So, M.K. Gandhi seems quite confident…that in the end truth and love always win. But how to know what is true if most people staunchly believe that only their way of working is right and they claim only their belief system to be the ultimate truth and none other?
Such unilateral opinions are the cause of all the hatred in this world, and now the cause of terror in France…a blood bath that has happened so many times all over the world that we are now either perpetually scared or kind of immune to it. When things go this bad we are shaken but we get over it sooner than we ever thought we will.
What’s the solution? Maybe one day God or Goddess (yes, that’s possible) will descend down from skies or come out from the inner earth (yes, that too isn’t impossible) and set things right. Till then, we can try taking concrete steps to remove the root cause of evils.
To begin with, put a total ban on all religions. Seriously speaking, these religions were formed as per the needs of particular era and also as per the local designs of a certain land or nation-state. In their current retrograde and political form, they do not suit us in this global world when we all have decided to migrate here and there, and we all live together.
So let all world leaders get together and dispose of all the religious books. Then make a fresh start. Write a new book called Humanity Survives. This will have commonly agreeable codes of conduct. Till this is done, our cute and immature world children will continue to harp ‘My book better!’…’My book right!’ ‘My God the true God!’ ‘My God name the besssst!!’.
My last passage is blasphemy and will anger many. Blasphemy it is. So let there be religions. But then…don’t ever say we need a solution to all this chaos! There is none.
Just pray! Pray to God till your voice goes hoarse…and the wise old bearded man up there, sitting in his big throne chair, looks at you lovingly while saying…”My lovely children! They have so much faith in me that one day I’ll set things right for them!”
I’m Humanity, I look at this evil world upside down…I survive. What a victory!
* Another poem written after attack in Sydney and Peshawar
I hope you live in a place where saying these things will not earn you a prison sentence and death, Alka, for there are places much in the news right now where, sadly, it would. The world breaks our heart every day. We need to continue to find ways to reassemble them.
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Your apprehensions are true, Judy. Where I live and where I come from are not like that, but in this virtual world there is still a need to be cautious. Yes, there is heart break after such incidents and a strange numbness, a loss of faith and belief. There is no other option but to reassemble and keep moving on.
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You make some very profound points.
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We can express our inner thoughts but things won’t change anytime soon.
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One can only lament at the way things are drifting. Let us hope humanism prevails, sooner than later…
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Lament as well as wonder…drifting towards what end? Humanism is there but overpowered and confused.
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Drift is obviously towards destruction, Alka, and the slide will continue if religions are allowed to override humanism.
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To add a clarification, religions here mean institutionalised belief systems that are nothing but power centres playing with lives of people…
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True…institutionalised and too organized nature of religions leaves no room for any disobedience or personal opinion. That’s what leads to fanaticism.
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Surely, this path leads towards destruction, but hope there’s no annihilation of races to follow.
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Many atrocities have been done in the name of religion, but I believe it is man himself who is wrong thinking, not necessarily religions.
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True. All religions have great underlying principles. People keep focusing on superficial differences rather than following all the goodness within their own religion, or even that in other faiths.
Then there’s obsession to increase number of followers…now that’s politics and power game rather than religion and spirituality.
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Agree.
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Religion is a sensitive topic. So is the way each of us choose to live in this world. We all certainly have our differences, but I hope one day we can all come to realise that without differences the world would be a very boring place.
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Religion is nothing but a belief (system) that there’s some power beyond us. With this belief our life makes sense. How we remember this power shouldn’t have such rigid rules that we forget the real purpose. Of course differences are but natural. The right attitude would be…mine is right, and the other is also right. Or at least..mine is right and the other is also not wrong.
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Very well said, Alka.
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Religion is the root of many evils, it is “opium of the mass” …an addiction. 😦
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Oh yes! When taken too seriously to the point of obsession. And I am a Marxist…in a way 🙂
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I agree with you that there is no solution and part of our success as a species is our aggressive and territorial skills. We have not yet evolved to truly live together in peace and harmony nor may we ever. All we can do is be kind and compassionate to balance our natural tendencies. It was a very thought provoking post.
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I had put it too bluntly, and now you have analysed it well. Territorial skills – that is an appropriate word for our instincts. In fact all animals have them and humans have always been fighting wars for their beliefs. It seemed like the world has come a long way since the World Wars and Auschwitz, but far from it as it all goes on forever. So yes, with all these natural tendencies we have to learn how to co-exist while practicing compassion as well as respect towards differences.
Thanks for your views! Your comment got overlooked. Saw it now 🙂
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