The true faith is love

Should religion break hearts or fill them with love and affection for others?

Should religion break hearts or fill them with love and affection for others?

We seem to have moulded laws only for narrow interests. We use religion to propagate hatred against the very human beings for whom these laws were framed. We manipulate situations.

We polarise human sentiments to divide people. Really, religion seems to be a tool of destruction. But our own age teaches us wisdom, if we would only learn it.

An Englishmen came to Gandhiji and said, I read the Bhagvad Gita and I liked it. Gandhiji replied that he liked it, too and read it daily. The man then said, “But I found it better than the Bible.” Gandhiji answered: “But I read the Bible also and I like it too.” The man said: “I find the Gita is better and want to switch my faith to Hinduism.” Gandhiji said: “I think you haven’t read the Bible properly. You are not yet a good Christian, how can you become a good Hindu? You better go back and try to be a good Christian. The day you do it successfully you will be a good human being, too. And that day the religious wall within your heart will begin to shrink and you will not only be a good Christian but also a good Hindu, a good Muslim, and a good Jew too.”

So the difference is only within our heart. Otherwise, we are one species, defined by the common term “humanity”. The proof of this is the feeling that rises in our heart whenever we find any disaster or calamity has hurt human beings in any part of the world. We shouldn’t lose our faith. But blind faith is disastrous, so let us be rational and not lend our ear to demagogues or religious contractors. They take us away from faith in God and love for each other to irrational and illogical hatred and make us encroach unjustly on the faith of our fellow human beings.

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