Wednesday 21 October 2015

Religion and conflicts

Why do we, Humans,  fight against each other in the Name of  Religion?

Religion, in the accepted sense of that word, has now become a matter of propaganda, of vested interest, with much property, with a great hierarchical, bureaucratic system of `spirituality. Religion has become a matter of dogma, belief and ritual, something which is totally divorced from daily living. You may, or you may not, believe in God, but that belief has very little meaning in daily life, where you cheat, where you destroy, are ambitious, greedy, jealous, violent. You believe in God or in a saviour, or in some guru, yet keep that far away so that it does not actually touch your daily life.

Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam or Christianity, which are all organized beliefs with their propaganda, conversion, proselytism, compulsion, and so on. Is there any truth in organized religion? It may engulf, enmesh truth, but the organized religion itself is not true. Therefore, organized religion is false, it separates man from man. You are a Muslim, I am a Hindu, another is a Christian or a Buddhist and we are wrangling, butchering each other. The whole concept of religion is “not to question, not to doubt - but to blindly believe texts written by other men” .

Religions throughout the world now are utterly meaningless. We want to be entertained spiritually and so we go to the church or the temple or the mosque and that has nothing whatsoever to do with our daily sorrow, confusion and hatred. A man who is really serious, who really wants to find out if there is something more than this terrible thing called existence, must obviously be completely free from dogma, from belief, from propaganda, he must be free from the structure in which he has been brought up to be a religious man.

To be free to inquire, one must be free from fear, from anxiety, from the desire to be psychologically secure. These are the obvious requirements for a very earnest and serious person who wants to find out. The instrument that is capable of inquiry is a mind that is clear, that has no distortions, or prejudice of conclusion, of formula, or belief. 

Anyone can interpret the Bible, the Torah, the Quran, Bhagavad Gita , etc., ... After all, they are all just books - men wrote these books, they did not fall from the sky or were delivered to the human kind. And that's a fact.
Yet, somehow we let ourselves judge one another by quoting them. The whole concept of religion is “not to question, not to doubt - but to blindly believe texts written by other men” .

It is obvious to everyone I guess, that the whole purpose of it is control.
By believing in a religion, and firmly stick to what it says, one loses his/her spirit of inquiry and open mindedness.


Attachment to ones Religion make people think that they are the only ones who are true. They claim that they have the absolute truth, that everyone else who are not in their religion are 'lost' and will be damned for eternity. They claim that they have God's words, and if anyone disagree with them, then they're disagreeing with God Himself. They claim that their way is the only true way, while the others are wrong. They even believe that in the afterlife, God would ask man about what religion he was in instead of his deeds during his life. If he had done countless deeds in his life, but didn't follow this one religion, then all of it will be in vain. They view others badly, always bad-mouthing other religions, like the Sunni Muslims here talking bad about Christians, Jews, Shiites, Syrian Orthodox, etc., claiming that they're all are against them and trying to make them 'lost'. They always think bad about others. You can't have freedom of thoughts and freedom of choices, that's for sure.


(Excerpts from Jiddu Krishnamurthy talks)

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