Let there be light
Do you remember the famous book business at the speed of lightning by none other than the famous Bill Gates?
Revolutionary concept. But also frightening.
Today festivals have become commercial festivals and have lost their religious values. Starting with the Western ‘Season’ of winter and Christmas and it has pervaded almost all the religions including the most conservative.
These days we see Vesak being celebrated on a very highly commercial scale. Already puritans (Not in the religious sense) of religions have been protesting about the trad invading and polluting religion.
Christmas was the first victim. Many a religious leaders have been crying hoarse about its commercialization. But nothing seem to have happened.
Instead commerce is increasingly invading the other religions.
The other day an Easter bunny made of chocolate was on sale for Rs. 1000/=.Was it the way to remember the Son of God who lived and sacrificed for the poorest of the poor?
Look at Vesak now. It is more than a commemoration of the enlightenment of the Buddha. We see competing groups putting up thoranas and young couples enjoying the festivities.
Worse, though liquor shops are closed these days one might have seen the crowd thronging the wine stores and the supermarkets to stockpile liquor. So are the meat products.
Is this what the Buddha wanted?
Going further we see commerce taking other religions as well.
Suddenly the jewellers have started something call Atchaya Ththi. A Hindu myth holds it that the Goddess of Wealth Lakshmi comes and stays with the gold one buys that day. And the traders are having a field day.
Worse the internet takes things even further. The internet based greeting services have greeting cards –you name it-they have it. There are greeting cards for Sivarathri too!
There are greeting cards for every religious observances-not just festivals. Crazy!
More troubling is the religious knowledge of the younger generations who do not know much of the significance of the religious meaning of these but blindly following the web and the traders. And the romantic mood generally they are in really helps the traders.
At this rate we also see traders inventing more myths to sell their wares, like the Kubera statue we see. They say if one buys it and keeps it at home it will bring wealth. We don’t know for sure if the Kubera (The god of wealth, generally the Chinese version) statue brings the wealth, but surely the businessmen get richer no doubt.
Religion which should guide one for a peaceful and spiritual life hangs as a little colour bulb along the road where the youth revel after a shot.
0 comments:
Post a Comment