Skip to main content

Freedom and religion

This is one of the thoughts that amuses me again and again: Suppose we give absolute freedom to people in matters regarding religion. No force of any kind. You go to temple or church or whatever only if you want. There are no priests. No preachers. No godmen or ammas.  No theology. No rituals. You do what your heart tells you to do in the temple or church or whatever. You and your god. Nothing in between. No middleman. Just you before your God.

How wonderful that would be!

Or

Will the temple and the church or whatever remain desolate once there are no power brokers to perform their rituals?

Is religion merely another power structure that holds people together for certain worldly benefits and nothing more?

At least, will the killings in the name of gods stop? Will people rediscover love or compassion?

I'm amused to ponder.

Comments

  1. Absolutely. In an evolved society there should be absolute freedom to worship. That is the only way to end any kind of fanaticism. But, will the vested interests allow it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, I'm sure the vested interests won't. That's precisely why religion is a terror today more than anything else.

      Delete
  2. It is definitely for the worldly benefits, excluding a select few who wants to attain the highest peak of maslow's hierarchy, that people buy this stuff and sellers sell this stuff. And thus forming a vicious syndicate and thus enter the Godmen and the likes of them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have seen people with criminal minds acting as the spokespersons of a Baba. They make use of religion for nefarious purposes with total impunity. A lot ordinary mortals join them for petty benefits some of which are assumed to be spiritual!

      Delete
    2. Yes, in that sense the seekers of spiritualism can as well fall in their trap. I guess that's where the use of common sense comes which many of us fail to apply to our beliefs

      Delete
  3. The last one is a worthy hope. If that could happen then all relinquishment will be worth it.

    Beautiful thought Tomichan.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If people would stop harming others in the name of religion and gods,the world would be a far better place.

      Delete
  4. Religion is something which connects us to God, it should not be there to create boundaries. Spiritual connect is of supreme importance rest is baseless.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Spiritual connect - if only a fraction of believers really longed for that!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

Break Your Barriers

  Guest Post Break Your Barriers : 10 Strategic Career Essentials to Grow in Value by Anu Sunil  A Review by Jose D. Maliekal SDB Anu Sunil’s Break Your Barriers is a refreshing guide for anyone seeking growth in life and work. It blends career strategy, personal philosophy, and practical management insights into a resource that speaks to educators, HR professionals, and leaders across both faith-based and secular settings. Having spent nearly four decades teaching philosophy and shaping human resources in Catholic seminaries, I found the book deeply enriching. Its central message is clear: most limitations are self-imposed, and imagination is the key to breaking through them. As the author reminds us, “The only limit to your success is your imagination.” The book’s strength lies in its transdisciplinary approach. It treats careers not just as jobs but as vocations, rooted in the dignity of labour and human development. Themes such as empathy, self-mastery, ethical le...

The Art of Subjugation: A Case Study

Two Pulaya women, 1926 [Courtesy Mathrubhumi ] The Pulaya and Paraya communities were the original landowners in Kerala until the Brahmins arrived from the North with their religion and gods. They did not own the land individually; the lands belonged to the tribes. Then in the 8 th – 10 th centuries CE, the Brahmins known as Namboothiris in Kerala arrived and deceived the Pulayas and Parayas lock, stock, and barrel. With the help of religion. The Namboothiris proclaimed themselves the custodians of all wealth by divine mandate. They possessed the Vedic and Sanskrit mantras and tantras to prove their claims. The aboriginal people of Kerala couldn’t make head or tail of concepts such as Brahmadeya (land donated to Brahmins becoming sacred land) or Manu’s injunctions such as: “Land given to a Brahmin should never be taken back” [8.410] or “A king who confiscates land from Brahmins incurs sin” [8.394]. The Brahmins came, claimed certain powers given by the gods, and started exploi...

The music of an ageing man

Having entered the latter half of my sixties, I view each day as a bonus. People much younger become obituaries these days around me. That awareness helps me to sober down in spite of the youthful rush of blood in my indignant veins. Age hasn’t withered my indignation against injustice, fraudulence, and blatant human folly, much as I would like to withdraw from the ringside and watch the pugilism from a balcony seat with mellowed amusement. But my genes rage against my will. The one who warned me in my folly-ridden youth to be wary of my (anyone’s, for that matter) destiny-shaping character was farsighted. I failed to subdue the rages of my veins. I still fail. That’s how some people are, I console myself. So, at the crossroads of my sixties, I confess to a dismal lack of emotional maturity that should rightfully belong to my age. The problem is that the sociopolitical reality around me doesn’t help anyway to soothe my nerves. On the contrary, that reality is almost entirely re...

Mahatma Ayyankali’s Relevance Today

About a year before he left for Chicago (1893), Swami Vivekananda visited Kerala and described the state (then Travancore-Cochin-Malabar princely states) as a “lunatic asylum.” The spiritual philosopher was shocked by the brutality of the caste system that was in practice in the region. The peasant caste of Pulayas , for example, had to keep a distance of 90 feet from Brahmins and 64 feet from Nairs. The low caste people were denied most human rights. They could not access education, enter temple premises, or buy essentials from markets. They were not even considered as humans. Ayyankali (1863-1941) was a Pulaya leader who emerged to confront the situation. I just finished reading a biography of his in Malayalam and was highly impressed by the contributions of the great man who came to be known in Kerala as the Mahatma of the Dalits . What prompted me to order a copy of the biography was an article I read in a Malayalam periodical last week. The article described how Ayyankali...