On Sat, Apr 10, 2010 at 6:45 PM, ashok _ <[email protected]> wrote: [...]
> Many times I have found it more worthwhile (and beneficial) to > temporarily (as in, for that moment) adopt a religion - rather than to > explicitly deny it completely. For one, it opens many doors if you are > traveling, and at least in some countries lets you visit religious > places where you would not normally be allowed. I agree it pays off sometimes to keep mum about your heretic views if only out of politeness. On the other hand you can also be sinned against under the assumption that you belong to a certain religion. Religion like the color of your skin, or race, or ethnicity is just another marker that society uses to peg you down as a known quantity. Shedding these labels isn't something society wants you to do, because then no one would know where you stand. Hinduism does this cunning judo style maneuver of overturning this rule by using the very same rule. If you can take on a label, but dilute it sufficiently to mean nothing and everything at the same time, then in essence you are an unquantifiable commodity. There's good reason to adopt a label, because it permits you to show the world where you stand, the less desirable alternative being that you let others draw their own conclusions about you. On the other hand, there's only a handful of labels and their meanings that everyone is familiar with, so for maximum success you should choose within them. For example, even if I codified my unique one-of-a-kind beliefs into a sub-system of say Hinduism, there's no guarantee that this will be comprehensible to other Hindus or non-Hindus. Ultimately these labels are merely a guarantee of alliances. There is no denying that humans are selfish - if only it were possible every man would seek to be the last remaining individual on earth; however this madness is held in check by the necessity for everyone to cohabit in human company. Every man, even the most worthless individual considers his life and by extension his belief more important than others. Therefore if it were possible, none of us would carry a label because it reminds us of our inability to live alone, yet, the reality is none of us can be without a label. These societal labels are like wearing a uniform in battle, you can risk going in without wearing one, but then chances are both sides will mow you down just in case. And that doesn't mean everyone who wears the uniform is convinced of the reason they are wearing it - even the most patriotic will permit a moment of self doubt when huddled in a fox hole with his head between his knees. Nor is there agreement on why any two people wear the same label, heck you can lock two Popes in a room and expect them to come to blows over some trivial detail or the other of Christianity. So, labels, yes, how does one get rid of an unlabel "label" like Hinduism? Or wear it, but control its meaning? Cheeni
