Yesterday, at lunch I met a young lady from Manipur, and in her eyes saw sadness, “They have decided to kill each other till they finish each other!” she told me, and there was sorrow in her voice.
Yes, we know who she was talking about; two tribes who believed in different faiths!
But what is faith? Isn’t it a belief in God? And whatever god you believe in, doesn’t every spiritual path talk about peace? Then why this fight to eliminate each other?
It is time we took our faith to a different level. The level of peace and love, which ultimately all religions talk about and which every man or woman strives for. You cannot achieve peace of your own mind while bearing anger or hate against another. Shouldn’t that become the basis of every man’s faith?
In the Christian ritual of the Holy Communion, it is stated that if you have any anger against anyone, including your brother, which means your sister, neighbour, or almost anyone, then you cannot partake from the communion table. ‘Go make peace with those you are angry with and then only partake of the cup’ say’s the priests before he shares the cup to anyone who wants to partake of the Lord’s supper.
I am sure every religion speaks the same in maybe different words. Then how on earth are we allowing ourselves to fight with one another in the name of religion, when our own religion forbids it?
What we need to develop as a people is ‘the maturity of faith!’
We need to build our own faith before we try to propagate it and I am talking also to my Christian brethren who I’ve heard often speaking vexing words of others who follow another path to his or her god.
And the same message to our political leaders, who try to instigate one religious sect against another, for no other reason but to get elected. It’s time we the electorate say, ‘enough! Become mature and let your spirituality be shown in the brotherhood you bring about!’
No political leader should be allowed by his own priests to use their religion as a means to hurt another. Our religious leaders need to have the courage to say that as teachers and guides of their religion this cannot be done and we as voters need to say the same as we reject such blasphemy.
Even Hitler did not use faith, he used race. Yes, it is blasphemous indeed to use faith to hurt others!
Families are being wiped out, and in the rest of India, millions are being made to feel insecure. Stop this at once, and let us become mature in our faith, to bring peace and love to our country..!
Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and author. He blogs at www.bobsbanter.com and can be reached at bobsbanter@gmail.com
