When the ancient man saw lightning for the first time he probably did not know how it happened or what caused it, or what would be its after-effects. Some people gave it a spiritual meaning, to mother nature, and that’s when the belief in the existence of God or some supreme power came about (I’m not sure of the truth behind this story). This I feel further led to the start of a new dimension to the way people started pursuing what they think. Some people also happened to take advantage of this situation and brought fear in the minds of people by the introduction of new things like ‘black magic’ and astrology, etc. which still don’t have proper validation till date.
Later with each evolving age, we have been seeing a lot of religions that came up with their own definition for the meaning of life.
Now I feel most religions are polishing according to the generation and are not exactly preaching or practicing what was originally believed by their religious ‘leader’.
Every religion believes in spreading love, happiness, and peace for all. They all believe in coexisting in harmony with everyone. Every religion is beautiful in its own way and creates a belief system among the mass. I think India is an amazing example to the world how we respect, treat every religion with equal dignity. There is so much to learn and share about the perceptions of each religion.
No religion promotes violence, hatred or negativity. Hurting people in the name of religion is not something any religion that I know of has ever preached. It is just that some people who are cruel and indulge themselves in violence causing hatred between religions, and I personally believe they don’t belong to any religion.
And there are few more people (Atheists) who don’t believe in the existence of God or any supreme power. Not believing in something also happens to be a belief in itself? Hmm.
When people wanted something to hold on to, when they did not find answers to certain questions,
When they realised that some things are not under their control,
We have vested our faith in the divine.
We believe.
We hope.
We pray.
We stay positive.
We feel blessed.
We help those in need in any way possible.
When I was at the National Memorial Chorten in Bhutan on the day of Buddha Parinirvana in 2019, I saw people gather together to celebrate the day. Offerings in the form of prayers, food (I even saw pizza!), money and they were even distributing water bottles as a service. Just greeting each other and performing the rituals.
We are not born with a religion tag. We just happen to practice what we are made to feel is right in order to fit into our community and makes us more closer to each other.
It doesn’t cost a penny to be kind and wear a smile that can have a lasting impression forever. I’m sure that is part of your religion too?
The Indian idea of secularism is based on ‘Sarvadharma Sama Bhava’ which means equal respect to all religions. It is a concept embodying the equality of the destination of paths followed by all religions. We all know how well this is being followed for 73 years. We read about it almost every day. Believe in whatever you want to, just not something that becomes less humane to this planet.
ಸರ್ವೇ ಜನಾಃ ಸುಖಿನೋ ಭವಂತು (Let everyone be happy).