Is a person who is deeply religious, a good human being in every aspect and contributing to the good of the society, any better than an atheist who is doing the same? This question has been bothering me a lot lately and I for one surely like my questions answered.
What defines religion? And what makes a person religious? Does being religious just mean offering your prayers on time and following the rules laid down through the centuries?
How would you define God? If you open your mind for a second and look as an observer, you might agree that everything good, beautiful, natural, sincere that we know of in the world, every good characteristic, things that are the best, are what we relate with God. Whereas, everything ugly or negative that might lead to disharmony or evil is associated with the devil. In short, everything good that is or can be is GOD and everything bad that is or a human can think of is the DEVIL. So, a person who knows his good from bad and has his conscience in the right place to guide him through, is actually following what we would define as Godly or God’s path.
Religion, according to me, is only a path to keep people from committing the wrong and trying to attune them to the goodness in the world: and we all wish to attain that! That is what keeps us straying from our paths of righteousness. We have all heard people say ‘Bhagwan se daro’ or ‘Fear the Lord’, and this is what they are trying to say. Most humans are prone to deviate from the right path to follow their own selfish ambitions or needs and the love (or fear) of God helps them to stay on course and not harm others for their own desires.
All religions, at the core, preach the same - peace, harmony, brotherhood and respect. They just talk a different language. I recently heard a song by Death Cab by Cutie from their album Narrow Stairs that has a line that goes "... It's like a book elegantly bound, but in a language you can’t read." He was talking about a potential relationship between a girl and him but I can totally relate it here. As centuries go by, all religions have been molded by the preachers in their own selfish quest to grow and attain greatness. At the core, no religion teaches anything other than the core values mentioned above.
I totally believe in the existence of a force that helps keep the cosmic balance in the universe: call it God, fate, destiny, conscience or faith. I was born a Hindu, but I call myself SPIRITUAL and travel the path laid by Hinduism to strive the ultimate quest.
One of the main philosophies of Hinduism mentioned in Geeta, preaches that God is within each and every living being. So if we recognize the God within, and the God within the person next to you, you would do no harm. We spend hours praying or fasting or helping our pet but would bicker about the next door neighbor for parking his car too much to the left. Our job as humans is to recognize the voice within and do the right Karm (Action). Everything else follows.
The different activities, that we recognize as superstitions, which are associated with religion, in fact, have very scientific explanations. They got associated with religion because in general, the populace would not accept doing something on a daily basis but the fear of God and religion makes them do it all the same. Like fasting for a day a week - Nothing wrong with that, it cleanses your body and gives it time to revitalize. It was said that if you sweep after dark, the Goddess of money goes away. Earlier, when there was no electricity, it was useless to sweep in late evenings since you could hardly see much, but people would do that just to get the job done. And hence it got associated with this superstition since no one would want to make the Goddess of money angry for sure :o)
Most people have their own path to travel to that point of ultimate goodness, and I feel that it is their decision to make, like being a Hindu, a Sikh, a Jain, a Budh, a Christian or a Muslim is. If you believe in a guiding light that helps you choose the right path and make the right decision, then you are spiritual and as Yoda says you just need to "Feel the force within you!"
