The one

Is 'worship' a Virtue? Worship, of the divine and another fellow human being. Worship in different forms; love, prayer, religion, lust or an obsession with the ideal. I looked into each of these forms seeking answers, which continue to be elusive.

Though I have always feared blind faith, fear for a superior being, obsessive awe or hope for miracles I have also been guilty of experiencing and practicing each of these at some point in time.

Some would say, to be able to revere another is in more ways than one a sure way to degrade yourself, to crush your ego. Whether the beauty of progress lies in death of one’s ego is quite debatable, just as difficult as it is to be able to define the ‘right’ levels of ego.

To worship is at some level fearing someone or something. Though it makes sense to seek freedom by attaining a level of fearlessness; one deciphers fear most times acts as a stimulant to achieving something far better than what fearlessness might. So fear might infact be healthy.

What about blind faith? Sometimes we don’t even have an option. When one is thrown into situations one dreads to confront and where the solutions lie out of the ‘circle of influence’, blind faith is the only thing that comes to rescue. In the spirit of worship one finds solace and a sense of comfort that disbelief may not give.

Disbelief or Reluctance to understand worship because belief can’t be proved is almost juvenile. However, exploring the need for worship and finding answers may take a lifetime. The lifetime that you spent vacillating between belief and disbelief and therefore forgoing beauty of either.

The biggest pitfall with worship is this. One who worships a fellow human being, also longs to be worshipped. For self to be elevated once in a while, as the want for seeking devotion gets stronger than wanting to be devoted to another.

With God, its another game. To kneel down in front of the other, especially the unknown whose existence is question calls for a great deal of courage, A strong sense of maturity to accept the superior or a stupid naïveté superstition emerging from helplessness.

What about power? Power and authority are unacceptable to many, who refuse to be let another trample their individuality and ego. But power that is voluntarily given to another calls for an immense trust in the other, which is not easy to come by.

Worship at some level can impede thinking, reasoning and logic. This then essentially means, it impedes progress of mankind. A faith in one, also nullifies faith in everything else opposed to that faith. An obsession for one human in that case, is a bondage that refuses to let one see the beauty in other people around.

As much as I then want to comfortably conclude that worship is dangerous, obsession a tyrant and that it doesn’t free me from illusionary hopes and distances me from clarity of thought I wonder if I will ever achieve those in the truest sense of the word if I disbelieve.

Most times inspite of clear rationale, I see many paths I take are illusionary. Many goals set and plans made are transient, and infact not the right goals to be desired at some other point in life. Many dreams and achievements become absurd with time and age.

I had written last time around about followers. Worship too is an ideology that gets passed on to people by others who tend to think they know what’s best for others. Thus betraying one’s need for space, and denouncing one’s ability to understand life.

Each of us should think, feel, observe, experience, judge, ideate and then decide. But accepting what the other says, accepting a faith or belief or be awed by someone or something without reason equals slavery.

I would choose slavery only if I was a masochist. Unless ofcourse what or who is fixated with gives pleasure. But as mentioned earlier, one who worships might at some point want to be worshipped. When that doesn’t happens, the castles of awe crash. Such slavery to illogic jails the intellect and one would be writing an epitaph to one’s sense of pride.

But the challenge with being on one’s own and trying to explore worship is a possibility of failure. Every time you think you moved forward in understanding any form of it, you also move a step backward as certain reasons fall flat. You spend years trying to find your way out of a dark jungle hoping to see light, sometimes not knowing if it exists.

I ask time and again if one god can exist, if one person can be the pivot of your life and guide you in everything.Is it even possible for one light to infinitely be there as the only permanent fixture of your transient life. Is it even sane and intelligent to be intensely emotionally devoted to one? Is it self deprecating to do that?

Does such faith create miracles and give the utopian permanent happiness. And if it infact does, will it be at the cost of surrendering freedom. Worship is a religion in itself. Whilst any religion proposes to give strength it might do exactly the opposite. It makes one week and dependent on a superior illusionary force. Even incase of worship for another human, there is an element of the worshipped being superiority over the other.

As much as I would love to buy the argument that free thinkers would never let their mind be chained by love for anything or anyone, I refuse to see how love also can’t set one free. Love feeds the soul, builds pillars of strength and teaches you lessons of selflessness.

So yes, after a voracious debate I can only conclude with the same questions I began with. Am I better off not let my intellect be ruled by blind faith. Or would I rather pay homage to the illusionary beauty of selfless worship.