Being atheist is not at all not believing in God. Atheist is
someone who finds logic in everything.
Born in an Uttrakhand Brahmin family, I was raised Hindu. As per
my mother she must had done some sins in her previous birth, that I turned out
to be an Atheist. As I grew up and became more educated I became an atheist.
Being an atheist in India can be very perplexing. You will find
umpteen religions, hundreds of prayers, crores of gods, and millions of
controversies surrounding us. And if you talk about me, I know only Gayatri
Mantra and Hanuman Chalisa and that's all what I whisper in my head when I have to
pretend to pray irrespective of the fact whether I am in a temple or mosque. As an atheist you might not be interested in all
the rituals and traditions but surely you will be interested in the holidays. Atheists
like me get heartbroken when they come to know that any religious festival is
falling on Sunday and at the same time you are more likely to get euphoric
after knowing that a particular festival is falling on Friday which means long
weekend. Holidays know no religion as Holiday is just a holiday.
Well, in my opinion religion is also related to dance and food. Festival
celebrations are really hard to resist whether its Ganpati Dance, delicious
food during Eid, Diwali etc. Being an atheist has nothing to do with the celebrations.
You just can’t ignore the lit up streets during festivals. No matter you are
theist or atheist you will definitely go for shopping in those decorated streets
during Navratre or Diwali period.
With time I guess, I have adapted my belief system as per my
convenience. I visit Gurudwara with my wife which is near to my house because I
really love the Halwa they distribute as prasad. I also visit Hanuman Temple with
my father on monthly basis to distribute foods to beggars and eat Kachauri
there. I am not different from religious and political leaders who use
religious festivals for their own benefit or comfort.
To be honest this profound attitude does cause a bit of tension at
home at times. Diwali and Kanjak for instance, are fraught with arguments. My parents
look forward to waking up early, bathing, dressing up in all their finery, and
performing puja, while I prefer waking up late in the afternoon, sitting idle
all day. Subsequently I am also expected to participate in the Puja ceremony. I am supposed to wear a clean kurta (preferably) and stand with folded hands.
I am also supposed to give chorus while they are chanting prayers. Moreover
when I don’t give chorus then I start clapping furiously.
May be this atheism phenomenon is a generation stuff as younger
generation has become more pragmatic and has started believing in any sort of
god lesser than ever before. As per theists viewpoints, it could be another epidemic, a world full of
people who don’t believe in god but won’t mind enjoying their luxurious benefits such as holidays, food
, celebrations etc.
At last I want to say that atheism doesn’t mean to reject the
religion outright. All you need to be moral without being religious. Being an atheist
you are not prohibited to use “God Bless you” as a blessing. You can use it. 😊
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