How to use Religion

My earlier posts talked about religion, its uses & its obvious misuses and the hope that eventually mankind as a whole will evolve into a state of mind wherein spirituality will overcome the need for religion & there will be a feeling of universal brotherhood. However, for that to happen a conscious effort is required by each & every individual to logically apply his or her thought processes towards achieving the same. And quite frankly, it is not just about God. Religion today is a divisive factor & that is actually holding us back as a race from collectively moving forward. Imagine a world united in thought & belief. Imagine what we can achieve then. But how do we get there? How will this proverbial Utopia come to pass? The responsibility lies with each one of us. More so, if you are parents & have children who need your guidance in all matters. Let us start then by examining 2 scenarios:

1) Ajay gets up in the morning excited and also a bit nervous. His dad & mom are excited too. After all, it is his 1st day of kindergarten school & it is the beginning of a new chapter in his life. He will be taught some amazing things in school and this education, in a way, will define the person he will eventually become. Cutting the story short, Ajay is in his classroom when the teacher enters and greets them. After formal introductions, she then picks up a chalk and writes complex quadratic equation on the board and starts to solve it, much to the confusion of Ajay...

2) Shikha is waiting patiently in the classroom for her lecture to start. This is her first day of her degree course in English literature. As the professor walks in there is silence initially. After the customary introductions he starts their educational experience by teaching them the Alphabets. A for Apple, B for Ball...

As you can see from both these examples, these are not real world scenarios & infact if it were to really happen, both the teacher & the professor would be in institutions of a different kind. While one is a case of too much too early, the other is quite the opposite. The mere suggestion is preposterous, for it is not logical. For inadvertently, applying logic to any situation is what we pickup as part of everyday education. For eg: You have read that fire is hot, maybe have even experienced it too. Somebody walks in and says that the fire at your home is hot & that the fire that burns in his house is actually ice-cold & urges you to put your hand in it, will you do it? Of course not. You know that he is kidding & logic dictates that no matter what he says, that fire will burn your hand. This is just one off-hand example of how we ascertain a particular situation, news or any piece of information based on past experience and a logical application of knowledge gained. And yet, when it comes to religion, nobody dares question the indoctrination he/she received as a child and believes the same stories & myths that he/she believed in as a child without applying the logic that knowledge has given to him/her. My question is why? Why are we so averse to applying logic to something as important as religion. And please, do not fool yourself by telling that it isn’t so important. It is important because of the hold it has over a person’s mind as well as humanity on the whole. It is also important because in the past, now in the present & so also in the future, it will pit man against man unless common sense prevails. But for that to happen, it has to start somewhere. And that somewhere is first & foremost in your mind, then your home, eventually the country & then finally the whole world. But how do we start? What is the first step?

We start with dealing with the fear. Most hatred is the result of fear. We remove the ‘Fear of God’ from the mind. If you think that is easy, then think about the times you have forwarded a mail to 10 or 20 people lest the deity in the mail gets angry & punish you. I have asked people why they do it & they say - “No it is not the fear but what is wrong in sending it. There is no harm is there?” These are mere excuses to cover the fact that yes, you are afraid because of a fear of god that has been instilled in you right from the time you were a small kid. I have already written earlier on how this fear has been largely responsible for easy governance of the populace. But there is another angle to the whole story. Religion is not just about the governance is it? It is also a means of power. Power, a collective few has over a large multitude. And when such power exists in the hands of a few men it becomes dangerous. For then, it is easier to prey on the fears of the collective, gullible multitude & get them to do things that a thinking & logical populace wouldn’t. If you pause for a moment then & remove the veil of naiveté from your eyes, you would also realize that actually it is big business too. There is a commercial angle too that along with the power makes the whole business so lucrative.

But for a moment then, also think about replacing ‘Fear of God’ with ‘Love of God’. Just a change of 4 letters. Four letters that can change the course of history if achieved. I have tried to explain this in an earlier post about how ‘Love of God’ makes more sense than ‘Fear of God’ & why collectively we should accept this change & move forward in time. By doing this not only do we free ourselves but we pass-on this freedom to our children too. The right way to go about it then is to accept the fact that all religion is indeed man made, that God is not an angry vindictive entity who is making a note of all your wrongs to punish you but a magnanimous being who lets you do your thing without interference. It is therefore not mandatory that you pray to him & pay obeisance to him because he expects it from you. Infact he doesn’t need it at all & is not bothered by it. And then, armed with that knowledge when you pray to him with an open heart & pay obeisance to him with love in your heart, because you want to & chose to & not because you have to, that my friend is the real prayer irrespective of what religion you choose to follow then. Because religion in itself then becomes unimportant. It is the purity of thought, the prayer that you offer that is of utmost relevance. That is the prayer that uplifts your being and that is the kind of prayer you should teach your children. And when this happens, then you do not actually need a religion. You need not follow any procedure for the correct way of worship, for there is none. Any form of worship is correct for it is done with love & I assure you that he will accept it without a doubt. And thus begin the first steps of spirituality & the bliss that will follow. Peace to you!