DISLOCATED RELIGION:

By Monica Gokaldas

Incidents occurred in the current times are forcing us to revisit our religious principles. It appears the ethics of Religion are fractured or dislocated miserably.  Whether we are in Mombasa, Lamu or even further in Peshawar, Kashmir, Sydney or Paris the effects are felt of the dislocated principles everywhere.

We seem to have forgotten that all Faiths are but leading us to same Divinity and are not meant to cause cracks in our system. Who are we to decide upon who has the right to live and who should be killed to please our religious whims?  The Universe has spread out innumerable examples of oneness around us, yet we have failed to learn our lesson from those.

When the farmer sows the seeds he is merely concerned about the crop growing well and then reaping and marketing it. He is not concerned if the crop is sold to any person of his own religion or not. When the same crop is further marketed by the grocers or millers they have no priority over a particular religion. It is very hard to imagine a packet of juice refusing to quench our thirst and causing us harm because we are not the colour or creed or religion of the manufacturer.  They simply sell where they benefit yet hold no hatred towards other clients whom they do not sell to.

The same crop when turned into breads or cereals is distributed to anyone who is willing to buy or consume. This depicts a sense of Oneness amongst all. When a tree or a plant does not differentiate where its product reaches in the form of fruit or wood it shows nothing but Oneness. Similarly when we go out to buy a bouquet of flowers, we take care of buying the best flowers we possibly can without giving a thought as to which field were they grown in, whether the company belongs to someone of our own religion or not. Why then, can’t we fix up this fractured system from our minds and heal our dislocated Religion to its rightful essence.

Religious tolerance will not only bring people closer, it will make our world more livable, lovable and give-able. Religion is meant to give us comfort and sense of belonging but if we decide to live in the shackles of the minds confined to religion beyond truth, religion beyond progress then we will be moving towards fracturing our religion further. Why then, dislocate our beliefs and cause an unwanted terror and cause divisions. Let us work towards giving the coming generations the gift of Oneness where little children live and play holding on to their innocence as opposed to holding guns and grenades.