The Freethinker?s Prayer Book may be a compilation credited to an agnostic, but it keeps the faith in the doctrine of life, and how to live it to the fullest
The Freethinker’s Prayer Book
Khushwant Singh
Aleph Book Company
Pg 208
Rs. 495
The sunset club is an exclusive one, but whether it?s privileged as well remains debatable. Counting their last days and facing the uncertainty of what happens after death are not issues everyone has to contend with. It is difficult to say which is better?a sudden, unexpected death or one where each day is lived as perhaps the last one. The tragedy of a youth lost or the sufferings of old age?
Nearing a hundred years of age, Khushwant Singh belongs to this club, and longevity has brought with it ample time for him to ponder, reflect on and accept the truths of life.
Having done with his autobiography, Truth, Love & a Little Malice, in 2002, India?s best known author, columnist and journalist?s latest offering is The Freethinker?s Prayer Book, a compilation of prayers and precepts by prophets, poets and philosophers.
While Khushwant Singh takes great pains to remind the reader repeatedly that he is an agnostic, it is clear that he has kept the faith?even if it is in his own life code or in ?doers? like Mahatma Gandhi or Mother Teresa. Only, it is not in a prescribed religion or a documented ethos. But even a diehard agnostic will turn to prayer in times of distress, as Khushwant Singh admits to doing when his relationship with his wife hit a low patch. This is not to argue that the writer is not what he professes to be, but that deep inside us, we all do believe, and we all hope for some ?power? that will magically engineer salvation for us. Is it God, is it religion, or is it just an illusion? Again, just as we do not have answers for the inevitable cycle of life, this is a question whose answer has no benchmarks for accuracy and one that each person will answer differently.
Who knows, then, where everything arose?
Who can say how Creation happened?
The gods themselves came after Creation.
Then He, whether He created all that is or whether He did not;
He, who looks upon everything from the highest heaven?He alone knows. Or maybe He too does not.
?Rig Veda
Page 5, The Freethinker?s Prayer Book
Coming back to the book, it is heart-warming to read when the grand old man quotes Oscar Wilde: ?The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young?, even when he acknowledges just a couple of lines above that it is ?time to say alvida and depart?.
And, even as he admits that he does not have the comfort of knowing, like the religious, that there is God or rebirth awaiting him, he dismisses the concern with a ?no regrets?, in inimitable Khushwant style.
In the 16-page introduction to the compilation, he advocates a ?bullshit detector? to ?separate the sublime from the ridiculous?, and derive inspiration not just from religion, but prophets, poets, gurus and even rogues, grave men and clowns. He says there is a lot to be learnt from both the sacred and the profane. In tribute to the title of the book, he ends his note with: ?Read them (the compilation) with an open mind and an open heart.? Here are a few gems:
There are five prayers,
Each with a time and name of its own.
First truthfulness.
Second, to take only what is your due.
Third, goodwill towards all.
Fourth, pure intentions;
And praise of God, the fifth.
?The Guru Granth Sahib
Page 10, The Freethinker?s Prayer Book
The Almighty troubleth me.
?The Bible
Page 37, The Freethinker?s Prayer Book
If a man debates and quarrels
about scriptures and doctrines,
he has not tasted the nectar of true faith
?Ramakrishna Paramahansa
Page 62
If we have no peace, it is because we
have forgotten that we belong to each other.
?Mother Teresa
Page 65
Drink wine, tear up the holy book,
set fire to the house of God,
Go make your house in a temple full of idols;
You may do all these, but do not hurt a man.
?Hafiz
Page 117
There is no duty we so much underrate
as the duty of being happy.
?Robert Loius Stevenson
Page 132