January 17, 2024
To promote peace and lead man to eternal bliss are the very meaning and purpose of religion. Yet, it does not take long for anyone to realize that, on the contrary, religion has been accused of promoting disharmony and misery. Has religion failed us or have we failed religion? If you go round the world, you discover an interesting phenomenon. They who belong to religious orders tell the lay people what they should do, and the lay people lay down rules for the religious orders. When is anyone going to assimilate the spirit of religion so that it may act from within oneself?
When we come face to face with the spirit of religion, and when we intellectually understand the message of religion, we recoil from it. We are unwilling to abandon our selfish and materialistic way of life, but we bring in clever arguments to defend it, and perhaps even to reconcile it with religion! "Family responsibility", "social order", "self-defense", all these are seen to militate against the fundamental spirit of religion, which is total surrender to the Will of God, and unconditional love for fellowman.