Kindness

Reverend Lawrence was driving to the charity home run by a group of aging nuns. It was his duty to say the holy mass that Sunday morning for the nuns and the hundred-odd inmates of their charity home. On the way, right in front of his car, a scooter skidded and the rider fell down. It was obvious that the rider required some help. Rev Lawrence looked at his watch. He had no time. It was his duty to begin the mass at the given time in the charity home after which he had to attend a solemn meeting at his monastery, again at a given time. He ignored the man lying on the road and concentrated on the sermon on kindness that he would be delivering soon during the mass.

“Even if you speak the language of the angels, but do not have kindness in your heart, you are only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal,” his sermon began. The fundamental message of Our Lord is kindness. Be good even to your enemy. The sermon went on.

Rev Lawrence was not a wicked man. Far from it, he was a very religious person who followed the rules and regulations of his religious order meticulously. But sometimes the law can stifle kindness. In fact, in religion, it often does. That’s why we find so much violence being perpetrated in the name of the very entities which are supposed to promote love and kindness.

Even our gods are not kind. They are created in our own images and so how can they be kind? They are jealous, violent, lustful, greedy… Look at their various incarnations. They were all meant to destroy some evil force like Ravana or Mahishasura or whatever. It had always remained beyond my comprehension why the all-powerful gods couldn’t just put an end to evil altogether instead of attempting to do it by instalments until I realised that evil is as much a part of ourselves as the good. Gods have nothing to do with it.

Rev Lawrence’s god, Jesus, sought to replace the law with love. He failed, of course. Miserably too. His followers, millions of them today including Rev Lawrence, keep failing him. I once knew a man who used to pray to Jesus to forgive his greed and other vices and in return he would construct a marble cross for Jesus to lie on. Jesus should continue to lie on his cross and not come down into the hearts of his followers. In other words, Jesus should not disturb the hearts of the faithful. More plainly, religion is just a cover-up.

That is the primary reason why kindness is a rare virtue among human beings. I have noticed that non-believers are far kinder people than believers. Non-believers don’t do things to please any god; they do things out of certain convictions. Gods strip people of convictions and personal obligations and act as convenient excuses.

Courtesy flickr

Have you ever wondered why crimes and acts of hatred have multiplied after Modi became India’s Prime Minister? The reason is now Indians have their religion to justify their foul deeds. When you do things for the gods, they have to be right even if they are cruel. After all, our gods loved all kinds of sacrifices in the olden days. So many animals and even human beings had their throats slit on the gods’ altars. Then why not lynch some people today for the sake of gods.

Kindness is not religion’s bed-mate. Kindness comes from compassion which is a psychological attitude rather than a religious virtue. Kindness is the fruit and compassion is the root. No one will learn compassion by looking at a god hanging on a cross or a spear-wielding goddess standing on a man’s body.

Religious leaders and politicians like Modi and Yogi should learn that goodness can be promoted only by encouraging people to do good. For example, start initiatives to help people in the neighbourhood and you’ll see how rapidly a friendly ambience spreads in the locality. Kindness can be cultivated easily. People like to be kind if only religions and politics let them be.

PS. Written for Indispire Edition 396: Kindness is an often used word... what according to you is kindness? #kindnessday