We Keralites and Indians are madly religious. For anything
and everything we invoke gods. If a misfortune comes we take the blame on
ourselves. If a good thing happens we ascribe its credit to god. In short god
is given all the credit and we are blamed for every ill. As we spend a lot of
time on matters religious and as we believe gods will help us in everything (we
need to pray only) and we pray and pray, go to the church or temple or to the
shrine and partake in every religious ritual. See the net result! We are one of
the poorest nations on the surface of the earth. Almost half of our 120 crore
people are living with Rs 20/- a day and
they are all generally sick, emaciated and face all sorts of difficulties. 
Nations which are advanced are far less
religious; they believe they make their future. Hence they try to come up with
all their capability. They have generally an aim and a purpose in life. They
work and work, take risks and do not rest until they get what they want. Here we do not even want anything. We are
exhorted to be happy with what we have. It can be poverty, sickness, failures, backwardness;
the gods have willed and we have to bear them. All that matters is the afterlife
and hence this life is to be just endured.
Nations which are advanced are far less
religious; they believe they make their future. Hence they try to come up with
all their capability. They have generally an aim and a purpose in life. They
work and work, take risks and do not rest until they get what they want. Here we do not even want anything. We are
exhorted to be happy with what we have. It can be poverty, sickness, failures, backwardness;
the gods have willed and we have to bear them. All that matters is the afterlife
and hence this life is to be just endured.
Statistics on religious beliefs indicate that there is no
other country in the world which is as mad about religion as India. And there
are very few countries which is as corrupt, as poor and as backward as India. We
are not bothered that half of all our children are malnourished, emaciated, sick
and stunted! We do not mind that more
than 50 crores of our people do not get one meal a day, many of whom are
staying in a single-room leaking, ramshackle shack. We do not mind they are
sick and are in pain. The leaders who seem ‘more religious than us’ do not mind
these things at all. They are very rich and powerful, their children study abroad
and they have everything that can be thought about. They know this life is all that matters and
they try to live their lives to the full with all conceivable comforts and
luxuries. The followers tow the foolish philosophy and suffer.
