Abstract

This excerpt is taken from the early part of the novel of the same name, that mainly discusses the conflict between false, media-based superstitions (that sometimes take the guise of religions or bring about a cult of believers) and philosophical religious insights with no comforting trimmings that people usually ask for. This excerpt deals with the childhood of someone who would become a media counsellor, prone to all deviousness of that role; and his brother, someone who has no false image to maintain at all, but will fight for what’s right someday. This excerpt shows how belief , with no connection to logic or rationality , can grow and form a quasi-religious system of its own. It also shows, through the motif of the Buddha statue, how difficult it is to get people to believe in the Dhamma , or the word of the Buddha, rather than adore it for the comfort it offers, which allows rituals to be the be-all and end-all of religion .