an update (full story later)

I have realized that this journey I was on had taken a back seat, post my trip to Pushkar. I could not research much on Brahma - the trip was more like hit and go. could not speak to any preist or person of knowledge. Of the research that I could do online there are multiple stories and I have not been able to find out which one is the true one.

In contrast to what I said earlier that there are only 2 brahma temples, I could find two set of text online - based on one there are 6-8 temples while the other story says that there is only one temple (in Puishkar). At this time the former story seems true as that text has mentioned the cities where these temples are and it can be verified.

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Methodology...

The problem with picking something of this magnitude is that there isn't one religion, one God that is worshipped. Even though all religions put you in the same direction, and the journey is more or less similar; there are still vast differences between followers of different sects. Whom do you believe?

A good researcher would give equal weightage to each sect and will try to follow all taking one at a time without putting any bias on any one religion. The first assumption I will make in my research is that I am a good researcher. Period.

Now, the problem is not only different religions, but also those who have different beliefs despite being in the same religion. I have watched the Hindu mythology very closely (although my knowledge is still premature) and there are more Gods than there are days in a year. You have different gods/goddesses for different activities - a god of knowledge, a god of sex, a goddess of money, etc. There are so many gods/goddesses that finding out about each of these would become so difficult and time consuming that I may forget what i started out for.

So I would not try and focus on all the gods, but look at the different mythologies and beliefs in general. I plan to start with the Hindu mythology as I have already spoken about it in this space follwed by Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and others (except scientology). I know this is a time consuming exercise and probably would not be finished by the end of time. But as they say - your work defines you. And I consider myself an explorer; so if it takes me end of time to be one, so be it.

A quick snapshot of what will follow this post. Hindu mythology has three major Gods -

1. Brahma, the creator
2. Vishnu, the preserver
3. Shiva, the destroyer

The next post will be on Brahma. Apparently, there is only one or two Brahma temples in the world. Now I do not quite know the reason for this, considering the fac than vishnu and shiva have millions and millions of temples but I intend to find out. One of these Brahma temples (or the only temple) is in Pushkar in Rajasthan (India) and I am visiting that place over this weekend. I will only update this page once I have more information from the locals there and the believers I already know. Apart from what I mentioned above, I do not know anything else about Brahma except that he had four heads - one for each direction.

More to follow...

Hypothesis...

I am an atheist - or so I thought as I did not believe in the existence of GOD - then I came across another term, agnostic. And then I was confused.

Was I an agnostic or an atheist? Did I doubt the existence altogether or had my doubts on my knowledge of the all-mighty? I thought about it and really thought about it. Then concluded the following:

There are two types of people.

1. Those who believe in God and his/her existence, and
   
2. Those who do not believe in God.

The latter group constitutes both the atheists and the agnostics. If you think about it, believers believe in God's existence. There is no doubt in their minds. It is like an unconditional belief. It doesn't matter what others say or reason with the believers, the believers would not bulge. On the other hand, those who doubt their knowledge of God do not actually believe in him/her as this belief is not unconditional. So these guys are actually another atheists - probably to a slightly lower degree. I think the word that is of importance here is and what will carry forward this argument is "unconditional".

To give an example - when you love someone, you just love that person and this love is unconditional. Your friends or family may not want you to be with that person but you can help it. You are attracted and do fall to this person because of the unconditional love you have for them. And when someone you love makes a mistake, it may take sometime, but you do forgive them. Because you love them... unconditionally.

Similarly, in case someone believes in god, they believe in him/her. Everyone else is an atheist. This is how I solved the confusion - this is the reasoning I gave myself. By this logic, I am an atheist. However, I am iving in the 21st century (cliche...) and as a good citizen of this world, I will take an informed decision. That is, I will find out all I can about God and once I have stories of both sides, and have heard arguments from both sides; only then will I take a decision around my belief or non-belief.

This blog is to capture my experiences on this journey - for as long as it takes - and provide a portal to others like me who wish to take informed decisions on whethere the God exists or not.

Through this, I am doubting my non-belief. Does that make me a believer?