Why blame religion for wars?

I remember having an online discussion with one of my friends Pranav on a holiday afternoons while I was in IIT. Although he wasn't one of my regular chat mates, but the discussion which emerged that day was a result of a status message set by him, which squarely contradicted with mine. I don't remember what exactly he had written, but he essentially meant to say that we don't need religion. When I asked what makes him think so, he was clear, "because religion causes war...if there is no relegion, there won't be any inter-religious conflicts". This may sound very convincing and logical to most of the readers, but I know that such annotations emerge only out of immature pragmatism and limited understanding. Just to convey a simple analogy, one can use a knife for a purpose as noble as cutting vegetables, while the same knife can also be used to kill someone. Now is it the mistake of knife if somebody uses it for killing? Or is it the mistake of the person who used it for such a purpose? Yet interestingly enough, it’s often the knife which is suspected when it comes to talking about religion. Such contentions emerge simply because of our unawareness about the noble and divine purpose for which religions are created.

Every religion entails principles of benevolence and brotherhood in its foundation. No religion preaches hatred or enmity towards fellow beings. No religions criticizes other religions. All religion are supremely pure words of God assimilated into holy scriptures either by Himself or his pure associates. Why then there are conflicts and wars with religion as a subject? It is because some people misutilize it, in the same way as a knife is misutilized by a killer. They may do so because such an act helps them in fulfilling their selfish motivations, motivations which are fueled by political, social or economical interests. Others do it being driven by fundamentalism, which originates out of their shallow understandings about their religion which is pure and unalloyed word of God guiding us towards Him. As A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad, one of the greatest exponents of modern spiritual wisdom remarks, “Any religion which teaches love of God is a genuine religion”. It’s the constitutional position of every living entity to love and serve God, and God gives holy scriptures like Quran, Bible, Gurugranth-Sahib or Bhagvad Gita depending upon the time, place and circumstance to guide all the living entities towards Him. Conflicts arise only when we interpret these messages in our own way to satisfy our ulterior whims. Hence its rather childish to blame religion for being a cause of wars, while the real purpose of religions is centered about attaining Love of God, something that can never be attained with such ‘warsome’ mentality.

mumbai's milling mortals...

Sakinaka junction, Mumbai's one of those hallmark traffic signals which is normally chocked unless the clock is not sweeping between 10pm to 6am, is a typical place where one can experience a 'Mumbai wala' jam. At peak timings, this place can be seen inundated with all kind of vehicles ranging from a cycle to those red giant corporation buses, all scrambling to take over every inch of space vacated by anteceding vehicles. Although two wheelers manage to tunnel their way through the jam, quite often, its a relaxation time for all the four wheelers as Sakinaka guarantees them a miserably comfortable break of atleast 1/2 hr to 45 min. But why do I have to elaborate so much about Sakinaka in my blog? The reason is simple, I'm astonished at bombayites who consider 4 hours of travel everyday as 'normal'.