Religion is not Responsible for Human Miseries, it is Human Consciousness
There are three reasons for exploitation of a man by another,
they are -
1) Non-uniform
Power distribution,
2) Ego of man
due to which a man thinks himself to be different from the other and
3) The value
system that makes him relate his success to his material possessions.
Of these distribution of power
can’t be made uniform as everyone is differently abled. Some have more physical
power for they have better body and have properly nurtured it, some have more
knowledge power for they have better mind and cultivated it with better education
and training and some have more economic power for they have earned control over
the means of production. The equalization of power is not possible, non-uniformity is the inherent character of society.
Therefore the exploitation of a man
by another can be stopped, only if man realizes the inherent Oneness of this
creation (which Hindu scriptures have spoken again and again). Then man would
stop exploiting another man, because it will be himself whom he will exploiting.
Or the exploitation of a man by another
will stop, if man is able to reform his value system. If he learns that he is
not here to acquire material riches by competing and exploiting fellow men but
to win over himself. if he learns that all the material opulence he is
desiring for will be taken away from him one day by Death. He has to learn that
it is not the other man who is his enemy, instead his real enemy is Death that
will take over whatever he achieves in this life. If man is able to change his
priority, there will no longer be any struggle between a man and another, a society
and another and a nation and another. He
has to change his focus from competing and exploiting fellow men to fighting Death
and Ignorance.
Until this change in human
consciousness takes place, peace and prosperity can’t be established on the
Earth.
Further those, who blame religion
for the ills of society fail to understand the underlying truth. It is not
religion which is responsible for the state of the society, it is the human
nature that is the real culprit. Since a man wants to rule over another, a
group over another, a race over another and a country over another, they use
whatever is available as a means of weapon of power. They turn religion into a weapon
to rule over men. We talk of ‘gurus’ using religion to exploit the masses, but
what is the role of religion when an employer uses money power to exploit his
employee, when man uses his brute physical power to exploit a woman and the
weak, when a powerful son exploits the weaker father, when a powerful father
exploits the weaker son, when a husband uses social and economic power to
exploit his wife, when a mother-in-law uses the social/economic power to
exploit her daughter-in-law, when a police man uses his legal power to exploit the
common man, when a knowledgeable person
exploits an illiterate, when a business man exploits the consumer, when kings
exploited its subject, when a developed country with better economic, military
and technological power exploits an undeveloped country for its natural
resources, when Britain colonized India and many other countries and so on.
Thus the real culprit is not religion,
it is the human nature – his perverted value system that makes him happy by
which he accumulates material riches and dominates over fellow men.
Religions always taught peace, love
and compassion, it is man who deformed it and exploited it. In fact because of religions many
people turned towards the ideals of love, peace, equality and unity. Imagine
what would have happened had religion not been there and man had not been
opened to the lofty ideals of love, peace, equality and unity and remained a
brute.
