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In my class in the Methodist
missionary school I attended in Kolkata was this kid who everyone knew was
going to become a priest. He pretty much kept to himself, was very serious
about his studies even though he wasn't a straight A student or something
and was part of the choir, singing hymns and stuff during chapel hours,
Everyone in class was also very scared of him because he enforced the
school's rules by promptly reporting miscreants to the principal's office
every time he managed to catch them. For this reason he always sat in the
last row in order to spy on student talking, cheating or not paying
attention during a teaching period. And, he never laughed.
Now obviously not all wannabe
priests are necessarily like him, but the fact remains that organised
religion is a hideously grim business which has no time for jokes or
hilarity because piety has somehow been understood to be automatically
associated with gravity. Humour and laughter have also been considered
unseemly because of the totally unfounded fear they may lead to triteness,
superficiality, debauchery and carousing. Sure, there's the Laughing Buddha,
Krishna the prankster and the jokes of Mulla Nasruddin which seem to
indicate that a dimension of levity once did exist in our divine midst, but
try venturing into the inner depths of great temples, theological discourses
or prayer meetings today and what do you think you'll find ? Solemn
composures with eyes possessing no sense of irony and the mischievous spirit
completely missing.
Why have we been drilled into
thinking the Creator doesn't like or can't take a joke ? Is he or she so mean
spirited ? In which case why are our researchers constantly discovering the
value of laughter and humour to physical health and mental well being----all
valuable preconditions to spiritual development? Surely something that's
capable of increasing muscular and respiratory activity, stimulating the
cardiovascular and skeletal systems, increasing pain tolerance and the
production of antibodies while decreasing levels of stress hormones can't be
all bad.
The bottom line is, we need
to go to places of worship and see joyous people. Like, who wants to achieve
uplink via a conduit of desultory dour faced druids who have no business
doing God's work if it doesn't give them infinite cheer or at least brings a
smile to their lips. |
