Necessity of Religion
In this 20th century, new scientific inventions and political
theories are causing irreparable deterioration in the religious
faith of mankind. Public mind is too much engrossed in these
attractions and man is getting away farther and farther from
religion and God. The force of the ‘matter’ overwhelmingly dominates
the influence of the ‘spirit’. People are being torn away by
ideological warfare from their religious moorings and are left to
drift astray, creating all sorts of new troubles and miseries in an
already much tormented world. The solutions sought through man-made
laws, against the time honoured and irrefutable religious laws and
traditions give little or no solace to the afflicted mankind. It
seems that the world is fast drifting towards religious bankruptcy.
Bonds Of
Religion
What is
religion? Of all the forces that have been working for the
emancipation of mankind ever since its origin, nothing is more
potently powerful than the manifestation of those forces which form
religion. In spite of all the vicissitudes of time, that peculiar
force is still visible in the back ground of all our social,
economic and political systems. It has been the greatest cohesive
impulse for the unity of mankind. In many cases the bonds of
religion have proved stronger than the bonds of climate, race and
descent. People of the same family and descent.
Beginning Of Religion
The result of
all ancient explorations to trace out the origin of religion shows
that it is ‘something’ super-human or supernatural and that its
genesis is not in the human brain but it has originated ‘somewhere
else’. The theories are advanced about this analysis. One group
maintains ancestor worship as the origin of religion, while the
other thinks that it originates in the personification of the powers
of Nature. A study of the ancient religions of the Babylonians,
Chinese, Egyptians and some American races reveal traces of ancestor
worship as the beginning of religion.
Ancestor
Worship
The Egyptians
believed in two souls, one of the external body and the other of the
internal soul that motivates it. They thought, when a man died, his
‘double’— the internal soul went out but still lived, and it lasted
so long as the ‘dead body’ was preserved intact. That is why they
preserved their dead and built huge pyramids over them. They thought
if the ‘body’ was hurt its double’ would also be injured. This was
ancestor worship. The ancient Babylonians believed in the same idea
of ‘double’ but with slight variations. They believed that the
‘double’ lost all sense of love; it even frightened the living to
give if food and drink and so on. Among the ancient Hindus too,
traces of ancestor worship are found. The Chinese were also ancestor
worshippers. Thus the theory of ancestor-worship as the beginning of
religion is strengthened by one school of thought.
Nature
Worship
According to the
other theory, religion is said to have originated in nature worship
as the ancient Aryans maintained. The human mind has always been
inquisitive and curious to find out the philosophy behind the sun,
the moon, the earth and the heavens, the stars, the hurricane and so
many other stupendous forces of nature and its beauties. It has
tried to understand these phenomena to which it attributes souls and
bodies with something transcended. The result of all investigations
culminates in ‘abstractions’ whether personalised or not. The
ancient Greeks also followed this ‘nature worship’. Their mythology
proves their ‘abstracted nature worship’. The ancient Germans,
Scandinavians and other Aryan races also followed the Greeks. All
this makes a strong case to show that religion had its origin in the
personification of the "powers of Nature".
Spiritual Kingdom
A third theory
which some of the highly learned people think to be the real origin
of `organised’ religion. It is known to be the "struggle" to
transcend the limitation of the sense", whether man seeks to worship
the dead spirits of his ancestors or tries to understand the
limitations of the senses. And yet he does not seem to be satisfied
with this alone but wants to investigate further. His search for the
`Truth’ about these phenomena has continued through all ages till he
could assert a definite state of things called `ecstasy’ or
inspiration which we find in all the `organised’ religions of the
world.
All Lead
To One Goal
The prophets,
the rishis, the saints, and the Sufis, all have discovered these
‘hidden’ facts according to their own experiences and findings. All
the principal religions of the world claim that human mind has been
able to transcend both the "limits of senses" and" the limits of
reason" with this peculiar power of transcending which they put
forward as "a statement of Facts".
Finite
And 'Infinite'
Every human
being seems to be struggling for an ‘Infinite power’ or an infinite
pleasure, if we may call it so but only a few have realised that
this,‘infinite power’ or the infinite pleasure is not to be had
through senses which are too limited to understand and explain the
‘Infinite’. As a matter of fact,‘Infinite’cannot be expressed
through finite. Sooner or later man is compelled to give up the
finite and this state is called ‘renunciation’ which as its root in
the ethics, or say, Ethics stand on renunciation..
Philosophy Of Ethics
Ethics always
says "Not I, but thou", "Not Self but Non self" the laws of ethics
demand that in the search of "Infinite Power of Pleasure" selfish
individualism to which man clings so stubbornly, must be given up
altogether. We must hold ourselves first, and all else last." Ethics
say; we must hold ourselves last.
Ethical
Laws
It thus follows
that man has to give up the plane of ‘matter’ in his search for the
‘infinite’. All ethical laws enjoin ‘self-abnegation or perfect
self-annihilation’ as we have seen. But people are surprised when
they are asked to lose their selfish individualism because it is
very dear to them and is not an easy thing to be given up. And yet,
at the same time, they declare highest ideals of ethics to be right
ignorant of the fact that the idea, the goal of all ethics, is
self-destruction and not the building up and sustenance of a selfish
individualism
Role Of
Sufi Saints
Those who have
straightened the curly tail of the sinful world from time to time
have never been politicians or statesmen. They have always been the
founders and reforms of great religions endowed with "supernatural"
powers to overcome even the mightiest forces of evil. Their
spiritual spark ignited the souls of millions. Such are the
superhuman beings we always find in the past history of mankind and
shall continue to have them at appropriate periods in future also
despite all evolutions and revolutions of the world. There has
always been a tussle between spiritualism & materialism or between
the spirit and the sword in which the former has always vanquished
the latter.While the holy founders and teachers of great religions,
acting as apostles of God, tried to establish righteousness and
peace on earth,the worshippers of evil have furiously defied them in
order to retain their own temporal supremacy. But history repeats
itself & the struggle between the two still goes on.
Religion
And Human Character
Religion is the
greatest motive power for building up a virtuous human character for
achieving everything that is good and beneficial to mankind and for
bringing peace and happiness to the afflicted souls including one’s
own self
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