On God... And Diminishing Returns

As a wise friend once remarked, rivalry based on religion is like “claiming that my imaginary friend is better than your imaginary friend.”

Nonetheless, the world abounds in religious rivalry.

There must be a solution to this – and it struck my mind that the best way might be to apply diminishing returns to God.

Let us shift the scene to the great new city that we will build on the Konkan Coast. And let us invite every religion in the world to build a temple to their God there. Thus, the new city will have a synagogue, churches for Catholics as well as Protestants, mosques for Shias as well as Sunnis, a Parsee fire temple, a Buddhist monastery, a Shinto shrine, a few Sikh gurudwaras, a Jain temple, and Hindu temples to every god in the pantheon: a Shiva temple, a Vishnu temple, a Brahma temple, a Kali temple, a Saraswati temple, a Hanuman mandir, an Ayappa temple, a Balaji temple and so on. And we must include a temple for the Donyi-Palo faith of Arunachal Pradesh, based on the worship of the Sun and the Moon.

This adds up to about 2 dozen temples for 2 dozen gods.

Let us now think of the life of an ordinary person living in this city, or a child growing up in it. What will be their take on God? Or should that read “gods”?

I daresay that in this City of All Gods there will be zero religious rivalry. God himself will be faced with diminishing returns. There will be so many gods in the city that religious chauvinism will have no appeal. “Sabka Malik Ek,” the citizens will shout in one voice whenever extremists of any religious denomination disturb the peace.

Having solved the Problem of God – which is a major problem – the citizens of this new city will then have to figure out how to survive. In this Holy City all the gods will point in but one direction – to The Market. All the faithful will be encouraged to trade in The Market and thereby prosper. Such a city will soon become a Great City.

And we have a historical example of this happening on the sub-continent: the City of Madras. When the Honourable East India Company built Fort St. George, the governor of the fort received a letter from the directors in London, ordering him to “make your settlement a mart for all nations, for that is how God Almighty of old promised to make Jerusalem great.” Fort St. George rose from nothing to become a great city. We can do the same, by making our new city a “mart for all nations.”

And a competitive market for all gods too.

Peace on earth.