A badly wriiten post on religion, religious rules and all that...

Its quite hard to quit blogging isn't it ? Its a bit like smoking ( grass maybe? ). Once addicted, there is usually no looking back. Like a rehabilitated drug addict who just pounces on that one last opportunity to snort some cocaine, here I am...back again in this virtual world. By the way, I had "almost" given up blogging until I had this discussion with one of my friends here a few days back which made me think a bit about the influence of social rules and regulations stemming from various Religions on the present day modern man.

My good friend (Lets call him Mr.X) is the perfect example of a "modern day ignorant scientist". I know the phrase sounds like an oxymoron but that is the way it is with Mr.X. Like in the case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde, our beloved Mr.X works on the cutting edge problems of Astrophysics in the morning and transforms into a religious guy by the evening. He is a devout follower of the Arya Samaj which is a social organization with a set of rules set by one Mr.Dayanand Saraswati in the 1870s to help people lead a more purposeful life. Mr.Saraswati also laid down a certain theory as to how God can be attained in his framework based on the ancient Vedas. Mr.X is also quite critical of other religions (especially Islam) and believes that there is nothing holy about the Quran and all it preaches is violence. Mr.X strongly believes that playing or watching movies is for the mortals and hence should be minimized as it is a hurdle in the path of attainment of God. He also shows his "respect" towards girls by not looking into their eyes directly as it is "against the rules of Arya Samaj" as this could ignite testosterone production which is like a poison for a sage like him.  So far so good. But what surprises me is the attitude the guy has towards life in general. He is the eternally depressed guy in the institute, almost always sick and behaving as if he is burdened by the entire weight of mankind. Then there is another guy Mr.Y who happens to be a Muslim who once went to Mr.X's room enraged and threatened to tear the book by Mr.Dayanand Saraswati which had inflammatory remarks about Islam.  I remember once Mr.X having a debate with me on this topic and suddenly asking me "Why the hell do you think all the terrorists in the world are Muslims??". Given the plethora of so called Religions/social constructs/set of rules etc, there is bound to be conflict of interest.

But all this happening in one of the premier scientific institutes of our country in this age. Should we be ashamed? Most definitely YES!! I pondered over this sensitive issue and feel that we as humans have failed to live up to our intelligence in this regard. The reason behind this failure can be largely attributed to the very existence of Religions. I know I am kicking a sacred cow here but just cant help doing it. If one looks back into the history, it doesn't require the intelligence of Einstein to infer that Religions were put forward to create and maintain order in the society, to unify large groups who were previously fighting each other and in a certain sense create a "virtual hierarchy" withing the unified group with a religious head to control and decide the group's fate. One could as well interpret this as politically motivated move to exercise "control" over others and hence feel powerful which is a very natural human instinct i.e to control other humans.  The examples are literally infinite in this case. The Vatican church decides the fate of all of Christianity. Similarly the Islamic clerics decide what the Muslims should/shouldn't do and not to forget the case of our very own Mr.X whose entire life is in dictated by the laws of Arya Samaj. Now the big question is why the hell some body else decide how we lead our lives ?? maybe we like it that way. We humans are like herd of sheep who always want a protective Daddy figure. OK agreed. But then why the hell are people from different Religions fighting against each other ?? It is similar to two kids fighting over whose Daddy is the greatest !! The Muslims say their Daddy is the best and the Hindus say theirs is the best. So much for our intelligence.

What has Religion given us? I would say a lot if one interprets it using one's brain else one would end up like Mr.X who is still a virgin but has been fucked by Religion ever since he was born! On a lighter note, I remember Mr.X telling me how "respectfully" he looks at girls. He does actually "respect" the girls around him. I know it because girls feel quite "safe" around him. Now I personally would feel very insulted if I came to know that girls around me feel "safe". I would feel absolutely impotent and my role in the chain of human evolution would be irrelevant. If people like Mr.X are depressed, its not because they are burdened by real problems but because they have forced themselves to tread the path set by someone else. Their brains have shrunk to the size of their testicles and they have virtually castrated themselves in order to attain God. They have done so because their religion states that its the only possible way to attain enlightenment. Now I am certain that God and enlightenment can be achieved by leading a life serving the humanity. God wouldn't hate me if I saw movies. God would be surely happy if I play. God wouldn't curse the girls around me who are wearing jeans. God would definitely want the human race to propagate and hence would surely encourage me to look at a girl in a romantic "not so" safe manner. So what would make God sad? just one word- Inhumanity. Forcing oneself to do something is inhuman, forcing someone else is also inhuman, cheating is inhuman, fighting over the name of God and associating him with any particular Religion is the worst and most stupid form of inhumanity. 

I think we as humans can do away with the very concept of these Religions. Religion isn't universal but the concept of God is. Its very important to make this distinction. If God exists in this universe, then he would be more than happy if he is left alone and not dragged into our day to day conflicts. While we are busy fighting over him and formulating these so called different Religions, we have buried the basic tenets of Humanity, which I believe is the only concept which truly deserves to be called a "Religion". A Religion without any written rules, for Humanity is quite instinctive. Hope we rediscover it before it is too late.