The OP made this statement...
The main index page is a CGI file, how can I get it to load?

I understood this to mean that when initially accessing the site, the index page is a cgi script that needs to be accessed. There will be 'NO' QUERY_STRING or POST. This simply redirects the normal index page to the CGI script without the use of .htaccess (I also believe the .htaccess method is a better way to do it.)

Please explain *extremely* unlikely to work