Sunday, August 19, 2012

Crossing A River

The other day I came across a guy at a bar who seemed to me a nut job. He talked about different stuff but the one that most appalled me was his description of religions by means of a story. It goes like this:
Persons of different religious background come across a river while on their way to somewhere and what do they do according to their belief system.

The Hindu brahmin sits down by the river and imagines 51 gods and derives 102 elaborate rituals to worship them and hopes that some day god will come and help to cross the river. Every night he goes to sleep crying to God to rescue him from this painful life.

The Christian brings 12 of his friends and dares to swim across the river but none of his friends follow. Before crossing the river, he explained the techniques & methods to his friends. But, they all wrote books(which sometimes became inconsistent) about how he used magic, help from God as the chosen one to cross the river.

The Muslim gathers wood and gets a friend and builds a boat. Once completed, they start fighting over who is going to sit at the front of the boat and ultimately the boat breaks down.

The Jewish gathers wood and gets a friend and builds a boat. They cross the river and drops his friend on the other side who gets people to the boat and makes money by charging them to cross the river in the boat.

The Buddhist gathers wood and builds a boat by himself. After crossing the river, leaves the boat tied to a pole on the other side for people who needs to cross the river. But, while coming back to cross the river on the other side, gets stopped to pay for the ride and gets beat up for asking for a free ride.

PS: This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to a person living or dead is purely co-incidental.

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