Religion is meant to unite us, to bring us closer to God. All Religious movements start out this way… that is until the human mind takes over.
To get the Religious movement going, there always is a ‘Path Shower’, the one who has actually got Divine Inspiration. The one whose purity and magnificence first draws adhearants to the them. Being Divine, their teachings touch our core as the truth. Slowly more and more people join in to listen to them, and understand their teachings.
All goes well till the ‘Path Shower’ is around, as they are the source of the original information. However, the trouble begins after they leave their Earthly existence. Now some desiples come in to fill the void, and start giving their own interpretation of what the Master had said.
Over time, this interpretation becomes the Gospel Truth, partially or completely obfuscating the original teaching. Slowly, it starts becoming more about the persons, than the teachings.
This is when the stuff hits the fan! Now the ego takes over, and the personal dictats of the persons incharge, as per their own interpretation becomes the official stance of the Religion.
More often than not, this leads to hatered, covetedness, wars, rape, pillage, torture, and what not, ironically the very things the Religions intended to prevent.
If one sees historically, Christ came and preached brotherly love and equality. The followers first decided to codify the teachings (The creed of Nicea), and then decided what to keep, and what to throw out. This was followed by the ‘Holy Crusades’, which caused millions to loose their lives, and created a divide, which is still a festering sore.
Then came Prophet Mohammed. Another Divine Master. His preachings were also similar to that of Christ. However, the following leaders down the centuries contorted and distorted his Holy teachings, by issuing Dictats according to their own Interpretation, resulting in death and distruction on a Global scale.
Even in India, a person claiming to be a adhearant of Lord Hanuman, a Hindu God revered and worshipped by tens of millions decided that it was fitting to go and burn a couple of innocent kids along with their father in a vehicle in Orissa a few years ago…all in the name of a God, whose purpose was to help the downtrodden…to help the needy.
The latest evidence of this is the Islamic State. One tries to wonder what is Islamic about this? Murder innocents…rape women….make women sex slaves…spread ignorance….blow up buildings and artifacts…..
Where will all this insanity end?
