Kathmandu (Pahichan) June 30 – The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May, 2020 as a white police officer held a knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes has sparked protests over the centuries long race problem in America and elsewhere. There are other, similar age-old problems, such as gender discrimination, throughout the world, caste-based discrimination in South Asia, sexuality-based discrimination, language-based, culture-based problems and so on. I am not saying a ‘racist God’ killed George Floyd and directly responsible to all other problems mentioned here, but the way we perceive ‘how the God is’, our faith, belief, culture, perception towards ourselves and towards others are shaped. This leads our behaviors and conducts on day to day lives. So there is a link and there is a root to it.

(Note: I am pronouncing God as ‘him’ just to make note of the popular notion out there among majority of believers that God is a Man, created by the patriarchic religious institutions over many centuries). I don’t believe in almighty creator GOD. But many do and for them god is the creator of the world and everything; he is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. There are faiths who believe in one god, others believe in many gods and many don’t believe in such God’s existence at all.

Abrahamic religions talk about ‘uniting to the God’ by being a good human being, by fulfilling expected ‘duties’. Hinduism says, Aham Bramhasmi (I am the Bramhan, not only creator god but everything is him and he is everything), Buddhism doesn’t believe in a creator God but says, every sentient being has the seed (potential) of (becoming) the Buddha and with right conduct, meditation and insights anyone can attain Buddhahood. And what is Buddhahood? Buddha is (any)one who has overcomes one’s defilements and has experienced the ultimate reality within himself by his own efforts.
These attributes and ways are used either in way of analogy or are taken literally.
But, for me, if I look more closely at these sayings and attributes, it’s not difficult to see how certain individuals and/or communities, at certain historic time frames, at certain geographic locations, may have created ‘their’ God. Why? Because, for them, God is the ultimate potential of divinity that a human being may aspire to become, to achieve. To aspire people to acquire their potential divinity, God’s image/s is/are created, many churches, shrines, temples are built; God’s attributes and philosophies are created. The whole cultures are created. Over time the ‘created God’ is idolized, personified. Organised religious institutions manipulated the philosophies, changed the doctrines for their own profit. The original purpose of the Created God’s images started getting diluted. So, God is no longer a potential goal for one’s ultimate possible divine status but a ‘patronizing power’ who loves to control human being’s every destiny. And this is all thanks to institutionalized orthodox religious institutions across. This new purpose of God is then strengthen by the cultures, mythologies, narratives, fear (punishment after life for being ‘Sinful’), awards(rewards afterlife for being obedient) moral codes, laws and enforcement systems.
This dilution of purpose (or the new purpose) of God’s’ image shouldn’t have caused any racism or other discrimination and it doesn’t cause on its own. But the image of God itself does. Let me explain how it does.
Let’s look at faith by faith according to historic time frame and geographic location.

Christianity began in the 1st century AD after Jesus died, as a small group of Jewish people in Judea, but quickly spread throughout the Roman empire, and later became the state religion. In the Middle Ages it spread into Northern Europe and Russia.
Deity Or Deities: Jesus; God; Holy Spirit or Ghost (the Trinity)
Founding Figure: Jesus
Now look at the image of Jesus, the god’s representative: European look, lighter skin and a man. For those people who are with different looks, different colour of skin and gender, it becomes impossible to imagine ‘how one can try to actualize their potential divinity within themselves’ with such an impossible image of God (or God’s representative)?

Now let’s look at the Islam: Most historians accept that Islam originated in Mecca and Medina at the start of the 7th century CE, approximately 600 years after the founding of Christianity, with the revelations received by the prophet Muhammad.
Deity: Muhammad, Allah. Founding Figure: Muhammad
Even though Muhammad’s image is not as widely circulated as other religious idol’s images but one can imagine that image of Muhammad is: the Middle eastern look, fairesh brown skin and a man. Similarly, for those who are with different looks, color of skin, gender etc. it is impossible to imagine their possible ultimate divine status by looking up to such images, by praying on such images. [Actually, note that depictions of Muhammad are forbidden; remember the cartoonists killed by radical muslims]

Hinduism: Most scholars believe Hinduism started somewhere between 2300 B.C. and 1500 B.C. in the Indus Valley, near modern-day Pakistan. But many Hindus argue that their faith is timeless and has always existed. Unlike other religions, Hinduism has no one founder but is instead a fusion of various beliefs. Hinduism also has many more godly idols and images with a range of color of skin, genders, even sexualities. It does offer diverse choices for people to imagine to realize their potential divine status through these diverse godly idols and images in terms of skin color, gender, sexuality etc. In spite of that, Hinduism has failed from ‘caste’ perspectives and over time masculine godly images are considered superior to feminine and queer godly images. So caste-based and gender-based discrimination is still prevalent.

Buddhism: Buddhism is a faith that was founded by Siddhartha Gautama (“the Buddha”) more than 2,500 years ago in India/Nepal. Buddha is not considered a god, rather a human being and who achieved/realized the ultimate possible potential divinity as a human. Buddhism as a teaching and philosophy does not discriminate on any grounds including gender, caste, race etc. Buddhism recognizes that every human being, every sentient being has the potential to become the Buddha, the enlightened one. However, the portrait of Buddha’s image is often a fair complexion and an upper caste look, a man; can be misleading. And to become a samma-sam-buddha (one who gets full enlightenment by his own effort when there is no other Buddha around and no other’s buddha’s teachings is available either) one must and always be born as a man and that too an upper caste man. Even though the Buddhist monastic orders welcome all castes and women are welcomed too to join the monastic orders, they are still considered inferior to the men’s monastic order.

Before all these institutionalized orthodox religious institutions were spreading far and wide from their points of origin and dominating all over the world, there used to be thriving indigenous cultures with their own images of idols, gods, goddess and reflections of divinities, all reflecting their own unique natures of existence, their diversities. They, then, felt connected to their higher beings and they felt protected. Like Shamanism, Tantra are still surviving but they are on the verge of dying all together, thanks to invasive missionary works of other orthodox religions. [This needs to be fleshed out a bit…not sure what you mean here.]

Now, for many peoples and communities, your purpose (to achieve the ultimate possible potentials of divinity as a human being) doesn’t match with the image of God you look upon. Because this particular image of God is not created for you, it was created for different people. So you always find this vacuum, disconnect and unprotected, no matter how hard you pray.

This issue is very deep rooted and very subtle. Imagine, a European male child is asked to pray and bow down in front of an idol’s image (of a god or representative of a god, as he was taught) which is of a man, white and European. This child finds immediate connection and comfort, as the image is similar to his own father, the image is not strange at all. Now imagine, an African female child is encouraged to pray and bow down in front of an image (of a god or representative of a god, as she was taught) which is of a man, white and European. The child has no clue, no connection. It doesn’t look like her mother, not even like his father.

Now imagine these both children praying at the same church. What psychology they would develop. One, most certainly, feeling connected, comfortable, safe, protected, powerful and the other, most certainly, feeling disconnected, uncomfortable, unsafe and disempowered. Over time, deep down in their psychology, one child would potentially grow with superiority complex and other with inferiority complex. This complex psychology is then manifested into our day to day lives, into our attitudes, into our self-esteem, into our treatment of others. This is how the racism, gender-based discrimination, caste-based discrimination, sexuality-based discrimination and many other problems are rooted.

Abandon the God that was created ‘not for you’. Create your own Goddess or God. Imagine the image of God or Goddess that is possible for you to become one with, that is inclusive and reflective of your skin color, your gender, your sexuality, your unique attributes, your strengths, your potentials and most importantly your own nature.

I am not suggesting to create Black Jesus instead of White Jesus, or Create White Krishna (one of the prime God among many Hindu Gods and Goddess) instead of dark Krishna, or create Russian Buddha instead of South-Asian Buddha, or create female Muhammad instead of male Muhammad; rather creating your own authentic idol image that suits your indigenous root, cultural heritage and but most importantly your ultimate potential to achieve divinity or ‘godliness’ as a human being.

Women should have their own image of Goddess (not a male God) or divine to pray and to look upon and to aspire to become one; the Dalits in South Asia (or so called untouchables) should have their own image of God/dess or divine. There should be different queer god/dess for Queer people. African god/desses for African people. Imagine the possible potential divinity for you that is possible for you to aspire, that is connected to you and that is natural to you.

Black lives matter, so do Black Gods and Goddess!

Thank you.

Source : medium.com