Religion and Rote-Learning

A lot of things are not explained to us, mostly because people who make us learn, themselves are not equipped to offer an explanation; their job is to teach, not to educate.

In such a scenario, a lot of things are taught to us through ‘rote’ (ratte-maarna); and you guessed it right, since ‘religion’ itself is such a vast and diverse topic, who can really educate us when it comes to religion? They can only teach and we can only learn by rote (‘yaad karlo… samajh mei aae, na aae’).

The very basic example of this, one of the earliest, is perhaps ‘prayers’. I don’t see any school where praying is not a compulsory part of the morning assembly. In fact, on the rainy days when we didn’t have the morning assemblies, the teacher made sure we prayed in the classroom itself (before starting our day). We sung the prayer like a song, no-one EXPLAINED to us what the prayer meant; in fact, sometimes we just uttered words we didn’t even understand. For example, many of us has said ‘2 wanza 2’…not 2 ones are 2; but we still learnt the tables. Similarly, we all recited prayers, never questioning the words, or what that ensemble meant. Heck, sometimes we attended schools that broadcasted prayers that didn’t even match our religious beliefs (rather, of our parents or family), but we still recited.

By now, many of you must be expecting some criticism of rote and religion; in fact, am about to do the opposite. I am about to present a case for it, not against it. I guess it would’ve been amazing had we been taught the meaning and the reason behind making us pray; but I guess it’s okay that we were taught, even without the explanation. Science says that our childhood is a ripe time for learning, not sure if it is for understanding too… that too, such abstract concepts like ‘religion’, ‘belief’, and the power of it. So, I’m okay that I was told to learn some things by rote, and one of those things was aspects of religion (or probably spirituality) like praying.

I sometimes find myself chanting this prayer we were made to recite in school:

“I need to be forgiven Lord,
So many times a day,
So often do I slip and fall,
Be merciful I pray.”

I’ve recently recalled it and started chanting it at random times… like when I’m going through a stressful situation — for example, I had a fall-out with a someone close today and while making tea in the kitchen and thinking about her, this is what came to my mind; this prayer.

As a child I would’ve never understood who Lord was — my parents weren’t too religious. Though we were told about ‘God’ by someone I guess, so okay, I might have understood who ‘Lord’ was, but I wouldn’t have understood why I needed his mercy when I’ve just slipped and fallen. By that logic, I’d have to stop playing!… and up-till a certain age, I was an active kid. Metaphors were not taught to us until 5–6th grade? What about morality, when did we get a grasp on that?

So, what am saying is, religion is vast topic and it’s not in everyone’s power to be able to explain it. Therefore, it’s okay if some of the things were taught to us by rote in our childhood; post adolescence, we can choose to stick with it or not. The fact that our older generation gave us an opportunity to be introduced to those topics is okay… Because you know what I realised today? Religion allows us to give ourselves a break that we often don’t afford ourselves.

Read the prayer again:

“I need to be forgiven Lord,
So many times a day,
So often do I slip and fall,
Be merciful, I pray.”

Who’s the Lord that you’re speaking to? Who needs to be merciful to you when you ‘slip and fall’?

It is YOU, yourself. You need to remind yourself that you need to cut yourself some slack, and since you cannot, you have your God to do it.

Recite this prayer and remember to forgive yourself.

Many times in a day, in a week, in a year, you will make mistakes, and the world as is, might be out there to get you… so at least, you give yourself a break! Be merciful to yourself… even if you don’t believe in any God, connect to the ‘Lord’ within you and let yourself have that relief of forgiveness.