Ram Mandir

As India celebrated the most significant event in its history of Hinduism, the opening of the Ram Mandir (Ram Temple)  in Ayodhya, I’ve been contemplating which side I sit in, inside the temple, outside of the temple, or far away from the temple. (if you are not familiar with this event, you can google Ram Mandir in Ayodhya and you can read thousands of articles and millions of videos on YouTube, so I am not discussing those details here.) This is MY OPINION and has no reflection on any person, race, or religion and has no intention of hurting anybody’s feelings. Consider this an Op-Ed.  

My contemplation is a war between my agnostic religious beliefs vs the socio-politics of India. I am interested in the topic because India has my roots, I was born Hindu, and this temple is nothing short of one of the most significant game-changing documented historical events for India and Hinduism in recent history, at least since its independence from the British Raj. 

I completely understand that the Ram Mandir is only a symbolic structure that represents many things for many people of India and Hindus, and has many socio-political implications such as – 

• affirmation of Hindus of India that Hindu power has risen and has defeated the rising Islamic powers of India; Ram’s coming back to Ayodhya after defeating Ravan. 
• India is going to be ruled by Hindu principles and may no longer be a secular country, the way academia sees secularism. (However, I still believe that minorities in India will always have much greater freedom than traditional Islamic countries of the world.)
• Modi and the BJP have established themselves so strongly at the grassroots level that no other leader or party can lead India for the foreseeable future. 
• Now that the Hindu majority has gained such momentous power, they will not let this power go into the hands of opportunistic parties like Congress, AAP, or other minority parties, or let minorities have much say in the policies of the central government. 
• Hindu majority has merged the Hindu pride with the national pride. Nationalism and Hinduism have merged into one. If you are for “Ram Mandir” (philosophically speaking), only then you are a Hindustani, otherwise, your pride in India doesn’t mean much. 

Based on the above-mentioned socio-political implications, my opinion on this event is the following:

1. This event was just a show of the rising power, from a social structure point of view.
2. To me, it was a drama to create the grandeur of the party and its leaders. 
3. This event was a complete brainwashing of the masses of India to project Hinduism as the political power and to capture people’s minds to vote based on their religion rather than on the policies or the character of the political leaders. At least that’s the perception of people outside of this event.  But people have always voted based on their leaders’ cast, race and religion anyway.
4. I am not even going to raise the most common objection to the amount of money spent on the temple and building the infrastructure in a town of total insignificance, for the reason every religion does it. People of other countries and other religions always raise it as an issue while they forget the people of other faiths have built humongous mosques, churches, the B’ahai temples of no faith, and Buddhist temples when Buddha specifically asked not to be prayed as god. So every faith does it. 
5. The real problem is that religious leaders build these religious shrines bigger than the next religious shrine primarily for their egos and competitive markets. Why these religious organizations wasting trillions of dollars on building concrete structures? Do you think the Gods favor those with bigger shrines, bigger playgrounds?
6. What is the ultimate objective of this religious war? To control people’s minds. Yes, the political wars are over land or ruling another country or people, the religious wars are over controlling people’s minds. Once one controls people’s minds, they can control anything and everything. AI is doing the same thing, eventually going to control minds. Religion and AI are doing the same thing. These are the games being played by the rich and powerful. 
7. Hindus have been so late in joining this religious war; they had no idea how to even start this war. They had never fought religious wars, they were just outsiders watching others fight it or being trampled on by the Islamic or Christian rulers. This was the first time they got this exposure, and thoroughly enjoyed the feeling of victory. 
8. Hinduism is not an organized monolithic religion. Historically, Hindus always had a passive voice because they always were “peaceful” people. There has never been only one Hindu leader in the history of its religion. If there are over a billion Hindus, there are over a billion Hindu philosophies. Every person believes in a different god or belief. 
9. Finally, Hindus could rally behind one leader and one god. With Ram Mandir, Hindus found their monolithic god, and a leader, a Pope, a Guru, a Prophet. Now they can fight the religious war on an equal footing where Hindus speak the same language as other religions and understand their language. This is so significant because Hindus couldn’t explain Hindu philosophy to monolithic religions and couldn’t find the respect in the global religious network they deserved like others. 
10. What does it all mean? It means the global religious war has become a much bigger war with a new billion people army joining.  
11. While I come from a completely different viewpoint and attitude, I still believe this is the best thing that has happened to the people of the Hindu faith. If the religious wars continue, Hindus cannot stand on the sideline and not be part of the religious world order otherwise someday they will again be trampled by another religious ruler.  
12. And people like me are watching from the sideline or outside of the temple, people who believe in Humanity as their religion. I feel religions exploit people and take away their true power. People of Humanity have to rise one day and trample on every religion on this earth. The need for religion no longer exists. The people who live without religion also live as happily and as miserably as people who believe in religion. In the end, only the people of no religious faith can stop this business of war. Amen.