Religion over a cuppa!

Everything about Japan is not only fascinating but most of the times, well worth emulating. It has shown the way in so many things, little wonder then that the sun rises first on earth in Japan.

A few weeks ago, we has written in this very column about how Buddhists monks are getting more aggressive about marketing their services, with more and more of the younger generation either turning atheists or just not interested in rituals. We had written about hiring monk services online.

And now something which we probably in India too can learn and adapt. There is a café there – Tera Café. “tera” in Japanese means temple so this is many ways something like a temple café. Here, monks are at service and along with snacks and even drinks, one can enroll for calligraphy or other religious classes. One can have a conversation about religion and rituals with the monks there. The monks say that if the young do not come to the temple, let us try and take the temple to them.

Why not something like this in India too? Even in India, religion is becoming a bad word, misconstrued and misunderstood. It has become a weapon used by the politicians to divide and rule. This has actually alienated many from religion and most today do not want to do anything with religion and rituals. Maybe if we had a café, something more satvik, where we could talk and debate with priests and pandits about religion and the logic behind so many rituals, it could help bring back so many into the fold of religion. What we need is a frank talk on spirituality over a cup of coffee or chai. Please, no politics and no "conversion" and no strong fundamentalists.....just pure intelligent conversation with an open mind. Game anyone?