The Temple of Democracy

THE NEED FOR DE-METAPHORIZATION AND DE-AURIFICATION.

It is so “clichedly” commonplace to use religious equivalences in describing our polity. It’s fashionable for the sagacious and the learned to describe the “Parliament” as a “Temple of Democracy”, the “Constitution” as the “Scripture of Democracy”, and likewise, subjecting all other institutions and functional roles to some religious metaphorization to highlight how important, and more so, how “sacred” they are.

There’s no problem about such equivalences, till the high-priests of these “temples” go rogue.

In fact, all such metaphors are created for the very purpose so that these high-priests could go rogue at will, and get away with it.

Now, for a moment, look at this whole aspect of drawing equivalences of – temples, worship, respect, scriptures, etc. – first from the Indian point of view, and then the western point of view.

In the Indian point of view, God is a very real phenomenon. God, in Indian thought, is not a fictional sky-entity who decides if you have sucked up to him enough so as to ascertain an entitlement to bounties “FOREVER”, or burn in the most deadliest of all fires “FOREVER”. (Before moving ahead, do spend a moment visualizing the idea of copulating FOREVER, or burning FOREVER).

God, in the Indian thought, is the Supreme Consciousness which pervades every bit of the Creation. He is not just a sky-entity with an eccentric mind. He is not just the Creator, he is the creation. The “gods” and “goddesses” are specific embodiments of the Supreme Consciousness, that serve specific roles in the Creation, and also help us step by step to reach the Supreme Consciousness.

In the Indian thought, GOD as well as the “gods” and “goddesses” are very real embodiments of energy. Worship of gods is a very real process of connecting with, and aligning with these energies, and if done right, you get the results as explicitly and as certainly as solving a mathematical equation with the right procedure.

SYMBOLIC RESPECT OR WORSHIP IS ALIEN TO INDIAN THOUGHT.

An Authentic Indian mind does not respect for the sake of respecting, does not worship from the fear of wrath, does not do ANYTHING out of symbolic gesture. Anything we do is done because it is REAL, and can be experienced to be so, if pursued appropriately.

All our worships are REAL. All our temples are REAL. All our scriptures are REAL. All our rituals and procedures are REAL. Follow the basic instructions and you get results. There is no waiting-for-the-world-to-end, no hypothesis or assumptions, no conniving ascription to “being word of God” to make it sound authentic.

We do not worship to please, wo do not worship to escape wrath, we do not worship to respect symbolically. We worship to connect and align, be ONE with it, BECOME it.

The need for symbolic respect is a totally different world. The need for “symbolic respect” arises with artificial ideologies of made-up religions who worship fake Gods, false prophets, crass ideologies and trashy books.

Lacking divinity and spirituality, these religions cannot exist until imposed upon people either through extreme violence or extreme greed. Hence, they are forced to cook up symbolic respect, instil fear against disrespect and have clear-cut consequences laid down if the line is not toed. They are the ones who need temples, high-priests and scriptures that need to be revered unquestionably.

An Indian succumbing to the idea of “symbolic respect” is the very antithesis of all Indian thought.

For an Indian, the Parliament should be a building where the elected representatives meet to discuss and create laws. NOTHING MORE.

The Constitution is the rule-book of the day. NOTHING MORE.

The Judiciary is the keeper of the rule of the day. NOTHING MORE.

Judges are individuals who are meant to interpret the law. They are as opinionated as any of us, it’s just that their opinion is what gets executed. NOTHING MORE.

We DO NOT need false equivalences, fake symbolism and unwarranted respect of fake symbols.

Excessive poetry, hyperbolic metaphors are our biggest undoing. We do not need to ascribe non-existential auras to individuals, institutions and organizations for them to function normally.

There is nothing wrong about being “ordinary”, nothing disrespectful about going through the business of the day as ordinary citizens with special duties, special roles and may be, have some special privilege, but NOTHING MORE.

We, the Indians, DO NOT need false equivalences with religious symbols to subject or subjugate people into following our institutions.

Leave them to the false religions of the outside world.

“What’s wrong with using these metaphors? They provide a beautiful poetic representation”, one may ask.

What’s wrong? Everything. We will find that out, soon!!!