Not only have we ‘had’ all kinds of Gods and religions, we are global experts in creating, discovering or inventing Gods out of nowhere. Why, we have even made Gods out of film stars complete with their temples and a loyal set of devotees. And this is not to even mention the dime a dozen Babajis we have each with their own impressive fan following. God, we love this game!
I will not exaggerate if I say that in this country, there is no biz like God biz. It is the opium of the masses. And should you be fortunate enough to get a foothold into this game, boy, you’ve truly made it! When you are there, you would have truly arrived and the whole world will be at you feet. You would then own the universe without really owning anything because you would then own the minds and loyalties of those who own everything!
So, you want to play this God game? Who wouldn’t? It would be good to understand some fundamentals.
About people, your prospective devotees-
a. We are people who harbor tremendous fears and superstitions which will always make us find and defer to a superior power.
b. We are also incredibly selfish and partisan because of which we instinctively recognize the structures of power and align ourselves to them for our greatest benefit.
About God strategies-
a. Coming straight from point one above. Gods must find a fear and then fan it. If it can’t find a fear, it must invent one and instill it. Why do you think all Gods come packaged with their own set of Demons? Krishna came with Kansa, Christ had Romans, Buddha instilled the fear of eternal miseries of Sansara, Gandhi had the British. On the contrary, Mother Teresa had none and so the poor woman had such a tough time even getting canonized, forget her ever being a God!
b. From point two, Gods must have their own religious and cast structures. These are the power hierarchies which will ensure that some people are closer to God than others while perpetuating the belief that God himself is equally close to everyone! The advantage of this system is that it will keep everybody engaged and yet provide motivations for everyone to strive harder and try to get closer to God.
My friend, if you understand these little things, you have a great opportunity to play this God game and to even excel in it. Look at the benefits – all the power, all privileges (material or otherwise), and great for self esteem because you get the right to be right all the time… Lesser people settle for far less. But you, my friend, must gun for all, for all is yours for the taking if you abide by these simple principles.
Only one small hitch here… Gods divide the world. Period. If nothing, they divide the world into God and Demon. It is an endless debate whether God came because there was a Demon or vice versa, but the fact remains that both sustain each other and none can survive alone.
Gods divide the world… More the Gods, more the division. Which, perhaps might explain why we in India are so divided… After all we have biggest population of Gods in this country, 33 Crores contributed by Hinduism alone. What it also means is that we might have the highest per capita consumption of Gods in this country by a huge margin, and Demons by corollary – maybe that is the reason we can happily live with status quo for ever!
Anyways, what’s amusing is that, even as I write this, a God is being created in this country (If you have any doubts, look for the Demon. If the Demon is clearly visible, the God is obviously around)
Now, whether this God will divide us further remains to be seen. If he does, he surely is God. If he doesn’t, good for us!
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