It has been 5 days that most of the world has been mourning and offering condolences to the victims and families of the Pahalgam attack.
I am still pondering upon what caused this action of inanity. The reports say that mostly the targets were those who belonged to a different religion than that of the attackers. So, is it that religion was the reason for the attack?
Now, What is a Religion?
According to my realization, religion is a system created by Homo Sapiens (us, the humans) to connect with something greater than ourselves. That higher entity may be named as God, Truth, Nature, or whatsoever name it is called.
What Constitutes a Religion?
- Belief – Idea or experience about what is true
- Practices – Rituals or way of living
- Community – Group of people who share common belief and practice
Why was religion formed?
I think religion was not there before humans did. It emerged out of our longing to understand the meaning in life.
Without a reason to live, there is no point in facing the hardships. We humans are social creatures. Humans needed some reason to exist beyond the mundane routine of hardships, pain, suffering, joy, fear, etc.
Religion gave humans a sense of the above cycle of chaos and made us think not about the uncertainty in life.
Every religion has a God. This God, that God, which God?
Now, I think God or some entity exists in every religion. Fundamentally, I see the beauty that each and every religion has been refined over the experiences of humans over many thousands of years of our evolution.
Every religion has proved in one way or the other that God or the higher entity exists. But the problem now is, “My God exists” and “You are asserting that your God also exists.” I think this is the reason that many countless lives have been lost.
Fundamentally, the EGO and IDENTITY is touched or shaken.
You attack the very self of existence of the person. Not just that, this ego makes you to fight for the very existence.
My association is that a higher entity exists, and it’s unnamed and cannot be felt in our normal senses. It, you need to be exalted beyond the normal senses that we have to experience that entity. I think the beauty in this association is that it aligns with many of the other major religions too. (You notice my tone? I am associating my ego and identity with the above statement.)
Why So Much Chaos When the Ultimate Goal of Religion Itself Is Broken?
At the core, the essence of religion is perfectly aligned in every religion. The form (belief, tradition, practices) is where the difference arises. I think humans take “Form over Substance” rather than “Substance over Form” (Being a CA student, I should use the accounting concept of Substance over Form.)
At the core, religions are the same, and it’s the surface where the difference appears.
I think that a cosmic intelligence exists- it can be said as a higher entity or can even be associated with god. Religion is an attempt to visualise or experience the formless intelligence. The religions at the core want to connect the being with the spirit or the cosmic intelligence.
The essence of the same is in many other religions. be it be submission to the god, belief that there is nothing above god, god is eternal, god has the ultimate power, seeking forgiveness, having resent for the bad deeds done, abstaining from distractions in the life and continuing to search for the meaning in the life.
I believe that the association of the higher entity to a “particular god” and believing that apart from that association nothing exists is the primary reason for all the religious conflicts.
The moment that we realise that the higher entity is form less, pure, forgiving, its all one, it does not differentiate, and all the differences are created by our ego and association of identity, the conflicts all will subside.
Respecting others is principally embedded in all the religions, every religion intends to curb ego and self centricity, but the essence of having a religion is itself broken when we let our ego, self-centricity to take over. It gets a more deadly form when such ego and self-centricity is over the religion which is supposed to curb such ego and self-centricity
Praying for such realisation to be in all minds so that the purpose of living is attained
V Karthik
NOTE: READ THIS VERY CAREFULLY BEFORE REACHING A CONCLUSION ON THE ABOVE
All views expressed are personal views. Others may have different views, as they are based on their experiences. I respect them and do not intend to offend anyone. Please feel free to share if you have any other thoughts. I strongly believe that my thoughts are not the best, and I will not enforce them on anyone.
I do not intend to target any particular religion, and I don't believe that one religion is superior to another. All are carved out of thousands of years and have their own beauty.
I don't intend to hurt any particular religion in any way. I respect your religion, and I also respect mine.