Nitty-Gritty of religion

It is religion which has become the basis of lots of events happening in India, discussed and debated at all levels due to its mal effect on the society and people. So as one sees violence against Christians in Orissa and Karnataka on one hand, there is tension between Hindus and Muslims on the other hand in various parts of the country which are aggravated by the recent bomb blasts.These make one stop and think if religions are serving the purpose they are created for i.e. to bring balance and harmony to the society and to protect and foster faith in the supreme authority. Religion is also meant to bind different people together with a common thread. Thus, it does not only have spiritual objective but also social responsibilities. Most of the major religions so far have been able to bring people together who follow it but have been unsuccessful in building a unified multi-religious society.People who follow a certain faith are not conditioned to look through their beliefs and appreciate and honour the other religion. The so-called secular people stay away from all religious activities including their own religion. So, over time a partially secular culture (as stated above) has been achieved but the equality and peaceful co-existence of all faiths is still to follow. Every religion’s history state that they have been formed whenever the society needed to be organised or re-organised as it offers a set of unenforceable laws which the folks adhere to voluntarily and which become more important than the rule of law.One can refer to caste system in Hinduism which aimed at classify individuals on the basis of their professions but which is passé as new vocations are mushrooming in today’s world. Sikhism owes its organisation to the Khalsa cult, established initially as a military order of "saint-soldiers". Protestantism originated to deal with the flaws of the Church and protect people from it’s the oppressive practices.It is to be observed here that even though there has been a transformation of the social scenario over the last century, the way religion is looked at and pursued has not been changed considerably. If religions do not adapt to present conditions and become a cause for aggressive consequences, it might lose importance in the times to come and might be replaced with better substitutes, some of which are already available. It has already started that people of all religions stick to various cults such as vipassana, brahmakumaris, Art of Living foundation, Auroville among others taken care of by spiritual men and volunteers. They are correctly cut to fit the present set up where one needs a stress-free life above all. Such cults involve various meditation practices as a start up to connect to the Almighty. They are also not devoid of defects like any other religion but are becoming popular with the passage of time. It, therefore, does not matter if we have more Hindus or Christians or which way the conversion equation is moving or whether there are more Bajrang dals or SIMIs. What is more significant is what steps the religious associations take to mould themselves according to the need of the hour.