June 04, 2014

"Who's Your Favorite God?"

So a few days ago, I asked my family, friends and associates about who's their favorite God (about 37 of them). 16 of them replied (must have been my lucky day!). Some of them told about having multiple favorites. And that's fine. It's difficult to have a single "favorite" God when we have so many choices. 

We will get to the specifics, but I want to enlist some of my personal disappointments :

-  People mostly stuck to Gods of their own religion (communalism?).  I hope they at least give the Gods of other religions some consideration. 

- Absolutely No-one chose a female God (sexism?). Seems, females are considered 'weak' even when it comes to being God. Or is that "God" is a masculine word?

- All but one chose to consider parents as their favorite 'God'.  I personally like to view my parents as humans with quirks.  But I was hoping many more to give a shout out to their parents. 

- No one talked about Greek and Roman Gods. Zeus, Athena, Apollo...  Aahh.. the symbols of perfection. Someone please choose them!

By the way, did you know all the solar system planets, and some of the months of Gregorian calendar are named after Roman Gods? I didn't!


Anyways, so who's their favorite God?  In no particular order and including multiple favorites :

Krishna : 3
Jesus : 2
Sai Baba : 4
Allah :  1
Ganapati : 2
Ram : 1
Shiva : 3
Maa : 1
Hanuman : 2
Buddha : 1

From above, it would seem like Sai Baba is quite popular. But, I was more interested in the "Why" part? 

People had their favorite Gods as their favorite because of:

 "His unconditional love", 

"kinda connect with him"

 "he is awesome"

"love him as my Bhai... Keep talking, sharing and caring...", 

"for the simplicity" 

 "as a kid used to like him a lot. Still think he is the best."

"not for religious reasons but used to visit his temple as a kid and seems cool"

"he taught the technique of meditation"

 "softest of all humans on earth nd this guy can't even think of bad things even abt his enemy",

"no reason, just like him"  

"cuz he is the Supreme in trinity and most easy to please God. Also love him... I won't be haunted by evil spirit"

"believed him &  liked him &  watched serials of his story from childhood onwards"

"really don't know. There is just something about him that attracts me"

"for his courage, strength and selflessness"

"Because of his cute image"... 


Two people philosophized about "God is one" theory and I partly agree. 

Some people wanted to know about My favorite, so here's a little about  GOD &  ME


I am a hypocrite when it comes to God. I readily "believe" in him to get me out of a situation which is beyond my control as a human. But other times I am busy arguing how God doesn't exist and is simply a figment of Human's faith. Or, spend my time making fun of others' faith in God (dangerous thing to do. People take their religion to their grave. Note to self : Never again question someone's faith). 

So, I oscillate between being a theist and atheist, passing the borders of agnosticism, according to my convenience. So, don't believe anything I say about God. 

In fact, I have a few friends who are supremely religious, and I am secretly jealous of them. Being religious is hard work because it demands consistency, but has significant advantages. I wish I weren't this lazy at least when it comes to believing in God.  Sorry God.

I used to worship Santoshi Maa as a kid because my Grand mother was a fierce devotee. Just like some of the comments above, religion was silently beaten into me as a child. We used to have all kinds of customs and we had to follow them or face the wrath of Grand Maa. Then, a few years ago, she left being such an ardent devotee. And then I left being a devotee at all. 

Then I used to believe in Sai Baba, a kind hearted person who taught about patience, peace and unity. You don't need to be Hindu or a Muslim to qualify as his 'acceptable' follower. But my problem is that we treat him as God rather than a God-man. We talk about  his "miracles" more than his teachings. And we have his photo on ALL the "future-fixing baba" advertisements. What a scam. It's disgusting. 

By the way, I only recently have come to know that both "Santoshi Maa" and "Sai Baba" have come into existence as Gods in last 100 years only. And I thought Gods were eternal.

Now I like Jesus and Buddha the most. Jesus for almost the same reasons as Sai. But I feel Jesus was quite idealistic. I don't think people are capable of "Unconditional Love for everyone" (a topic for another post). Nevertheless,  it's a good ideal to at least strive for . 

Buddha worked towards enlightenment and finding the truth. He tried to find out how to live, how to behave, how to manage the pain. Hence, his teachings I believe, are most directly beneficial to humans. The fact that I seldom hear about Buddhists indulging in violence speaks volumes about him and his religion. But I have trouble digesting the fact that he left his wife and son. They shouldn't have suffered . Family should always come first, no matter what.

And I must say again, I don't think of Jesus and Buddha as Gods, but as "Super Humans". I don't care about their miracles, but how they lived their life and what they preached. I feel God should be considered a source of strength rather than a crutch for all your adversities. But then, I told you not to believe anything I say about God.

May God bless us all.

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