In our lifetimes, we identify ourselves with several things...animate, inanimate, tangible and intangible. I am somebody's daughter, somebody's sister, somebody's friend. I am also a Delhite, an Indian...and so on. The list of identities we give ourselves run into huge numbers, sometimes. An identity that is very commonly and very vehemently used is that of religion...I am a Hindu, I am a Muslim, I am a Christian, I am a Sikh, I am a Parsi, I am a Buddhist, I am a Jain, I am a Jew... Not content to be identified by a religion alone, we create more identities for ourselves...I am a Shaivite, I am a Brahmin, I am a Shia, I am a Sunni, I am a Catholic, I am a Protestant,... All identities seek to segregate people...to create that feeling of individuality, uniqueness and none more so than structured religion.
Religion...created by man in the name of God and exploited to serve the vested interests of a few. Human beings need more than just food, water and air to survive...being cognitive creatures we need faith, something to believe in. Faith is the life force that flows along with blood in our veins and keeps us alive...a man without a belief is as good as a vegetable. Many people believe in idols, rosary beads, stones, healing waters, messiahs, hymns and mantras. Many other people make fun of these people. But I believe that its okay to believe in whatever you want to as long as that belief stems from love, from longing or just because you want to believe in something. Let your faith not become your fear. Structured religion as we know it uses fear, the terror of God as its basis. Heavens are not going to rain their wrath on you because you ate an egg on a Tuesday, Thursday or a Saturday...or because you don't read the namaz five times daily...or because you haven't been to a Gurudwara in ages...or because inspite of being a Jew you ate at a Christian's house. To fear God's fury because we are made to believe so by some pundit, maulvi, priest or rabbi or anyone else for that matter is the greatest disservice that we do to God and to ourselves.
On one hand creating divisions that are indelibly imprinted in our pysche, religion has united people on the other, brought them together to commit some of the most heinous crime that we have seen in our times...be it the Holy Crusades, the Salem Witch trials or closer home sati, untouchability, honor killings, partition of the country, demolition of the Babri Masjid, burning of a train in Gujarat and the ensuing riots,...the list is a long one. It also has the dubious distinction of fanning the fire of ignorance among guileless people like you and me by promulgating silly superstitions and elaborate rituals and rites...the motive behind these being filling the coffers of the middlemen performing and promoting them rather than the salvation of the souls of the one paying for it all...as it is usually espoused to be.
Faith maybe a basic need of humans...but something that precedes this is the need to love and be loved. Faith and love are very intimately entwined with one another...you repose in whom you love and, the more you love the more you trust...the more you trust, the more you love. Love seeks to liberate...every atom in the body of the lover as well as the beloved. Religion seeks to enslave...from base things like our money and worldly possessions to our minds, hearts and souls...for there is no conquest as complete as the conquest of a man's soul. And a man who has sold his soul, how can he love? How can he have faith in anything or anyone? Without love...without faith...how can such a man said to be living? An identity that threatens God's most beautiful gift to us- life, of such an identity I refuse to partake any part.