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நிலவில் நின்று வடை சுட்டாயே
உன்  நினைவில் என்னை அடை வைத்தாயே 

நிழலுலகம் போதுமென மேகமென மறைந்தாயோ
கனவுகள் எல்லாம் போதுமென வெளிச்சத்தில் நீ கரைந்தாயோ
உன் மடி நீர் வழி வந்தவனின் விழி நீர் நீ கானலையா
அவன்  தூங்கும் போதும் வலிக்கும்மினு கொஞ்சம் கூட தோணலையா

நீ செத்து போனாலும் உன் நினைவு நெஞ்சில் சாகாதே

எனக்கு நரை தட்டி போன பின்னும் உன் வாசம் விட்டு போகாதே

அம்மா

அம்மா...

இருக்கும் வரை சரியாய் படிக்காத,

தொலைந்த பிறகு நினைவில் மறக்காத ,

அழகிய ஒரு வரிக் கவிதை 

BELIEF

Clasping the hands together, resting the forehead on them, closing the eyes so tightly making it difficult for every single photon to hit the retina, biting the lips firmly, focusing every single joule of the energy, people pray when their team has to score 4 runs in the last ball of the match.  No study has  proven that these prayers have made the bowler to fire a loose delivery or make the endorphins of the batsman take control over their adrenaline, think straight and blow a lightning shot to drive the ball beyond the ropes.  Nothing has been proven. But like any other reflex action which the body is conditioned to perform this happens instantaneously on such situations. So what’s that impulse behind? The same impulse that drives people to do a similar thing when they are in the operation theater taking glimpse of the surgical knives for the first time, when their son/daughter are in the Warfield or in an exam hall, when the boss wants to talk for a minute in private, while handing over the letter that was drafted with a lot of emotions albeit with so little sense to one’s girlfriend or sometimes to the friend’s. Most of us do this without any second thought like ripples circling around a stone thrown in still water. Strangely, it has never been proven with strong facts that prayers help people come out of the predicament, except for the indirect soothing effect it has on one’s stress levels.  So what is this that has been inherited for ages, which instructs us to resort to prayer while in trouble?  What is this that cuts through once cognizance? What is this that behaves like any of the million physiological processes that happens within us about which we have no little clue? Belief. It’s the belief that’s been scripted inside us even before our brains started to hatch out. Belief, that God is so powerful and he would answer our prayers, motivates us to start a communication channel with Him when we are in trouble.  Though the truth is, that God can answer only to one of the teams’ prayers at the end of the match, that doesn’t stop anyone from getting into the negotiation. Belief many times overpowers the logic. Prayer is just one of those beliefs that I was pondering over recently. There are quite a lot of them which just gushed into my thought process while thinking about it.  Belief has such a power to slice out one’s character and behavior.  

Belief could be of so many types. However, I can bisect them into just two, a Public and a Private one. The former have much a bigger impact on the society and the latter on an individual. A Public belief as I define is something which majority of a population values strongly.  The population could be any group of people with something common to them.  The commonality could be geographical, political, geo-political, physiological, demographical or so on.  A Private belief as I see is the one which is more based on introspection, which could be shallow and preposterous or so deep and significant. I don’t see much of a problem with the latter one for that’s so personal to someone and I can’t reserve any rights to comment on it. And many times it’s not so damaging to the society as a whole. The Public belief is the one which when I think about looks more dangerous. And when I say dangerous I don’t mean all public beliefs are so against the truth and are malign. I just comprehend them as ones that have the potential to be so dangerous for they have a strong hold in a society’s value systems and their practices.

One of the most common problems with these Public beliefs is the apparent ideological clashes it can create. Look at the arguments we have every day with someone or the other. Most of them roots from these public beliefs. I and my mother have argued endlessly on some of her religious practices, for she believes them to be religious and I see them as superstitious.  And both have their seed on the popular public beliefs. Being rebellious with the traditional religious practices is believed to be modern and is believed to be the nature of an atheist. Sometimes, I think I argue on religion mainly to comply with this publicly agreed behavior of an atheist. Similarly, people who think they are religious want to fit into the definition of a pious person and go with the popularly agreed practices in the name of faith.  Excuse me if you think I fall back to religion all the times to explain my opinions, but that’s something that comes so naturally for me which anyways I will try to curb down here after.  So let’s see some of the other examples of these conflicts. I have seen people arguing too much in favor of communism just because they come from a province in which communism is the popular one.  People having two different mother tongues argue that their language is the sweetest when the fact says that both of them don’t understand the other’s language.  People of different countries argue on who is superior even without understanding the history and emergence of the other country. How much sense can an argument make when the arguing people don’t even know what they are arguing about?

Problem with this kind of Public beliefs is that they are inculcated into one by the society.  These are the commonly accepted doctrines which if one doesn’t accept becomes an outlier or sometimes an outcast. In fact, we don’t even need to go to the extent of someone accepting the doctrine, as most of the times there is not even an attempt to dissect and understand them. A Hindu is a Hindu not because he understands the history and principles of Hinduism, but simply because he is born in a Hindu family. It applies to all religions, but I take the liberty to use Hinduism as that would invite less controversy for am a born HinduJ.  A person born in a Country practicing democracy talks too much about it not because he understands the ideology so clearly, but because his society has talked about nothing else.  Similarly every group in a society has a commonly held belief which everyone accepts, preaches and protects even without a slightest attempt of investigation.  Look at the rituals every sect of people have. These rituals probably would have had some reason for their existence when they were initially created. Some of them might not make much contemporary sense but still would be followed as the people want to stick to their beliefs without any question.  One may argue that as long as there is no harm there is no problem in following them. I share the same view. As long as these rituals have no harm I am least bothered about them, but they are not. At least not all of them are. Some of these beliefs come in the way of the already week bonding we humans have. If at all there is any sign of harmony between us that’s lacerated by these strong beliefs that’s been part of us all the time. Agreed animosity is not new to the human race, and beliefs are not the only reason for all the differences we have. But they pose a humongous challenge in overcoming the differences. A typical Indian/Pakistani is a classical example of this problem. A typical Indian always see Pakistan as their enemy and similarly a typical Pakistani believe India to be his/her rival (Though both of them have no problem being friends with British who divided them in first place). Most of them don’t know the vast and rich history they had as a single country. They are just so into the beliefs imbibed by the society they are born and brought up in.

Stereotypes are one kind of these Public beliefs.  I was surprised when I came to know from my Andhra friends that they see Tamils as kind of brutes. Some of my Tamil friends have the same opinion about fellow Andhragaarus.  Its funny to know that people strongly believe on a few things without even knowing anything about it. The other day my Singaporean neighbor came with a confrontation, and i didn’t want to retaliate as he is an elder. In spite of me being humble, while leaving he made some scornful remarks about my home country. His stereotype of Indians looks like is so strong that he couldn’t stop himself from making such offensive comment in spite of the other person being not that bad.

Another major problem I see with these general beliefs is exploitation. There are so many of them fashioned 

by the powerful to exploit the powerless. We have a lot of them in our society which are too inherent to be noticed.  See how men have always made women to believe that they are weaker. Doctrines of Varna are another noticeable example. The stronger strata of the historic India have championed it to exploit fellow human beings and render them powerless for ages. I still remember that my Grandma wouldn’t even drink water from people who she believed to be of lower castes. Worse, her Mom didn’t want people from other caste to carry her corpse post her death. Isn’t it so ridiculous? Their beliefs were so strong they never questioned or even thought about questioning them throughout their lives.  Religion most of the times in history has been a powerhouse serving the thirst of a few. In the name of religion and its sentiments a fortunate few have always ruled the general lot of innocent believers. The powerful can even incept some self-demeaning beliefs into the powerless. Some 100 years back, the Whites strongly believed that they were superior to the Blacks who were literally treated like beasts. Ages of slavery would have definitely tarnished the morality of the Blacks and probably made a lot of them to believe that they were inferior. Same was the kind of beliefs the British implanted into the minds of Indians then. Even today, a lot of Indians consider the westerners to be superior to them as it’s just two generations since they are out of this deep-rooted inferiority complex.  Strangely most westerners think that Indians are spiritual in general. Look at the kind of foreign funds that flows into the so called Ashrams in India. Had all of them been rooted to the third world countries human race would have been hugely benefited.  Even at micro levels, people at workplace try to make their bosses believe that they are significant and irreplaceable and make their sub-ordinates believe that they are the better ones. Belief is a cheap and powerful weapon capable of mass destruction.

Finally my last allegation against the Beliefs is their resistance to evolution (Not that of the Darwin’s, but of ideologies). People evolve by questioning; the mind can’t get broader without questioning. The general beliefs have conditioned people so much that they are no better than pavlov’s dog. Creation has been always an area of interesting debates. Even people only with a superficial knowledge about complex theories around it play a champion of them. Try arguing in favor of intelligent design to someone who strongly believes evolution. You can see a clouded mind which is not open for even the thinnest line of Sunshine. Worse is to argue in favor of evolution to someone who strongly believes intelligent design. It’s hard to see even a functional mind there. Knowledge has developed only on questioning the existing beliefs. Without questioning Earth probably would have been still a flat plate with Sun taking a dip into the oceans every night. Talking about this, can’t even think about the atrocities the Church has done to the budding institution of science in those earlier ages. Belief has the power to make the truth sound like a deceit. Strong beliefs squeeze out the space the mind needs for its growth. Convolutions in the brain apparently get filled with these beliefs eventually abating one’s intellect.   

I agree that life would not be possible without strong beliefs. But if the beliefs don’t let the mind to open and extend its horizon, I can’t see it to be beneficial. A little quantum of doubt on one’s own belief system wouldn’t do any harm. In fact it would nurture the thought process that has helped the human race to grow and mature. A belief system with spotless discipline that doesn’t encourage any kind of doubt reminds me the analogy of the Frog in the Well. Universe is enormous and I see these general beliefs as shells that make us no more than little snails. Let the mind be freed from the darkness.  

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