People who question the conventional ways of life, religion and customs are rare.
While the parity in messages from various interpretations of religious or authoritative sources is vast, most people seem to be content with following them blindly.
Before we proceed any further on this topic, I want to share a joke that I heard somewhere.
A young monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned to helping the other monks in copying the old canons and laws of the church by hand.
He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript. So, the new monk goes to the head Abbot to question this, pointing out that if there were any errors in the first copy, it could have been naively copied for all this while!
Young monk points out the scroll that discusses the importance of celibate life. “For a topic that demands such a big sacrifice, I am not comfortable copying from a copy, I would like to see the original for my own satisfaction.”
The old Abbot, says, 'We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son. Let me go cross check this particular scroll with the original.
He goes down into the dark caves underneath the monastery where the original manuscripts were held as archives in a locked vault that hasn't been opened for hundreds of years. Hours go by but the old Abbot does not return from the cave.
So, the young monk gets worried and goes down to look for him. He finds the Abbot banging his head against the wall and wailing:
We missed the R!
We missed the R!
We missed the R!
His forehead is all bloody and bruised and he is crying uncontrollably. The young monk asks the old Abbot, 'What's wrong, father?'
With a choking voice, the old Abbot replies, 'The word was not celibate, it was CELIBRATE’
I found this joke rather intriguing than funny.
What if in reality the teachings that have been passed down for generations are missing the 'R'?
In his ground breaking book, God Without Religion, Sankara Saranam talks about the cycle theory and how humanity has lost most great scriptures during the dark age (around 500 CE) and how scriptures, holy books, great teachings as we know of them today have been subjected to amendment after amendment to FIT the trends and expectations of the generation (and rulers) of that age.
This means no one will ever know what the truth is.
What we are taught may very well be vastly different from the original teachings/message.
I am born into a conventional family, in my society, questioning about religion, sex, traditions, jobs is not only considered unacceptable but can easily make you an social outcast.
Rituals are followed even if they defy the logic, sex with anyone other than your life partner is the biggest sin, traditions are passed on to you - it is like the DNA so to speak - you don't ask for it but you will be left to live with it, until the day you question the status quo.
I have always found 'questioning' as a thrilling experience. These questions lead me to different schools of thought, I read books, heard teachings and did weird poses in the hope of finding the truth.
Did I find the answer that I am looking for? I don’t know.
How would I ever know what is that I am supposed to find?
The more I questioned the more answers I got that raised more questions.
Then it dawned on me, it is this questioning the status quo leading to more questions is the first step towards 'un-conditioning' from the deeply woven beliefs
This questioning has helped me conclude one thing though. Those that have lost the ability to question are living to die while those that are not afraid to ask questions, to change the status quo and to explore new territories will forever live until they die (and in some cases they continue to live long after they are gone).
I did not start this article to arrive at any logical conclusion, I even toyed with the idea of deleting it and decided against it to see if there is anyone here who might understand what this means because after reading it over many times – I feel like there is lot of meaning in it and there is no meaning to it, all at the same time.
For the purposes of making a point, this article uses spelling of Celebrate as Celibrate.
Opinion. Not an advice.