Religion: The Start

Religion, something that we have been hearing from a very young age, has fascinated me on how it influences even the greatest minds to have lived. I was born into an orthodox Hindu family down in the Southern part of India and hence religion was a major part of my life growing up. I grew up in a joint family until I was 11 years old and I was surrounded by a bunch of adults who were religious. From something as simple as getting a hair cut to something that happens only once in a while like buying a vehicle, everything was governed by religion, in other words by people who were religious. I guess it's nothing out of the ordinary for a kid growing up in the 90s in India to be surrounded by adults who are religious.

By the time I started having sense about the surroundings, at about 3-4 years of age if I remember right, all the things in my life had a sense of spirituality that we usually see with Hinduism. It was sort of reward system where I have to do good deeds and God(s) (since Hinduism has crores of Gods) would reward me. As I was growing up, I realized that whatever rewards that I was going to receive have a very long expiry date as it'll span across to my next life (next life, better known as reincarnation is a belief in Hinduism). This made me very happy since I was happy doing good deeds and I get rewarded too!!! not to mention the appreciation from adults for showing promise that I can also be a part of this system. "You're a good boy" they said and I was very happy with it.

Life was good, I'm doing a lot of good things and I'm getting appreciated for it and in my mind I'm going to be the most successful person in the next life with all the rewards that I'm getting for these good deeds I'm doing. By now you may think I was a man (kid then) of principles as I did a lot of good deeds when I was young. You'll understand what I mean by good deeds eventually, but, for the time being lets' take the phrase as it is. As they say, all good things have to end, so did my streak of good deeds, and once it did, I understood that whatever goes around comes around. I was all in for this reward system as I was doing good and I was going for the jackpot, but little did I know that this had negative points also and each wrong thing I did added some punishments for me which in turn negated the rewards that I have.

To be continued........