June 2, 2011

"Youngsters nowadays are not religious. They talk to each other during sermons, SMS friends during the mass and make fun of the priests."

These thunderous words were ringing in my ears for almost two days, so much so that I began wondering whether they are really true. Being a youngster myself, though at the other end of being young, I was not ready to accept this fact, but steadily, with a lot of thinking I realized that the preacher was indeed true. In an age where no one practices what one preaches, surprisingly the preacher put some hardcore facts. This is a serious issue, which needs immediate attention from the religious leaders.

Every stage of our life is plagued with problems. When we were infants, we might have had problems such as how and when do I get my next meal, why isn’t anyone changing my diaper. As we grew a little older, the problem statement would have turned to how do I crawl, how do I walk, how do I talk and why can’t everyone around me keep their mouth shut? During school days, our problems multiply a hundred fold – why doesn’t time pass quickly in the geography class,  what’s the use of using Pythagoras theorem, why didn’t a coconut fall on that damn Isaac  Newton’s head instead of an apple, when is the teacher giving out answer papers and would I pass. Once we are into our college life, the priorities and problems see a wider picture - would I secure distinction in board exams, how do I get to see Katie everyday, why hasn’t she come to college today and so on. After graduation, complexity of the problems rises and we begin to think about money, job, spouse, spice etc.

When we get these things in life, we find a complete different set of problems ranging from which school I should enroll my kids into, which subjects the kiddo should study, which tuition classes will be good for the kid etc. Basically at this stage we initiate problems in kids. As we grow older, we think about who is my son/daughter seeing, why is he/she late and finally the effect of all this tension – sugar, BP, heart attack. Problems across all stages may be varied, but the only one thing common in all the stages of life is our prayer and our faith in god- VENKATARAMANA and yeah, how could I forget the other common thing throughout - problems - SANKATA.

I remember going to St Lawrence church, Attur and Infant Jesus shrine, Bikarnakatte very regularly especially in the period between completion of semester exams and results, praying to all saints, creating some new ones and lighting so many candles everywhere just to pass in the crazy Data Communication paper in which I did not know even a word. I was not alone; I could see many familiar faces around me. "Hey Anil. Results right?"

"Wwwhat, No No, I come here very often."

"Is it? Never seen you around."

"I come late and go early."

"Oh cool, actually I don’t come often. Someone told me our results are going to be out next week. So some preparation for it."

I used to feel like an idiot after this conversation. Why the hell should I be scared to reveal that I come here only on special occasions? After the results, for the next three months, I would not even think about Infant Jesus or Saint Lawrence, not even a thanksgiving prayer at home, the next pilgrimage would be after the next semester exams. I haven’t generalized here since I know how religiously sentimental we are, I was tempted to ask a few questions to Eddie uncle, but he is very religious.

I have a lot of friends who are very religious, have a firm belief in almighty, who pray to their gods regularly, follow rituals ardently. I am quite religious, a strict Sunday catholic – I say my prayers to the lord everyday. I can narrate an incident which might have certain significance in the context of this article. My friend and I had been for mass on a Saturday evening (the day India played Sri Lanka in the world cup finals). I had asked my friend to message me the score very regularly and was checking my mobile every time it buzzed during the mass. The gracious friend of mine looked at me a couple of times and then let go off my behaviour. What I noticed behind that look were a couple of moist eyes, which showed her respect to god and from that day I shamelessly admit that I never check my mobile inside the church. If I am expecting certain important calls, only then I step out of the church and answer, which I believe is acceptable.

Why are a few youngsters in our community unreligious? Isn’t it a responsibility of our elders - parents and religious leaders? When we were kids, we had regular lessons on the Bible, taught by respectable priests who personified holiness and simplicity. But today’s leaders find it difficult to seek respect from youngsters as they are engaged in various so called community development activities. It is ironic that every second parish in our diocese has a new church building, but the same parish also has 10 families below poverty line. As young people, this sometimes creates a wrong impression, but what we need to concentrate is on God and steer our slowly withering community towards strength.

I would like to cite an example of the most impressive community of our country - the PARSIS. A community which boasts of less than 1,00,000 people are the most prosperous. It seems whenever a child is born, every member of the community contributes one rupee towards the new born. By the time the new born is 18, he/she will be worth in lakhs, if not crores. I do not know whether this is true or not, but the plan seems impressive and appealing. Can we do this??

Now back to religion and religiousness, how many of us give a thanksgiving prayer everyday, for letting us pass the day without many difficulties. Only a few. There is a famous joke that there are two mailrooms in heaven and one is busy and the other one is completely idle. The busy one is where requests are processed and the other idle one is for thanksgiving processing. Mercy of god has no limits as for the past so many years he has been blessing us by granting almost all our prayers, without even expecting a "THANK YOU" in return. I have no doubt that people pray everyday, since there is no day without a problem. If there were no problems in this world then I presume, none of us would have bothered to pray: at least now we remember god in our prayers, even though we selfishly ask for favors.

In this scientifically advanced world, religion and god may look a thing of past. But the recent happenings in Japan, Libya, Egypt and elsewhere should teach us mortals a lesson or two. This article may look a tad precautious on my part, but we youngsters need to uphold a few values, point out right from wrong and remember and see the god in every living being and not only in church and its leaders.