This is a conversation I had on Reddit about bursting crackers on Diwali.
Basically, bursting crackers is seen as a part of religion and a way to showcase your strength and devotion as Hindus.
But when Ram returned to Ayodhya, firecrackers didn’t exist.
Diyas did.
Diyas exist today too, but what is the value of a diya?
The same people who haggle to reduce the price of a diya from ₹ 12 to ₹ 10 have no qualms in buying firecrackers worth ₹ 5000.
How can a person spend ₹ 5000 on something that finishes burning within 2 hours but not on something that lasts for more than 2 years and helps the poor folks selling them have something to eat that night?
The invention of firecrackers
Nevermind that, let me share with you the story of the invention of firecrackers.
Back in 800 AD, like most inventions, fireworks started off as a search for a cure for immortality.
This Chinese dude mixed sulphur, charcoal and potassium and was stupid enough to let it catch fire - because it promptly exploded.
And when the other peeps put this gunpowder into bamboo or paper tubes, fireworks were born.
Fireworks reached North West India from Iran and the Middle East - and into the hands of the Delhi Sultanate. The Mughals, the ones all Hindus hate.
[Don’t believe me, check out the source]
And today we call it a Hindu tradition and not bursting crackers is a sign of weakness.
But who is paying the price of the firecrackers we are bursting?
The actual price of bursting firecrackers every diwali
Not the people who have so much money to waste for sure. They don’t need our empathy for now, because for them it is burnt and done.
But the people who were injured due to these crackers, those whose property caught fire, the people who can’t breathe and have been admitted in hospital and are circulating messages to gather funds for expensive operations.
How many of these people who wasted ₹ 5000 on a Mughal product will pay even ₹ 200 to save the lives of those they potentially killed?
Absolutely 0. Because instead of working harder to cover up for their damages, they are busy ferociously defending hinduism online and calling everyone against firecrackers weak.
Would it surprise you if this same population sent dick pics to ‘randi who remain online all day?’
The meaning of hinduism - is it really what we are taught?
What is the meaning of Hinduism to you?
Is it the firecrackers?
Bingeing the TV Mahabharat on repeat everyday?
Looking pretty and showing diya with some song you memorised?
Spending thousands on a golden statue and giving it to a temple already enshrined in gold?
While ignoring the beggars on the steps of those temples?
Hinduism always captivated me.
As a person who grew up reading books on stupid people working hard to achieve their goals, I have always been a humanist at heart.
I don’t care about a man, woman, child, black or disabled. If I see a group tearing down others for their rights, I tear them back down to make them think. But they rarely do.
They lost their individual thinking long ago when they adopted group think. And only their own individual pain can help them learn to think on their own now.
Most hindus fall into the category of groupthinkers. They don’t think for themselves, like a silly parrot that has been taught a few phrases, they will repeat it. On. On. And on.
In fact, as the number of these parrots increase, individual voices die down.
It wouldn’t have been a problem if they taught something right. But they are not. And in fact, with whatever little sense they have left, they are busy defending their fragile ego with all the half-information they hear from each other on WhatsApp.
And as every person knows (but does not understand), half knowledge is a dangerous thing.
I read about this kid who worked on a project for his science fair.
He wanted to show why democracy and collective decision-making is important, so he enlightened his 40 friends on the dangers of dihydrogen mono-oxide.
These were the points he made:
It is the chief ingredient in acid rains.
This chemical, in excess, kills many people living in an area.
A person becomes easily dependent on it.
Not continuing to consume it can lead to withdrawal effects.
Out of these 40 people, 36 voted to have this chemical banned.
This chemical is water and the project’s aim was to show the dangerous effects of half-information and how easy it is to influence people with it.
P.S.: He won the first prize.
Apart from the medical knowledge (it might be true) and Patanjali (nobody knows how many were children were orphaned thanks to the chamatkari baba), here is the half-information in circulation today:
Hinduism is dying.
Muslims teach each other to kill everyone.
The caste system is an important part of our religion and abolishing it is disrespecting Gods.
The essence of hinduism
Let us go through it one by one. But first, what exactly is Hinduism?
There are many ways to define a religion. The God one worships, the rituals they follow, the culture and traditions passed on to the next generations.
But Hinduism is above all this.
After all, there are many Gods we worship and those who don’t worship Gods can also be Hindus, our rituals have changed as per the eras, and all our cultural values and traditions have a meaning.
To be a Hindu, you need to believe in the below two ideals:
The Law of Karma
The Law of Reincarnation
What is the unifying essence of tying up these laws?
“What you do comes back to you. If not in this birth, then the next.”
And that is how not all atheists have to be naastiks. You just need to be a good person to be a Hindu.
Coming back to:
Hinduism is dying.
The problem isn’t that Hinduism is dying.
The problem is that the number of people who actually know what Hinduism is is rare.
And the radical elements spreading this half-baked gossip are the biggest perpetrators.
Muslims teach each other to kill everyone.
For most, this means that all Muslims should be killed. Not educated, not regulated but killed.
Pakistan should be laid barren, because all Muslims threaten the existence of Hindus.
They can threaten the number of existing Hindus, but do you really think they can in any way threaten what Hinduism must mean to Hindus?
On their quest to eradicate Muslims, Hindus are becoming Muslims they warn against without changing what their religion is called.
The caste system is an important part of our religion and abolishing it is disrespecting Gods and their wish for us to not touch the ‘achut’.
There were 16000 women a demon once violated.
The God of these Hindus married all of them to protect their honour and to prevent them from being outcasted by the society.
Would such a God really be happy if you called other Hindus name, abused them and didn’t touch them?
How it goes back to money
So… what does it all have to do with money?
Who do you think benefits the most from the firecrackers sales?
The traders.
These traders buy from companies, some of which have freak accidents and their workers get injured. The work does not stop because Diwali is the peak season for profitability.
For the company owner.
Who do you think pays for this man’s treatment?
His family doesn’t have enough to eat for Diwali.
The delusion of a ramrajya
Who benefits from all these expensive donations to temples?
Would the pandits sleep in the lap of luxury if Hindus donated money to the beggars outside?
Isn’t their treasury worth a small country’s economy enough to feed a few stomachs, or better educate them and train them to look for a job?
Who would benefit if people stopped performing puja?
In fact the priests, samagri manufacturers and the traders will suffer if people started being kind instead and spent that money on helping injured strays.
Who benefits from the reruns of TV Mahabharat and the ‘devotional’ films they make nowadays without caring for factual accuracy or the beautiful art of storytelling?
Indian film industries lost to Japanese ‘cartoons’ and will become obsolete because nobody cares about improving.
Why improve if anything related to religion sells?
The public thinks it is being religious and the rich can get richer.
It is the perfect delusionary win-win without the useless thing called dharma interrupting anyone from living their lavishness.
Originally published on Substack. View Discussion on Substack →
