"If these Christians want me to believe in their god, they’ll have to sing better songs, they’ll
have to look more like people who have been saved, they’ll have to wear on their countenance the joy of the
beatitudes. I could believe in a god who dances." -Friedrich Nietzsche
Being in India, I've been surrounded by religion. In fact, it was a key reason for me to travel to India. I find myself most often stuck in the middle between the two competing forces in my thoughts on religion: my compassion and interest in religious movements, and my atheistic Nietzschian punk ethos. This means I neither embrace religion nor shun it. It puts me in a peculiar spot. I feel that most people I know who are religious expect me to be religious and my atheistic friends think I'm foolish for even giving God a chance.
However, being in India has given me some time to reflect on my thoughts on God. I was sitting along the Ganges river tonight. I hadn't showered for a few days, so I took off my shirt, rolled up my pants and got into the Ganges. I dipped my hair into the flowing water and washed my arms and legs. Then I returned to my spot on the rocky beach to dry with the sunlight. Considering it was my last day in Rishikesh along the Ganges, I decided to make a little campfire there along the river and just sit and enjoy the view of the Himalayas.
Then, a middle-aged English woman walked by, holding a bowl of flowers with a candle she had purchased from the roaming poverished children selling them for 10 rupees each. She walk near to me along the edge of the Ganges, put her hands together (Namaste' style), assumingly gave some little prayer and then put the lit candle bowl into the Ganges. It's a typical "ceremony" that I've seen performed everywhere I've seen a river in India, from Varanasi to the Yamuna River in Vrindavan and again here in Rishikesh.
I started thinking about the humor in that here I was, simply bathing myself and enjoying a little campfire, while to anyone else I probably looked like I was performing some sort of ceremonious cleansing with water and fire. Then comes this "spiritual" English woman to do her little religious ceremony. I wondered what she wanted in a God.
Thus began my thoughts on God. What exactly do people want in God? To me, religion is either two things: 1. A source of pleasure (e.g. eternal salvation) or 2. A source for thankfulness. I don't mind the second option; in fact, since being in India I've created a sort of prayer I say before every meal, not thanking any "god" but the universe, the farmers, the server, the water which grew the seed into the vegetable I was going to eat, etc. We ought to be thankful to something/one. If people need a God to be thankful for the very essence of existing...well that makes sense. However, I do have a problem with the first option.
I remember, while attending my Lutheran elementary school, hymns and prayers about our "living God." That God is a source of life-fullness. I enjoy this idea, but I think we really ought to critique what we mean by "life." Is life always a positive thing? No, I should say. There's plenty of cliches, but life is in fact the constant motion between good and bad, pleasing times and miserable times. So what's all this about our Christian God--a supposed God of Life--granting us eternal bliss and salvation in Heaven for? I say "hell no." I want to be ALIVE. I don't want comfort when I'm upset (well, I do, but you get what I mean), I don't want healing for my sicknesses. If God is in fact a living God, I want to live: I want to enjoy the beautiful sights of Himalayan mountain ranges and laugh with my daughter when I return home, and I want to feel the sting of homesickness while far away and bear the brunt of Iowan winters.
I'm with Nietzsche on this one. If these supposed holy men, who've attempted to instruct me on proper breathing techniques or mantras to chant while here in India, want me to believe in God, they'd better start dancing--dancing between good and bad, pleasure and sorrow. In all of it, I'll dance.
have to look more like people who have been saved, they’ll have to wear on their countenance the joy of the
beatitudes. I could believe in a god who dances." -Friedrich Nietzsche
Being in India, I've been surrounded by religion. In fact, it was a key reason for me to travel to India. I find myself most often stuck in the middle between the two competing forces in my thoughts on religion: my compassion and interest in religious movements, and my atheistic Nietzschian punk ethos. This means I neither embrace religion nor shun it. It puts me in a peculiar spot. I feel that most people I know who are religious expect me to be religious and my atheistic friends think I'm foolish for even giving God a chance.
However, being in India has given me some time to reflect on my thoughts on God. I was sitting along the Ganges river tonight. I hadn't showered for a few days, so I took off my shirt, rolled up my pants and got into the Ganges. I dipped my hair into the flowing water and washed my arms and legs. Then I returned to my spot on the rocky beach to dry with the sunlight. Considering it was my last day in Rishikesh along the Ganges, I decided to make a little campfire there along the river and just sit and enjoy the view of the Himalayas.
Then, a middle-aged English woman walked by, holding a bowl of flowers with a candle she had purchased from the roaming poverished children selling them for 10 rupees each. She walk near to me along the edge of the Ganges, put her hands together (Namaste' style), assumingly gave some little prayer and then put the lit candle bowl into the Ganges. It's a typical "ceremony" that I've seen performed everywhere I've seen a river in India, from Varanasi to the Yamuna River in Vrindavan and again here in Rishikesh.
I started thinking about the humor in that here I was, simply bathing myself and enjoying a little campfire, while to anyone else I probably looked like I was performing some sort of ceremonious cleansing with water and fire. Then comes this "spiritual" English woman to do her little religious ceremony. I wondered what she wanted in a God.
Thus began my thoughts on God. What exactly do people want in God? To me, religion is either two things: 1. A source of pleasure (e.g. eternal salvation) or 2. A source for thankfulness. I don't mind the second option; in fact, since being in India I've created a sort of prayer I say before every meal, not thanking any "god" but the universe, the farmers, the server, the water which grew the seed into the vegetable I was going to eat, etc. We ought to be thankful to something/one. If people need a God to be thankful for the very essence of existing...well that makes sense. However, I do have a problem with the first option.
I remember, while attending my Lutheran elementary school, hymns and prayers about our "living God." That God is a source of life-fullness. I enjoy this idea, but I think we really ought to critique what we mean by "life." Is life always a positive thing? No, I should say. There's plenty of cliches, but life is in fact the constant motion between good and bad, pleasing times and miserable times. So what's all this about our Christian God--a supposed God of Life--granting us eternal bliss and salvation in Heaven for? I say "hell no." I want to be ALIVE. I don't want comfort when I'm upset (well, I do, but you get what I mean), I don't want healing for my sicknesses. If God is in fact a living God, I want to live: I want to enjoy the beautiful sights of Himalayan mountain ranges and laugh with my daughter when I return home, and I want to feel the sting of homesickness while far away and bear the brunt of Iowan winters.
I'm with Nietzsche on this one. If these supposed holy men, who've attempted to instruct me on proper breathing techniques or mantras to chant while here in India, want me to believe in God, they'd better start dancing--dancing between good and bad, pleasure and sorrow. In all of it, I'll dance.
...and, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
ReplyDeleteYou are an atheist? Not an agnostic?
Oh, all the labels.
Thank some one's god you aren't in a wheel chair - your travels would be more limited and your possibility for enlightenment would have to come more from within - and less from without...
I'm curious - how are the disabled treated in India? And the elderly? And, are there factory farms?
Thanks for your insights Dylan, take care...
disabled and widows are beggars, for the most part. elderly seem well treated. No factory farms where I've been. In fact, it's nearly impossible to find any meat dish in most restaurants.
ReplyDeleteWhat a
ReplyDeletescrewed up place which is why I've concluded capitalism will overheat once India and China become superconsumer economies. But that aside --- isn't it sort of like what kennedy said about ask not what your country can do for you...if you are a true believer isn't the real question not what god or god's religion can do for you but what you can do for God? Maybe god wants more out of us than a cosmic disco? Yeah Iowa is cold.
I thought you said at McDonald's there were cute little lamb burgers instead of cute cow burgers? Was that a joke? There are hardly any meat dishes? How much is my dollar worth there? Could Dietz snowboard? I think I want to move. Don't fit in here - maybe I would fit in there. Do they need any social workers? Could I go around with a veil over my head and no one would question it? It would be perfect - no more make-up!
ReplyDeleteI haven't actually entered any McDonald's, but someone told me about the lamb burger thing. Maybe I'll stick my head into one tomorrow now that I'm in Delhi to check for you. Delhi is quite a different story than the rest of India--of that which I've seen at least. Up until arriving here in Delhi, I hadn't seen one meat dish offered (maybe one or two, but honestly, it's nearly impossible to find meat dishes where I've been). However, Delhi's very westernized--there's KFC and everything.
ReplyDeleteOne dollar is exchanged for 44 rupees here in India. To put that in perspective, a cup of tea from a sidewalk stand is 5 rupees. The massive luxurious dinner I just ate was 150 rupees. The bus ticket from Rishikesh to Delhi (approximately a 6-7 hour bus ride) was 160 rupees. My guesthouse in Rishikesh was 200 rupees a night. While in India, I think I've only spent a bit over $400 US dollars--and that's including buying rooms to stay, 3 meals a day, gifts, transportation, etc. It's pretty ridiculous being here with US money.
Dietz could probably snowboard on some of the Himalayan mountains I saw. Then again, he'd have to get up them, and you'd probably never find a ski lift, let alone a path hikable by non-locals.
They need social workers badly, but good luck. Indian bureaucracy is a mess. No real social programs to speak of here--at least what I've seen. Hence the widows and disabled having to beg.
Most women do, in fact, walk around with a scarf around their head--especially married women. Not so sure about the veil. That sounds more like the thing Muslim women wear....
Scarf, veil, either would do.
ReplyDeleteMake sure to realize that your Uncle Tim is also writing comments under mykarass - I'm sure you can tell the difference between the posts.
Do you wish you could stay there? KFC and all??
You sound happy to me.
Aunt Angela