Being one and following one, is it the
same? They say you’re born with it while some say you have to follow what your ancestors
have practiced. Some are selective followers; they will practice what makes
sense to them & elude the rest. Well, does that make them true
practitioners? Since they will still identify themselves with a particular one.
Another interesting theory was “you’re born with it”. It’s like a tag on a baby
once it is born. How can you be born with it? Is it like you wait for the
baby to completely appear and you discover "Oh! It’s a boy”. But that is discovered after the little human is born. But what he or she will follow is pre-decided,
a supposition. “Mera beta toh Engineer banega” (My son will be an engineer), even
to instil that thought a parent waits for the child to finish high school, but
that is also when a child has already discovered the magic word “choice”. He or
she knows that a choice of a career is a possibility.
“Well, I let my elders decide my life,
they know best”. Well, they do know more, but the best is quite subjective, depending
upon what they were subjected to at their adolescence. Giving birth gives you the right to label
them? We’ve always chosen differently when we knew there is a choice. But what
to follow, that is conveniently capsuled around us from the moment we are
extracted. Smartly done I say, it starts with your primary identity, your name;
you have to be called a name in accordance to your future practice & adopted
belief system.
I was watching a horror movie; a ghost
buster asks a parent whether the children were baptised. Seriously? that would
stop a ghost? Well, tell me if I encounter a ghost in rural India, will it be
frightened seeing 2 pieces of wood perpendicularly placed? Or would it just get
confused? Making choices for people before they’re born wasn’t enough let’s do
so even after death. Thomas Gray, about man-made practices
says, ‘Where Ignorance is bliss, ‘Tis folly to be wise. Is it not what these belief
systems are based on?
Believe them, doubting is a sin, follow them but don’t rationalise. Each of
their theories is the ultimate truth of life. Well, how can that be different
for you and for me? Same planet, same species, similar life cycles, but
distinct beliefs; and... mine is always better than yours, obviously, right? Ignorance
is bliss, remember?
You’ve never been educated about the other practices, they're taboos. If you know too much, you might question your own and maybe, just maybe look
for logic, which could be disastrous. Even something as frivolous as ordering yourself some food; aren’t you given all the options and explained the
ingredients of all of them before you choose, or is it that only one is
revealed with a great packaging and the rest are labeled as unhealthy options? And this is a course you take for life, why can’t one test the taste buds by a
morsel of each before choosing which one to devour?
Maybe you might realise, you don’t have an appetite for any.
