Do we need to follow a religion
Here comes another observation. Booted up my comp as soon as this observation manifested itself and am typing this as I am thinking about it.
When a person is born, he gets classified into a category. The category defines as to what GOD he should follow. It defines what he should do and what principles he should follow. Remember that this category is a conceptualised by man and so it can be argued against/for. (I mean you cannot argue that you are man when you have the traits of a female. That is how NATURE created you and you just cannot argue with this fact.)
I was classified as a hindu when I was born. Being an infant and lacking in rational ability, that fact was accepted by me without any thought. But know I have begun to question the essence of religion.
What is religion ?
What are it’s advantages?
Should a person necessarily follow a religion ?
I could not really understand the importance of religion. I asked my mom and she gave me an unsatisfactorily reply that religion is a set of rules decided by our esteemed ancestors so that the person following the religion may not perform any immoral actions.
This answer was unsatisfactory in that the rules were decided many thousand years ago. Moreover, more often than not, the people who say that they are highly religious and perform those big religious activities are the most immoral in the religion. They earn their bread by immoral means and then perform those big poojas to ‘wash away’ their sins. Thus, the so called religion is inadept in keeping people away from immoral activities. (Even terrorists….)
As to the question of whether a person should follow a religion, it really depends on the person.
Each person should think for himself. The best way (in my opinion) is to formulate your own ‘rules ‘, values and ethics and then abide by them. Thus, (again in my opinion), it is not necessary for a person to follow a religion.
Me ? Well, I am proud of having been born in a hindu marathi family. But I have rationally thought about the pros of hinduism. The rules in hinduism have had their age. They have been twisted by certain people to their advantage. I can see no advantage in following those rituals and rules of hinduism.
From amongst other religions, Buddhism seems the most promising (to me). By the way, the monks you see devoting their entire lives to the so called ‘buddhism’ and do not talk to a single female etc etc … are just following a twisted form of buddhism. That is not real buddhism. Gautam Buddha never called upon people to sacrifice their normal lives for theses kind of things.
Having said that, I won’t really call myself a Buddhist. I do have certain rules and ethics, that are closer to Buddhism than to any other religion and buddhism does appeal a lot to me, but for now, I follow my own ‘religion’ !
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The views expressed above are really what I think. It should not matter to you what I think. I understand that you may have counter views and I really respect your views. Do leave a comment with your views.
…. Well, the guru point that you mentioned, I guess Budhha is my guru…. and well, Buddha never did stress on the ‘GOD’ point …. I think the concept of GOD was ‘invented’ by successfull people who want to feel safe and secure with their success or by miserable people who want to find hope in someone. Either seem pathetic creatures to me (I guess my point of view may change after a certain age)… Man should always be mentally strong, the end result being that he does not have to look for MENTAL support in other people or GOD.
God is ONE. There is no my GOD/ or categories of GOD.
All religions are like schools which teaches some basic idea of God , the need of moral life, worshipping ways etc.
All religions and traditions say that God exists in human heart. So God can be experienced within.
I can feel, your craving for the God throgh your post.
As you said rightly doing religious activities may not make anybody moral. Because being moral, doing things in simple way, in tune with nature originates from heart. In fact spirituality starts when religion ends and god realisitaion starts when spirituality also ends. So religions are just to understand the need for god realisation. Three things are important in life – understadning this need of human existence and god realisation, finding the capable Guru who has already reached who can guide on the path who also has excelled with both wings of human life (spiritual and material life) and reaching to this Guru and following till the goal is achieved.