In Defence of Religion

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.