A religion is born?

I attended the Anamda Marga spiritual service yesterday by mistake. It was not planned. I had a meeting with some people over there and because they were late, I had to sit through the remaining two hour service. Here is what I learned as I watched Ghanaians circle a table with three poster size pictures of an Indian man on it for 2 hours, non-stop.

1.     Who deserves more reverence and praise than my ancestors who not only suffered the most banal acts of inhumane cruelty, but went on to build nations that focused on love and forgiveness so that I was able to return to my motherland?

2.    Those captured survived the 6 month journey without access to clean water, enough food, while being raped and tortured throughout. That means, they died and resurrected more than once.

3.    They survived evil by transcending the physical and living in their spiritual.

4.    They are the reflection of what is good, Godly, mercy and praiseworthy.

And as a result of my two hour long stay in that ceremony, I’ve created my own religion. The physical space will reflect pictures of the ancestors as we sing songs of praise to them, while trying to connect with their strength, love, compassion and spirituality.  Our ceremonies will include pictures of our warriors, saints, healers and others who died so we can live today. We will go around in circles, looking at their faces; seeing the creases and lines in their faces and reading the stories their eyes are trying to tell us.

They deserve that. They don’t deserve to be located in books or back of memories mind. They deserve to be in the front, all the time, being praised and worshipped. They are the epitome of sacrifice and love.

No, I cannot worship a foreign symbol as God. My ancestors are the truth, the light and the way. There is no heaven or paradise without them.