Religion: The Genesis
By Syed Osman Sher
Canada
The man is born tender, weak and helpless. As soon as he gains the faculty of comprehension as an infant he realizes that he is totally dependent on others for his survival. He is afraid of everything, but the presence of his parents, provides him the feeling of security. They stand before him like a fortress. They are all around him ready to take care of his needs as well as to protect him from any thing which creates fear in him. In their strong arms and cozy laps the little one feels all the comforts and securities of life. He seeks their company, obeys them, loves them, and adores them. This adoration of someone more powerful has been happening from primitive times to this day.
Similarly, the primitive man was immersed in insecurity. The wide span of the universe, the rising of the sun, the darkness of night, the prowling of predators, the harshness of weather, the sound of thunder, the bursting of clouds, the force of wind, the fire of forest, the toll of disease, all made him feel that he was helpless in a dreadful environment. His whole being was tossed around by the forces of nature, and he was being pursued by them at every place and at every step.
Man believed that those forces were made of a property of such high an excellence that he himself did not possess. The natural phenomena were so manifestly sublime and powerful that he assigned them to the realm of godliness. This primordial instinct, existing in an original state in human being, gave rise to the ritual of worshipping those elements or forces. He started singing hymns for them. Thus, in his helplessness he found his religion, which meant that both sides were now bound in a mutual obligation: devotion and submission on one’s part and favor by the other. A close-knit relationship had been established.
With the passage of time, changing circumstances, and varying environment new elements and forces acquired new sacredness. Customs, rituals, objects, and even events assumed various shapes and shades in terms of religious importance. Any thing which man found as strange or of some significance like one reflecting oddity of shape and size, providing usefulness, exuding majesty, arousing awe, causing destruction, and giving life, became the object of veneration. Such things were countless; such as stones, plants, animals, sky, sun, moon, stars, earth, air, fire, and water. It could be anything under the sun.
Most probably the first object to draw the attention of man was the moon. Its beauty with the power to make one lunatic became the prime object to secure the adoration of man. It exuded both tenderness and power: the thin curve of the crescent through its florescence into a shining orb of soothing white comforted man in the overwhelming darkness with its cool light, made the waters in the rivers, lakes and seas to swell and leap, and most importantly, affected the personal lives of men and women most intimately and constantly. Every lunar month, the bold male of the primitive legend, the “man in the moon,” seduced women and caused them to menstruate.
But as soon as man was able to switch its primary activity for sustenance from hunting to cultivating, this prime position of the moon was taken over by the sun. The life giving warmth for vegetation was a greater object to worship. Penetrating its rays, the father of all living things fertilized the mother earth. Later, the sun assumed the position of chief-god in many mythologies and religions.
Later on, this type of belief became more elaborate. It took the form of animism, that is, the belief that natural objects and forces had souls. Primitive men believed that the dynamism lay hidden in the heart of each object. Why man alone should have soul? All manifestations of nature were intensely alive. If not so, why objects, like sun, moon, lightning, rain, wind, plants, rivers, and earth are active: moving, blowing, flowing, shaking, pulsating and even speaking and thundering? They started believing that inanimate objects possessed personality and their power could be harnessed through mantra and adoration to one’s advantage. They made idols of them. Regarding them as alive the ignorant worshippers offered them food and flowers, made sacrificial offer of their pet animals, and made supplications to them.
With the development of intellect and physical prowess the mental horizon of the primitive man also widened and he started gaining control over nature which had been regarded earlier as formidable. His perspective of the environs enlarged; so were the forms of his deities, which were now invested with powers over natural forces and even emotions. They assumed the features of living humans, with all their feelings and failings. The man started weaving stories around his deities. He created myths of adventure and related their power with meaningful symbolism. He also developed various types of concepts about god (lesser or higher); about the good and the evil, and about the life hereafter with accompanying reward and punishment.
Still later, he realized that the natural forces, no doubt, did have effects on his life but they could be placed in check to some extent by the man himself. He thus came to realize that there should be a much greater power, or powers, which created this universe, and that the forces of nature have been placed inside the universe merely as fuel to keep the engine running in its myriad and mysterious ways.
And why the religious feeling is not going away even in an intellectual age? The answer seems to be that man’s life has two aspects, material and spiritual, concrete and abstract. Whereas he holds and touches he also feels and perceives. If there is a body there is a soul; if he has visible flesh and bones he also has latent energy. If he is awake he is aware of his physical presence, but it evaporates when he is asleep. His brain is made of solid materials but is full of dreams. In his sleep, it creates a world which looks physical and real but in fact is imaginary and ethereal The relation between the two seems so subtle that the religious book of the Hindus, the Upanishads says, “Let no one wake a man brusquely, for it is matter difficult of cure if the soul finds not its way back to him.”
For behaving with his physical self the man suffices on himself. But for the other part of his personality, which is mystical or spiritual, he feels it is beyond him; as the strings are being pulled by some outside entity. Religion may thus be said to belong to that realm of life which is spiritual. As the abstract aspect of life is more powerful, like love, reverence, hate and lust, which even orders the physical existence to come into action, so religion relates basically to manipulating his behavior in a way that he act physically well and feel mentally good. It gives birth to a situation where, along with the enhancement of personal well-being, it also produces harmonious relations with all others around him. The different ways of expressing the faith may have evolved over time, but spirituality itself has remained far from being obsolete.
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