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Young World
Can we purge the hatred?
Goutam Ghosh
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Religions teach their followers to be good human beings. Yet, there is so much hatred and destruction in the name of religion. Knowledge and an open mind will help.
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Grief knows no boundaries.
Godhra, Gujarat. Sleeper compartment, S-6, of Sabarmati Express is set ablaze on the morning of February 27, and charred bodies of women and children are recovered. The retaliation that has swept across Gujarat and brought peace to its knees has cost more than 400 lives so far. Women and children butchered by one group of fanatics, who are then targeted by another equally fanatic group. The effect? More children and women killed.
Why? Is it to defend one's religion? What does all this violence to defend one's religion mean?
Suppose someone comes and tells you that Hindus worship so many gods and goddesses whereas God is one, and you do not fight back, do you become less of a Hindu? Or, if someone were to tell you that the Bible or the Koran has messages which are interpreted differently by different people for convenience, will your silence make you less of a Christian or a Muslim? If someone were to question you, rest assured that the person is not truly religious, whatever be the person's faith.
If someone questions your faith and you do not respond violently it does not mean your faith is shaken. Faith in God (by whichever name you call Him) is something deep within oneself. It is so deep that nothing should shake it. Turning violent will only mean that you are uncertain about the depth of your faith and your belief in God is superficial.
Another problem is most people do not bother to read religious texts other than their own. And many do not even bother to read carefully what one's own religious texts say. A maxim of every religion is to make its followers good human beings. No religion anywhere teaches its followers to be bad.
``Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity within, by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy — by one or more, or all of these — and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms, are but secondary details'' said Swami Vivekananda. In discussing the ideal of universal religion, he said: ``Nothing makes us so cruel as religion, and nothing makes us so tender as religion. This has been so in the past, and will also, in all probability, be so in the future''. Religious savants have highlighted this time and again.
As S. Radhakrishnan wrote, ``Dara Shikoh, eldest son of Emperor Shah Jehan, composed a work called Samudra Sangama (The Confluence of Oceans) which is the same as the Persian work Majma-ul- Bahrain (The Mingling of Oceans). The book is intended to show the agreement in fundamentals between Hinduism and Islam.'' And Shikoh was not the only one to do that. There have been many before him and many after.
A Muslim mother will cry as bitterly as a Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Zoroastrian, Jewish or Buddhist, mother over the loss of her child. And B-positive blood from a Hindu will be as life saving when transfused into a Muslim or a Christian with the same blood group. One's faith does not influence the quality of one's blood. Faith does not infect the blood, but being blind to the essence of religion surely infects the mind.
How can you stop this mindless killing? You cannot, and neither can the Government nor the Army. Because hatred is an infection worse than AIDS. And hatred comes from fear. And love and fear are the two basic emotions of human beings. The yin and the yang of emotional life. But fear of <147,1,0>what? Fear, of being challenged that could expose the shallowness of one's depth of faith. Fear, that one's ignorance will be exposed if challenged.
The least you, young readers, can do is to begin reading the religious texts systematically one by one. Ask for insights, but be cautious. Find levelheaded human beings who could shed light on the tricky concepts. Parents may not always be the best guides. Remember to keep your mind open to knowledge and understanding, and find out the essence of every religion. It will take you years for this journey into the religious texts to end, but every minute spent will be worth much more because it will make you a better person. More understanding, more tolerance. Isn't that the aim of religion — to make you a better person?
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