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Religious Bondages
There are five very important reasons why we should get away from the
religious bondage, the thraldom of religion, which is holding us in
greater slavery than the Romans ever held their slaves in, or the Greeks,
or the Egyptians. First, this philosophy, this theology, is anti-evolutionary.
Second, it is demeaning. Third, it makes us useless to
ourselves. Fourth, it makes us so impotent that we can do nothing
for ourselves. And fifth, it binds us as slaves to a church which
should liberate us. So this is the problem of religion. Religion keeps
us bound to the past, chained to the past.
Now we are not preaching against religion, we are only pointing out
the facts of religion. If rituals could liberate, there should be no
more human beings here. I mean, after millions of years, and thousands
of years of praying and preaching, and attending these religious institutions
- whether a church or a temple, it doesn't matter - what are we still
doing here? So you see, we have to judge these things not emotionally,
but practically. Is it good for me? Is it doing any good for me? Have
I developed an iota on the way? If the answer is 'no', we have to change.
So I would like to quote Swami Vivekananda, "It is good to be born
in a religion, but it is bad to die in a religion." It is a profound
statement that few have understood. It means that I start off with something
- a capital, a heritage, a system of philosophy, but I have to grow
out of it like out of anything else.
So it is essential to remember that the system must conform to the
time in which we are alive. So that the situation in which we are placed
in our temporal existence must enable us to do these things satisfactorily,
continuously, regularly, effectively. Otherwise, there is no use.
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