The Original Sin

Warning
This post talks about religion and sex. Just ask yourself whether you can utter the word "sex" without any hesitation. If you can't, then this post is not for you. Please be warned.

I am proud for having born a Hindu and i m not jingoistic about it. Neither do i belong to the saffron brigade. Just like the longstanding question on whether there was ever a country called India as we know it now, I doubt whether there was really anything that was called Hinduism. What we now call Hinduism is how the West sees it. What could have happened was that after putting faiths like Jainism and Buddhism, which had a recorded history, into neat little boxes, as the western logic always requires, the historians would have just scooped up the leftovers and made up a medley and decided to call it Hinduism, after Hindustan, which was after the Indus.

So what is there to be proud about a religion that is made of such "left-overs"? What makes my heart swell when I think i am born a Hindu? It is just that Hinduism is much much deeper and multifaceted than any other religion on this whole wide world. Though I don't believe that Hinduism is a single religion, I just wonder at the co-existence (i know i cannot call it "peaceful", for bloody duels between various faiths is written all over our history) of so many beliefs like vaishnava, shaiva and what not in our country.

Whatever it was, India as a nation was certainly more liberal than it is today in its past. How else can you build a Khajuraho or write a KamaSutra? Down south, there is something called Kokkoka Saasthram, along the lines of KS. Cut and pan to today. Motha ulagathukkum vazhi kaatura maathiri namma oor aalu ezhuthuna oru great reference/handbook-a naamalae padikarathukkulla 1008 problem. But what to do, thirst for knowledge is so high. So, namma pasanga oor ellaam suthi epdiyaavathu unofficial versions vaangiduvaanga. Aanaa, supply economics wreaks a havoc. With so many knowledge-seekers, the demand-supply situation is heavily imbalanced. And with information asymmetry, there is no way to compare the products and prices and more often than not, you end up paying atrociously high prices. However, technology, especially internet, is a great enabler for knowledge sharing!!! Ennadaa ivan, ivlo kevalamaanavana irukkane nu yosikkireengala? If a guy says he hasn't done all this, know that he is lying through his teeth. If you really think he can't be lying, then run as fast and far as you can and call Will Smith/Tommy Lee Jones, ya the MIB team, and tell them you have a unearthly specimen.

So why this regressive thinking? One major reason could be, as Suresh pointed out, the fact that we were under British for over a century and that they followed a religion that cast sex as sin.

So why do I say so much about sex? Why do i say Hinduism is better than other monotheist religions like Christianity or Islam? It is because of their sexist attitude, the roots of which run deep into the basic understanding of sex. Sexual energy is the only energy available to man (woman). Before hitting out at me, just take a little time to think. The basic idea of culture/religion is to move man above his natural instincts to survive and mate (probably mating is also part of the instinct to survive through progeny). What after the basic instinct? BI 2 nu ratham varra maathiri kadikkaatheenga.

Let's revise a basic law from high school science class - Law of conservation of energy. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but can be transformed into another form. Anything fluid, be it water, electric current or sex energy, flows through the path of least resistance. The change is not possible by adding more resistance to the path. Resistance is temporary. Energy being active creates it own paths, which can be even more damaging. Transformation of the energy is the only solution. The question is how to bring about the redirection of the energy. How to create new paths for the energy to flow? Art, dance, song. Don't ask me what religion did the cave man follow when he danced around his woman or not? He could very well have danced and sung beautifully. It is just that religion provides a framework within which these can be performed.

Hinduism is the only religion, as far as i know, which celebrates sex while others condemn it in all ways, with little effect. In fact, the lingha form of Shiva, one of the important amd most popular Hindu gods, represents the male-female union. Just compare this with the approaches of other religions. All of them try to enslave man through the chains of guilt. By declaring the very core instinct of man as sin, they just make sure that there is no way to escape. And the preachers immediately get to sit on the "moral" high throne, from where they can look down and point fingers at the wretched souls who wallow in guilt they just created so craftily. Just think how Eve has been condemned all through for the original sin and thereby causing all the misery. As if Adam is perfect. Avanukku avlo arivu irunthaa Eve kitta "athu forbidden fruit. ennaala atha eduthu thara mudiyathu." nu solla vendiyathu thaane. And just think how we, who worshipped that very human union, have become "conservative" about it?

I don't mean that everything was perfect with Hinduism in the past. It never was and surely it would never be. Neither do i advocate mindless indulgence. In fact, i have no answer if you ask me: why such a liberal society, as i claim it to be, didn't come up with a steam engine. But, i am sure of one thing: sex is a basic instinct that will be present for ever. It cannot be won over by fighting; it has to be transformed. And Hinduism had much better understanding of man than any other religion.

Romba naal munnadi kavitha ezhutharaennu kirukkunathula irunthu rendu vari ippo solren. It would be very apt here.

Yethaiyum kadappathu kai koodum - athan
Vithaiyaai nirpathu kanda pin