It was 8:30 am on the clock, and as I sat sipping the hot cup of tea today morning, my eyes scrolled through the front page of AM (Ahmedabad Mirror). The headline read, “Muslim woman swaps kidney with Hindu wife to save husband”. As I took interest to read it through, the article touched me and set my mind churning into so many thoughts, inspiring me to write this post.
RELIGION is a word which is commonly heard from birth itself. As we grow to start understanding what the world around us looks like, how people around us are, whether who is a girl and who is a boy, we are first taught which religion we belong. As a child I used to understand it as teams of some sports game. Just like there are separate teams in any game, I considered that religion has different types to teams and I belonged to one. But I soon realized, it was much more than that.
Let us check upon the actual meaning of this word ‘religion’ - a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith, a personal set or institutionalized system of beliefs and practices. (Webster Meaning). Belief comes from ‘to believe’, to accept some truth confidently. But whom should we believe in? We all are aware as human beings that some supernatural force made this universe and we all exist on a planet called earth! But have you ever tried to question as to who divided the humans into ‘teams’ (would still like to use this word) which we formally term as religions today? How many of us accept our religion confidently, and not in some fear from someone or something? How far this belief goes, to what extent?
When the supernatural force made a human being, it did not label him with a religion neither print a name on his forehead saying you will be called so from now. That human being was in all terms pure, clean, transparent, natural and free. But when he stepped on earth, it was a globe of divisions - Divisions of religion, divisions of colour, divisions of rich and poor etc. And human being has become more a product having certified features than a being himself. What is natural left about him when everything he is explained from is artificial? His thoughts too have become artificial with the countless ‘beliefs’ around him!
He is more a HUMAN-THING rather a HUMAN-BEING!
Coming back to religion, which is the main aspect of all the divisions while other are sub-divisions, let us talk about only faith and belief for a while. As a human I am born free. Then if I choose not to believe in a particular type of God, and respect the supernatural force as it is, what am I? Well, that’s another category in itself again. There two kinds of people in this word based on this concept of religion, ‘atheists (those who don’t believe in God)’ and ‘theists(those who believe in God)’
People often say that, if these divisions weren't there, the world would be a chaos and there would not be any order. And everything revolves around this issue. But isn't the world a chaos now as well? What went wrong? Han't human actually made a business out of every belief today? Why don't we fear killing someone by will/by mistake and rather fear a ritual and take it for granted to cover our sins!
Love, they say is a natural feeling, "ho jata hai' ( happens on its own) and it cannot be controlled? Really? Think again. Now rewind back to the cases you hear often that a boy and girl belonging to different religions fell in love and this was not accepted by the families of either. What happens in such cases most of the times? Either the couple has to leave their homes and find a hide-out or the last option - suicide. But who was responsible for this? Parents blame their bringing up in these matters, the couple blames the parents and world, while the actual culprit is still a question mark! This is just one type of example, the number is infinite actually when it comes to cases related to discrimination as per religion. How many people must have given twice a thought for a girl or a boy in terms of love when it came to religion? Well, love can happen anytime, anywhere with anyone, but it eventually gets controlled by religion becoming a barrier between faiths, beliefs and humankind!
From a certain age, we are indirectly made to understand to know our religion better than the other, to worship a certain kind of God, to pray in certain kind of a temple and the labels just go and on. We believe or we are made to believe ...is what I don;t understand. Where am I in this all when I was only told to do all this and I keep doing it in some mere fear!
I am not against the existence of God or any supernatural force. I know someone is there watching my actions, helping me out in ways unknown and that someone is not visible but is there in each one of us. But what more? I thank that force, I am all respects for it, but why should I divide that force just because its my way of considering it as one. Nobody gave humans the right to divide that supernatural force and drag people into believing what they do. Today people need excuses to fight in the name of religion, oppose, revolt, comment, taunt and post/advertise just to probe. And all this has a selfish attitude involved. If it was really based on a faith and belief of your own, it wouldn't matter whether the other followed it as per you or not. It's your heart, its your belief, why force it on some one? Everyone has a right to follow it in their own way and moral values take care of other things. But if moral value and humanity is only missing, then be it any religion, it cannot be defined or blamed. The humanity of the person is to be blamed if he has committed a crime because a criminal does not have any religion.
Please note: I haven't mentioned any particular religion in this article, so I don;t mean to hurt the sentiments of any particular religion in person. This is just a general approach from my thinking and put here in form a post. Thank you for the read.
