Religion has the ultimate power over a normal human being. Every time the realization strikes me, it is as if I get a slap across my face, not because I forget to acknowledge the full force of the comprehension, but because it is one of those facts which quite powerfully snatch away the balance that you have created for yourself. My uncle once jokingly quipped at his inability to translate the phrases ‘scheduled caste’ and ‘scheduled tribe’ to Russian, since no such division exists in Russia. But, that is not the point here. It is a question that I pose. Am I to lament over the death of homosapien as it is and the birth of civilizations, cultures and races? Or is this question to be perpetually hung like the sword of Damocles, until the thread of sanity breaks, letting it fall on our lives? The truth is that I do not know. The object of this inquisition is not to break all the barriers of religion, thus creating a Utopia, but, it is merely to render my ineffective wonder which in itself seeks for the blunt edge of this sharp weapon worthy of sense.
What is religion? It is simply a faith or an idea which finds a common ground in a group of people. When homosapien began to evolve into the social animal that it is today, there were few disciplines which were needed for survival, faith intruding this list, regretfully, quite early in the stage. Faith, giving itself the fancy labels of different religions, packaged in its grand paraphernalia became the definitive commercialized ideology of all ages. In this era of globalization, we are quite familiar with the reality that something that sells fast is a source of power to the sellers. Faith thus sold, the clergy holding the highest positions of the power pyramid, became the establishment that none questions, extending its clutches from the Stone Age to the Quantum Age.
From the moment a child is born, in every kind of enquiry, be it an application form for the kindergarten or Ph D, the space for the religion stares blankly at the decisiveness of the future. The future entrusted to the people of the same religion or caste, who are willing to do things for the ‘community’. Only, the basis that defines ‘community’ is grossly skewed to favour the needs of those who stick to the rules imposed on them and who acknowledge the supremacy of the ‘protectors of the weak’ and the ‘champions of the cause’.
Religion in the present scenario ceases to be what is was designed to be- something that caters to the alienation of the fundamental ignorance that is inherent in the human being. And yet, being the true animals that we are, we hold on to our faith, not realising the extent which we are being manipulated, all these millennia or era. But, then again, I am not permitted to switch from present continuous to present perfect in the middle of an article, however articulate the idea might be. That is the influence of a rigid conclusive framework –it hardly provides the space for speculations or improvisations of any sort.
Again, we return to the point where nothing but hopes and expectations remain. But, can we expect religion to counter the ruthlessness of such accusations? The truth, I feel, is that it cannot. It has come to a point where, they hack their fellow beings to death, and their entrails become their garlands of glory, the shattered heart of humanity a passive onlooker with no capacity or willingness to stop the gory dance of destruction.
The religious terrorism prevalent in the world of secular today, raises the question of security of life and whether or not human race progressed farther than the labyrinth of superstitions and unquestionable ignorance. But, the more time advances, the more we demonstrate our incapacity to tolerate the firm disciplines of love, care and most importantly, humanity.
