Why Worship God Anyway?
I liked this topic on Indispire today. Infact I have always loved debating over this topic and it sure has been a long time since we wrote something on these lines on inspire99. So here goes :)
Why Do We Worship god?
On the top of my mind, I can come up with a few answers
- For peace of mind
- To help us solve a problem
- To gain confidence in ourselves
- To keep telling ourselves that something good is going to happen
- To ask for a favour
- To ask for forgiveness
- The sheer fear that he might strike down upon us
- To ask him to punish someone else :P
And so on…
But as the topic suggested, two prime reasons why we worship god -Faith and Fear
What is worship?
Before we go into the details of why and how, how about answering the question what. What is this worship anyway? Is it remembering god when we feel low? Is it thinking of a powerful entity above us which makes our lives look simpler and easier? Is it about that comfort and peace of mind that stems from inner peace? Is it doing the rituals in the exact order? Is is reading the religious tenets and following the order and pattern they preach? What is this worship anyway?
Who is god?
There have been hundreds of philosophies about definition of god, what he/she means, how he/she should be and the attributes associated. I am quite fascinated by the fact that there is an entity representing god for each emotion we face – Anger, Love, Strength, Weakness, Joy, Sorrow – well everything has a representation as god and is always of the superlative entity which is absolutely fascinating. That raises a question – What is god anyway? Well I am perhaps too small to try and answer that question, but it sure is fun to rack our brains once in a while
Faith
People have professed faith from eons together and there have been prophets of different faiths expressing varied ideas and passions and driving us to one real truth – living your life to the fullest. Faith has led us believe in an entity beyond our understanding, an entity which makes us wonder and think that there is a enough beauty and fascination in our lives. At one end, this entity is the one which brings us peace, one who brings us comfort, gets people together, celebrate the camaraderie, socially bring us all together and so on. It is the faith which defines religion, the practices which have been the habit of ages and most importantly it becomes a part of our being and we start living that faith consciously on unconsciously. And that is a beautiful belief to go ahead with.
Fear
We all have heard of moral policing – but that is external. Someone comes and tells you that what you are doing is immoral (and 90% of the time it is absolutely stupid cos we all know how staunch a fundamentalist moral police can get). But we all are bound by two strong emotions – pleasure and pain. If we do something wrong, we have to suffer – as defined by the rule of karma upon loose translation. In other words, we are responsible for our actions and their consequences. But we do need a fear to keep us away from wrong doing, to make us feel in touch with the moral route and that is where the fear of god comes into picture. An all powerful entity who brings in moral sanctity in our lives and an all powerful one capable of punishing us in his own way and in a way only we can understand.
Atheists
Well this is a new brand and a new philosophy of believers that GOD does not exist. Well, honestly, I do not know the right answer for this cos I have consciously avoided myself questioning that. But somehow I see their point. they do not want to believe what they don’t see. But that doesn’t mean that they neither have fear nor faith. It is just that they have a different definition to it.
The more I think, I realize that the definition of god and humanity and closely knit together, they all look at one true goal – actualization of a human being ,the path to reach the best of one’s potential, living life to its fullest and in the best way possible. Any other definition than that might probably lead us to a less holistic view.
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Nicely presented, Vinay.
I agree with your thoughts. So many reasons to pray!
Thank you Anita :).. Indeed.. So many good ones :)
The quest for God or a supernatural being is going to continue till the end of civilization. Humankind is incomplete till they connect with the metaphysical power. Even people who say they do not believe in God, might have experienced faith in some form or the other, and at some point of their lives.
Thank you Myrtle. Nice to see your thoughts here :). I agree. Humanity is incomplete if it completely neglects the spiritual element – the physical and the spiritual aspects go so well together that a mutual balance between the two will certainly take life to a whole new level after all :).
That’s so true, everyone would have experienced faith in some way or the other. Some just like to call it confidence and some with some other word. But in the end what matters is how well it makes an impact on us :)
Looking forward to read more posts from you on this so-called controversial topic!
Thank you Myrtle. I would love to keep more coming :) . Would love to hear from you if you have any suggestions for topics. I am more than eager to pen some thoughts down :)
Who believes on Allah,God
If we can connect to our inner self then we will respect everything else..as such there is nothing right or wrong, for each one prayer helps in different ways. It’s ok to pray or not to pray..all we have to remember is that the choice lies always inside our heart..good one VInay..
Thank you Arathi. That is absolutely spot on :). I am completely on board with you on this. I believe it is all driven at focusing internally and making that connection to the inner good. I like that one line
“We all have to remember that choice always lies inside our heart” :). Beautiful :)
Very nicely put.. Not many have the stomach to do a discussion on this.
Thank you Rajesh :). I liked the topic, very interesting and thought provoking. Happy that you liked the thoughts portrayed here :)
Nice post Vinay.. I am glad you like the topic :)
Thank you Vartika. It really is a thought provoking one. And it does inspire some really lovely thoughts. Thank you for such a nice one :)
Thanks for appreciating it :)
Nice post Vinay. The question of god is always a difficult to answer. I am still in a process of finding out the real definition of god. Trying to have this inquisitive frame of mind makes us undergo a transformation from one level to level. Though you might not get the answer , but the whole process is worth experiencing.
Thank you Punith. I agree, it is perhaps one of the toughest questions to answer or atleast I find it so..
I guess we all are trying to find the answers in our own way and the most surprising part for me is that the answers seem to differ each time. The perspective I have today is way different from the one I had two years ago. I am totally with you on this. It sure is a fascinating experience to try find out the answer :)
Nice post Vinay. The question of god is always a difficult to answer. I am still in a process of finding out the real definition of god. Trying to have this inquisitive frame of mind is really a transformation of oneself.
Thank you my friend :). Same here, I find the question and the answers changing each time and never have I ever reached a conclusive answer for the same. But I do enjoy the process of fact finding and identifying what the thought is. Kinda gives me a feeling of a treasure hunt :) :D .
Indeed mate, the inquisitive mind is sure a great gift, something which will lead to some wonderful results. :)
I liked the way you raised questions. It’s better to leave the seeker in midst of questions than giving standard solutions which are just hypothesis without experimentation.
I heard a story about Gautam Buddha who once was taking rest outside a village. A passerby recognized him and greeted. He, despite being theist, asked Buddha “Do God exist?” Buddha replied “No.” He passed with a state of despair on his face. Another passerby asked the same question to Buddha but he was an atheist; the reply came “Yes.” He also walked with desperate face. Third one came and said “It doesn’t matter for me whether God exists or not, but, since I met you it is not unwise to ask you so I am asking do god exist?” Buddha said “May be may not be.” Buddha’s disciple sat beside him and was listening all questions and answers and finally asked “All of them asked the same question but you replied differently I don’t understand why? Which one is correct?” Buddha replied sheepishly “All of them were correct for those whom given and none of them for you. The thirst of truth could not be quenched by firm belief in prejudice but through curiosity i.e. asking smart questions and meeting their answers. I was just breaking prejudices of the first two and the third one was already in that state.”
Thank you Ravish. I kinda like asking questions esp on abstract factors like these. Makes me think along with the writing :). I am usually quite excited to see a response from you, esp on topics like these. It opens up a fresh new perspective to think on and an idea to ponder upon. I have always kinda liked our short debates on these sort of topics :)
That’s an amazing story Ravish. Thanks so much for sharing. I guess we only receive the amount of knowledge and the kind of answers we are ready to process. Might be something to do with the maturity of the person asking the question and the type of question as well. I loved this story :) .
Wonderful post Vinay. I do agree with you that it is faith and fear, the two things which compels anyone to believe in God and worship the same…. But yes I must say that there is some super natural power, do call it as nature or God, which actually is there in among all of us. We just need to worship that particular power :)
Thank you Alok :). I think the idea of a super power is a nice balanced one. I actually don’t know what I believe and sometimes I find it easier not to question at all and let it take its own sort of a meaning. Kinda helps me relax a bit :D :)