Do you practice religion?
The post discusses the intricate connection between religion, childhood upbringing, and evolving beliefs. It emphasises how a child’s religion, often determined by family, significantly shapes their values and disposition. Even if individuals change their beliefs later in life, early influences are hard to shed. The text traces the origins of religion from primitive humanity’s fear of natural forces to structured belief systems that offer moral guidance and a way to understand existence. It critiques the misuse of religion for violence and divisions, asserting that true religion should promote peace and unity, distinct from state policies that propagate intolerance or fundamentalism.
Since birth, a child belongs to a religion. It is the family which decides a child’s religion, values, culture and, up to a great extent, disposition. The future demeanour of a child (girl or boy) is shaped during childhood days and surroundings.
It is difficult not to attach oneself to a religion. Even if a person in the later stages of life decides to leave their original religion and adopt a different one, it can feel like moving from one compartment to another. While this is ultimately a personal choice, the beliefs instilled during childhood are often difficult to remove completely. In the later part of life, when a person starts comprehending and analysing things by reasoning and questioning, things appear differently in the light of reasoning. One, if decided, can slough the original religion to join another bandwagon. The shifting of religious belief depends upon several physical and psychological conditions. It is largely due to proselytizing or a desire for betterment.
With time, religious beliefs become deeply rooted. In another possibility, the faith wilt and the sapling dies in the acid rain of hatred or sometimes logic. To continue further, let us try to understand what a religion is. For this, we need to travel back in time and imagine the situations when it started sprouting in the human brain.
The journey of a human being is a saga of struggle, improvement, and evolution. The highly developed brain and development of thought processes helped a lot in shaping social life and the fear of unseen but omnipotent natural power. Our antediluvian ancestors were cave dwellers. Their life was simple and probably unburdened with the thoughts of religion and God. An unseen power, nevertheless, can’t be denied. It is this power that binds together to give life its shape and existence. It took a long time for life forms to evolve into definite shapes and sizes. As a result, forests developed and animal life flourished. Humans came very late in the geological period.
The thick primordial forests formed a dense canopy and lush green understories. It was the fit environment for different animal forms to develop from carnivores to detritivores and many more, like sanguivores, saprophytes, et cetera.
The borough of dense trees must have rubbed against each other, causing friction that resulted in forest fires in the form of an inferno. It must have lasted long, causing the combustion of dead and dry stuff and also roasting many plant products and animals. The “cooked” products were easy to digest and delectable. The primitive men must have been amazed by the tremendous power of fire, which terrified them. It must be the reason why humans inculcated a sense of fear towards natural forces.
Nature is benevolent and compassionate, but often, it is red in tooth and claw. In the fierce form, nature annihilates. It is the way of Nature to teach a lesson. The tremendous power of fire, air, water, earth and ether must have caused terror and resultant respect in the human heart. It should be the reason our primitive primogenitor started bowing before the natural forces and worshipping them. It was, nevertheless, not the religion but a worship that arose out of terror and the advantages that resulted from it. It is a common observation that people attach importance to those who can help. The reverence for natural forces precedes religious faith, which began with rituals of worship.
As the human brain evolved and became more powerful, rituals began to be institutionalised. With the evolution of thought processes, philosophies came up trying to explain the mysteries of Nature. Gradually, it became more structured and logical. The code of conduct was chalked out, and the concepts of heaven and hell evolved to execute the code of conduct effectively. It was the first religion which evolved to control and regulate people. The concept of heaven and hell was the linchpin of religion, where good deeds were rewarded while bad deeds were punished, sometimes severely according to the degree of sin.
It was this primordial religion which people now term the “Sanatan” (eternal) faith. Many thinkers and philosophers enriched it with their sagacious thought process. It also included various celestial objects and their movement, energy flow the proper way of life and how to conduct it. Nature was the hub of ancient philosophy and thought processes.
As time passed, people tried t to adopt a faith that they perceived as truth. It was the time when the Western and New World were at the incipient stage of philosophical thoughts. Later, when they started cogitating, it was more inclined to the material and superficial things that relied upon perception. Perception is not always correct. That has to be tested on the black stone of logic before reaching a conclusion. The moon, for example, is a large celestial body, but viewing from the Earth, it appears small. Here, perception proves wrong. Indian thinkers logically analysed things and put them to reason. The philosophy of Advait Vedanta, propounded by Shankar, is one such philosophy which blends scientific facts with metaphysical things and tries to give a logical explanation of natural happenings and God.
Ironically, the government and its functionaries in Pakistan are still trying to drive their subjects, giving them religious pills and false propaganda. The derogatory speech given by its army chief triggered the targeted murder of innocent tourists in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir (India). They were selectively killed by cowards of religious fanatics. They spared women, saying they should tell their leadership. The haughty call of murderers was appropriately heard and replied to. It needs to be understood by those who instigate violence and create a divide, even after three-quarters of a century, that can’t be ignored. They will be hit hard if they instigate further. They must mend their ways lest it be too late.
The above discourse tries to underscore the fact that religion is inclusive. It tries to embrace humanity as a whole. There is no scope for bigotry or radicalisation. If a handful of fanatics ruthlessly kill innocent people, asking for their identities and ascertaining their religious faith, they are not serving religion. Their cowardice act is a heinous crime. A person can’t give life; he can’t take it, too. If someone thinks that killing innocent unarmed people is an act of service to his god, he is a fool and criminal. The cold-blooded murder to show the hegemony of one over the other is absolutely against ideology and faith. It must be denounced and dealt with severely.
No religion preaches hate. Unfortunately, a section of people to satiate the parochial pangs created divide and hatred. That culminated in the vivisection of India on a religious basis. As if it were not enough, the newborn nation continued its vicious and destructive activities. It promoted and nourished terrorism, killing innocents and doing all to disrupt peace and harmony. Now, no more. It had to be replied to. The perpetrators of terror had to be eliminated. The recent “Operation Sindoor” launched by India is a targeted surgical strike, destroying the terror camps deep inside the enemy territory. It is a befitting reply to the country which follows religious intolerance and terror as its state policy. Ridiculously, they tried to cry hoarse when paid in the same token.
Religion is a personal choice. To follow it according to its essence is desirable. Religion, like everything else, needs to be updated. Nothing is sacrosanct, but to a greater extent, the applicable things must be adhered to. No religion should be watertight. It makes any faith a group of mindless bigots and intolerant. It must be revisited.
Fanatics are like drunkards with an overdose of opium. The brainwashed turned into a living explosive which does great harm to humanity. It is because of this that Karl Marx compared religion to an opium pill. The heavy religious dose makes people insane and inebriated. They start thinking about themselves as pious and superior. Millions of people were mindlessly killed in the concentration camps of Auschwitz Birkenau during the notorious Nazi regime. The holocaust is a black chapter in human history. Along the same lines, the artificial division of India on religious lines should equally be rebuked, for it led to mass exodus, gore, conflagrations and fanatic religious killing during partition.
Religion gives a person an identity. It strengthens confidence by assuring that someone is with them in distress. In difficult situations, God comes to our rescue, not physically but by instilling confidence and hope in a person.
Ironically, nevertheless, God is man’s creation. His existence is dependent on human existence. Its form can change, but the basic idea of every religion is the same. They all preach peaceful coexistence, fraternity and solidarity. Religion does not feed, but it provides a means to feed the hungry and offer water to the thirsty. God does not differentiate human beings. For Him, every living being is His sons and daughters. It’s like a pond with four different platforms approaching the same water. It needs to be understood.
Had religion been the binding force, there would not have been a bisection of Pakistan into two, twenty-five years after its creation in 1947. Events show further fragmentation of Pakistan where the population mainly belong to the same faith.
Religion should not be mingled with state policy. In the modern era, the theocratic state is an outdated concept. An indifferent system is the requirement of time but it must not be lopsided. It needs to be balanced without an iota of appeasement. Humanity needs love and fraternity, growth, development and progress, not the opium of religious fundamentalism. Religion gives mental peace and, as has been said above, confidence. It is a guiding and binding force when applied with prudence.
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