India And Religion

By Pooja Bhosale

This piece of writing, tries to explain about the many aspects of religion, what it really means and how WE perceive it.

Religion, literally translates to ‘Dharma’, meaning, ‘to do the rightful thing’. When we listen to the word Religion, we first think about Hindu, Muslim and what not? I am not saying Hinduism is not a religion but seeing the wider picture, whatever that tells us to live truthfully, is Religion. Then whether it be the four paths given by Gautam Buddha or Six beliefs of Islam. All these enlightened souls, showed us a right way to live but we never understood it or rather took in a completely wrong way. To better explain it, we recently attended a funeral. In Hinduism, you have to take a bath if you have been near the dead body (we had not, we were standing at least a km away). Now, after returning, my cousin was literally running away, saying take a bath first. What I mean to say is, we never ask the reason for taking a bath. The logical reason given is, we wash away any germs that might have come in contact but we just see it as a bad omen.

Similarly, our ancestors used to pay respect to the nature by offering flowers now we show abundance of love by choking the rivers with flowers (again, not knowing the reason behind).

The worst thing which we have failed to realize is the message, “लोकः समस्ताः सुखिनो भवन्तु”, meaning, “May all beings be happy”. There are many people around us who preach great things, are Doctors in Philosophy but, hurt animals.

So, instead of seeing someone’s qualification better see how they treat others. Look not with your eyes but with an open mind. It is ok to have faith in something, but following anything blindly takes you nowhere. Know the WHY behind superstitions, may be some of them actually have a logical reason behind.

And only because someone asks question doesn’t mean they disrespect your religion. Whatever we have been following is just out of hearsay or fear. If you ask questions, you are considered over smart. We need to change this attitude. First of all, know the reason behind the many customs and traditions, so we can’t be misled by the blind society.

Truly said by M.K. Gandhi, “Faith. Must be enforced by reason. When faith becomes blind, it dies”

By Pooja Bhosale