Over the last month or so, I have had the good fortune of visiting a lot of temples starting with the temple at Yadagirigutta in Telangana to the new Tirumala Venkateswara Temple in Telangana to yesterday going to our family gods family Temple in Adavanahalli, a Shiva Temple. While all the temples were very beautiful, in fact, the Yadagirigutta temple was recently renovated for 1800 crore and looked worth much more than that. Our family God’s Temple is where we witnessed like my six year-old, called it magic or probably science. As the Purohit conveyed our seeking to the Lord answered by blessing with flowers. It was a sight to be hold very thrilling, and it kind of piqued our senses.
While the average atheist would question, the existence of God not to mention the multitude of rituals, even his non-compromising view, would have to bend with the coming of faith. While science explains a whole lot of things, including the beginning of the universe and the happenings of physics explain the natural world to us, chemistry conveys to the molecular gist of things and Biology explains the processes of living beings there is no doubt that there is something that super sees all of these and that is probably faith. so when the Purohit asked to God for blessings and he replied with a tumble of flowers from his head, my six year old immediately turned to me, and said Amma is this magic or is this science while a part of me want to tell him that it is sign. another part of me. wanted to keep it a little magic, so part of me said that yes, when the pura Purohit was speaking loudly and creating a vibration through his sound that shook the flowers and made it fall. I also looked at him and said it would not have happened. If God didn’t want to, so it is somewhere the whole world is magical.
As religion knows no bounds in India with a lot of rituals, a lot of gods, it is our way of making sense of the universe. But as long as all, these gods are mainly asking us for morality, for sensibility and for actually living harmoniously among each other, probably chanting to keep our mind, calm, or Communal feeling when celebrating the festivals together it is a beautiful way to celebrate existence. Religion could be a beautiful way to celebrate life.and when religious sentiments or rather even sentiments are hurt like the recent controversy at Tirupati with their Laddu, it makes no sense as the basis of religion shakes. The whole point of having religion is to celebrate the magic that is life to celebrate the magic. that is God for none of us know yet what is true, but we cannot also know that it is not true, believing and God is a personal choice. Being part of religion. Somehow doesn’t be a personal choice because of the community that religion brings along with it. The various aspect of various religions basically ask us to be aware of ourselves and whether is chanting the name of Krishna or Jesus or whoever if it is bringing closer to ourselves, then it works, and then religion is really truly magical.
While being scientific is amazing, it is great to believe in the power of science. It is great to decode the word molecule by molecule atom atom probably proton by proton or electron by electron. It is amazing to be a part of this beautiful world with a laisse faire attitude too to just know that the universe works itself out at by atom or proton by proton, for that one has to have faith faith that the universe is working faith that things are working. Things are moving the way they should things gravitate to what they need to while we do what we need to, India is a secular country and there are various religions that are practised in India. The diversity is beautiful. In fact even in Hinduism I have been learning more about why things are the way they are very recently whether the Chatur mass or the time and Lord Vishnu sleeps, or it’s the time of the gods one after the other till December till Diwali, when all the gods come down to earth, it’s a bit of mythology, but it’s also about something that keeps us looking forward to anything in life, and the secret of happiness is to look forward to something that you want to happen And festivals. Do just that it keeps us always looking forward, so while science can explain how the sun rises or why the Earth is round and gives us proof helps us believe in that and not expound further, and further, even if we do the moon affects water on earth, it pulls the oceans up, rising the tide or letting it go and lowering the tide, have you ever seen a low tide, and how much of the ocean is actually visible at that time, it’s crazy. It’s truly crazy and so is the power of religion. It has the power to lift us up to our highest high and hopefully doesn’t bring us down to a lowest lows as long as we follow the middle path in religion and in life and well balance things out with faith, and that is backed by science, we should truly experience the magic that life brings to us. Faith then with, and not over science!
Vedasri Siddamsetty 