Why doesn’t my son believe in God? This question has been asked by many people nowadays. When I say son it could also mean a daughter. What could be the reason for disbelief or moving towards atheism? Parents are at wits end to try telling their kids to come with them to places of worship, but the children aren’t responding positively.
Let me tell you the one single reason for that happening but first I will have to give you some background. The kids today are very intelligent and have clear logic. Things like faith or belief in some invisible being won’t get their attention. They live in an age of modernization and technology. Everything works with the flip of a button or a tap on the screen.
These evolved kids or young people have learnt in school or college methods of arriving at conclusions with careful analysis and using perfect logic. Having studied subjects like physics, maths, astronomy, genetics, economics, etc., they have been exposed to theories and postulations with absolute proof of concepts. When they talk of water on other planets, black holes or event horizons, black swan theories or some other difficult subjects, they have mastered them since the people backing it are convinced themselves.
Now let’s turn towards God and why parents aren’t able to inculcate spiritual or religious discipline in their children. The parents are never given any proof of the existence of God by anyone at all. Their old grandparents or parents themselves had no clue about the dogma and belief they followed. Having followed blindly out of fear of retribution or out of respect for elders, these elders never questioned their own beliefs. Some out of apathy or just sheer boredom followed their ancients.
First and foremost the parents should understand God better than their own forefathers and know the truth from the knowers of truth.
There are various knowers of truth who can guide a person towards a healthy understanding of God. These people are called sages. Some examples are Saibaba of Shirdi, Shri Ramakrishna of Bengal, Ramanna Maharishi of South, Kabirdas, Sivananda or Chinmayananda. But none of these people are alive to guide the lot. So then how would a normal human being go ahead?
The concept of spiritual is divided into some activities and some by meditation. The common belief about spirituality being some kind of body or breathing exercises or going to some place to worship. No one has seen God and neither have the preachers there experienced it. So whatever they are teaching is just through some book or some such training they had taken. This isn’t the case with school or college teachers. In their science or astronomy or genetics studied they have seen proof and got convinced about the subjects so they are absolutely sure about it. But none of the spiritual pundits or teachers have seen God or experienced it so how will they tell what they haven’t seen or experienced. So there won’t be any conviction in them. Their knowledge is faith based and hence can be debunked. So also the knowledge of our forefathers and parents. None can say with conviction anything about God.
Again the so-called masters who exist in the world use trickery and false imagery to pursue their own cockamamie understanding and induce their disciples to follow some ritualistic path. It is a common belief that standing on your head will send blood to it or breathing very fast would give you temporary blackouts and these is used surreptitiously by the bunkum knowers of truth to entice gullible souls.
If anyone is interested they could get a certificate from some such teachers and start a class to mint money soon. It would be like gymnastics or some martial art. Hence Buddha himself dissuaded people from going down this rabbit hole.
So by now you have got the gist of what I am getting at. No one has convinced the youngsters today about these things as they can easily uncover the falsehood there.
So first you have to learn about spirituality. Once you have your experiences and proofs can you further convince the others. You got to have your own conviction first. Going to some places of worship and getting some fervor doesn’t count for spiritual learning. You can electrocute yourself with a stungun and feel the same. Doing some strenuous bodily exercises doesn’t tell you about some unknown God. Doing some ritualistic practice, without any understanding or having any inkling about its results can lead one to doom. So it is better to know what you are up to when some ritual is prescribed.
Now how would you solve this difficult problem? Does anyone in your circle have any clue about this God? Reciting strange books or verses doesn’t make a person spiritual or godly. So try to know someone who has seen God or talked with him. Find one who has self effulgent knowledge and who could teach you finer nuances of spiritual from that self revealed knowledge. Learning from someone who cannot give you enough time is a waste of your own so avoid groupism.
Find a real guru for yourself. Ask him or her whether they have seen God and would they be willing to give you clear knowledge and understanding about it. Once you are convinced then it will be easy to tell the kids about your own true knowledge and pull them on the path of spiritual. Know God yourself first and then teach others.
Image Credit: KrsnaDevote
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