An Atheist Can Turn Towards Religion if Taught Logically
I am an Indian Woman. I grew up in a religious Hindu family in India. We were living in a joint family. In Indian society, a family includes a grandmother, a grandfather and any close relative who stays permanently with the family.
Generally, Indian children are influenced by all members of the family. As each family member has different ages as well as thoughts, children are highly influenced by everyone’s thoughts. Such a social system has its own pros and cons like all other social systems in the world.
Although we all were living together, and our roots were the same, all the members of my family had different definitions of worship. I observed that my mother worshipped many Gods daily. She was pious and performed many rituals and prayers.
On the other hand, my grandmother was doing some worship but with less faith. This might be because of her very difficult past. I observed that she was doing Pooja (worshipping rituals) just to remain busy in her old age. Yes, I always observed that she steadfastly lighted Diya (candle) every morning and evening. She believed that by doing so, enlightenment happens inside the house, and people in the house also get benefitted from it.
My father was believing in Karma. I never observed him doing any rituals or going to any temples or prayers. He was helping needy people without letting any of our family members know. We came to know about his deeds after his death when many people met us & said that he helped us in our studies or medical emergency. In other words, his worship was his work(karma).
My aunt was also living with us. She was following the Vedantic path as her worship. My elder sister was very much influenced by my mother, so she followed the path of pious worship without asking any questions. My brother turned out to be more like my father, and he follows the path of karma.
That leaves out me, who was different from everyone else. I was always confused by seeing so much variety in worship. I am the type of person who never believes in anything till I get my answers satisfactorily. No one in my family was able to answer my questions related to God, religion, or rituals. So, I was not believing in anything. I was an atheist person for many years of my life.
My observation of society and people is very sharp. I have a habit of thinking about everyone’s behaviour as well as suffering. From my teenage to adulthood, because of my observation, I started believing in karma. By the time I reached adulthood, I formed a firm opinion that good and bad karmas yield returns in this life only.
But still, my questions were unanswered because believing in karma can’t explain others’ worshipping path and their desire to follow them.
My confusion revolved around some very basic questions:
Question: Why are they worshipping differently?
Answer: It’s everyone’s own belief.
Question: What are they expecting by worshipping?
Answer: I firmly believe that only hard work can fulfil materialistic needs (car, house, degree). How can worship give such things? People waste so many hours of their lives worshipping for physical needs and desired things will go far away from you.
A few more questions on the same pattern…
- If the answer is God, Then Who is God?
- Why are people searching for God?
- If God is giving everything to you just by worshipping, then why so many poor people are there in this world?
- Is God biased? If yes, why?
During my teenage, all these questions disturbed me, so I never believed in any God. As my teen and young age were too hectic in my study, I never found time to get answers to all these questions. In those years the internet was also not available to normal people. So, it was hard to find information/answers to my curiosity. Still, I always tried to go to a place where such a discussion was going on. But I never found the exact answers. I had no way to know about any resources/books to find those answers.
As I got older and more mature, and with the availability of the Internet, I found ways to seek answers. I studied Indian Vedic science to get my answers.
How Vedic Science explains God:
Vedic science directly does not answer about God. It describes a lifestyle which one should obey to live healthily & happily in this world. That’s why Hinduism is global, and the Hindu religion is known as the “Sanatana Dharma”.
Sanatana Dharma means a religion that is always true and applicable during any time frame of this universe. It describes rituals and the rationale behind them.
Indian ancient Vedas are the oldest scripture in this world. Knowledge of Sanatana Dharma is split across four Vedas.
My experiment with Vedic rituals:
I started with meditation, which Vedas describe as Dhyana. There are many videos and speeches about different Vedas. They explain all rituals.
For example, there is a ritual in India to do Bindi/Tilak on the forehead. The reason behind that is to activate the Third Eye/Ajna Chakra by touching and pressing it daily.
One more example is, It is believed that Mahabharata is a mythological story only but a part of Mahabharata is the Bhagwat Gita which explains the theory of Karma and the Theory of Soul. So, those who are reading Mahabharata by words without real understanding will always think that it is just a story of wars between cousins.
Likewise, all the rituals have very logical reasons in Vedas.
Conclusion:
According to Vedic scriptures,
Question: What is God?
Answer: God is a Universal Energy through which the whole world originates and gets destroyed at a specific time.
Question: Who am I?
Answer: I am a soul which is eternal. It is neither born nor dies. Every soul is a part of that universal energy which has created this universe.
Question: Why do people worship differently?
Answer: The theory of soul and karmas is complex. Idols(deities) are required to make normal people understand that and live an ethical and moral life. To believe in idols(deities), there are lots of mythological stories which say different ways of worshipping. Worshipping idols(deities) means worshipping God through idols(deities).
Question: What do people expect from worshipping?
Answer: According to Vedas, all those worshipping methods are steps towards spirituality. By repeating it daily, one will understand the hidden meaning of that worshipping method. Step by step, they will understand that the ultimate truth is the soul only. All other things are related to the body which is perishable.
