Why we need to modernize our views upon religions?
I’ve been always talking about Hinduism and I know it would
imprint readers’ minds with a hard impression of religious person. However, I’m
not religious at all. I see religions with open mind and so far I’ve noticed
many things going on rough.
It appears that people have completely forgotten that why
the religion are created. Religions just show us the path to live our lives.
They teach us morality, but that doesn’t mean we should strictly stick to the
words of our scriptures and ethics. They were created on a certain point of a
time, and as the time goes on, you must modernize your views upon them.
Let me explain that with the help of Holy Scriptures of
Hinduism. One question you might ask, is why Hinduism? Because I come from a
background of that particular religion. I’ve no expertise in my religion as
well as in any other religion. So, I’m not going to take examples of other
religion, which might prove my less knowledge about that.
Few days ago, I was talking to one of my friends about
Ramayana and Mahabharata, and we came up with few points which could explain
how the literature is important in religion. In Hinduism, we consider both Rama
and Krishna as gods or avatars. So, when Rama followed each law in Ramayana,
but Krishna said that you must break laws if it can lead you to greater good.
It was a massive change in thoughts. Gap, you might say. That’s what our
scriptures teach us. We must change the ideology according to time. During
Ramayana, people used to be less evil, and they used to follow laws. During
Mahabharata, people tended to be more evil and used to disrespect laws. But if
you want to stop them and purify the generation, sometimes you also have to
break the laws. Krishna did that. He did that for greater good of the mankind.
If he hadn’t done that, Kauravas would win and they would ruin the lives of
their empire.
Thus, we need changes of moralities, we need changes in
thoughts, and we need changes in views. Currently, we are living in extreme
digital age where we can find open-minded people everywhere. But still, in some
regions of the world, people are still stuck to the old beliefs strictly. And
if someone tries to change or modernize those beliefs, they criticize them
through extremism.
More than 25 years ago, a well-known author Sir Salman
Rushdie wrote a book named ‘The Satanic Verses’, which he clearly said was
fiction. Despite of knowing it is a fiction work, some Muslim people felt
offended by that book. Now, if the book is work of fiction and even if it has
some modern or manipulated things about religion, why do you feel offended? At
that time, that book was widely criticized by Muslim communities and banned in
some regions of the world. Fatwas were declared on author and he was tried to
be harmed. Fortunately, after few years, things became peaceful. Although, the
fatwas did kill people. Although, the things became more brutal just because of
misconceptions. Not everyone reads English novels. They just react as
the leader says. Everything happened in those few years saw that people haven’t
yet prepared themselves to accept the different views upon the same subjects. However,
many authors would agree with me that the book was masterpiece. And it was a
fiction. It was not the only incident, there are many incidents have occurred
so far. I’m not saying this because it’s not about my religion.
In India, there are many films and novels which reveal how
people have started business in the name of a religion. Those films and novels
have some offensive things, but most of Hindus accepted that fact and reviewed
them nicely. Although, few Hindu extremists tried to act, but eventually fail,
as majority people had liked those movies or novels. There are many Hindu
Extremist communities in India who always want to oppose such things but they
can't, as the people have grown up. But that’s the thing. It shows that many of
people in current age have modernized their views upon religions. Not only in
Hinduism, but it could be seen in Islam, Christianity and in many other religions.
Although, there are few old regions where people are still stuck to those old
beliefs and not only they’re torturing themselves, but they torture other
people too. Eventually, such people take the way of extremism to make others
believe in what they believe.
All these things clearly show that we need to modernize our
thoughts upon religions. Although, more youth has been leading towards atheism,
I won’t say that you should move towards atheism. But there should be some
liberties and liberalities in religions. The time is not as it was when the
scriptures were written. It has gone. We live in the age where we need to
change our ideologies according to people and time. Even our ancient literature
says that, then why don’t we understand that? Why to impose your beliefs on
someone who doesn’t want to see religion through your eyes? You may guide them
on their approval, but you shouldn’t drag them with you. Sometimes parents also
do that. They try to impose their beliefs on their children instead of letting
them discover that themselves.
My only point is that we should now modernize our thoughts
according to time, and let’s not be extremists. Religions don’t make us, we
make religions.
