Religion: Are we doing enough?

"Do you believe in God?", many seems to ask me. 

17 years of my life I would have given a quick yes to that. Then a phase of 2 years in which I became a staunch atheist, acting the way a typical non-believer would. Be it arguing with people around me on their superstitious beliefs or bashing the stuff they consider sacrosanct or chatting with random people on Facebook groups on how stupid religion is and how atheism is the best way forward for human civilization. 

How wrong I was and what a dogmatic thinker past me was.

Today if anyone asks me the same question, the best I would be able to react is to stutter some um's and uh's. 

I would argue that whoever created religion be it a human or a holy power, would not want us to even consider this question. At the very outset the question is irrelevant and destroys the original purpose for which religion originated. 

Now I am not a religious teacher or an anthropologist who could give you the origins of a religion and gosh there are so many of them, I dont even know what to learn and where from. 

Anyways, with my limited understanding I believe that the very purpose of religion was as simple as improving the lives of people. Now I know it sounds cliche, but that is the ultimate reality. I believe with the rise of urban civilizations the need for something where people could find solace when they are alone seemed vital. And what followed was religious teachings in which people were given a set of codes to live with, a key to ultimate happiness and a panacea to their day to day problems. Plus be it a myth or not, nobody knows, but it did help homo sapiens to develop bonding with others, which ultimately helped us to eliminate other species of humans like neanderthals, homo erectus et al. 

In the present times, I believe religion has lost its true meaning and people are not doing what they should be doing. 

The purpose of religion to help individuals, has taken a very community oriented approach.

I see people around me, family, cousins, friends who are deeply religious and still they rarely adopt the doctrines of the religion which they follow in their personal life. Rather they focus more on what the majority is doing, idol worship. I personally dont have any problem with idol worship as many might think but whats the purpose of worshiping someone and bowing down to their statue, when you dont even apply their doctrines in your day-to-day life.

I will take Hinduism as an example, as I am surrounded by this community my entire life till now and I do think that its doctrines by various gods are magnificent and it truly provides a person with a way to structure his life. 

Let me give you some of the most beautiful quotes inferred from Lord Krishna's teachings

1. There are three gates to self- destructive hell- Lust, Anger, And Greed.

2. Do everything you have to do, but not with ego, not with lust, not with envy but with love, compassion, humility and devotion.

3. Happiness is a state of mind that has nothing to do with the external world.

4. The key to happiness is the reduction of desires. 

I can go on and on about these. But the ultimate message from all these remains the same. 

Most of the religious people I know are already aware of these doctrines, this is exactly what religion teaches them to follow. 

Yet it doesn't seem to me that they actually implement these doctrines in their life. Just ask yourself by re-reading the above points, do you really follow that, you may nod your head in satisfaction for sometime saying WOW! what a beautiful thought, yet it is of no use. 

Religion was not meant to provide you short term pleasures that you may get visiting shrines or doing other religious activities, it was meant for you to actually live life that way and follow the teachings and actually implement them. 

It is a beautiful thing which provides you with a code to live with yet you choose to do stuff which is doing little good to you and others.

Let me know what you think in the comments down below.

Peace!

Anmol Gupta