RELIGION
1. Introduction:
2. Necessity :
3. Creation :
4. Relation with God :
5. Advent of Different Religions:
6. Mutual Relation of Religions:
7. Benefits of Religion:
8. Conclusion.
1. Introduction:
Religion is an essential part of life. It has different meanings for different people. Different religions progressed in different parts of the world. All religions preach peaceful co-existence but maximum violence has been in the name of religion. So it becomes necessary to find out the reality of religion, wherefrom it came, who brought it in the world and how it is important for the human beings. Is religion for the human beings or is it vice versa? What is reality of religion? Is it essential to reach the God?
An effort has been made to find out the reality of religion, its origin and its importance for the human life.
2. Necessity :
To protect him from animals and natural disasters, it was necessary for the man to live in groups and co-operate with each other. To further strengthen his safety, the human beings established habitats at safe places and started looking after each other. For the purpose, he established some rules to be followed by all so that there is uniformity in ways of living and clash of interest at any stage could be solved according to the rules framed for whole group.
3. Creation :
Man came out of Jungles; Needed Mutual Co-operation;
Lived in Groups;
Set Rules to be followed by all;
Rules came to be known as Religion.
Initially the man lived in jungles. Like animals he would live, eat, produce children and die. He was entirely dependent on nature. He did not have anything to save himself from his rival animals and humans. However, his brain was certainly more fertile than that of the animals. He started living in groups and co-operate with each other. For mutual help, he set some rules to be followed by all. These very rules developed into traditions which came to be known as Religion at a later stage.
4. Relation with God :
Fear from Natural Powers
Clouds and Lightning;
- Fire;
- Water and Floods;
- Epidemics;
- Beyond Human Control;
- Treated as Gods.
By living in groups, man was able to overpower the wild animals and protect himself and his fellow beings from them. He would also help his fellow beings whenever there was any problem or for growth and development. However, he was unable to face the natural calamities. He was afraid of cloud thunders and lightning as they were seen in the sky and he could not understand their source. Likewise man was not aware of the way to light and control fire. Whole land was covered with forests and whenever there was a fire it could not be controlled as can be seen even in the present days of availability of all facilities.
Rivers, Streams and Rivulets were not tamed like present days and often there were devastating floods due to heavy rains or melting of snow on hills which brought misery and caused loss of human life and property.
Sometimes there erupted epidemics which killed scores of people due to illness showing the same symptoms to all. They couldn't understand the reason behind the disease and thought it to be the work of some evil soul or expression of anger by some deity due to some wrong doing by human beings.
Besides this, there were super-natural powers. Sometimes there were strong winds causing storms uprooting the trees and flying away the hutments. At other times cool breeze would sooth the human suffering. There were stars in the sky. The moon would be seen in different shapes which would not be there once a month. The Sun would be very hot at some times while very soothing at other times.
As they failed to understand the reasons behind all this, they treated it the work of God or Devil. They thought that sufferings were the creation of Devil and blessings came from the God. By and by they started worshipping them both to seek blessings from the God and for being spared by the Devil. They made their idols giving them shapes out of their own imagination, placed those idols at some fixed places which later came to be known as their religious places where they would worship their Gods.
They believed that some super power controls all natural powers and that super power came to be known as God.
5. Advent of Different Religions:
Different geographical conditions;
Different Habits;
Different Prophets and Preachers;
Different Religions.
On the entire earth, there were different landed parts separated by oceans, rivers and mountains. Each landed part had different geographical and weather conditions. Human beings with different qualities developed in different regions. They had least contact with people of other regions due to separation by geographical conditions. So at different times they developed into clans with different habits and languages as suited to the local conditions without any discrimination.
Their habits and traditions became permanent features and they started living accordingly. Different Civilizations developed in different regions depending upon the natural resources available in those particular regions. With passage of time and changing social values, additional rules and practices are often added to basic spiritual teachings which, in the end, take the shape of a formal religion. Thus different practices developed as different religions.
As the human beings by and by grew into civilized societies one or the other person by physical strength became their administrative (political) leader to control and guide them. Likewise some wise persons grew as their spiritual guides and more prominent amongst them were accepted as religious leaders.
Groups of those who started following their advices were named after the religious or political leaders. As such different religions developed in different parts of the globe.
6. Mutual Relation of Religions:
Identical message;
Intermingling of Civilizations;
Over-ambitions of Political and Religious leaders;
All religions convey identical message of reaching the God, peaceful co-existence, love for nature and all creatures because of the reason that they had grown automatically to fulfill human requirements and entirely in synchronism with nature without any discrimination.
There are some differences due to geographical and cultural differences and traditions. With passage of time, different modes of conveyance and communication developed and the human beings started reaching far and wide across the waters, deserts, forests and mountains. Preachers of religions received patronage of different rulers which helped their religions grow in the areas of their influence. As the Rulers of different areas developed lust for more and more areas and wealth, they started attacking areas of other rulers. Preachers of religion preceded and followed the rulers and carried their respective religions and traditions to the areas under the influence of other religions.
By and by religions grew into matter of personal belief. Instead of real message of peaceful co-existence and policy of 'live & let live', policy of 'I am right follow me' took precedent. The rulers started protecting the followers of their own religion and harassing those who believed in other religions. Religion became more important than the human life. Ultimately, a situation developed when people lived and died for the sake of religion. The initial purpose of religion for social and spiritual development of the human beings was left behind, forgotten and reversed upside down.
7. Benefits of Religion:
It is the religion which helped the civilizations grow with peaceful co-existence and tolerance. It helped the mankind to be saved from unnecessary tensions by seeking solace from God. Without being religious, human beings would have continued to remain wild beasts always prepared to kill others and snatch whatever liked.
8. Conclusion:
Religion has played the major role to keep the human beings united and dedicated to a supreme power.
Basic religion is only one which developed automatically in collaboration with law of nature. With passage of time different rituals were added by different societies and rituals became more important. The law of nature was given different names in different regions. Later when one society tried to impose its own religion on the other society, religious conflicts started. Real message of religion was lost in wilderness and rituals attained prominence over the real message of religion.
Ram Tirath Verma, PATIALA
26.5.2020/13.6.2020/30.5.2024
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