Tolerance for Faith vs. Responsibility to save Children from Superstition

I yesterday told you that I received quite some feedback when I told how our employees left their job because they had chicken pox. While I yesterday told how some superstitious people asked why we had sent them to the doctor, there were others who concentrated on another question: when they asked whether they could come back after getting cured from chicken pox without any medicine, we refused. Why?

I was, in connection with this decision, blamed that I took someone’s job because they didn’t believe what I believe in. First of all, I want to reply to this accusation. I really and honestly normally don’t care what my employees believe in. If they are Hindu, Christian, Muslim or atheists – it is absolutely their own matter and neither do I ask them about it nor do I interfere. Their way of seeing the world has nothing to do with the quality of their work. I keep a professional attitude about this and also expect the same from them.

Most, if not all, of our employees have a pretty clear idea of the fact that we are not religious people at all. They know that the only person in this family who keeps an altar and actually uses it for worship is my grandmother. They know that even on big religious festivals, we don’t perform any ceremonies, on fasting days we eat as usual and you won’t find any signs of a religion or caste on us. We don’t stop them from doing their own worship though.

It works well in our daily situations and there has never been such a problem but now we took this decision for one reason: while our employees’ faith is nothing that we want to take any influence on or judge about, we have several young boys at the Ashram for whom we do carry a certain responsibility. These children were given into our care not only so that we provide them with clothes, food and whatever else they need but also to teach them – in school and at home. Morals and ethics is something that a child learns in the culture of their home and these boys’ home is the Ashram.

We are open to the world and tolerant – these children will get to know about Hindu faith by the culture spread in their surrounding. When this religion turns into dangerous superstition however, there is a limit. That is the point where we have to show them by our words and actions that they should see things scientifically, that an illness gets cured because of medicine and the natural strength of your body – and never by a ceremony.

We are of the opinion that it would give a wrong impression to these children if our two employees leave because they don’t want to take their medicine and then come back. A medicine that these children had to take themselves. The employees would come back and teach their superstition, trying to prove the children wrong when these argue that they had medicine for the same problem. Those people who have seen the effect of medicine and nevertheless don’t want to take it but rather lose their job would be stubborn enough to actively talk against said medicine, influence the kids not to want to go to the doctor and plant all kinds of nonsense in their heads.

If superstition comes from ignorance, it is one thing but if it comes from a senseless stubbornness or blind faith, it is wrong. And we take our responsibility for our children serious – that’s how we want to keep them away from the influence of blind, superstitious faith!