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PHILOSOPHY OF SOUL
389
Do you believe that all of them speak and talk about religion without understanding what is religion ? It is so laid down in Nirgrantha Pravachanas : "Having attained human existence which is very hard to attain, one should devote one's entire life to religion".
Other branches of philisophy and religion preach about religion that with such practice of religion man would become cultured, and would follow the path of bliss and spiritual progress.
But today there are people who compare religion with opium as the followers of religion are infatuated with bigotism. This infatuation creates mutual quarrels and breaks down social unity and so religion is not essential.
Here let us state that it is not fair on the part of a righteous man to speak without any consideration. Who will be convinced when you speak of the world tainted with yellow colour when you peep through yellow glasses ? The world in reality is full of variegated colours. A wise man before propounding any principle should properly consider establishing and contravening means of proofs ; but the above mentioned proposition is held without such consideration.
The said proposition would have been held valid if the religion meant Sectarianism which merely aimed at conflicts based on bigotism; but this would result in multiplicity of religions and each such religion depicts variety of characteristics and therefore, it is not reasonable and proper to express common opinion for all religions. This is something like dealing in all and everything at only one price.
There are many religions existing in this world which preach fraternity and brotherhood for all the beings. They further insist on conduct of universal love for all creatures. How would you allege such religions as creating conflicts based on Sectarianism ? If they are not so alleged then how would you compare them with opium. How would they be responsible for mutual conflicts ? If you reflect with all sincerity you will realise that however little peace enjoyed by the world can be safely attributed to the existence of religions. The religions do not aim at harming social harmony but on the contrary insist on universal welfare and universal progress. With the inception of the idea of non-utility of
