when the lights are off and something creaks in the cupboard, suddenly everything become very real.

 

The real challenge lies, not in ghosts, not in gods, but in the human mind.

 

My psychiatrist would smile here and say, “Relax, that bhoot is just your childhood trauma wearing a face mask or makeup by an intern.”

 

I still remember falling sick after one episode of Aahat on Sony TV.

 

And being, stuck between Bhoot, God & Psychiatrist, I will probably offer the coconut because fear is always more convincing than logic.

 

Here is the dirty secret nobody likes to admit.
Ghosts don’t need to exist for people to be scared of them.

Our brain is a full-time horror movie director.

Give it darkness, silence, and a little stress, & it will produce, footsteps, shadows, strange sounds, and even a full ghost with background music.

 

Growing with a childhood friend who’s now working in USA, still believe he has some power to see ghosts/spirts, further claimed 8-10 year old girl’s pure soul still reside in my house where I am staying since 2018.

 

Yes, same flat in Airoli, C-Wing 701

 

Further same validate by an astrologer, without me sharing any premise of the plot.

 

Grew up with his stories which were spine chilling and goosebumps.

 

I think some uncertainty in my friend’s mind, paints it with imagination.

And fear fills in the details. Coz she even comes in his dreams and asks him to come over

 

God Works the Same Way (Sorry, but it does)

 

When things go well, God is loving.

When things go badly, God is testing you.

When things go very badly, God is angry.

When nothing happens, God is mysterious.

 

Convenient, no?

 

Just like ghosts explain fear, God explains hope. 

 

God work on the psychological engine & ghost works on empirical claims about the world

 

• You want protection, you believe in God.
• You feel fear & threat, you believe in ghosts.

 

The mind cannot tolerate chaos.
So it creates meaning.

 

No rain? God is upset.
Strange noise? A spirit passed by.
Exam failed? Destiny.
Promotion got delayed? Nazar lag gayi.

 

Our brain hates randomness, so it hires invisible agents to run the universe.

 

Psychiatrist says:

“Your dreams, fears, and visions come from your unconscious mind.”

 

The Tantrik says:

“Your dreams, fears, and visions come from the spirit world.”

 

Both are very confident.

 

But here’s the twist:

Even if spirits don’t exist, the experience feels real.

And the brain responds to imagined threats exactly like real ones.

 

That’s why a person possessed by a “bhoot” can shake, cry, scream, and collapse.

Not because a ghost entered them, but because belief did.

 

Belief is the strongest drug known to humans.

 

 

Who Is the Real Boss?

 

Not ghosts.

Not gods.

Its “mind” controls all.

 

It creates them.
It gives them power.
It makes you kneel, scream, pray, or run.

 

Take away belief, and the Bhoot disappears.

Take away belief, and God becomes a question.

 

But as long as humans are scared, lonely, confused, or hopeful, the mind will keep inventing invisible managers for reality.

 

Because facing uncertainty without stories is harder than living with spirits and gods.

 

 

Final Truth

 

We don’t believe in ghosts because they exist.
Ghosts exist because we believe in them.

 

We don’t believe in God because we have proof.
We believe because our minds cannot survive without meaning.

 

So the real supernatural force is not Bhoot or Bhagwan.

 

It is the human brain the only thing powerful enough to create both heaven and hell inside one skull.😌

When Blood, Bravery, and Strategy Still Needed Clearance

  

Brahmanism or Brahmanvad, is not some shiny new invention of modern India. It has been around for centuries, quietly doing its job, deciding who is “pure,” who is “qualified,” and who should just stay quiet and grateful. Even kings were not spared. Yes, even Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and his descendants had to stand in line and ask, “Sir, am I king enough?”

Shivaji Maharaj’s Coronation: Caste First, Crown Later

The Rajyabhishek (Coronation) of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in 1674 was not just about putting a crown on a brave man’s head. It was more like a paperwork nightmare. At that time, many believed only a Kshatriya could become a Hindu king, and the officials of this rule were Brahmins.

Local Brahmins in the Deccan looked at Shivaji Maharaj, who had already built a kingdom with blood, sweat, and strategy and said, “Sorry, it’s a caste mismatch.” 

According to them, Marathas were Shudras, and Shudras apparently could fight empires but not sit on a throne with Vedic mantras.

So it was obvious, many Brahmins refused to perform the coronation. Bigger problem, no coronation meant other rulers could say, “Nice kingdom, but where’s your Kshatriya King?”

Solution? Call an expert from far away. Enter Gaga Bhatt from Kashi. He studied scriptures, searched family trees, and somehow found a genealogy linking Shivaji Maharaj to the Sisodia Rajputs of Mewar. Suddenly, the same man became a “true Kshatriya.”

And just like that, the Rajyabhishek happened at Raigad Fort in June 1674. Later, Shivaji Maharaj even did a second coronation, just to make sure no ritual loopholes were left. 

Practical man. He didn’t fight Brahmins blindly, and he didn’t bow blindly either. He played the system better than the system expected.

Lesson? Ability builds kingdoms. caste certificates are just added later.

Savarkar, Sambhaji, and the Magic Word “Nation”

Now comes another twist. Freedom fighter Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, in his book Hindu-Pad-Padashahi (1925), took a sharp jab at Sambhaji Maharaj. He called the Marathas’ leader “incapable of guiding a great nation” and painted Sambhaji as ill-tempered and indulgent.

With his line on 4th Chapter : “The Marathas had for their leader a man quite incapable of guiding a great nation. In addition to this incapacity to lead, Sambhaji had a bad temper, excessive indulgence in drinking and debauchery”

What stands out is not just the insult, but the word choice “Nation”. Maharaj was fighting for “Swaraj”, not a modern nation-state. By changing the language, Savarkar quietly changed the meaning. Swaraj becomes weaker, less rooted, less sacred almost like a failed startup instead of a freedom struggle. 

This wording makes the struggle look weaker and less rooted in its Hindu political vision to please then British Government.

Words matter. Change the word, change the story.

Shahu Maharaj vs. Mantra Monopoly

Fast forward to the early 1900s in Kolhapur. Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj faced a very familiar problem. Brahmin priests pecifically the Rajopadhye claimed Vedic mantras were strictly for Brahmins. 

Shudras? Not eligible. 

One priest even said he didn’t need to bathe before performing rituals for Shudras. Cleanliness, apparently, was caste-based too.

Shahu Maharaj asked a dangerous question: Why?

Not tradition for tradition’s sake, but fairness, logic, and proof.

Shahu Maharaj simply cut the head of snake & removed the compulsory vedic mantras from state rituals and allowed Puranic mantras, Marathi prayers, and simple Sanskrit. He supported non-Brahmin priests and broke the idea that religion was private property of one caste.

The priests protested loudly. Shahu Maharaj listened and then ignored them.

Important point, he didn’t reject Hinduism or the Vedas. He rejected monopoly. And that made all the difference.

The Divides: We Were Divided Even Before It Was Fashionable

 

Left wing, Right wing… relax. These terms came one full century after the coronation of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

Before that, we were already experts in dividing ourselves.

Back then politics was simple.
Not Left or Right.

Only pure vs impure, high vs low, man vs woman. Very advanced system.

Patriarchy was not a problem, it was default setting.
Caste was not ideology, it was birthmark.

No debates, no TV panels, no hashtags. Decision was already made when you were born.

 

And just when we were a few years away from a real revolution, when people were slowly asking dangerous questions like “Why?” and “Who decided this?” boom.

Mughals arrived.

Our internal fights continued, but now with external supervision.

 

Then came the British.

They saw our divisions and said, “Nice system, we’ll manage it better.”

 

So don’t say India got divided because of Left and Right.

We were divided long before ideologies had English names.

We didn’t need outsiders to break us.

 

They just took advantage of the cracks we proudly maintained.

 

Different century.

Same habit.