There has been growing religious
intolerance in India which is a matter of high concern. It’s more of an issue
about self-expression but I’ll stick to the religious front for now. So, as you
can tell by the title of the post, I am going to be talking about my religion
and I know that it is the most righteous and supreme religion there is. Let the
judging begin!
First, let’s understand religion.
A religion is an organized collection of beliefs, cultural systems,
and world views that relate humanity to an order of existence (Wikipedia).
Notice the use of the words beliefs and views.
Since when did beliefs and views start being right or wrong? There always is a
context in which a belief or a view is right and there always is a context in
which they are wrong. My perception will depend on the context I place that
belief or view. Thus, if I decide that a particular belief or view is
wrong/right, there’s no problem with the belief or view, there’s a problem with
my context. I may choose to follow/not follow a belief or view but at the same
time, I need to be aware that there is always a different context in which the
same belief or view must not be followed/followed. This is what my religion
preaches. Also, by the given definition it is clear that religions are made to
guide humanity; they are made FOR humanity and not vice-versa. This implies
that if a particular custom or tradition no longer benefits the society, doesn’t
advance it or make the society a healthier place to live in, then that
particular custom or tradition should be done away with. It’s good to ask why;
Newton did it and look where we are today. This is what my religion preaches
and no, Newton isn’t my prophet. My religion asks me to listen to both sides of
a story before arriving at a conclusion. It says that if I do not do away with
my tradition of observing Earth only from the ground, I am never going to
change my context and discover that the Earth is round and not flat. At the
same time, I have to respect the person who believes the earth to be flat
because he/she has never gotten off the ground.
My religion doesn’t make terrorists. I
know you believe yours doesn’t either but have you really been following your
religion? We all believe that terrorists are people who kill other people in
the name of religion. So, are those people who kill other people in the name of
cow slaughter not terrorists? People who kill other people because they ate
another animal for dinner, or consumed alcohol legally not terrorists? They are
all idiots (there’s a much different word for them in Hindi, starts with C).
Aren’t those people idiots who choose to kill a guy and a girl just because
they were holding hands, despite being of ‘different’ castes? Or worse, decided
to marry each other? We all know who these people are, but there are a lot
many, whom we do not know. There are a lot many who do not know themselves
either. Do we understand what killing
is? Death is just a step, before the last one, in the process of killing.
Killing starts with desire, an intense
desire to get away from a person. The second step is intention, in which desire manifests itself into a strong belief.
Then comes decision, which
encompasses planning, followed by action. Death follows action and the last step is to erase that person from our minds, soul and spirit, completely. If
you have tried to avoid a person with a long beard, you’ve completed the first
step of killing and become a terrorist. If you’ve judged a person with a
turban, you’re a terrorist. If you have had any apprehensions about anybody
based on their appearance, beliefs and views, you my friend, are a terrorist. I
know you’re not causing death but like I explained before, smaller steps before
death, lead to it. It’s good that you stop at the first step but you did take a
step, didn’t you, however small it may be. A story isn’t complete unless you’ve
read every word of it, however small it may be. An engine won’t work unless it
has all the required parts, however small they may be. A drop will enrich an
ocean, however small it may be. A negative thought will corrupt the mind,
however small it may be.
Before the big bang happened,
everything was collected at one singularity. After the big bang, that singularity
exploded into different parts of the universe but all those parts were actually
one before. The earth, moon, sun, all the asteroids, water, plants, animals,
you and I, we were all one. Consider a cake is kept on a table. Looks delicious
doesn’t it? You want to eat it? Go ahead cut it. Now, the piece that you’re
holding, is it a different cake from the cake that’s on the table? If I cut the
cake into 10 different pieces, are those 10 pieces different cakes? Now, I place
each piece in a different room, have they become different yet? They are all
the same cake, aren’t they? Then how are you and I different? We were all one
cake billions of years ago, weren’t we? We look different because we got cut
differently, or because perhaps you got the cherry on top and I didn’t. But we’re
the same. There is an energy that is holding us together and it’s this energy
that doesn’t let us cross the first step of killing. Sadly, some people can’t
feel that energy anymore but we can all try emanating that energy towards them,
can’t we? The energy called, love. And love, if is not unconditional, it’s not
love, it’s a contract, an agreement. This is what my religion preaches. My
religion called, Humanity.
