OH MY GOD:
“Oh My God!” was the movie that I watched today after a long time. Some people had warned me that OMG was
blasphemous, but I didn’t see it that way. I firmly believe that when we start
labeling reasonable arguments as blasphemy, we start slipping towards
fanaticism. And
many of the arguments made in OMG
were definitely reasonable, some even excellent. When Akshay Kumar playing as
Krishna says, “Main Bhagavan hu isliye chamatkar kartaa hu, na ki main chamatkar kartaa
hu isliye Bhagavan hu”, he states the relationship between God’s identity and
miracles brilliantly.
I not only appreciate OMG’s logic,
but also connect emotionally with the courage and rage of Kanjibhai. I
remembered how in my teens I had worshiped God for doing well in a particular
exam. But when the results didn’t turn out as well as I had expected, I became
so angry that I tore apart a picture of God and threw it away
But the essential cause of my
transformation was education. Over the years, I have found answers to many
questions that I had considered unanswerable. Education has two core parts: to know that we
don’t know and to know what we don’t know. OMG highlights the first part
of education; it raises many valid questions that demonstrate how we know so
little about religion. The godmen indicted in OMG make a mockery of these
principles and I have no intention of defending them. In fact, I enjoyed the
exposure of their arrogance, hypocrisy and peevishness. I would concentrate on
the second part of education.
However, the danger of OMG-type
depictions is blanket generalization. Many spiritual teachers are purely and
selflessly devoted to God; they work tirelessly to help others as a part of their
devotion to God. But I do know that many of my spiritual teachers live close to
this saintly standard; I am their student and servant, trying to emulate their
glorious example according to my small capacity. Nonetheless, the point to
emphasize is that the ideal of saintly devotion to God does exist – definitely
in principle and limitedly in practice.
And isn’t this the way people are in
all fields? A rare few are ideal; most are average and some are abysmal.
Consider the field of medicine. Doctors selflessly devoted to treating others at
the risk of their own lives are a rare few. Doctors seeking a career that also
provides a life long avenue for helping others are in the majority. And doctors
who use treatment as a masquerade to fleece their patients as much as possible
are the bottom abysmal few. If these worst of the ranks of doctors were
depicted as the typical, doctors would have a right to feel wronged, wouldn’t
they?
When some pathetic godmen – the
worst of the ranks of spiritual teachers – are depicted as the typical, don’t
spiritual teachers have a right to feel similarly wronged? OMG does try to
avoid this extreme by depicting one of the gurus, the Pujari played by Arun
Bali, as humble, considerate and conciliatory? However, that attempt is
undeveloped; OMG quickly reduces him to the role of a cheerleader for Kanjibhai
– a cheerleader dressed in saffron. The godmen are pathetic in both their
behavior and in their answers to Kanjibhai’s questions. But do all spiritual
teachers have to be like that? If an intelligent person like Kanjibhai can
learn a few things by using his basic common sense and by studying the
Bhagavad-gita for two months, then couldn’t others like him have learnt more by
studying it much longer? Might there exist saintly people who combine the
sincerity of the Pujari and the logicality of Kanjibhai?
Actually, OMG doesn’t just raise
questions; it also claims to give answers. These answers are given explicitly
by Kanjibhai in his answers to the questions he is asked in a TV talk show and
implicitly by Kanjibhai through his actions that he chooses with the approval
of the movie’s Krishna. These answers raise serious questions about several
specific religious practices as well as the generic role of religion in
society.
These are some of the questions that
I came across in the movie, which I would like to clarify from what I
believe. I would be dealing with one
question daily according to my leisure hours.
1.
Do we need middlemen to approach God?
2.
Does God help atheists and oppose godmen?
3.
What is the definition of religion?
4.
Is religion made by man or by God?
5.
Is religion meant for loving God or fearing God?
6.
As we wouldn’t chant “Papa, papa” if we wanted a chocolate
from our father, why should we chant “Krishna,Krishna” if we want something
from him?
7.
Are rituals needed in religion?
8.
Why should we offer our hair to Balaji?
9. Why do temples
provide special queues for quick darshan to those who give more donations?
10. Why do
temples spend so much money on expensive religious rituals when beggars are
starving outside the temples?
11. Isn’t the
idea that religious rituals provide happiness just sentimental imagination?
12. Aren’t some
rituals like those in which the offered milk gets drained into a gutter
wasteful?
13. Why has
religion become an exploitative business in the name of God?
14. Doesn’t the
institutionalization of religion kill its spirit?
15. When God is
in our heart, why do we need any guru to come between us and him?
16. What
qualifications should we look for in gurus?
17. Do godmen who
live in luxury represent God?
18. Doesn’t
religion make people violent?
19. Doesn’t
religion make people feel helpless?
20. When priests
tell people about future sufferings and make them do rituals, aren’t they acting
like hooligans when threaten people to extort money?
21. Does hell
exist? What about the hell menu card?
22. Are
earthquakes acts of God?
23. Doesn’t the
Bhagavad-gita (9.8) state that God is the
destroyer?
24. What is the
cause of earthquakes?
25. Why do bad
things happen to good people?
26. Why do we
need big temples when God doesn’t need them?
27. When God is
present everywhere, why should we worship him in the temple images?
28. How can a
stone image be God?
29. The stone
image is limited, whereas God is unlimited. How can it be God?
30. How can a
stone image that can’t even wave away a fly on its face be God?
31. Is image
worship meant for less intelligent people?
32. Do we need to
discard everything material connected with God to avoid idolatry, as is depicted at the end of OMG?
HOPE u all
appreciate it .
1. Do we need
middlemen to approach God?
Even if for discussion’s sake, we
assume that we don’t need middlemen, then who will tell us that we don’t need
any middlemen?
In OMG, Kanjibhai takes up that
role. By thus giving us the message that we don’t need any middlemen, he ends
up acting as a middle-man. Therefore, those who convey the idea that no
middle-men are needed to approach
God are making a self-refuting statement because by stating this they are
themselves acting as middlemen.
Even if we argue that in OMG
Kanjibhai rejects the role of a middleman by beheading his own image that
people were about to worship, still even in that rejection, he is acting as a
go-between by telling people that this is not the way to worship God. Even if
we listen to atheists and reject the existence of God entirely, we can’t avoid
middlemen; we are letting those preachers of atheism become our middlemen. But
these are middlemen who meddle in our relationship with God and push us far
away from him.
So rather than futilely denying the
need of middlemen, we will be much better off investing our intellectual energy
in finding out the right kind of middlemen – those who are actually close to
God and will help us come closer to him.
2. Does God help
atheists and oppose godmen, as OMG depicts?
God helps everyone, but he doesn’t
force his help on anyone. He respects our free will. So he helps us to the
extent that we seek and accept his help. The Bhagavad-gita (4.11) states that
as we approach God, so he reciprocates.
To understand how God reciprocates,
let’s look at the three broad categories of people in their relationship with
God, as depicted in OMG. These three categories are:
1. Sentimental
believers:
In OMG they are represented by
Kanjibhai’s wife Susheela, his neighbor Mahadeva and the general people.
Majority religious believers fall in this category. They have some faith in
God, but they don’t use their intelligence to seriously enquire about him. God
provides scriptures to enlighten all human beings. The relationship of
sentimental believers with scriptures is limited to respect. Their reverence
for scripture is often accompanied by ignorance of its import. As they don’t
study scripture seriously, they don’t know the proper process for worshiping
God. So they take up whatever religious practice they learn from their
upbringing or culture or by word-of-mouth – anything that feels good and seems
to suit their needs. As they base their religious practices on feelings and not
on intelligence or scripture, they are especially susceptible to exploitation
by false godmen.
2. Exploitative
godmen
In OMG they are represented by
Leeladhar Swamy, Siddheshwar Maharaj and Gopi Maiyya. They are materialistic
opportunists who mint money and gain prestige by exploiting the gullibility of
sentimental believers. They talk about God, but they are not actually
interested in him. For them God is just a tool to fulfill their own
materialistic agendas. As they don’t want God’s help, he doesn’t interfere in
their lives. But because they often misrepresent him and his teachings and
because they mislead those who have faith in him, God ensures that they get the
just consequences of their misdeeds.
3. Intelligent
nonbelievers
In OMG they are represented by
Kanjibhai. God appreciates those who use their intelligence – even if they are
presently nonbelievers. After all, he has given them their intelligence and he
doesn’t want it to be kept in a showcase; he wants it to be used. So with their
intelligence if they get questions about life, they have a right to ask for
answers. And if they don’t get answers, they may conclude that the only
intelligent thing to do is to become skeptical or even atheistic. However, if
they assume that just because they haven’t found the answers, the answers are
nowhere to be found, then they err and become close-minded atheists.
To answer the questions of everyone,
God has provided scriptures. And he appreciates inquisitiveness, as he
demonstrates through his own example in the Bhagavad-gita – therein, he answers
all of Arjuna’s questions. Moreover, many question-answer sessions between
sincere seekers and intelligent teachers stand out in the pages of the Vedic scriptures.
And most importantly, the Vedanta sutra (1.1.1: athato brahma jijnasa)
specifically urges all human
beings to become inquisitive
spiritually. If those with intelligent questions remain open-minded
and continue enquiring sincerely,
God will help them. He will guide them to his genuine representatives who will answer
their questions. Then their skepticism will become
just one passing phase in their
intellectual evolution – they will graduate through it and become intelligent
believers.
In OMG, Kanjibhai undergoes this
evolution as he progresses from being an intelligent nonbeliever towards
becoming an intelligent believer. But his progress requires something
extraordinary: the personal intervention of Krishna who miraculously protects
and heals him.
OMG portrays that Krishna guides
Kanjibhai alone. Were there no intelligent people before Kanjibhai? Certainly
there were. Would Krishna not have guided them towards becoming intelligent believers?
Surely he would have; his love is for everyone – not just for Kanjibhai. Then
could Krishna not have used these intelligent people to guide other intelligent
seekers? He certainly could. Moreover, wouldn’t these intelligent people
themselves have wanted to help others along the journey that they have taken? Naturally
they would have. This is evident from the example of Kanjibhai, who at the
movie’s climax forcefully admonished people about how not to worship.
In OMG Krishna disappears at the
end, implying that he doesn’t want to give to everyone the special favor that
he gave to Kanjibhai. Then how does Krishna want others to become wise like
Kanjibhai? Presumably through Kanjibhai’s guidance? If so, then couldn’t there have
been predecessors to Kanjibhai who could have guided him? Naturally there could
have been. These people comprise a fourth category of people, a category not
depicted in OMG: intelligent believers. These are sincere seekers who have
asked questions, found answers and have become genuine seers. OMG requires Krishna’s
miraculous intervention to guide Kanjibhai because it doesn’t depict
intelligent believers who could have guided him. Do such people exist? They do
indeed, declare the Vedic scriptures. There exists a succession of such seers.
This
succession extends back into
antiquity and originates in Krishna’s personal instruction to the first seer.
And there exists not just one but several such successions which are called paramparas.
The Padma Purana explains that there are four such paramparas: Sri, Brahma, Rudra
and Kumara. These paramparas have living seers even today and all of us can
gain God’s help through them.
