Non-denominational ... 2004

Nondenominational – a long word to describe the biological, unbiased, unbigoted self I was born as, as all of us are.

We’re so used to “being something” rather than just "being". Perhaps it is our insecurities that compel us to define our world in terms of limiting adjectives, so much so that vocabularies have felt the need to constrain even the state of the lack of that “something” into well-defined conditions – the default state before the “something”! Like “darkness” for the absence of light, “quiet” for the absence of sound, even scientists needed to coin terms like “vacuum” and “ether” for the absence of matter. In the same vein, I define “nondenominational” as the personal state of “unattachedness” to anything.

Thus, I was born – a “Me”, defined only by the genetic composition that went into my conception purely by biological accident. It didn’t take very long for society to stamp a belief system brand on me – Hindu, in my case – based on my heredity. I could have had mixed heredity – possibly, a more robust genetic composition in the Darwinian sense – but not without some societal controversy on “who” I am! That involuntary transformation from what you intrinsically are to what society imposes on you at an age when you are oblivious to such matters is the baggage we carry for the rest of our lives – often with immense pride, and not infrequently with alienation – even, detestation – of other brands similarly assigned! Thus, I get asked – to this day in the 3rd millennium, and thousands of miles away from the land where covert segregation continues to exist – which pigeonhole in the socio-economic-ethno-linguistic-fabric I belong to. The intent of this query, almost every time, is not malicious – the enquirer is attempting to be able to better interact with you using his/her sub-conscious “optimized” algorithm for people of different stereotypes. I must say I enjoy seeing the lost feeling in the enquirer when I spontaneously answer, “I don’t”. It’s like the telemarketing script that the unsuspecting agent gets thrown off of when you provide an offbeat answer to a seemingly straightforward question!

I had the privilege of being raised in an open-minded family environment that nurtured inquisitiveness; a logical thought process, objectivity, and freedom of expression. That I grew up in Bombay (now called Mumbai) was another redeeming factor. Bombay, in those days, was like Manhattan. Anything went! And nobody really cared! Had my formative years been spent in some chaste neighborhood, I might not have been able to be what I wanted to be.

Coming back to the brands of belief systems, some of the younger ones were founded by intellectuals (Buddha for Buddhism, for example) who mustered enough courage to assess and question the incumbent belief systems – to identify their deficiencies, to thoughtfully prescribe a future by analyzing alternatives, and to take the risk of enlightening others. Thus were born new “value systems”, as distinguished from belief systems. These value systems might have been good for the era and locale in which they were created, but needed “anthropological” fine-tuning with the passage of time and geographical spread. Lacking continuity in the quality of visionary leadership, and without clearly defined succession rules for leadership, many of such new systems degenerated again into “belief systems”, introducing along the way rituals that the founders might have abhorred. Their principles remained in the original scriptures; their practice frequently deviated from the “intent of the letter”. Religious wars – an internally inconsistent phrase, as no belief system professed violence as a tool for enlightening the “outsiders” – started getting fought. Practice continues to deviate from principles to this day.

What choices does an individual have, one may ask. Barring societal oppression, we have a smorgasbord from which we may choose a “combo meal” – a packaging of value systems – like Islam, Catholicism, Judaism, .. Or, we may order a la carte. We even have the freedom of venturing into the kitchen to create our own concoction - something that did not exist. It does not have to have a name. It can be for yourself.

And, then, you could call yourself nondenominational. Or, you do not have to call yourself anything at all. I would much prefer the latter. I would just like to be … Me!