RELIGION

The most difficult thing to do is to live in peace and harmony with people. We might be friendlier with dogs and cats for that matter but when it comes to people, a hell lot of analysis is done before a happy relationship starts. One factor that eases this very phenomenon of analysing people is Religion.

We are automatically free from vexation with people who belong to the same religion that we do. There is an inbuilt trust factor amongst us that unites people belonging to our religion with us. This is a good thing for sure because the phrase “United, we stand, divided, we fall” holds true. It is also true that the latter part of the aforesaid phrase is often too much neglected and it is this act of our negligence that makes religion the most powerful weapon for destruction of mankind. Religion, when used as a factor to unite can create wonders but if misused, proves to be deadlier than a nuke.

Religion is supposed to be considered as a personal matter. But very often, little do we realize that the things that we do in the name of religion leave it as more of a public display of superiority and authority. This happens the most during festivals when people forget that though it might be a moment of joy and celebration for one, there are a million others who are not interested in what that one person is doing. By expressing joy publicly, we end up disturbing many others and eventually cause a lot of problems for them. If religion is a private matter, why display it publicly?

I remember one of the debates held in the classroom during my college days. The group that I was in was assigned the topic “Religion: Is it a personal matter?” Many of my colleagues agreed to the very topic and explained in all possible ways the influence of religion on human beings. However, I and a few colleagues were of the opinion that in today’s scenario, religion has no longer remained private. It has been imposed on others, especially babies, when born, automatically come under the religion of their parents. Why impose the religion on the baby? Why not let it decide by itself which religion to choose after it becomes an adult. There is no such thing that a child can do by itself until it turns 18, i.e. becomes an adult. Then why not choose its religion after becoming an adult, after becoming mature enough to take its own decisions. Till it turns 18, the responsibility of the child’s actions is that of the parents, who already have a religion. Why trouble the child by imposing religion on it and compel it to abide by the rules and regulations of the religion?

The reply to this argument was “Why did your parents name you? You could have become an adult and then chosen a name for yourself?” Well, amusingly enough, there was a huge applause for this remark; the reason for the applause still remains unknown to me. The fact that we are named is only to identify us amongst million others. Well, religion does the same, right? Yes, of course, it does the same. But do we teach our children as to why they were named? Do we ask them to follow rules according to the names they have? Do we tell them about different deities as per their names? And lastly, but importantly, do we teach them that their names are superior than others? The last statement may not be acceptable to many of us, but such things do prevail in the society even today. We don’t impose our understanding about things on our children based on the names, but in the name of religion, this is exactly what we do. Rather than letting our children develop their own understanding about god, we induce into them, the concept of “GOD” that was induced into us. How many times have you seen people telling their children about humanity and respecting humans? We are taught not to back answer our elders. The reason given is that God will get angry and punish us for our sins. Never are we told that the elders might feel bad about it and we should make sure our comments don’t hurt anyone.
Instead of making people aware of God, why not make him aware of his teachings? Why is it that religion is more preached and less practised? What is the use of knowing a thousand prayers if you don’t know the worth of a human life? When hanging in a situation between life and death, all we pray is for someone to save us. The religion of our saviour doesn’t matter at all. The only thing that we require for that moment is help, and it is appreciated no matter where it comes from. Why is it that we don’t wait to be saved by someone of our own religion?

Religion cannot be completely eliminated. Since it has prevailed over thousands of years, it is not feasible to remove it and have the same way of life as before. However, it can be kept limited to ourselves. We need not fight in the name of religion, caste, sect or any other categorization amongst us. The division was done only for ease of administration and for personal convenience. It is not something that the Gods decided upon and divided the human race into. In fact, the Gods themselves might be surprised to see people under constant communal tension, something that they never practised or preached.

Religion was brought into existence by man and not God. Let us not forget that we are humans first and then Christians, Hindus, Muslims etc. Humanity is our only strength, because it is the only thing that all humans have in common. As my friend, the Dark Angel (http://www.darkangel1988.blogspot.com/) says in one of his posts on religion:

"It is rather ironic that people are willing to hurt, rape and kill other people whom they can see,hear and understand for Something or Someone whom they cannot see,hear or understand."

Let us stop these foolish acts that are happening in the name of GOD, in the name of MAN.

ONION

The first thing that comes to our minds when we think of an onion is “tears”. Tears are something that each one of us readily identifies the onion with, however, it can be better related to the person whom we love the most or the one who is close to our hearts. Whenever we cut the onion, tears roll down our eyes. The same can be said when we lose someone special. It is this aspect of emotional attachment of the human nature that is related to the onion. Onion can also be compared to our behaviour towards others. For instance, if the onion is deep fried in oil or fried till it turns golden brown; it imparts certain sweetness to the dish. This phenomenon sends out a message that the true sweetness in a relation can be experienced only if you feel deeply about it. Mere frying won’t make it sweet. The deeper you fry, the more you come close to people. But, just as the onion teaches us to come close to people, it might as well teach us tricks to keep people away from us. Eat a raw onion and many of the people won’t even come near, forget talking alone.

Unlike other vegetables such as carrots, radishes etc (all grow underground), an onion cannot be directly eaten. It seems tasteless. It is best when cooked properly or if raw, with salads. The thing that comes out from this fact is that some relations cannot be sustained by a single factor alone. They seem useless and pointless when the interest is narrowed down to one thing. However, to make sense out of a relation, we need to view it from all possible angles and analyse it to make it fuller, richer and deeper. Some relations are best when mixed up with various emotions. This too can be related to the onion.
To sum it up, it is not the onion that teaches us these great things. These are simple things that are not paid much attention or given much importance in our daily lives. It is just that someone like you and me sat down for a moment and thought about the onion, else the onion would have been just another vegetable............. or is it still?