Joseph Lewis D’Silva
I approached a holy man and asked him, why some persons want to impose their religion on others while they close their eyes to the teachings of their own religion? This pious man flashed a smile and poured out his heart. As there is much merit in what he said, I place it before my gentle readers here below:
All religions want men to cleanse their hearts of malice, greed, hate and anger and not to play a number game by forcefully increasing its flock. An English author has rightfully said: “Men will wrangle for religion; write for it; fight for it; anything but — live for it.”
Many people have split personality as shown by Robert Louis Stevenson in his book Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, where by day the person was a well respected city Councillor and a vicious thief by night. Likewise, some people are holy outside but sinful inside. They take great care to follow rules of worship of their religion, undertake several fasts or go on pilgrimages to holy places or perform charity or wear religious symbols. Such a person does not find God in his heart as it is pretentious religion he practices.
Yes, religion is something within us. It is a personal relationship with God through a pure mind. Without purity, the link with God is like drawing water from a well with a hole in the bucket. Every time you pull the bucket up you will not get water in it. One’s vices are like holes in the bucket.
The main purpose of religion is service to humanity. Words attributed to St. Teresa of Avila the 16th century Roman Catholic Carmelite nun said: “Christ has no body now on earth but yours; no hands but yours; no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks out compassion to the world. Yours are the feet with which he walks about to do good; yours are the hands with which he blesses the world now.” In other words: Service to others is service to God.
The cause of showy religion is the mind. Human being follow dictates of the mind and cultivate self-pride, anger, greed, jealousy and all our other activities. In such a play-act of one’s mind, all pilgrimages are mere religious tourism; all charity just an artificial relief for the heart as what should be a matter of piety becomes a matter of pride; and wearing all religious symbols are a mere show. There is a place for pretence in human life and that is in a drama or film. Actors on stage shed crocodile tears but once they jump down from the stage they rejoices. One may pretend to be sympathetic outwardly but in the heart of hearts may be rejoicing. The person who does not understand the pretence or see through the pretence believes in the pretended sympathy and trusts the pretender.
No doubt, pilgrimages calms the mind and bring about goodwill as one’s mind is focused on one’s faith in a special way during the journey to the holy place; also, because joint faith of hundreds of people in one place creates a situation which moves the mind, to a different level. A pretender tries to learn all the external manifestations of holiness and imitate them without any genuine holiness underneath. Jesus condemned all such pretenders in Mt. 23: 25-28.
