God in the Inbox

India, India, India…it amazes me no end. I just received a message from my friend minutes ago which reads, “Hare Krishna. He has seen you struggling (with something). He says its over. “A blessing is coming your way. If you believe in Sri Krishna send to 10 people, please don’t ignore you are tested. For it says-deny me in front of everyone, I will deny you of my father! 97% wont pass this. Are you part of the 3% that will?” A blessing is coming to u.”

The first time I read this message, I was in splits. Please don’t get me wrong but I just could not get over the text, especially the “struggling (with something)” part. On returning to my sane self, I did not feel the fear this message intended to invoke in me but felt deeply hurt. This is not the first time I had received such a message. Most Hindu deities are put through this rigor of invoking fear and playing with the psyche of religious innocents through the exhaustive use of the sms. Sai baba, Ganesha, Maa Durga…you name them and you will recall that you have received at least one message credited in their name. I personally am a devout Hindu and have immense faith in the spiritual path I identify with. Therefore, it enrages me all the more that these days even Gods are not spared from being sold.


Let us get to the root of the problem. Why do you think people are successfully making money by instilling fear of the unforeseen or playing with the religious sentiments of millions of worshippers? Do you think you receive such messages from people who are as God-fearing as you? Think twice. They are happily minting money by demeaning God. In exact words, in my opinion, this is actually a kind of desecration which has not been identified yet because of its digitally subtle nature, a derogatory attitude toward Gods of a certain religion which is gradually deracinating devotees from its basic religious ideals. You will not deny that no matter how educated you are, you do tend to get influenced by such messages and more often than not, end up doing as directed, even if it means doing it secretly to avoid being jeered at by people who may appear (because their outbox may reveal something else) to not get moved by the same. Why? One probable reason is that Hinduism is basically a tolerant faith and therefore subject to maximum misuse. It does not stress the concept of punishment as a consequence of wrongdoing enough. Else, why would followers of this faith be so unclear on this matter? Would they not realize that the wrongdoing here is the circulation of a message which disrespects God? Are we are so insecure about losing the comforts of life that we feel threatened that a God may snatch it away if the “sent to all” option is not ok-ed soon? If this is what we think, we are downright selfish. We have not understood faith and devotion but see it merely as a means to fulfill our worldly desires. We pray, but only to beg and do it on a daily basis because we fear if we don’t, we may lose what we have. For heaven's sake, please close your eyes for a second and think. All our Gods combined will not forgive us for reducing them to a status of a threatening and punishing ringmaster or a boo-ing ghost in our messages, even if we remain immersed in the Ganges for hours. On the contrary, our Gods may bless us for saving their divinity from being tarnished in this manner if we refuse to bow to such lowly actions. So the next time you receive such a message, please become a messenger of faith, not fear. You have but only one question to answer, that is, "delete msg?" In the name of God-OK.