Distortion of Religion

Despite the value of religion in moral upliftment, it is also true to say that religion is a fertile soil for the development of superstitions and devotional hypocrisy, wrapped under the the cloak of religiousity.

Many people use religion to escape from realities of life and put on the garb of religion and religious symbols. They may even pray very often in places of worship, yet they are not sincerely religious minded and have not understood what their religion stands for.

When a religion has been debased by ignorance, greed for power and selfishness, people quickly point an accusing finger and say this religion and that religion are irrational. But "religion" (ritualistic external practice of any teaching) must be distinguished from the teaching itself.

Before one criticizes, one must study the original teachings of the founder and see if there is anything intrinsically wrong with it.

Religion advises people to do good and be good, but they are not interested to do so. Instead they prefer to cling to the other practices which have no real religious values or most of the time no connection with the religions they claimed to profess at all.

Had they tried to culture their minds by eradicating jealousy, pride, cruelty, hatred and selfishness, at least they would have found the correct way to practice a religion. Unfortunately, they develop jealousy, pride, cruelty, hatred and selfishness instead of eradicating them. Many of these people pretend to be religious, but commit the greatest atrocities in the name of religion.

They fight, hate, discriminate and create unrest in the name of the religion, losing sight of its lofty purpose. From the increase in the performance of various so-called religious activities, we may get the impression that religion is progressing, but the opposite is really the case since very little mental purity and understanding are actually being practiced.

Practicing a religion is nothing more than the development of one's inner awareness, goodwill and understanding. Problems, or should we say challenges would have to be faced squarely by relying on one's spiritual strength. Running away from one's problems (or challenges) in the name of spiritualism is not courageous, much less to be regarded as spiritual.

Under today's chaotic situation, men and women are rapidly sliding downhill to their own destruction. The irony is that they imagine they are progressing towards a glorious path but in actual fact it has never being realized at all.

In the midst of this confusion, imaginary and plastic religious concepts are propagated to create more temptations and confusion in man's mind. Religion is now being misused for personal gain, to wage war onto others, to reign supreme over the others and to gain power via forceful means.

And because of all these chaotic situation which are beyond control by now, we sometimes have to agree with what Karl Marx had said "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the feelings of a heartless world, just as it is the soul of the no soul conditions. It is the opium of the people".

The actual fact is man needs a religion not for the reason of giving him a dream for his next life or providing him with some dogmatic ideas to follow, in such a way surrenders his entire human intelligence and becomes a nuisance to his fellow beings. A religion should be a reliable and reasonable method for the people to live "here and now" as cultured, understanding beings, while setting a good examples for others to follow.

But some religion turn man's thoughts away from himself towards a supreme being. Therefore, everyone of us must understand that a true religion is not something outside us that we acquire, but the cultivation and realization of wisdom, compassion and purity that we develop within ourselves.

In short, the destiny is in ourselves and we should always use our wisdom to realize it and not being influenced by outside and others.