My Journey onto a Beautiful Road

Subarno Shome

To tell the truth, I’ve always been a semi-religious person. I pray to God every now and then, but I use god mainly as my support mechanism. As a Hindu, I respectfully honor our gods by following my parents. Whatever they did, I’d do too. As I grew older though, I started to question the reason these gods were so important. I knew a few things about the gods, but not too much. So, I started to look for answers. I wanted to be a knowledgeable Hindu, much like my parents. Obtusely, I went on the internet straight away because everything is on the internet, right? Wrong. Almost anything can be on the internet, but that doesn’t mean everything is correct. Soon enough, I found myself confused and frustrated, but that’s completely normal (and natural) when trying something new. The internet and social media are not the places to study. Religion is such a complex, but a beautiful concept. Religion isn’t something that can be fully learned and observed off the internet, where anyone can write anything. The second I realized this, I started my journey onto a beautiful road.

I started expressing my passion to learn about our gods and our religion to my parents, who at first, was shocked! This, though, was mainly because I was a stubborn child, who didn’t ever want to step outside his box. My loving parents were happy to help me on this journey of mine, so they immediately, after hearing what I wanted to learn, told me to do something. It’s something so simple, yet scary for me. They told me to read. They wanted me to read a book. My first thought was: “Really?” I really disliked reading; at times I found it to be a waste of my time. Yet, my passion to learn was so strong, that I thought: “Why not give it a try?” This is an example of how different everyone’s journeys in life can be. You should never say “no” to trying something new, as you might live to regret it. You just need to have a passion to learn and accept change with open arms.

Anyway, listening to my parents, I went to our family bookshelf. All the books were covered in dust, almost inviting me to learn (it invited my allergies as well). I kneeled and uncovered the book my parents were talking about. It was called “Mahabharata”. You may have heard it before, and if not, I know for a fact it rang a bell. I almost gave up on that strong passion I had when I saw the sheer size of the book. Let’s not forget that I hated reading, but I knew I would regret it later if I didn’t just read one page. One page turned into two pages. Two turned into three. Three turned into five! This book was interesting; I couldn’t believe it! Sure, some things I didn’t understand, but the narration of the story fixed my confusion. This authentic presentation was the key to my knowledge and understanding of our gods.

I’m still learning every day, but I have learned small, valuable life lessons from this book. It’s important to stay humble, you may think you know everything, but that just means you’re stubborn. My journey to the Mahabharata should be a lesson to just go for it. If you have a passion, don’t waste your chance just to regret it later. Step out of your comfort zone and try something new. Go, apply your learnings and your lessons to your life. I tell my mom all the new things I learned from this book every day, and it makes me happy to see her smile. But I’m not doing it just for my parents, I’m doing it for me; this is for my life. I’m not anywhere near finishing this book, but until then, it sits on my bedside table.

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