I am a former Hindu. Only 17 years old, I was raised Hindu. Due to keen interest in science I came to know of my ignorance due to my religion, never questioned anything and all that. In the last few months I became very skeptic and was even able to argue against Hinduism. However, I sometimes feel a burden due to this (don't know why), and also scared sometimes. Is it because of my conditioning during childhood? Or something else (adolescense could be reason for stress, not sure). After watching a lot of Dawkins and Neil Tyson and other science videos, I felt quite empty. In between all of this, my exams were also going on (love physics and maths and biology) and I FAILED in maths. I was very sad for many days, was not able to study even further properly and my mind always searching for "real truth". My mother, seeing me sad everyday, thought that because of my skepticism, negativity had entered my life. She told me to recite "Hanuman Chalisa" twice a day(morning and evening after a bath). Before this, I didn't take a bath at time and kept myself on the internet searching for best arguments against religions (in short I was not in a schedule). Due to pressure from my mom, i started taking a timely bath and started reciting "Hanuman Chalisa". After two days of this, I Suddenly felt like studying and was able to do maths quite nicely. I told my mother this and she said that you were sad only because you said bad about gods and all that. But, Even I was stumped by this and couldn't say anything. Is it because of the prayer I "felt" better or the "god" made me do better (I didn't pray for over a 3 months previously and had all bad stuff inside me and all teenage stuff)? Please answer fast and give me a good answer because I am genuinely curious and not a theist(scientifically if possible).
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Perhaps reciting the prayer acted like a meditation session. It gave you some time out for yourself, allowed you to shift your focus away from your exams for a little while, even gave you a brief trip back to something that made you feel safe in childhood. Meditation refreshes, so do baths, because both help you relax and de-stress. The gods didn't help you. You helped you. Your mum helped you too. She was wrong about the gods, but she was right about reciting positive words and relaxing in a bath.
don't you think all of those were just coincidence?? we tend to do lousy thinking and throw skepticism out the window. try to think maybe you're just too eager to find the missing puzzle and got stressed out, try to find your cool and chillax bruh.
So now should I keep praying or find a new habit to relieve all the stress? I will be honest, I do not have any atheist family members or relatives and that sometimes also angers me a lot.
I can't see anything wrong with wrong with reciting the prayer in the full and certain knowledge you're not actually praying because there's nothing there to prayer to. If it works for you and relaxes you, why not? I'm an atheist, but that doesn't mean I don't find the words of the 23rd Psalm beautiful - I just don't believe them to be true. The prayers you were raised with are part of your childhood and part of your culture. You don't need to throw them out of your life because you're an atheist. If you can find another relaxing habit to replace the prayer, fine. If not, there's nothing wrong with using the prayer.
Wouldn't that make me a hypocrite, because on one hand I talk against it like how mumbo-jumbo it is, on the other hand I recite it everyday. Also, is meditation better than it (albeit tougher).
like what you said, you're just 17, you got a long way ahead of you, just do things like normal 17 year old does, meet friends, make friends. its fun to be with friends that you can get along with. specially when they think the same as you do. just an advise. if you already made friends, and you knew they are theist. don't make an approach of asking what they believe. like a douche bag, make a conversation not argument.
i agree on what sushisnake said.
peace out
I always try to keep this believing stuff away in a conversation and sometimes even tolerate it, but sometimes even in a normal conversation they keep repeating supernatural and then I get annoyed. I really never ask anyone their belief but still they impose it on me. Trust me, I'm not that douche bag who will ask someone their belief and then talk.
Prayer is just for show and does absolutely NOTHING.
Not true, mykcob4! Remember that big medical study where patients who knew they were the recipients of prayer got sicker? The researchers put it down to performance anxiety- the faithful patients were terrified of ...what? Letting the team down? Not being good enough for Grace?
Prayer had no effect on the patients who had no idea they were prayer recipients.
well, its up to you then. ask them what they believe and ask them proof politely, then if they can't provide, give them the best shot you got of asking them what they believe and your point of what they think and believe. but in a nicer way that no one would be offended.
just stay calm and speak with what you know.
its OK to say "i don't know"
I believe prayer does help but only as a meditative tool (I don't pray)
Prayer is just like masturbation. It may make the practitioner feel good, but honestly - I don't need to watch.
OK?
Prayer is as useful as singing a happy song. Maybe it makes you feel good for a minute, but it has no effect on the external world. So, sing away... Just don't hold your breath that it will be a duet.
Prayer is like using a shot of morphine to treat an arterial bleed. Sure, you are still bleeding, but you feel good, so you really just don't care anymore.
I think the act of reciting the prayer was maybe a comforting ritual for you, held over from your younger years when you did believe in your religion. While the prayer itself did nothing to ease your stress, the act of saying it simply made you feel better. I'm the same way when it comes to Christmas songs. I no longer believe all the Christian mumbo jumbo, but during the holidays, I still do love to listen to all the old songs. It brings back good memories of my childhood and my family, and there is nothing wrong with that.
So take the prayer for what it was: a familiar and comforting ritual. Don't read anything further into it. And I'm glad you're feeling better. :-)
I memorise and recite long tracts of poetry and plays, mainly Shakespeare. I find this has a relaxing effect. I have a long commute to and from work, so I will recite in the car, sometimes as loud as I can To be or not to be, or the poem Ulysses. When I go to sleep I sometimes meditate on my body trying to feel each part without touching from my toes up to my head usually I fall asleep before I reach my knees. I believe its generally accepted that fixing your thoughts on one thing, in a quiet personal time, relieves stress and this does not require any gods,
Transcendental meditation is good for achieving calm. The people who teach it wrap it up in esoteric mystery, but there's nothing magical about it. You just shut your eyes, focus on breathing, and mentally recite the same word over and over. It gives your mind a bit of holiday. I think prayer can probably have that kind of effect.
I've been in Christian churches, Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples, etc. They all seem to be designed to create a peaceful, reflective environment that encourages meditative calm. Catholic churches are the exception. I went to concerts in several Catholic churches in Vienna last year. Every inch of walls and ceilings was cluttered with images of torture, naked babies with wings, hideous gold and silver bric-a-brac, and every kind of crude symbolic crap you can imagine. It was as if the priests were trying to stop people thinking.
I'm addressing your question without reading that long explanation you attached. YES. The fact is that prayer, depending on how it is used, can in fact make you feel better. Positive affirmation is a psychological fact. If you spend a few minutes every day praying for success and you are motivated to work for it, prayer can be motivational. You are filling your mind with your objective. Admittedly you are attaching an unnecessary element to the positive affirmation - God, but prayer as a positive affirmation can actually work.
People who are sick use it to feel better. People seeking goals use it to succeed. People in relationships use it to resolve conflict. The simple fact of the matter is that prayer does have some success/ It is not going to cure a disease. It is not going to magically give you money or success. It can positively affect your mental attitude. It would be ignorant to deny this. It would be equally ignorant to assert that a God was involved in positive affirmations.
What you are going through makes sense. Being raised Catholic, I was taught to pray and talk fondly of the Christian God. I was taught to love Jesus, and that anyone who does not live up to expectation will be tortured in hell forever. I am not an atheist, but an agnostic. However, as I started becoming skeptical of religion, I prayed less. I remember the first few times I didn't pray I would get this pain in my chest and feel dizzy (as if I needed to pray). I would get nightmares. I believe it had to do with all of those years of conditioning. I basically learned two things:
1) prayer makes you feel whole, and can be relaxing
2) you have to pray, or you are turning away from your faith, which can bring terrible consequences forth.
Therefore, prayer was like a double edged sword for me: relaxing yet fearful. It became so ingrained in me I had to have it. Dare I compare it to drugs?
The pain you are experiencing is completely normal, and may last for a while. If you genuinely don't believe, be honest with yourself and accept it. It could be you are hoping that there is some chance your original Hindu faith is true, or you may fear leaving it behind. It is a lengthy process, but one day, you will probably realize prayer itself does nothing other than take a psychological role in your life. It is essentially a placebo to comfort you, keep your faith in check, and remind you that you are being watched/judged so you better not slip out of line.
Ratburn