Recently, I met an old friend of mine. We were catching up after a gap of 3 years. She couldn't attend my wedding so definitely I owed her a treat. I took her to her favorite Punjabi restaurant and asked her to order. She ordered some gravy which did not have paneer. Sounds a small thing to notice, right? But I noticed it because she was fond of paneer. Especially in that restaurant, her all time favorite paneer tikka masala was really delicious. Well, I didn't ask her anything initially but when I tried to order paneer parantha for her, she said it again- "No paneer please!"

Really? Now I got worried. Did she have some health issue which prevented her from consuming paneer?

Was she not willing to have food cooked outside? But none of my assumptions were right. She explained afterwards that she had stopped eating paneer because during her visit to some temple, she was supposed to quit eating one thing which she loved most, in order to live a happier life. And since she loved paneer the most, she decided to quit eating paneer.

"What the f*ck!" I almost said out loud. She shushed me. "Don't say anything wrong," she said "Otherwise my sacrifice would go to waste."
That was another stupid thing she said out loud. And honestly, I couldn't hold it anymore and I asked her straight away, "How does this stupid act of yours have the eligibility to fall under the category of sacrifices? Can you please explain?"

As expected, she had no proper answer and in the end, she blamed me for not understanding the concept of God and devotion. I may not be intelligent enough to understand such deep sacrifices but they seem very stupid to me.

Why would God ask you not to eat the food you like? How do you benefit society by quitting a particular food? How do you get any health benefits from this? Thousands of people may be visiting the temple daily, so is God going to keep a track of everyone quitting their favorite food? According to me, it would be called a sacrifice if my friend decided to part with her favourite paneer upon seeing a hungry person. It would be a sacrifice if she fed a poor and hungry person without a second thought, even if she wasn't in a position to eat afterwards. What's the logic behind quitting some food item and expecting all the problems of life to get sorted out by God? My God!

I have seen many people not eating onion on a particular day of the week. It shows respect for God. How? You don't eat onion on Saturday or Tuesday but you speak lies on those days, you cheat someone on those days, you break traffic rules on those days, many people even drink and smoke on those days. Now somebody please help me understand why eating onion was a sin on Saturday or Tuesday?

One relative of mine is extremely religious and she believes that prayers are powerful. I believe it too but compared to my faith, hers is strong. So strong that she starts doing Puja in the morning which goes on for two hours. Her husband doesn't get breakfast at home because he has to leave early and his wife is praying. Is this the way to worship God? We can't take care of our own family just because our God wants us to sit in front of him and pray! When did God tell you this? Why do you create a superstition and then call yourself religious?

I love my religion and I believe in God as well, but I always fail to understand such concepts of worshiping God which allows a person to be 'good' with so much hypocrisy attached.

Share This Story