Sunday, March 1, 2009
This weekend's reading further explained Pi's search for multiple religions. On page 69, the imam, priest, and pandit are all fighting. They say he "must choose". The fact that these 3 religious figures are all fighting is pretty ironic. Pi chooses to participate in these religions because he is looking for something unexplainable. It goes along with the fact that he changed his name: he wants to be accepted. Each religion offers a little something more to him. Why do these religious figures have a hard time accepting his multiple faiths? Pi's approach is unconventional, but doesn't he justify his reasoning pretty well?
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I think that the reason they have difficulty accepting his decision to practice the different religions at the same time is because each religion holds the belief that it is the one right opinion. To practice all of the religions results in not practicing them fully and that undermines the basic ideas of each religion. For example, some Christians believe that in order to get into heaven you have to be baptized. However, baptism is not part of the hindu philosophy, and it contradicts their beliefs. The person would then no longer be a 'good hindu' and their soul would then suffer. Since the point of each religion is ultimately to preserve the well-being of one's soul, the religious leaders get into a conflict because they feel that Pi's soul has been damaged and they disagree on the proper way to save it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Wallis. I think that these three dominant religious figures are arguing because each believes that his own religion, beliefs, and practices are the right ones. They don't understand that the reasoning behind Pi's devotion to all three: that he is merely trying to show is unconditional love for God and to find more ways to do so. I think that religious beliefs and connection to God are a personal, spiritual thing, and if Pi wants to connect with his God and show his devotion by practicing three major religions at the same time, then the imam, the priest, and the pandit have to respect that.
ReplyDeleteI actually agree with Lily in that I find the bickering of the three "wise men" to be pretty ironic. One of the fundamental reasons for the existence of religion is to instill morals in its followers. Yet these three leaders cannot even show the slightest bit of tolerance towards the others. It makes sense that they should wish Pi to choose one or the other, but the fact that they actually go as far as to bash the other religions is extremely immature and would almost make one wish to not associate any of the three. I think that one of the reasons Pi doesn't want to settle with just one religion is because he disagrees with this view that any one is better than the other.
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