PK & the Missing Gods

I always look forward to watching Aamir Khan's films. Not that I don't like the other Khans but it's just that with Aamir's movies, you can be sure that you won't be disappointed for having made that walk to a theatre near you. To say that his latest movie PK led upto the expectation I had would be an understatement. It didn't cease to surprise with its various metaphors, conflicts and storyturns.
I found the character of PK (played by Aamir Khan) to be a necessary oddity that is needed in the kind of world we live in. Oddities, by nature, are odd in our definition of things. We have become so conditioned to our way of life that anyone who questions its fundamentals is rejected as drunk (as this character is in this film) or mental. Whether it is listening to a Baba who advises people to have aaloo-tikki to cure their life problems or a bunch of lunatics who take down innocent lives in the name of guarding their religions. As PK rightly says to "Tapsvi" Maharaj in the film, "You are not even a tiny speck in this infinite Universe and you talk of guarding its creator? God can take care himself."
What was most fascinating was the character's search for God. All the 'God missing' fliers that PK distributes to people. The 20th century thinker Nietzsche, who was known for his disruptive thinking, proclaimed that God is dead. Richard Dawkins, maker of the documentary titled 'The God Delusion', says that believing in an unseen God is nothing short of believing in unicorns. A mythical creature that we have never seen but only believe it exists. Dawkins says further in his documentary that religion discourages questioning and science does the exact opposite. Science is based on constantly testing and revising theories in the light of new evidence, while faith makes a virtue out of believing unprovable and often improbable propositions.

When you think about our country, it is all the more so. While the western world took to understanding and explaining natural phenomenons happening around us, the Indians sat back in reverence giving the phenomenons godly titles such as the Sun God, the Mother Ganges and so forth. In the Hindu religion, there are approximately 330 million Gods. You have to admit that this number is way over the top.
But we don't want any questions because it's a matter of faith. Blindly accept things as they are or you risk being called an atheist. That can mean being unpopular socially. But is that really such a bad thing compared with the graciousness of accepting that you might be wrong? In his documentary, Dawkins provides an example from his undergraduate study, when a visiting researcher disproved a hypothesis of a professor, who accepted the outcome with "My dear fellow, I wish to thank you, I have been wrong these fifteen years."
I think that PK also touches upon why people don't really say that they can be wrong in matters of their faith. When Jaggu's father (played by Parikshat Sahni) warns PK that he will burn in hell for questioning people's faith, PK realises that what is really driving people towards blindly beliefs is fear.
And it's quiet true, isn't it? Our religions thrive on fear. "Do this or that will happen", "Feed a 100 brahmans or you will incur god's wrath", "take 10 rounds of the banyan tree for the next 364 days or God will be furious", and so on and so on. We are told things that defy explanations. And we swallow them down because we are too conditioned, too hypnotised to question anything.
No wonder the Shiv Sena lodged a protest against the film saying that PK talks of God in derogatory terms. But if these self-proclaimed guardians of our gods had even an iota of sense, they would know that if God existed, he would not want us to believe in him forcefully but willingly and whole-heartedly. Not out of any fear, or out of the expectation of any reward or profit but because we love him and know of his existence instead of just sheepishly following the herd.
More wars have been fought in the name of God than for any other reason. Whether it is modern day terrorism or the inter-religious tensions captitalised on by rulers and politicians around the world for centuries.
There is no denying that religion can also make one noble and good. Faith in God does have the power to give hope to millions. But nowadays, some of our religious gurus are so morally degraded themselves that the only direction we need to turn to is ourselves. Not for nothing is it said that 'The kingdom of God is within you'. Let's stop giving the reigns of our beliefs to men whose own moralities are under doubt. Just think of Sant Rampal, Asharam Bapu and Chanraswamy and you will get the picture.
The kind of picture that PK has portrayed brilliantly.