Saturday, June 03, 2006

Is Religion An Opium of Masses

Karl Marx once said-"Religion an opium of masses". But is it true?Religion is basically to establish Unity.[Relegare-that which keeps people together].the problem arises in the interpretation of this 'UNITY'.Semetic religions propagate the idea of "Unity lies in being Identical".so, these religion follow, 'one book,one prophet,one culture,one law,one faith'.They divide the world into believers and non believers.further, they work to create unity in world, by making the whole human population to follow their one God policy, by converting and destroying the non-belivers, whome Muslims call Khafirs and christians as Heretics.this, narownesss, leads to conflicts and confusion.this Religious intolerance is what callled by Marx as opium.but, this does not applicable to Eastren religions like Hinduism, which propagates "Unity In Diversity".India is the typical example.here, every region, has its distinct, History,culture,belief,practise,language,dresscode.....
Hindu religion do not have founders, not a single book.It has a 100's of books, which can be termed as "Vedic Scriptures".It can be broadly diveded into "Shruthi" and "Smrithi".these contains many literatures like- 4 Vedas,Upanishads,Brahmanas,Aranyakas....
This "unity in diversity" has resulted in peace and prosperity for more than 7000 years, until Islam came in 1000AC.
Hence, Karl Marx was right, in refering to european religions, but is not applicable to India, where religion is not a Faith, but a 'a way of life'.

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