By Jacob Peenikaparambil
Indore, Dec. 19, 2019: The Hindi movie, Dharam, directed by Bhavana Thalwar, has brought out brilliantly the meaning of true religion as seeing God in human beings.
Pandit Chaturvedi, the main character of the movie, adopts a boy child who was brought to his house by her daughter, thinking that it is a Brahmin child. The child (Karthikean) becomes part and parcel of the family and brings a lot of joy to the family. Later Panditji comes to know that the child is a Muslim when its mother comes to demand for the child. The child is given back.
Panditji feels that he has committed a grave sin because of keeping a Muslim child in his house and he undertakes purification of the whole house through an elaborate ritual. He also undergoes a series of penances, including Chandrayan Vrath, the most severe penance according to the Hindu tradition.
When the mother brings back the child to panditji’s house in order to save the child from communal riot, he refuses to open the door and he continued performing a religious ritual. Despite undertaking various forms of penance Panditji continues to suffer from guilt feeling and depression.
When panditji encounters the cruelties, death and destruction caused by communal riots between the Muslims and Hindus in his town, he goes back to the scripture and contemplates on the meaning of the scripture in relation to his experience of violence in the name of religion and God.
As a result, he realizes what true religion is and goes to save the Muslim child from the rioters. In the midst of a furious crowd holding all kinds of weapons, he goes alone and brings the child back. While bringing the child back he makes a pertinent statement about religion: “Religion is not simply rituals; it is duty and responsibility. Discarding discrimination is religion. Unity and harmony is religion. Humanity is religion.”
In fact, Pandit Chaturvedi undergoes a metamorphic transformation from a person of religiosity to a person of spirituality. He is able to see and experience God in a Muslim child. Along with courage and self confidence he regains his happiness when he is able to perceive God in a child.
The message of Christmas, in the context of hatred and revenge based on religion and other narrow identities, is ‘be human to experience the divine’. Most Christians all over the world celebrate Christmas, the birth anniversary of Jesus Christ on December 25. They believe that Jesus is the incarnation of God. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, only a few individuals could recognize the Divine in the child Jesus. Besides the parents of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, those who could recognize the Divine in Jesus were the shepherds and the three kings who had come from the east. No one else could perceive the Divine in the child Jesus.
Incarnation means God becoming a human being and identifying himself with the human being. As a result, human beings are able to see, touch and experience the Divine. That is why St. Paul in his letter to the Philippians wrote, “…but he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross”. (Philippians 2:7-8) In the person of Jesus people could experience God’s love. According to St. John, Jesus is the expression of God’s love. For God so loved the world that he sent the son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. (Jn. 2:17)
The core of Jesus’ teaching is love that is expressed in forgiveness, compassion, justice, sensitivity, inclusiveness and respecting the dignity of every human being. The heart of the Gospels’ is the Sermon on the Mount. What is described in the Sermon on the Mount is a way of life, based on a new value system. Jesus described the situation in which the values he propounded flourish as the KINGDOM OF GOD. Jesus wants his followers to continue his mission of building the Kingdom of God by following the way that is delineated in the Sermon on the Mount. Kingdom of God is a situation in which God is accepted as a loving Father or Mother and all human beings as brothers and sisters, enjoying equal rights and opportunities without any discrimination.
They early Christian communities put into practices the vision of Jesus by following the new way of life as described in the Sermon on the Mount. Christianity for the early Christian communities was a movement based on the value of Jesus and not a religion. “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all, that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.” (Acts. 4:32-37)
Jesus taught unambiguously that God is to be seen and experienced in the human persons through parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk. 10:25-37), the parable of Lazarus and the rich man (16:19-31) and the description of the last judgement (Mt. 25:31-46). Jesus says very clearly, “Truly I say to you, as you did it to one the least of these my brethren you did it to me”. Any help, support or service done to a human being is a service to God and that is true worship.
During the last three decades India witnessed phenomenal economic growth and along with economic liberalization there has been resurgence in religiosity in the form multiplications of worship centers, celebration of festivals and rituals and unprecedented growth in pilgrimages. This growth in religiosity is not limited only to one religion, but it is found in all religions of India. At the same time, the growth in religiosity is accompanied by increase in crimes. Despite putting place stringent laws to deal with rape case after the Nirbhaya rape case in Delhi in 2013, there has been no decline in the instances of rape in India.
People go to the worship centers and pilgrim centers mainly for fulfilling their wishes. The religiosity is not affecting the quality of life of people. If people of all faiths are able to see God in the human beings there will be remarkable changes in their life and in their relationship with others.
Unfortunately, Jesus has become mainly an object of worship and a miracle worker for many Christians. The followers of Jesus often practice ritualism and legalism of the scribes and Pharisees which Jesus had out-rightly condemned. Following the way of Jesus and practicing the values he has taught are not priorities for many Christians. In some places lakhs of rupees is spent for making crib. Cores of rupees are spent for building opulent churches and erecting huge statues. These practices are diametrically opposed to the teachings of Jesus.
The celebration of Christmas invites people of all faiths, to see God in every human person, especially in the poor and the needy and respect and empower them. Christmas invites the followers of Jesus to transcend the small identities like religion, caste, rite, language, region etc and focus on the highest identities of humanness and the divine presence in every human being.
Please think about the situation of India. The people of Kashmir have been denied of their basic human rights for more than four months. Due to the NRC process completed in Assam 1.9 million people are living in agony because at any time they could be declared as stateless and put in the detention camps. Many parts of India have been burning because of the protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Hundreds of thousands of people have lost job and have become unemployed due to the economic slump. The CAA coupled with the proposed National Register of Citizenship (NRC) will lead to untold misery to the people of India, especially to the Muslims.
Against this backdrop, how can we sing sincerely, “Joy to the world….” during this Christmas season? There are 194 million undernourished people in India; 120 million child laborers, 48 million malnourished children and 4 million homeless people.
Protesting against the CAA and NRC that are inhuman, and any support to anyone of the above mentioned groups of people will be the most fitting celebration of Christmas.
(jacobpt48@gmail.com)