Reflections: I am an atheist and a Hindu (and a Sikh...and a Muslim and …….)

I like listening to Javed Akhtar (JA) talk. Don’t ask me why as I have no definite answer. Maybe it is because somewhere in his ideas there are some nuances in his approach to life that make you sit up and think. After all he is a narrator par excellence - and he is a poet now married to the daughter of another. He has spun stories to move masses. Well, I never sought why I listen to him whenever possible even though he is not a typical thinker or an established philosopher. So it was the other day, I was listening in when he was speaking with the ‘redoubtable’ Barkha Dutt, who seems to be getting prettier by the night – or was it the whisky? Well…what JA said was “I am an atheist and a Muslim”.

Answers to many of our Nation’s woes and those of the world lie in that one sentence. Socio-economic-political interests of believers are a reason why at times religious and political ideologies result in conflicts and at other times leads to peaceful co-existence. Religion is not the prime contributor to mass behavioural patterns of people, it is only a vehicle.

Consider this. Communists – with ‘no god’, ‘no religion’ ideology are easily identified with atheism. Could this be really true that all communists are atheists? It may actually appear as such as a result of a variant which may be termed as Militant atheism that became central to the ideology of Communists. It laid down how societal organisations should function and advocated the destruction of all religions. Among pursuers of militant atheism, convinced perceived atheists were not only the most politically astute but also the most virtuous individuals. As a result, religious groups were inclined to oppose communist rule. But for decades the Russian Muslims have had no problem with communism! So while religious and political conflict openly occurred in Communist societies which were predominantly Christian, many Muslims were able to accommodate their religious convictions with Soviet Communism. Indian National League a splinter group of Indain Union Muslim League (IUML) is part of the LDF Government in Kerala. Durga Puja in West Bengal could not have been celebrated by only non-communists all these decades in Poschim Bongla.

A communist necessarily being atheist is all bunkum.  Even the doyen of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, widely believed to be a party of atheists, Anna’s slogan was 'one religion, one caste and one God for mankind' – so much for DMK followers being atheists.

So who really are atheists? By definition an atheist is one who denies the existence of a deity or of divine beings. By this definition an atheist can believe in a being other than a divine one! Communists believed in Marx, Lenin and Mao! Take for instance JA. He had a humble beginning, when young on many days he slept hungry!!! He backed himself to succeed in life – backed himself. The self belief is also a belief. JA received supreme strength and guidance to fight hunger, from within himself.

I want to put in a very simple way how I see the world. Whatever one believes or does not, it is a fact that there is yet something (enabling creation of life (as opposed to creation of babies!)) beyond comprehension of known science. Let us call it ‘Supreme’ for want of a better word.

Giving ‘Supreme’ a character and in deference to gender equality say it is ‘Her’.

Dvaita (dualism) theory says that I and ‘Her’ are different.

Advaita (non-dualism) theory says that I and ‘Her’ are same – in other words it says self is supreme.

I feel it takes more to understand Advaita than Dvaita, hence Dvaita (only for better assimilation).

I define prayer as nothing but a means to concentrate one’s mind on the immediate. Methods for prayer propagated by different religions/societies/groups are varied but ultimately it all aims at concentrating the mind on the immediate.

I am an atheist and a Hindu. (and a Sikh….and a Muslim …and a Christian…and a Jew…… and a Buddhist….and a……………………………)