Why are we so afraid?

I am racing along on the four-lane highway from Ajmer to Udaipur. Its 4:30 in the evening, the car's cruising at 11 kmph and my driver Sukait is also beginning to enjoy the tunes of With or Without You on my car stereo. The weather's holding good, with clear skies, bright sunlight and a completely empty road ahead of us. I am alternating between replying to my emails and staring out into the road. Then my eyes, tired of staring at the road ahead, de-focus and rest on the dashboard. There is a crystal image of Ganesha on the dashboard, fixed permanently with glue. I am suddenly struck with this funny thought of what that image is doing there.

Of course we all know what crystal images of Ganeshas (or other gods) do on millions of dashboards across this country. We also know why we take our cars/trucks/bikes to temples, the first thing after we buy them. I have always found it interesting, how people delegate personal safety into the hands of inanimate objects such as flowers, almanacs, images and hymns. How can we find it easier to do all this, than to control overspeeding, avoid driving rash, and obey traffic rules - all of which are more likely to keep us, and others around us, safer on the streets, than a gendaphool can.

And its not just about our automobiles. We are superstitious and scared about everything we do. We don't venture on new businesses without consulting almanacs, that tell us about planetary positions we barely understand. We don't buy new furniture unless its a particular day of the week. We marry on dates, decided for us by people who are often complete strangers. Some of us go to the extent of not taking a single action without invoking/consulting/praying to an inanimate or lower form of life. We are more likely to trust the unknown and irrational, than commit our lives to the logical reasoning and rationality of the human brain.

While the entire world has conquered its fears of the unknown, through the twin weapons of scientific progress, and democratic social structures (a.k.a. civilization), the Indian mind continues to grovel in the pits, dug over 5000 years. Its disheartening to see that all we have retained of our "glorious past" is just this layer upon layer of irrationality, unreasonable fear of the unknown, and complete ineptitude to stand up to the challenges that life throws at us, without the primitive crutches of religion.

We seem to have developed selective amnesia, blotting out the science, the rationality and the constant questioning temper that our ancestors had, and only remembered the parts that do nothing but tie us down. At the dawn of the vedic era, when the foundations of the Indian civilization were being laid, an ancestor invoked the almighty and prayed

Lead us from darkness to light, from falsehood to truth

His prayers are yet to be answered. We continue to be in dark despair and afraid.