A Discussion About Faith

I divide my faith into three domains, political, scientific and personal. It would seem funny that I ended up doing so much work on a simple thing as faith, but trust me it was absolutely required. I will talk about my personal faith and faith in general. Politically I'm an atheist, scientifically, an agnostic and personally I'm a deeply spiritual person who has belief in mother goddesses. There are clan goddesses on both sides of my family so I have always felt inclined towards Mother Goddesses. I believe God is like Sun, every culture has a different name and concepts related to it, but it is what it is, Sun. And here comes the concept of Parmeshwara or Paramatma. I respect all Gods, but personally my prime faith is in mother goddesses. Anyone who has listened to music can't deny that God exists. But then you open YouTube, and see people baiting a Komodo Dragon with a poor lamb for views, and you realise God might not be something we are conditioned to believe in. I'm not talking from the perspective of the lamb who has its legs broken as a bait to the Komodo Dragon, I'm talking about the mindset of the individual who decided to break the legs of the lamb and bait the Komodo Dragon to swallow the poor lamb live on video, just so he gets a bunch of views. Don't get me wrong, I'm not an animal activist, my personal stand is first people should learn to be good to other humans, especially the weaker of them and then comes the number of animals, though it's great, as I do, to be kind to animals in the meanwhile too. The issue here is, that in this country, the same mindset that the person who baited the Komodo Dragon with a lamb, is used for the very people of this country. I follow my religion, for the lack of a better word, religiously. I participate in family pujas, havans and all the religious events in my family, I subscribe to the Vedas and Puranas as a part of my culture, but I have lived long enough to know and realise that religion in this country is a scam and a front for exploitation and places of worship are holy not because of the ones who are administrating it, but because of the faith of the ones who visit them. I know my faith, and I know that it's real and authentic. I'll share a personal experience, I don't feel peace at North Indian temples, only North Indian religious place I felt peace at was Golden Temple, while I feel immense peace at South Indian temples, especially the temples of Tamil Nadu. I guess it has something to do with destruction of real relics of faith by the invaders, but North India except Golden Temple doesn't really cut it for me as far as faith goes. As I grew mature, I was baffled to realise the way religion is used to exploit people in this country, it's basically guilt-tripping and blackmail and exploitation on the basis of it, but it's not the fault of the religion if the ones currently in charge of it are corrupt. As far as my personal faith goes I had the option to choose a deity, a manifestation of the Supreme Mother, from both sides of my family, and I discarded the idea. I chose the manifestations of The Mother that agree with me. So, I finally chose, Chamunda, the goddess of Wrath, and Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge and learning and rejected all the weak representations of them we have in literature. Faith is a thing that heals. Anxiety starts with an idea, and depression starts with anxiety and mental disorders start with depression. Faith, in a diety that you are comfortable with nips the anxiety in the bud. It gives you peace and safety and that's why I recommend personal faith to everyone, no matter what is their political and scientific stance to God is. Faith keeps the mind healthy, I mean as much as it can be in the current exploitative political setup, and a healthy mind leads to a healthy body. Politically speaking, let me be clear to you, we are the lamb that is being used to bait Komodo Dragons of the society and religion is the stick that is used to break our legs, while someone is making money broadcasting it live. But it doesn't matter in the long run, as long as your God, in my case The Mother, keeps you peaceful and fearless.