Oh My God! Re-answering the Questions – PDF E-Book
This book acknowledges questions raised by this movie and provides well-informed and logical answers to the most essential ones.
http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/oh-my-god-re-answering-the-questions-pdf-e-book/
A review of the book is here
My Review of the Movie below:
The Hindi blockbuster movie "Oh My God" has left deep impressions on many. It concludes that God exists, but denounces all traditional means of attaining Him.
The traditional means of spiritualizing ones life have been misused throughout history by cheating opportunists who commercialize religion and rob all religious and spiritual practices of its essence. While the movie rightly bashes such cheating religionists, it fails to emphasize that selfless religionists and spiritualists exist. Although the movie proclaims the existence of God, due to this one-sided presentation the movie can have the following undesirable consequences:
1. Those who are already atheists, will find a glamorous reason for remaining so.
2. Those who have faith in God, but are not serious about going deeper into spirituality, will find a glamorous reason for stagnating on whatever spiritual platform they are on.
The spiritual practices like chanting the Holy Names of God, visiting and worshiping in temples, executing the Vedic rituals, donating for a spiritual cause, and so on, provide a variety of ways in which one can stay in touch with God and make steady progress in dedicating more and more to His service. Such spiritual contact, along with study of the scriptures and association of devotees, is a joyful way of making tangible spiritual advancement. By denouncing all these time tested means, the movie is drowning all means of spiritual salvation for the masses. This is a great disservice to God.
The take-home message demeaning "Idol Worship" is a blanket statement which is so naive that only a pitifully uninformed can make.The Vedic scripture is full of detailed and elaborate sections on worshiping the form of God with love and devotion. Such worship does not have any of the negativity that the phrase "idol worship" connotes. To equate the two is to equate the Vedic authority with fools. Lord Krishna Himself instructs the process of deity worship in many prominent Vedic scriptures like the Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam.
Overall, this is a very well made movie, and perhaps even with good godly intentions. It raises relevant and valid questions about the prevalant state of religious commercialization. But many of the answers it provides are based neither on sound logic nor on a reasonable understanding of religion and spirituality. It's a movie which seems to talk favorably about God, but makes it very hard for its viewers to turn to God in earnest.
No comments:
Post a Comment