A famous song by REM?? But for me the implications are much higher.

What is a religion? I am sure nobody can discourse on this topic more than an Indian can. We are the world renowned authorities when it comes to defining religion and preaching it.

 I started losing my religion when the first day my parents told me that I am a Hindu because I had born in a Hindu family. May be it's the rebellious nature of mine which has never accepted whatever my Dad had told me and have repented for all most all of them till date. I am not saying that my folks forced me to follow Hinduism or in fact any religion as they are quite liberal. But I wanted to understand for myself what a Religion is before I accept anything.

I started to lose my religion when I tried to understand this phenomenon, started reading about different religions and became more confused as I progressed. For some, Religion is a core of our existence for some, it's the basic platform on the altar of which they can get away with any obnoxious deeds. For some, it's a way of attaining nirvana and for some, to find solace at the difficult times.

What I have come to believe is that Religion was meant to be a set of principles which will work as the core guidelines to govern the mutual co-existence of a particular society or a group of people. The guidelines were established to uplift the people and were very apt for the time period when they were written.

I started to lose my religion when the problem of comparing one Religion to another started. With comparison usually competition originates and with that a rivalry. As long as this rivalry would have been a healthy one, all of us would have benefitted with the evolvement and advancement of individual religions. But this rivalry converted into a battle of supremacy with one Religion trying to overshadow another one. This led to the birth of fundamentalism, which had become the sole weapon of individual Religion's preachers to make sure they do not lose their following and with that the power they hold over the life of people.               

I started to lose my religion when I tried to search one Religion which is not part of this rat race. Suddenly it has become important for everyone to save their religion from the attacks of another without understanding what are we fighting for? Is this actually what we want to do and achieve? Or are we just following some leaders who are more bothered about their God status and are afraid that they will lose their puppets if their religion is defeated.

I would rather be a man with no Religion rather to be a part of this twisted scheme of some highly intelligent people who have very wisely manipulated the world to such a situation that now wars are being razed on the name of Religion.

Today, I find that I have lost something which was core of my existence because of some individuals. One way is to forget about it and keep on surviving as we have been doing till now or the other way is to fight for your core values. The rebellious nature in me has again taken a hold and now I know what religion I want to follow. For me the morals taught by my parents, the education imparted by my teachers and the experience I have gained till now to become a good human , a good citizen and to co-exist with my fellow human beings in harmony and with love is the supreme religion.

I am proud to say that I am a religious man again and my religion is teaching me the core fundamentals which I had lost. I am proud to say that at least I will be contributing in preparing a better world for the future generations. A world where the peace and harmony will reside again and humans will know the value of mutual co-existence and love.

[to be continued....]