The Gods That We Worship

We bow down our heads in front of idols of the numerous deities and worship them with all our heart but are these ‘Gods’ as flawless as they are claimed to be? No, don’t get me wrong. I do not say that they did not do right by fighting forces of evil, or that they are unworthy of being revered. However, they are not as unblemished as you have been made to believe.

Had Lord Rama been this faultless, would he have banished his wife over an overheard conversation in public, when her only crime was getting abducted. During an entire year of captivity, Sita protected her purity, strengthened by her values and by her love.  Rama, too, underwent various hardships for finding his wife – often succumbing to despair but coming back with a renewed hope of being reunited with her.  

After the war, however, Rama states that he had slain Ravana merely to protect his dignity and he could not accept Sita again. The dejected queen then stepped into a pyre and walked out unharmed, giving proof of her purity.

Inspite of passing the Agni Pariksha, sometime later, Rama exiled a pregnant Sita to Rishi Valmiki’s ashram for some of his subjects believed Sita to be unfit due to the long time she spent in clutches of Ravana – where I would remind you, she did not give up, never let the man set a finger on her. Since a king is expected to preserve the moral integrity of his kingdom, Rama banished his love. Is that the place his significant other held in his life? To distrust her again and again?

Take another example – Lord Krishna. Have we not all heard the names Radha-Krishna together? An eternal love story of the Indian mythology but how many of you know that Radha never became Krishna’s wife?

Stories are told of Krishna’s “interactions” with the gopis, which I would go ahead to say, in our language, would be called flirting. Despite these, Radha was a lady dedicated to her lover and what did she get in return? Nothing.

Krishna had a total of 16,108 wives, out of which eight were his princely wives, among which Queen Rukmini is the most well-known. The others wives include Satyabhama, Jambavati, Nagnajiti, Kalindi, Madra, Mitravinda, Bhadra and Rohini. The list of the children Krishna sired with them can easily be availed on the internet.

So, what was his love for Radha? Where did she stand amongst these wives?

All these, I daresay, were examples of amorousness on Krishna’s part. In fact, in the Bhagvad Gita, Krishna explains to Arjun that a woman is merely an object to fulfil a man’s desires. So, is this the respect that our God’s avatar held for women? 

Bowing down in respect is one thing but claiming divinity to be blissfully perfect – that seems to be a mere illusion.  So, dear friend, is the mighty pedestal offered to them justified? I leave that as a question to you.