PURE FORM OF RELIGION!

Introduction

As a teenager, when I came to know about God, I was fascinated. Like any other person, I started worshipping him and doing rituals according to my religion and culture. When I was growing up I started questioning myself! Is the God which is described to me real? Is the God of our religion the only God? If this is true, why did the majority of the world’s population not know who the God I followed was? This raised doubts in my head! I was told that God is one and God is everywhere but when it came to worship I was taken to temples. When it came to Gods of other religions I was told they don’t exist! I wondered how can anyone tell me so contradicting statements at the same time!

I was confused. As a curious student it raised more doubts in my head! The concepts which I was learning about how nature works were contradicting what religion said about the same thing! I wondered whom to listen to. I found science more logical so I was more inclined towards it.

Like a typical teenage boy, I was quite curious about everything and wanted to know it all. I couldn’t understand the need for religion when there was science. I thought that religion and science are two opposite departments fighting to prove that their theory is correct and the other one is wrong! But I was wrong… I read many biographies and followed many science and spiritual leaders, but I still had doubts. When I was 18 I realized I was all wrong! I realized that the job of a religion is not the same as science! The job of a religion was not to state facts. The pure form of religion according to me had some completely different roles. I understood that the religion which exists today is not the same as how it started! Over the years all the religions have turned impure and have forgotten their actual purpose!

This book is not about facts but about my journey through my teenage days and experiences that I had in these 3–4 years which helped me to understand the concept of science and religion better. I realized that the basic idea of all religions is the same and it complements science to help us understand everything and to maintain peace and harmony. Now the biggest question arises which religion am I talking about. I am talking about the religion which is no more and has been lost. A very interesting observation that I made is many people are giving up religion and becoming non-religious. I understand what is making them do this. Even I used to get such kind of thoughts. So what is making them do this? Why was this not happening earlier?

Role of education

Education has a very important role in this. We as humans are quite curious about everything! We want answers to our questions in some or the other way! Back in the time when education was not a thing people were not aware of any scientific phenomenon but their curiosity was still there! At that time religion still existed and served the purpose of answering questions that people raised! Soon when the people started asking questions about how things in nature worked, religion started serving this purpose as well. As these religious concepts were passed from generation to generation they started turning impure! New beliefs and myths were added by many people and religious leaders which helped them to control the people.

In today’s world, people are understanding the actual reason why things appear as they are and therefore they don’t feel the need for any religious explanation to satisfy their curiosity because they are getting more logical answers through science. So they are giving up their religion.

Concept of life and God

No one exactly knows how life first originated on earth. We know that life arises only from pre-existing life, for example, dogs having puppies or we having children. Is God the creator of life? How are we different from God? Is God someone like us? The concept of God is quite complex. The image of God is portrayed quite differently in different cultures. Is God a specific being? or a collection of something which is co-ordinately working to keep everything organized.

We have to remember that our present is the consequence of our past and our future will be the consequence of our present. God doesn’t decide where you will end up. It is you who decides where you will end up. Did God create you, what about your parents then? Are they God? Instead of wasting time in finding the creator, we can take care of his creations as a gesture of appreciation. But we are unfortunately destroying his creations in order to find him. Worshipping God is not the solution. Worshipping each other is the only solution.

When religions first originated they were pure! Today all the religions have turned into a mess. It has only divided people. And who is responsible for turning this pure thing into a mess? Today’s religion teaches you to admire the teacher or God, but actually, we should pay more attention to the teachings rather than the teacher. Someone never teaches anything so that people can admire him but so that people can learn and understand his teachings and pass them on. This is what exactly religion in its purest form is.

Gautama Buddha never wanted anyone to consider him as a God or get attached to him. He wanted people to get attached to his thoughts and teachings. Today religion is teaching us that God is someone who cannot be questioned but if this is true God would have never given us the ability to question him! God is nothing but the symbol of good thoughts that we pass on to each other for the well being and survival

If there was no life then there would have been no one to worship God but there would have still been the non-living things like stones and rocks which are considered as creation but no one to appreciate it

Humans are civilized, and religion is the means of passing moral values, from generation to generation to maintain harmony and also for survival. It is our privilege that we have the neurological ability to think stuff and appreciate whatever we have and see

Once a person asked Gautama buddha where can we find God? he replied “It is not my job to find God, my job is to remove sufferings from this world”

Pure form of religion

Today we see a lot of things we learn through science are contradicting many religious theories. why is it so? Actually what is right or wrong is debatable but science is not contradicting the teachings of the religion but is just helping us to eliminate the impure stuff which has kept the pure form of religion hidden behind it. You will not find God in temples or churches or any other religious place! God is inside everyone. The image of God created by many religious theories which have come up lately is that he is the supreme creator and we have to worship him! But according to me, God lies in everyone! God is not the creator but the creation itself which should be appreciated in every possible way. This changes the definition of God altogether.

Science has helped us to understand many things, science is just the study of matter, how different phenomena work, and how can they be used to make things more comfortable for us! But while we study nature we have to never forget how nature works so beautifully by complementing each other without the help of any human being. Science doesn’t make them work it only helps us to know what exactly is making it work! It is the beautiful interaction of everything which makes it work’

So who makes them work the way they do. Is it God? Did God create everything and set them up so that they can help each other to survive

Theory of Chain Interaction

According to me, God is defined as the interaction of every piece of this universe complementing each other to make everything work and look how it is. This whole chain of interaction that makes the universe work defines God! Science tells us how does this interaction work while religion tells us the importance of this chain, its ethical value, and how we should take care of it so that everything can work properly

Even if a single element fails to function properly it can have serious consequences on other things as well. For example, humans are one element in the chain that makes the whole earth look how it is, and now humans are not functioning properly and causing problems in chain interaction which is responsible for maintaining harmony on earth.

Here science tells us that humans are responsible for many global events like global warming, deforestation, ozone depletion, and many more! But it is not the job of science to stop us from doing this! We should realize our mistake and stop this thing and here the religion comes into play! It creates a sense of morality in the minds of people to wisely complete our jobs assigned to us by nature to maintain this chain of interaction without disrupting it. It also teaches us and to respect God, here God means everyone responsible and working to make this chain work properly

This is the pure form of religion!

Religion can never tell us why things are there and how it functions! To find that we have to use our intellect and that’s exactly what science is. Religion makes sure that we get that moral values which will help us to understand our role in this universe so that everything works fine

Religion is not about God but it is about teachings that help us to praise God. In today’s world, the actual concept of religion has vanished! Today’s religion is causing problems in both human societies as well as to the nature! Today God is only in the form of great religious teachers and deities. We have to change how people see God. If we treat everyone as God then there would be no worries in this world. All the problems would be eliminated

Misconceptions about God

Today the mentality of people is that religion is a way of serving God, but religion was introduced to serve mankind. As God is the supreme leader and the creator he doesn’t need anything from us. I am not against the idea of God but there are many things written in many religious books of various religion which are against human rights and beliefs. People know that these things are wrong but won’t dare to amend these ideas because they think that they are the words of God their creator. Today people are scared of God. They fear him and therefore are ready to do anything even kill anyone. But this image of God which is made by today’s religion is completely inaccurate. God doesn’t want us to praise him but to praise ourselves and everyone around us. History tells us, millions of people have died just because of disputes regarding religion

A more logical thing to consider is, according to certain religions, if a person follows their religion he goes to heaven, and all others who don’t follow the religion go to hell. So does this mean that people of every other religion who are humble and kind will go to hell just because they didn’t follow the correct religion and the correct God? Does this make any sense? Because if this is true then the majority of the world’s population will be in hell because if the actual God is one then he must have created the whole humanity and not only a certain people of a particular religion. But people still believe in all this because of the fear inculcated in their minds.

Praying should be from our hearts! It is like a conversation between you and God. But today the situation is completely different. People who pray are not even aware of the meaning of their prayers because of the language barrier but they still do it. My question is if you are not aware of what you are saying to God, will he listen to it? Do you think God doesn’t know your language? Repeating prayers in a completely different language which u don’t know is just like saying words written by someone else. While praying, the communication should be between you and God in whichever language you are comfortable in because prayers should also provide self-satisfaction. And the prayers written by someone else shouldn’t be used because the communication is between you and God and you should express your thoughts while you are praying or at least understand every single meaning of the prayer written in some other language which you don’t know so that you are aware of its meaning

If any religious book considers God as a supreme one who cannot be questioned and only tells you ways to serves him then there is something wrong with that religion. We should realize that it is just a way of taking advantage of people who are bound by the fear of God. But If another religious book defines God as your friend who guides you in good and bad times, teaches you different ways to live life peacefully, gives you suggestions on how to be a good human being then that’s the correct religion you want to be in.

Today’s religions teach many good and bad things. Taking all the good things into consideration from all the religions and not blindly accepting every single idea which is accompanying the religion is very important. We should always remember that God will guide us to the correct path as he is the creator and not a human being with a short-tempered mind.

Superstitions in India

Superstitions are any practices or beliefs which contradict modern science. There is a lot of superstition in both rural and urban India. It cannot be said that lack of education is responsible for this superstition to propagate because even educated people are superstitious. Many people who are educated believe in such superstitions because they think somehow or the other it is linked to the religion they follow. Most of such practices have a logical explanation but even today majority of the people are not aware of it.

Knowing the correct explanation behind any superstition is very important. People should learn and also educate others regarding the logical explanation of any such belief.

Here are some examples of superstition present in Indian society and the logical reason behind it.

1) “Don’t go near the Peepal tree at night you may encounter ghosts there”

Scientific explanation: Because green plants like peepal perform photosynthesis during the daytime it releases a lot of oxygen which is essential for our body but at night because there is no sunlight plant performs respiration and releases a lot of carbon dioxide. Inhaling air with a lot of carbon dioxide can affect our health in many ways

2) “Use of tied lemon and chilies” ( commonly assumed that it removes Buri Nazar or keeps evil away)

Logical explanation: thread used in tieing lemon and chilies together absorbs its juices and freshens the surrounding. It also acts as a pesticide or insecticide.

3) “Lizard falling on you brings bad luck”

Logical explanation: as a self-defense mechanism lizard secretes various chemicals to protect itself from predators.

To avoid the transfer of these substances on our body we should take bath or wash that area. Here the bad luck was somehow or the other associated with the poisonous substances which the lizard secretes.

4) “Sweeping after sunset brings bad luck”

Logical explanation: In the olden times there was no electricity therefore there was no bright source of light after the sunset. In this case, if any valuable thing was dropped there was a chance that it could be swept and thrown in the garbage.

5) “Cutting nails after sunset brings bad luck”

Logical explanation: This also has a similar kind of explanation, there was no source of light after the sunset in olden times and therefore it was dangerous to cut the nails as instruments which were used to cut the nails were sharp and could cause injuries in the absence of light.

6) “Eating sugar and curd before going out”

Logical explanation: Because India lies in the tropical region the climate heats our body and the curd helps it to cool down and the sugar helps us to keep our glucose level high so that we can work efficiently and not feel tired.

7) “Throwing coins in water bodies like rivers and well as a part of worship”

Logical explanation: in the olden times, coins were made of copper, and copper is known for its antimicrobial properties. When copper coins stayed in the water for a long time it purified the water and made it safer for drinking

8) “Having a bath after attending a funeral”

Logical explanation: In the olden times’ vaccination and drugs didn’t exist. Therefore deadly diseases propagated very easily. Because a lot of people who came from different places attended the last rites ritual there was a chance that any contagious diseases could spread therefore taking bath was necessary

9) “Cat (black) crossing your path is considered very unlucky”

Logical explanation: there is no particular reason known for this but there are many assumptions. One of this is in the olden times when people used to travel at night with no source of light domestic animals like cats running away was considered a sign that there are some wild animals like leopard around.

There are many other superstitions in India with no logical explanation, people tend to follow them because they are passed down from generation to generation. Lack of education is also a reason.

The caste system

In ancient India caste system existed but it was very different from what it is today! In that system, people were divided into groups based on the work they did in society! Now the interesting thing to consider here is the caste in which you belong was not decided based on which family you are born in but it was decided based on your capabilities. If a person had a good intellect and was curious to learn everything he was considered a brahmin whereas if a person wanted to fight and protect his people he was considered a Kshatriya. There was free movement between castes based on the preferences of a person. There was nothing called upper caste or lower caste, everyone was considered equal and people were not judged on the work they do.

Everything was going well, then came the 2 rules (we should remember that these rules were not originally present in any religious books). These 2 rules were added by some people just to make their lives comfortable! And what were these rules? The first rule banned the movement between castes. In the second rule different caste was ranked based on superiority in which brahmins were placed on the top. These rules changed the lives of people altogether. Now all the people were locked in the caste where they were born in. People were now not classified based on their capabilities but based on the family they were born in. To make things worse the concept of superior and inferior caste was introduced which led to the discrimination of people who were locked in the caste which was considered as lower! This further led to the introduction of the concept of untouchables.

Even today the idea of the caste system in the minds of people is based on upper and lower caste! People are not willing to understand that all type of work is important for society to function. We should change the concept of the caste system to what it was earlier! That is everything should be decided based on merit! When I say merit it not only includes academics but the quality of work you can do in a particular field.

Whenever we see back in the history we discover that whoever has tried to teach religious teachings differently has ended up making his own religion. This makes it clear that people become attached to the religious leaders

One example in Hinduism comes from Shirdi Maharashtra. Sai baba who is now considered God was a ordinary person back in his times. He used to always say There is only one God ! Sab ka malik ek…In his attempt to purify the minds of people and remove myths from the religious practices he used to tell people different things and help the needy. But today he ended up being God himself .Today he is more acknowledged than his teachings which is against his policy!

There are many such examples. Every religions in this worlds has many flaws but all of them have to common idea that is to acknowledge whatever we have. All other things which are superstitious are added later and are not important

Caste system which was popularized in India in the name of religion is one of the greatest miseries. Saying that God has already decided their fate and what they will do in life is completely rubbish. Even the creator cannot tell what you will be ! This will depend on how and what you do with your life. Here the society plays a very important role. Liberalization is key for development in this modern world! Even today in many states caste system is practiced without any fear