Religiontechnically and strictly speaking is belief in the controlling power of the superhuman. If theres a controlling power, a basic question needs to be addressedwhat is it exactly that is being controlled? The word religious encompasses all that is right, conscientious and moral. So, religion is that aspect of ones life that enables channelizing of thoughts and accordingly actions, since the two are interdependent and must synchronize for a synergistic interplay. Religion was created because we humans need something tangible to believe inso what we cannot comprehend or aptly describe, we term as gods handiwork.

Religion provides us with a platform to express ideas. It gives us, as a community, an opportunity to come together. Religion unites. It gives us a common foundation, the latter being essential for a final build up towards a wholesome existence. As humans, theres constant need on our part to connect with others of our race, to reach out, to explore, to comprehend, to have a common grounding factor. Religion provides us with all that and more. Ideally thats how it is supposed to be. But of course as we know from history, from our own experiences, from all we witness around us, ideologies are fragile. It is a different thing to talk of ideals and a completely different thing to put enforce them in practice. As mentioned earlier, religion controlsor rather guides our thoughtsharmonious thoughts.

Trouble brews when we fail to recognize the constructive nature of these thoughts. Human race, since the beginning of its existence, has essentially been a divided lot. There are differences based on nationality, societal status, creed, or even matters as trivial as the color of ones skin! In such a scenario, can religion be far behind? Tracing the origin of these disparate factors, we realize that there is one fundamental similaritythey are all created. Nature did not intend it that way. We were created as humans, distinct in our formation and capacities from animals, not from each other. Evolution designed man to arise from animal. We are letting the animal within us to take precedence over our reason and sanity and trying to legitimize it in the name of religion!

But can violence, aggression against another and curtailing someones freedom ever be legitimized? The answer is a resounding NO!! Everywhere we look around us, there are examples that only reiterate our regression. Such incidents may range from petty non issue debates to ghastly massacres. A case in point here would be the godhra carnage. Enough and more has been written about the initiation and propagation of violence that ensued due to the handiwork of a few miscreants. There are as many theories as there are people in the state of Gujarat on people of which religion started the riots. Who was the initiator is a matter for the protectors of the legal system to decide. The problem that we need to address as common citizens is that have we become so blind as a society to believe whatever is fed to us? Are we so frustrated and disillusioned with our lives that we need to take innocent lives to vent our anger? This fire of frustration is in turn fuelled by politics. The upholders of our democracy need issues to stay in the public eye, most often at the cost of steering the attention away from the real issues that stare us in the face. Are we falling prey to their ploys?

When did something as individual and personal as ones way of lifeones religionbecome a ground for holding them hostage? Since when is it a reason to kill? Since when do we fear god, our creator' The only ones we have to fear are his apparent men and messengers. God is essentially one, only we know him by different names. The sooner we realizeno, we do realize but do not believe. The sooner we believe the fact, the better it is for us. The human race is a rather resilient lotwe have survived everything from the wrath of nature in the form of the ice ages, famines, earthquakes and cyclones to our self destructive world wars. Surely by our inherent rationality, we can also put an end to this madness!