One of the distinguishing aspects of our modern society is the almost certain guarantee that if you talk openly about your belief in God and your habit of worshiping, you are sure to raise howls of protest and derision from almost all members of our young generation. It seems that faith in God is considered old -fashioned and quaint, as if talking about it suggests you’re a child who needs the comfort of fairy-tale proverbs about miracles and salvation to help you sleep at night.

But if you think deeply, it has the potential not only to make you weak and depend on God but can also make you more self-supporting, self-sustaining and a more wilful person. It is one of those things, which needs to be done only the right way and drawing that line to decide to what point you should follow your religious norms is the most difficult part.

My belief in God started when I was a small girl whose most beloved possession was her Barbie doll in her pink fairy dress. One evening however, I lost my Barbie’s pink shoes in the playground. I loved that pair so much, the most out of all her dresses and shoes that I had. I prayed to God thinking, “God, I will believe you all my life if I find my Barbie’s shoe”. I reasoned that if God could help cure diseases and solve so many big problems in this world, then He could definitely help me find my Barbie’s shoe. My faith in God was sealed when I eventually found it and since then, I have cultivated a habit of praying every morning after my shower and every night before going to bed.

Adapting myself to believe in God was very easy but accepting the ‘hows’ of doing so was very hard. Praying is an activity where our social norms dictate how and when one should pray to God. Indeed, there have been many incidents where my mind gets filled with bewilderment in how I should go about following my religious beliefs and balancing it with the employment of sound human values and good conduct.

For instance, the days when you are supposed to fast and read a holy book, you are not supposed to get up in between or take breaks or get interrupted by others. I would often get interrupted by someone elderly in the household when I participated in such events, putting me in a perplexing situation. Should I prioritize my moral notions of attending to an elderly person or to my religious duties of finishing my prayer unhindered? There are several such situations like this, like not being allowed to go to the temple or pray only during your periods, among many others.
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Every morning I used to get up and pray to God in my house’s temple. By doing that, I would start my day with an optimistic and cheerful outlook towards the whole world. This was so much a part of my routine that I felt uncomfortable when I got to know that I was not allowed to pray inside the temple for those 3-4 days when I was menstruating. Beginning those painful days during my time of the month with sadness instead of hope and optimism was too annoying and disturbing, making me wonder if God really cared if I was menstruating or not.

I had been following two customs before all the exams I have taken in my life – first, to bow in front of God one additional time before leaving home and the second was that mom would kiss me before I left home for additional good luck. I clearly remember one such exam for which I studied really hard and desperately wanted to perform well. On the day of that test, I took a shower and got ready but then I realized that I could not go into our temple room because I was menstruating. I felt awfully bad and distressed. After I finished my breakfast, my mom kissed me to send me off. Turning back to our front door, I pondered upon why if I could touch my mother, I couldn’t do the same for my Kishanji. I knew that God loved me the same way my mom did. That is when I immediately removed my shoes and ran into our temple room and touched my Kishanji’s feet. Later, I wondered if God was upset by me touching His idol during my periods and whether I wouldn’t do well in the exams because of this. However, I did exceedingly well in my exam.

From that day onwards, I stopped believing in those ridiculous beliefs of being impure during menstruation and being practically untouchable. For me, believing in God is believing in myself. I love my faith so much that I can’t resist not touching His idol even when I am menstruating. Even during my menses, my feelings and emotions were as pure as any other day. Our faith is from our mind and soul, not the physical body we abide in. Menstruation is a mere periodic process in the physical female body and there is absolutely nothing impure or unnatural about it.

 I would advise all girls who still think that they can not afford to take risks involved in our religious norms, to be brave.  They should test their faith and see if God punishes them only because they pray during their periods. The view of God, His omnipotence, His omnipresence, and His sovereignty, should indeed be the very core to overcome all of our superstitious, and all of our irrational myths.

Garima is a Bioinformatics PhD candidate at the University of Missouri, USA. Her research focuses on studying genomics and epi-genomics affairs. Apart from research, she loves to spend her time at the gym, particularly in running and dancing. She blogs here.

Editor: Divya Rosaline

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