Understanding Religion 2

Religion ---- the matter of Faith....

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"Religion and religion alone is the life of India, and when that goes, India will die, in spite of politics, in spite of social reforms, in spite of Kubera's wealth poured upon the head of every one of her children...."
   
                                                         ---- Swami Vivekanand
   
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What is being religious means????
   
Is being religious requires one to visit a Mandir, Masjid, Gurduara, or Church regularly (depending upon your particular religion or even otherwise if you believe that GOD is one)????
   
Is being religious requires one to follow the religious ceremonies which are preached by the priests of those religions????
   
   
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yadā te moha-kalilaḿ
   
buddhir vyatitariṣyati
   
tadā gantāsi nirvedaḿ
   
śrotavyasya śrutasya ca
    
                                                         ---- Bhagavad Gita 2.52
   
Translation ----
   
When your intelligence has passed out of the dense forest of delusion, you shall become indifferent to all that has been heard and all that is to be heard.
   
or
   
If one can reach the platform of understanding by service to the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa, he has no longer to execute different types of penances and sacrifices as recommended in revealed scriptures. And, similarly, if one has not understood that the purpose of the Vedas is to reach Kṛṣṇa and simply engages in the rituals, etc., then he is uselessly wasting time in such engagements.
   
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Because those who preach religion are also human beings.... Which means that you will be following blindly what another human being is asking you to follow, even without actually understanding the reason behind the ritual????
   
It is like the blind faith we show on our doctors who may be prescribing us a particular DRUG for which the Doctor is getting a "CUT"....
   
   
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‏فَوَيْلٌۭ لِّلَّذِينَ يَكْتُبُونَ ٱلْكِتَٟبَ بِأَيْدِيهِمْ ثُمَّ يَقُولُونَ هَٟذَا مِنْ عِندِ ٱللَّهِ لِيَشْتَرُوا۟ بِهِۦ

ثَمَنًۭا قَلِيلًۭا ۖ فَوَيْلٌۭ لَّهُم مِّمَّا كَتَبَتْ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَوَيْلٌۭ لَّهُم مِّمَّا يَكْسِبُونَ
  
                                                                       ---- Quran 2.79
   
Translation ----
   
"Woe to those who write the Book with their own hands and say, "This is from Allah," to traffic with it for a miserable price! Woe to them for what their hands do write and for the gain they make thereby...."
   
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Obviously, at the end of the day, what matters is your FAITH.... FAITH which could turn a sign, a stone, a river, a place, or a building into GOD with whom or where one shares pain or a wish, and which gives a hope that the ALMIGHTY is listening and everything will CHANGE....
   
Or may be in the end, we are just conversing with our own soul, an atom of GOD....
   
   
   
   
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"True religion is not a narrow dogma. It is not external observance. It is faith in God and living in the presence of God. It means faith in a future life, in truth and Ahimsa. There prevails today a sort of apathy towards these things of the Spirit...."
   
                                                            ---- Mahatma Gandhi
   
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The Hindu          Opinion
   
   
Land grab in god’s name
   
http://www.hindu.com/2009/10/06/stories/2009100654550800.htm
   
   
The 2001 Census of India threw up the astonishing statistic that there were 2.4 million places of worship in the country (exceeding the number of schools, at 2.1 million). What it did not divulge of course was that a large number of them were unauthorised, built by encroaching on public land. On the face of it, the Supreme Court’s interim order banning the construction of any temple, church, gurudwara, or mosque on any roadside or other public space may seem like a mere reiteration of the law. But it must be seen in a larger context. It comes in the wake of a controversy over a sensitive issue that has resulted in a recent consensus between the Centre and the States that there would be no fresh construction of places of worship in public spaces. A directive by the Gujarat High Court in 2006 that all illegal structures, including places of worship, should be demolished resulted in violence following the demolition of a dargah in Vadodara. The approach of the Supreme Court, which stayed this directive following an appeal by the Centre, seems to strike a balance between opposing illegal religious structures and being responsive to the law and order problems that could result from their demolition.
   
Banning fresh construction of unauthorised places of worship is the easy part. The real challenge is to deal with existing illegal places of worship, of which there are an estimated more than 60,000 in Delhi alone. With respect to religious structures obstructing roads and public places, the court has adopted a cautious view — asking State governments and Union Territories to review them on a “case by case” basis and take appropriate steps expeditiously. These places of worship have been constructed through land grabbing in the name of God, usually by anti-social elements out to make a quick buck by exploiting the religious sentiments of the people. The mushrooming of these structures, encouraged by collusive politicians, has taken place under the nose of governmental authorities. They have often chosen to turn a blind eye to the encroachments, which in many places cause traffic snarls and occupy pavement space. The motive behind the defiance of law in such cases is no different from the rampant illegal construction of residential and office spaces; and the enabling factor, weak-kneed law enforcement, is more or less the same. In the case of illegal places of worship, the court is being asked to do what successive governments have failed to do over the years. One hopes that judicial resolve will jolt governments into intervening, without fear or favour, to prevent further construction of illegal religious structures and to find a way of tackling the problem of those that exist.
    
    
    
    

http://bhagavadgitaasitis.com/
   
http://www.granthsahib.com/main.php
   
http://www.quran.com/
   
http://www.bibles.net/
   
http://www.sacred-texts.com/
    
    
    
   
Wikipedia ----
   
   
Hinduism does not have a "unified system of belief encoded in declaration of faith or a creed", but is rather an umbrella term comprising the plurality of religious phenomena originating and based on the Vedic traditions. Hinduism is often referred to as Sanātana Dharma, a Sanskrit phrase meaning "the eternal law", by its adherents. Generic "types" of Hinduism that attempt to accommodate a variety of complex views span folk and Vedic Hinduism to bhakti tradition, as in Vaishnavism. Hinduism also includes yogic traditions and a wide spectrum of "daily morality" based on the notion of karma.
   
   
Sikhism, founded on the teachings of Guru Nanak Dev and ten successive Sikh Gurus (the last one being the sacred text Guru Granth Sahib). Sikhism is faith in waheguru—represented using the sacred symbol of ik Oankar, the Universal God. Sikhism originated from the word Sikh, which in turn comes from the Sanskrit root śiṣya meaning "disciple" or "learner", or śikṣa meaning "instruction".
   
   
Islam (Arabic: al-’islam, pronounced [ʔislæːm] is the religion founded by Muhammad and articulated in the Qur’an, a book considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of the single incomparable God (Arabic: Allah), and the Islamic prophet Muhammad's demonstrations and examples (called the Sunnah, collected through narration of his companions in the volumes of Hadith) for implementing it. The word Islam is a homograph, having multiple meanings, and a triliteral of the word salam, which directly translates as peace. Other meanings include submission, or the total surrender of oneself to God. An adherent of Islam is a Muslim, meaning "one who submits (to God)".
   
   
Christianity (from the Greek word Xριστός, Khristos, "Christ", literally "anointed one") is a monotheistic religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in the New Testament. The Christian faith is essentially faith in Jesus as the Christ (or Messiah), the Son of God, the Savior, the manifestation of God to humankind (Immanuel), and God (Yahweh or the "Lord") himself. Adherents of the Christian faith, known as Christians, believe that Jesus is the Messiah prophesied in the Hebrew Bible (the part of scripture common to Christianity and Judaism).
    
    
    
   
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