Usually, we have seen people get mocked if they want to identify them as religious people in the present era. So many times, we have been made fun of too 😉, like “oh wow! So, have you seen God?” Even though we identify ourselves as spiritual and not religious. Then they give us a perplexed look of what are you talking about? So, if you have done reading on spiritual or motivational (which is quite popular amongst millennials and Gen Z) aspects of life, spirituality is something you find for yourself, and religion is engraved in your upbringing. We are in no capacity capable of advocating or demeaning any religion. There are so many points that we have a conflict with Hinduism although we were raised as Hindus and also acquainted with Buddhism. And after reading the motivational books and listening to some prolific talk as many, one thing we witness was, everyone does meld some of the religious teachings which they grew up with to make peace with or what they feel comfortable with. Being a scientist, when we talk to other folks in the field, some say there is nature or superpower or energy, and then some completely deny the existence of such forces. But they tend to define some of the happening based on probability and circumstances. SURE!!! No denial there is something called probability then 😊.
One thing that has tainted religion to some extent is cultural beliefs. A while back we got to talk to one of my Muslim friends, and she expressed her concern on how the cultural aspect of few has tainted Islam. And at another instance how Hindu deities are made fun of without knowing anything about it. Culture is different for different families, cities, and countries. It is adapted and practiced in a way that people analyzing it from outside tend to intertwine the culture with religion. Also, at times culture gets interpreted as a religion even by practicing individuals not realizing it. We live in such an unprecedented time, and we tend to get upset with pretty much anything and everything. And then we tend to have a shortcut for pretty much everything 😉 which is cool but is it? This creates lots of restlessness, stress, and fewer smiles. And then we start to seek motivation by listening to motivational speakers, playing victim cards at times, blaming others, and at times taking help of funny memes. We are also the culprit of venting out with those memes…just saying!
As stress is the gift to the modern world, we do everything to mitigate it apart from following some of the teachings that our seniors/parents taught us because we take pride in being sarcastic to those teachings. We agree, not any religion is perfect and lots of reform is required in the present era. But for that, we must admit that we will do our best to improve. But then it gets sensitive if we say something against our religion, then we are tagged with blasphemy.
We have been to many religious set up, from temple to gurudwara and from church to pure nature. All of these do provide tranquility. Even though we are not identified as Christian, we remember one Sunday at church after prayers, when people say “peace” does provide contentment. We feel the same peace when we are at a temple or a gurudwara. One thing from our perspective is that how we feel is, if we do our job with honesty and behave humanely to others it’s the best religion to follow 🙂. To be sarcastic and glorify being against rules is easy or to blame others is convenient but to accept the flaws and work on them takes courage.
I understand religion has given rise to many violent incidents but that can be resolved if we all do our parts. We should not be falling prey to any of the extreme ideologies. We all have cognitive skills and deep down we all know what is good and what is bad. No one ever has or ever will gain dignity or respect by demeaning others’ ideology. Also, if sarcasm is your thing, please try to be sarcastic without preying on the minority of any kind.
At the end all the followed forms of religion, or God, or discipline/probability/energy/force, etc. however it is defined has one motive at its core and that is to love and respect each other. We must be human first then being anything else. Also, following multiple religion/teachings shouldn’t be questionable.
It seems so obsolete, but the fact is karma is a thing, what goes around always comes around 😉. So how you treat each other will guide the path of our life. Some basics have guided the path of humanity since the start of Homo sapiens and that is to be kind to each other and if we can just do that without making fun of each other, we can be happy and content with whatever we do.
Being science students, we strongly believe everything that happens has a cause and an effect. Many veiled pages of each religion require an inquisitive unfolding. It is important to find those “cause” and “effect” and then analyze what goes best with honesty and humanity for individuals. This was my research!! What your research says- spiritual, religious, cultural, energy, force, choose wisely!
Usha Raut, Dr. Toniya Raut, and Dr. Namrata GR Raut.
