One among my past blog posts was about different platforms at which one can find free books to read. Since then I have taken a refuge in paperback. While paperback still remains my favourite type of reading material, I strayed a bit the other day to read a short story on my phone on my way to work.
I happened to stumble across an essay by martyr Bhagat Singh on why he is an atheist. His atheism was accused to be the result of him being vain and prideful which he defends in his essay. Bhagat starts by differentiating between vanity and pride. He does not deny being vain and pride since these are just follies of being human as he is. He further traces his childhood to find the reminiscence of faith. His father, a staunch Arya Samaji inculcates the belief in a supreme power. However as Bhagat Singh joins college and subsequently the revolution, he reads other ideologies and comes to some conclusions about the existence of God. He had a tough life in prison, everyone in those times did. He was about to be hanged and that is when he misses his faith the most. Had he been a theist it would have given him courage but somewhere he is glad he is not. His disbelief in god has given way to his belief in himself.
In his essay Bhagat Singh encourages merciless criticism and independent thinking as these are ‘the two necessary traits of revolutionary thinking’. He further defends his disbelief in God because faith cannot withstand the onslaught of reasons. ‘Lethargic, idle, fanatical as we are—we cling to orthodox religion and in this way reduce human awakening to a stagnant pool’. Towards the end he also defends his lack of faith posing questions to the believers which can’t be dealt with theist logic.
It is a short book on Juggernaut which addresses atheism as we think of it. The book is very relatable. It also gives a gist of the state of mind of the revolutionary that Bhagat Singh was. As for the app itself, Juggernaut offers a lot of free books. There are mostly classics. Other book that I have read on the app are ‘The Legend of Laxmi Prasad’ and ‘Tempest’ by Shakespeare.
Juggernaut is not my most favourite platform to read on because of its faulty highlighting feature. Every time I try to highlight a passage the page flips and I reach about five pages back. It also lacks the bookmark feature. So once you are lost, you have a difficult way finding home. After reading ‘The Legend of Laxmi Prasad’ I swore not to read on this app. Now I only use it to read books/short stories less than 40 pages. I still prefer my kindle app. Juggernaut is on standby.