God, religion, and how my belief system aligns with societal norms are some of my favourite topics to explore deeply.

I talk to different people with different belief systems, and I make a note of things that make sense to me. I am making a few of them public today.

Religion is personal to everyone. I want you to know everything you read today is based on my relationship with God and religion - and what I prefer as an individual.

This will be a brain dump of 3-4 topics.

Not questioning your religion is a great deal of injustice

There’s faith and there is blindness. In religion, the line between the two is disastrously blurred.

People around me ask me to behave a certain way for my good, like: ‘Don’t cut your nails on Friday’, ‘Sit for 30 seconds if you (or someone) sneezes while you’re stepping out of the house’, or ‘Don’t lift religious objects with your left hand.’

I often ask ‘Why’ only to get ‘Because you’re supposed to’, ‘That’s what our parents told’, ‘It is what it is and you must follow’ as answers.

Ughh!

My problem with this?

You call yourself extremely religious and ask me to follow something you believe, but when I ask you questions - only from a place of curiosity to learn better - you don’t have answers.

How do you expect me to have blind faith, especially when you don’t know why you’re doing what you’re doing?

Anyone not knowledgeable about what they’re passionate about is a turn-off for me. When you ask me to follow your traditions, I expect you to understand them yourself first. If not, I have no interest in learning religion from you. I can’t learn from people who don’t question out of curiosity—or even worse, too scared to ask questions. If you don’t know your religion, who will?

I am open to learning religion from people who have read holy books or sacred texts, understand the reasons behind traditions, know mythology in detail, understand the backstories of the culture, and practice it regularly.

If that’s you, we should meet for coffee.

Religion is personal

One thing I’ve realised over the years speaking to theists, atheists, and everyone in between is: Religion is *extremely* personal.

You can have an opinion but can never expect the opposite person to understand/agree with it—just like the essays I have compiled today.

I don’t consider myself religious—and by religious, I mean performing pooja, daily prayers, reading holy texts, performing service, etc. My family members and people who believe in religion often ask me to follow these rituals as they are ‘good for me.’

My argument?

“It doesn’t work for me.”

It works for my mom. She prays every day and has rituals. It’s a big part of who she is and makes her feel good about her family, health, beliefs, career, and other life aspects. I always wondered why mom would quickly work on her religious routine 15-20 minutes before leaving for the office. I thought, “She could rest before her 9-5 job.”

This is where I failed to understand Religion is personal - that it is peace for my mom and nothing more than an extra task to me.

Now, if we can flip the sides, visiting a temple to solve a crisis doesn’t work for me. I don’t believe that visiting temples solves my problem. I prefer acting on my issues.

I’m more confident and at peace when I work towards my problems over praying them out. But other people pray to reduce anxiety, find peace, and similar emotions.

What works for them doesn’t work for me (🔁)

I like visiting temples because they’re peaceful and I never pray for myself. If I am put in a situation to do so, I’ll pray for my friends and family.

That’s what I believe works for me. That’s my equation with religion.

I visit temples - I don’t visit temples

I love temples. I love the peace they bring, how they’re built, and how everyone is calm in a temple. I am from Hyderabad. I visit Birla Mandir time and again. It’s one of my favourite places to find peace. I sometimes visit the 800-year-old Karmanghat Hanuman Temple. It’s only five minutes away from my place.

But I don’t enjoy visiting temples like Tirupati, Shiridi, or any places with large crowds. Maybe once, but definitely not multiple times.

One, I am not comfortable with large crowds. Two, you travel miles and stand in queue for hours only to see God for two seconds doesn’t make sense to me. I’d rather visit a temple near my place and spend a solid 1-2 hours inside the temple.

[Religion Name] Child

I was listening to The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, a book on atheism.

Richard spoke about how we allot religion to children and asked his readers to stop when someone refers to a child as a [religion name] child. Ex: Hindu child, Muslim child, etc.

His argument was children are too young to choose a religion, just like politics or economics; so we shouldn’t be addressing them with their religion.

Although I agree with the ‘too young to choose’ part, I doubt how practical it is.

If/when I am a parent, I want to pass on my learnings to my children. I’d teach them skills like sports, watchmaking, writing, and values like integrity, honesty, kindness, etc.

It’s my responsibility to share what I think will be useful for my child. Whether the kid wants to do it or not is his/her own choice.

It’s the same with religion. I am not religious, but I have seen many of my friends and family members stay peaceful because of their faith—and if they want to pass on their idea of peace, what’s wrong with that?

Ideally, you can wish for parents not to force their beliefs - but teach them what they trust and be open to children expressing otherwise.

But... as Pooja Didi from Kota Factory said, “You get ideal situations in a lab, not in life.”

That’s everything I have for today. I’ll see you next week!