Religion and Spirituality.
More often than not, we tend to use the terms religion and
spirituality interchangeably. Is it the same? Well it can be debated, but one
thing is certain. Religion divides and spirituality unites. Let us have a look
a look at this short video by Shri. TT Rajan and think.
As rightly said, the basic human traits do not belong to any
one religion. In fact religions were created to ensure that the basic human
traits are not compromised by anyone.
Let us look into the past. Is it mentioned anywhere in the
Holy Bible, Bhagavad Gita or the Quran that you must follow one religion only.
Anywhere? I have not read them all, but I am sure they don’t. Is there any
religion which does not mention about brotherhood, compassion, love, peace etc.
I am sure none. So who is responsible
for the divide? It is we human beings over a period of time have formed this
perception that we have to follow a religion by forgetting the basic intention
why religions were born. Religion is a just a path, or a route to achieve our
ultimate goal in life. So, when we know that the ultimate goal of all religions
is the same, why divide ourselves. Why create hatred amongst ourselves? Why do
we have to shoot from the shoulder of god in the name of religion? The numerous
incidents that have occurred in the past, the riots, etc. has any one person
been benefitted, any one! The caste, creed, sects etc. etc. has only divided us
further.
In business, we always talk about an ideal “WIN-WIN”
situation. May I ask who has won in this division?
When natural disasters
occur, they do not affect one religion or community. After millions of years of
Human existence when our creator, the nature, does not know how to divide
humans why are we even attempting to do the unfruitful. Think about it. Life is
short; don’t spend time in doing something meaningless. Rather, let us all
think of the bigger picture of life, let us look at the ultimate goal, let us
see how many lives have we impacted. That will unite us. That will unite us
since that is when we realize and appreciate the fact that all have a common
goal in life.
Please
feel free to share your thoughts. We all have faced several such situations,
let us all benefit by each other’s existence. Let us all be better than ourselves alone!