Religion- What's the fuss all about ?

As the name suggests this article is on Religion. On another day, when you would see the Sun rise from the East, you wouldn't see me talk much about Religion, Politics or Sensex. The first one is too sensitive and biased, the second one, well, I don't really give much of a damn as I think everything in politics is phony and the third one, I am challenged to talk about it.

But today I present my take on religion, as I feel I have experienced enough to talk about it. I strongly believe the best teacher in life is one's own experiences, I have enough so I feel I am worthy enough to talk about it. In any case, it is my take on religion.

Having been brought up by 2 broad-minded individuals, it is but natural that I am not an extremist or a hardcore orthodox person. Also add the fact that, my many friends and 2 relationships with 2 beautiful girls, were from the 2 other different religions. I believe that religion is something that should not have existed in the first place, it is one of the many bad things man has introduced. It is just another reason, for man to discriminate among themselves and all it does is create tensions and group-isms among people.

Yet, I also believe that the world does not run on its own, according to the rules of science. Sure, Science explains many things around us, but it is not because of science that the things are the way they are, as we see it. I believe, strongly at that, there is a supreme force which controls all this. I would not like to give this supreme force a name, because I do not know for sure. I prefer calling it an energy or a force. There are so many miracles, in this planet and the unknown parts of the universe and if someone says science is the only reason behind all these miracles, I would strongly disagree. The beauty of a zygote forming from a sperm and an egg, a child growing in a mom's womb, the mind and the things it can do, the imagination of the human mind, the power of the memory of the human mind, are a few of the vast examples to the miracles on this planet. There is definitely a force, which is co-ordinating these super-humanly deeds. If it wasn't super-humanly, man would have already understood what the mind is and replicate it or create a sperm or a egg on his own. Man tries to come up with explanations through science for all these miracles, for things which have been in place much before man even existed. This has been in place for millions of years now and we are trying to find answers to them now, through science. So saying, Science is the sole reason behind all these activities, is a little far fetched. For this very reason and the fact that I believe religion should not have existed in the first place, I call myself a 'Spiritual but not a religious person'.

Having said all that, deep down I am still a religious person. It may sound like an irony after what all I said above. But, we do not know for sure, do we, about anything that happens at a level, above which we cannot understand. And I do not take a decision or rule out a possibility, until I know for sure and when it comes to talking about super-power ala 'God', one (I) can never be sure, except for say, the belief. So I do have the belief. These beliefs have been imbibed into me, when I was a kid. At an age, when I was not mature enough to take my own decisions, my parents instilled in me some beliefs about the religion that they followed. I was born a Hindu and so I have my beliefs from Hinduism. When I was old enough to take my own decisions, my parents gave me the freedom to choose whatever I wanted to, they trusted me, they trusted their own upbringing, they knew I wouldn't falter. Present day, when I am 23, old enough to have my own kids, I am very thankful to my parents for having introduced me to a religion, in this case Hinduism.


I have had my moments too, I have also been through those phases, where in I was trying to be an atheist or an agnostic. I was convinced back then, that science can explain everything and I have never seen this so called God. But strangely, subconsciously when I was in troubles, or when I was tensed or when I was going through the worst days of my life, I always used to talk to this so called 'God'. Asking 'him' to give me the strength, to get out of this mess. When I realized what I was doing, I simply had to drop the idea that I was an atheist or an agnostic. I still remember, I was happy to tell people I believe in God once again. I wasn't shameful !!!

Here comes the importance of religion in one's life. A better way of saying it would be, how it has helped me in my life. I still stand by my previous statement that, if given a chance , I would have still tried my best to remove religion away from people's lives. In that case, something else would have taken the place of religion.

The point I am trying to get at is that I had someone to talk to, in my bad times, without actually revealing what I thought about something to someone in particular, like my parents, sister or friends. I always had someone to talk to, i.e I am referring to 'him' or 'God' or 'Super-power'. This way I stayed out of troubles. More importantly this helped me not take any of the easier shortcuts in life. I know many people who chose to go in the dirty lanes, feeling sorry for themselves and having no one to talk to. They ended up doing drugs, etc and spoiling their lives. I never had a reason to do that, because consciously or sub-consciously I always talked to that someone and told him my problems. I guess, that has been the biggest advantage of being introduced to religion at a very young age. I will always be thankful to my parents for that and I wish to do the same to my children, when they are young and still are not independent enough to take their own decisions. Of course, once they grow up it is their own choice. I have been tutored well on bringing up children, thanks to my lovely parents. I am a perfect example :).

Now I hate getting into which religion is good and which religion is bad. I tried my best not to take the names of religions in this blog. I do not want to make this blog a hate blog. I do not want to be biased. One simple point is that, almost every religion has about millions of people following it, which is enough to show that there is good in every religion. I am sure no religion orders people to do bad. Just that in few cases, the people who preach religion to others, they mess up the whole concept of religion and instill their own ideas and manipulate what must have been written in the holy books, thus misleading the people. It doesn't help that, The Holy books have been written in such a way, that more than one meaning can be deduced from most of the lines.

But before I round up, I would like to state a few facts which really hurt me. Religion is one thing, which should not be forced onto anyone. Each religion has its own good points and people should be free to choose it, just like how my parents gave me the freedom to choose what I wanted, after I was mature enough to take my own decisions. It is rather disheartening to know that there are people out there converting people from one religion to another, by preaching. I strongly disagree with this, because I know of many cases, where people have been converted by giving them bribes or other materialistic gains. The whole point of converting all the people on the earth, to one religion and the war of religions is so ironically materialistic. Religion is something which is not materialistic according to the holy books and the present day religion is all about materialism. For this reason I detest missionaries, all I want to say is leave the people alone, let them choose what they want to, instead of forcing it onto them. If one forces it onto them, what is the use of becoming mature enough to take ones own decisions themselves. As a closing point, I am proud to be a Hindu, which is one such religion, which does not allow conversions. If you are not born a Hindu, you are never a Hindu. I am proud of the fact that I belong to such a religion, which preaches the good in it, but does not convert people from other religions to its own. As I said, every religion has both good and bad sides.

Having said all that, I know many successful people who are atheists. I am not advocating all people to be religious here, I was just trying to share my perspective on religion and how I guess it helped me. Finally, at the end of the day it is all in one's head. It's the emptiness in ones life that has to be occupied by something. What we choose to fill that emptiness with is what defines one's life. An orthodox person fills it with religion, an ardent Boston Red Sox fan can think only about Red Sox, a drug addict uses only drugs to keep himself pre-occupied, a money-minded person thinks of ways to become rich, a scientist thinks of ways to make the world a better place and of course become famous in that process. So if I have the power to remove religion, I would remove it forever from our lives, so that we can have a tension free and more united society.

All of the people above, have something in their life, and that something becomes their life.
So remember, what you choose, defines your life ;)