Religion-- Blessing or Curse

I am sure many will raise their eyebrows on seeing the caption of this post. No, I am not an atheist, I believe in God though I can not claim to be a very religious person. The dictionary meaning of religion is belief in God. It also means a particular system of faith and worship and in terms of this meaning of the word of religion there are many religions in the world practiced by different people. It is the belief in God which is the basis of all the religions of the world though manifestation of this belief varies from religion to religion. A religious person is one who believes in God and worships God.

The importance of religion in our lives can hardly be overemphasized. Its impact on our lives and our societies is profound. The major religions of the world have given us great scriptures, the Vedas, Upanishad, Gita, Bible, Koran, Zend-Avesta, Granth Sahib containing noblest messages, loftiest ideals and purest thoughts.  They had helped the mankind to overcome its base instincts, become civilised and understand the virtue of honesty and truthfulness, the love and faithfulness, kindness and compassion. Religions have produced great saints, prophets and preachers who taught us to love our neighbours, not to harm any body, not to speak harsh language to anyone, be tolerant to others’ beliefs and ideas. In fact had there been no religion, civilisation would not have flourished. Belief in God and man’s eternal quest for the Almighty, the Omnipotent, the Omnipresent, the Omniscient led to many great works of art, literature, music, philosophy enriching our minds and purifying our hearts. Religion has given us courage to meet the challenges of life, the strength to face adversities and not to loose hearts in failures. Our religion has taught us the concept of universal brotherhood.

But is religion an unmixed blessing to us? Religions often have been the cause of animosity between people. Whenever a new prophet arrived and tried to preach, he had to face the wrath of the followers of the existing faiths. History has been witness to the tyrannies and tortures of the followers of the different faiths of religions at different times. Religion instead of creating harmony among the people has often dug chasm between man and man. Religions have led to bigotry, fanaticism, sectarianism. Wars were fought in the name of religions through the ages killing thousands of people and drenching the earth with human blood. Religion has been a useful tool in the hand of our so called leaders and politicians to divide and rule over the people and the nations. India has been one of the worst sufferers of religious violence through centuries.  Even today in this twenty first century when there is no dearth of so called rationalists and secularists, if we scan the world we will find that religious animosity rules the world either because of hostilities between different religions or between different groups and sects of the same religion.

Rituals have been integral part of all religions and it is not found unoften that these rituals get more importance than the core values of the religions. These rituals many a times lead to superstitions and tend to make the people fatalist.   These rituals when followed blindly ( and it happens most of the time ) instead of broadening the vision of the people, narrow it, create mental block, curb the creative faculties, restrict liberal ideas, encourage fundamentalism and in the process hamper the well  being of the people and the society. People tend to think that by worshipping their own God or Goddess as per the rituals prescribed they can get away with the most heinous crimes committed by them and get a licence to do whatever they feel like doing. This leads to increase in dishonesty, crime and violence in the society.  We are witnessing the demon of fundamentalism raising its ugly head in different parts of the world in the name of religion creating tensions and often shattering peace. Against this background can we blame anybody if he thinks that we would have been better off if there was no religion?

As an English poet once wondered how the same creator can make both lamb and tiger, it is indeed perplexing to find religion which has helped civilisation to flourish can be also the cause of death of innocent human lives and unending hatred among the people, how it can be one of the biggest causative factors for unrest world wide. As the power in tiny atom can be harnessed to the immense benefit of people and also can be the death knell of millions of people, similarly religion can create civilisation, it can destroy civilisation. It has the potential to make earth a heaven but if misused can convert it into a hell. Religion is and indeed should be blessing to all of us but if used by the vested interests, the fundamentalists, and the greedy politicians as had happened in the past and is still happening, religion can turn out to be a curse to all of us. Let us hope that will not happen, saner elements will prevail, people will realise that God is the same for all religions as Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa used to say that Hindus call Him Ishwar, Christians call Him God, Muslims Allah but He is the one and the same as water is described by different people as jal, pani, water, aqua etc. Let us believe that Vivekananda’s hope which he expressed in the concluding session of the Parliament of Religion will come true one day that upon the banner of every religion will be written, in spite of resistance: “Help and not Fight”, "Assimilation and not Destruction”, “Harmony and Peace and not Dissension”.