A hundred thousand years ago, we were just noisy apes halfway up the forest food chain. Then something happened. We gave up the insistence on close blood ties to form the bonds of trust. We learnt the art of large-scale collaboration. Sapiens began to dominate the planet and raced to the top of the pyramid. This rush to the top, attributable entirely to a large number of homosapiens working towards common objectives was made possible by the art of storytelling. For a species that is naturally lacking in mutual trust, the unforeseen camaraderie among total strangers to achieve collective objectives was brought in through the backdoor, by the invention of abstract concepts and fictional descriptions of the world. This belief in fiction to organize people into teams is what truly sets us apart from our less evolved cousins. Everything that we do is driven by fiction. From loyalty to the country to working in a corporation, all collective human activity is driven by imagined stories of progress and greatness as opposed to concrete perceivable realities.
Religion was born from awe, bewilderment and wonder. It came from nature and it identified with nature. It was the religion of magic, rituals and the elements of nature. It accorded the highest place to plants, animals, rivers and mountains. But over the course of history, religion began to be put to use for the very human struggle of firmly establishing ourselves on the top of the food chain. As Sapiens acquired more and more control over nature, it became apparent that among the fictional doses that we self-administer, the most potent one is that of religion, which gives us the optimism to imagine the unseen and to agree on the unverifiable. Religion thus became a tool to organize people into groups and give meaning to their otherwise insignificant lives. Next, religion was used to motivate the believers to expand their tribe so that greater numbers may propel them to greater heights.
Yet the old religion of awe and wonder continues to live in pockets here and there. It recognizes the fiction of your existence and yet asks you to believe in it to play your part in the world. It prepares you to face the collapse of the world around you as your ego dissolves in the turmoil. It asks you to toil sincerely in Samsara without a care for the fruits of your labour so that one day your heroic resignation may transform into the sweet elixir of devotion that fills your empty heart and silent mind. It is the secret that the infallible one shared with his friend in the middle of the battlefield. Today is his birthday. Happy Janmashtami.