Prayer is useless

The Times of India, 28 November, 2011

Prayer is useless

Khushwant Singh with Ashok Chopra

As a developing nation, can we afford to waste time in satsangs, asks Khushwant Singh.

It can scarcely be disputed that we Indians - be we Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs or Parsis - spend more time in performing religious rituals than any other people in the world. The Hindi adage saat vaar aur aath tyohaar - there are only seven days in a week but there are eight religious festivals - is by no means an overstatement.

Staggering waste of time

Count the number of religious holidays, national and sectional, then add up the number of hours people spend every day saying their prayers and visiting temples, mosques, churches and gurdwaras, the days spent in pilgrimage to holy places, the hours taken up by satsangs or religious gatherings, discourses, kirtans, bhajans, jagratas (allnight singing of devotional songs), and so on. It will come to a staggering total.

Then ask yourself whether a poor developing country like ours can afford to lose so many millions of man-hours in pursuits that produce no material benefits.

Also ask yourself whether strict adherence to a routine of prayer, ritual or telling the beads of a rosary makes a person into a better human being. Is it not true that even dacoits pray for success of their nefarious missions before they embark on them? And aren’t the worst tax evaders and black marketers often devoutly religious?

On rare occasions when I visited a gurdwara or a temple, I made it a point to watch people making obeisance before the Granth Sahib or their favourite god. Those who took the longest time to rub their noses on the ground were usually those who more than others craved forgiveness for having lied, stolen, fornicated and made illicit money....

I concede that it is entirely up to an individual how he decides to spend his time. If they get peace of mind through prayer and performance of ritual, they have every right to pray as long as they want to and wave candelabras of incense and tinkle bells to their hearts’ content.

But what they, or anyone else, have no right to do is to impose their religiosity on other people. We as a people do this without consideration for the feelings and comfort of our fellow citizens.

An instance of this total lack of concern for others is the use of loudspeakers calling for prayers, azaan from mosques, or blasting forth kirtans, bhajans and pravachans. The craziest examples are all-night jaagrans that disturb the sleep of entire localities.

Children are unable to concentrate on their studies, the sick unable to get rest, and if there has been death in some household, the family members are unable to mourn in silence.... A modern fad, which has gained widespread acceptance amongst the educated and semi-educated who wish to appear secular, is the practice of meditation.

Why meditate?

What does meditation achieve? The usual answer is ’peace of mind’. If you further ask ’and what does peace of mind achieve?’ you will get no answer because there is none.

Peace of mind is a sterile concept, which produces nothing. The exercise may be justified as a therapy for those with disturbed minds or those suffering from hypertension, but there is no evidence to prove that it enhances creativity.

On the contrary, it can be established by statistical data that all the great works of art, literature, science and music were works of highly agitated minds, at the time, on the verge of a collapse....

New religion for India

My new religion for India would be primarily based on work ethics. We have an apt motto, which needs to be put into effect: aram haram hai - so resting is forbidden. However, leisure time to recoup energy to resume work, which yields material benefits, ought to be provided. We must not waste time because time is precious.

Book: Agnostic Khushwant, There Is No God!
 Authors: By Khushwant Singh with Ashok Chopra
 Publisher: Hay House Publishers.