My Only Religion

I am not a Temple person. Yet I enjoy the occasional visitis not just to Temples but Mazhars, Dargas, Churches, Monastries and Gurudwaras alike. For me, my God resides everywhere. I see him where I want to and have my conversations with him whenever I feel like.

For me, religion is not an `excuse’, an `obligation’ or a `habit’; but rather a `bond’ with divinity, an association with the `all supreme’, a `power’ for greater good. Honestly, “religion” is what our mind perceives it to be, what is ingrained in us as we grow up, what we imbibe from the society we live in and what we cultivate from the community we belong to.

Historically, `religion’ as we all know, has extensively influenced the course of mankind and the same holds true even today and it will probably continue for millenniums to come. Very few of us would want to disagree with this statement.

As I see it,there is an overlap between religion, tradition and culture. Three siblings held together by the delicate association of values-religious values, traditional values and cultural values.
Morality: their common child.

Wikipedia states: Morality (from the Latin moralities "manner, character, proper behavior") is a system of conduct and ethics that is virtuous.
It is not an irony then, killing in the name of religion, the name of honour, and at the behest of several hundred excuses man has come up with today? How is it virtuous, moral, or religious to say the least?

Of course the answer is not simple. Neither are the reasons. The solution? I don’t want to lie saying I believe there is one. I am lost as most of us are, I try not to dig into this delicate subject, I too want to go about my life without provocating, hurting or questioning sentiments. Maybe even pay a deaf ear to unacceptable statements.

What mankind really needs is religious `intelligence’ to know Real Good from Real Evil of current times.

And in my daily conversations with `God’ and on my infrequent visits to his `abodes’, we discuss my Religion-HUMANITY! And I pray to God to bless me with the strength to follow it all I can.