WAITING FOR THAT 'GREAT SPIRIT': To Deliver Us From Our Sins!

At times, I find some religious practices quite in contradiction to what religions actually should teach, or I strongly hope, do teach.

India is the land of festivals and it's secular being is probably  the reason. Thank God for that or we would have missed out on a lot of glamour that our nation offers. Unfortunately, on many such happy religious occasions, millions of animals are slaughtered across the nation in praise of the almighty, and termed 'sacrifice'.

The muted animal awaits it's turn while the temple floor keeps getting bloodier with every slaughter. This Makar Sankranti, a total of 108 goats were 'sacrificed' at this temple compound alone! Religion, is it?

I do not intend to target or criticise any one religion here, because this is not about what our religions tell us to do, this is about our morals as human beings. This is about questioning our own beliefs and actions, whether religious or not. This is to question ourselves if we have really and completely evolved as humans- with larger brains and lot more intellect than that of animals. If we have, does this evolution give us the right to slaughter animals in the name of religion? 

The holy sword is raised to sacrifice the innocent animal as women and children watch this day long event with lots of awe and devotion.

Even animals do not kill for pleasure. They kill to survive. We, the super-beings of all living beings on earth (as we consider ourselves), kill the helpless animals in multiples of millions every year with the belief that this mass slaughter will make our gods and goddesses happy, who will turn bring happiness and prosperity to our families. Once this slaughter is done, we go back home and teach our children of all the big theories and philosophies laid down in the text books about how to be a good human being, how to stay away from all evils and lead a good life, how to lead the path of Ahimsa as has been taught by the great men.

Readers might blame me of ridiculing the beliefs and religious sentiments of one particular religion here as thats what the photographs depict, but these photographs are just examples of many similar practices of other religions too. My intention is simply to highlight, how inhuman and irresponsible we can get and still be proud of what we are.

Thats the price for the Goddess's blessings. An innocent & helpless creature tortured and killed and the meat distributed to the devotees. Thus Happiness and Prosperity is acquired for the price of a not-so-important life?

Mahatma Gandhi in his autobiography, The Story Of My Experiments With Truth, wrote about a similar incident of animal slaughter that he witnessed when he visited a very famous Kali Temple in Kolkata (then Calcutta):

'That very evening I had an invitation to dinner at a party of Bengali friends. There I spoke to a friend about this cruel form of worship. He said: 'The sheep don't feel anything. The noise and the drum-beating there deaden all sensation of pain.'

   I could not swallow this. I told him that, if the sheep had speech, they would tell a different tale. I felt that the cruel custom ought to be stopped. I thought of the story of Budhha. But I also saw that the task was beyond my capacity.

   I hold the same opinion as I held then. To my mind the life of a sheep is no less precious than that of a human being. I should be unwilling to take the life of a lamb for the sake of the human body. I hold that the more helpless the creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man.

....

   It is my constant prayer that there may be born on earth some great spirit , man or woman, fired with divine pity, who will deliver us from this heinous sin, save the lives of the innocent creatures, and purify the temple.

   How is it that Bengal with all it's knowledge, intelligence, sacrifice, and emotion tolerates this slaughter?'

This autobiography was first published in the year 1927. It has been over 80 years since then and we are still waiting for this man/ woman of great spirit who will deliver us from this heinous sin! I do not think that in a country like our's any one great spirit can do this wonder. But many great spirits certainly can.