I always had some basic question. "How is religion related to God?"
"If God does exists, does he so tied up with a religion?" In short does every religion has a God and God is not one?
"Is religion more important than God?"
All religions do claim that "their" God is omnipotent, omnipresent and benevolent.
If that is so I would assume that he would not be so tied up with a particular religion and would not
differentiate people from other religion.
A good friend of mine in his conversation said that the religion is way to reach God.
So tries to answers my first question. Religion is a means to reach God.
And could that mean all roads are trying to reach the same destination. May be or May not be.
If they are all trying to reach same destination (God)
then is the road that leads to God is important or the destination?
My Good friend answer this too for me. "The road is equally important as destination."
Some road are short but hard. May lead to destination quickly. Some may be long with easy ride.
But one would reach the destination before he/she ends his/her journey,
if one tries to reach the destination. So this leads to more queries,
If I am eager to reach destination, should I change my road in the middle of the journey.
May be my pace early in my journey is slow and I may have realized that I may not reach my destination when I end my journey.
By this time you might have realized that the discussion is already heading towards controversial topic of conversions.
My friend suggests that instead of changing the path, it would be advisable for a person
to pace up to reach the destination. He reasons that the person has to start all over again with the new path
and also he would not known the length and easy till he walks the path. He also suggest that it could be will of the God (destination itself)
for our choice of the path at start of our journey. And he questions "should be go against the will of God?"
So as you guessed my friend is not all for conversions. He opposes conversions.
Rather would suggest to look for his/her God in chosen path.
There is flaw in above theory of Path and destination. One would reach destination at the end of his/her journey.
So I can never see God's benevolence till I reach the destination.
I would like to look at God and religion in different way.
I think God or the concept of God is like a soap which promises to clean all dirt every day with each bath.
Soap is a cleansing agent made from the interaction of fats and oils with alkali.
God is an agent who cleanses our sins, guides us to look at absolute good and absolute bad.
(I feel Good and bad are relative terms)
And all religions are like the companies that make the soap and sell it to customers.
Like soaps marketed by companies are in different sizes, made with different oils and have different combinations,
so is God marketed by a religion.
Some companies make many soaps and other make only one and strongly market the same.
Every company claims that their soap is better than others.
Their soap clean dirt better and protect skin(soul) better than others with every bath (prayer).
But none of them actually does.
Some companies are new, some are old in this business of selling a soap (Concept of God)
Each company is at war with each other trying to grab the market share.
Every company is trying to grab the market share, more loyal customers.
Some companies are loosing the market share some are gaining. Some have strong marketing capabilities. some don't
Some companies which actually cannot package their soap better, cry fowl practices by their competitors.
They cry saying that the packaging done by competitor is better but the product is not.
And how they are luring their loyal customer away with free bees.
Basically all companies actually forget to provide what the customer wants. So is the religion.
The basic need of the customer is cleanse himself of dirty. In case of religion one expects salvation and reach god.
Neither soap company nor the religion does what they claim.
How can you be keep yourself clean. No matter what soap you use the most important factor is you take bath(prayer) at least once preferably twice. The same is true for religion. It is more important to prayer God (omnipotent, omnipresent) daily and not bother about what religion. Religion is basically a tool (like soap) to reach God. But unfortunately it gained more importance than God himself. It so pitty.
So you may be asking which soap do I bath with. Do I bath or stink? Yes I do bath twice daily and clean myself as frequently as possible, but I don't bother about the soap I use. It can be anything that is available in market.
