DON’T CHANGE YOUR RELIGION,
JUST CHANGE YOUR BELIEF-SYSTEM
What is this book inspiring you to do? It is not a religious book. It is a Spiritual book. It is not promoting any Religion, nor is it condemning any Religion. All the Religions in the world are the same where Spirituality is concerned. This book is not motivating you to change your Religion. It is asking you to go beyond Religion. It is claiming that all Religions are a kindergarten to Spirituality. It says that all Religions are good, but only good enough to teach us the basics. It is not criticizing any Religion. It’s just that Religion cannot do more than building a foundation of our belief system.
What then is this book about? It is asking for us to change our belief system, to break away from myth, to investigate and realize the Truth about God. It is asking us not just to accept whatever people say, whatever a Religion advocates and whatever our leaders proclaim. We must use our intellect to realize the Truth. We must be passionate about God, and our love for God must take us closer to the Truth about God. How should we do this?
All Religions are good
The first step is to realize that Religion is good. In fact, all Religions are good. They teach us the basics. God exists. God is the Creator. God is all-powerful. God can do anything. God is everywhere, in everything. Religions are excellent in teaching us the basics. Then, somehow they make us go round in circles and we get lost in myth, dogmas, and superstitions. Their intention is not to confuse us, but most unfortunately, all Religions are very confusing. For instance, we know that the Buddha spoke against idol worship. He said that we must go within to realize the Truth. He had some amazing realizations in his own life which later were put together as Buddhism. If one visits the Buddhist temple in Singapore one would be shocked to see that in each room, there are over a thousand idols of a Buddhist leader. They have so many idols of Buddha, so many Gods, so many Bodhisattvas, that it completely confuses people! Who are these Gods? This is very different from what the Buddha taught. But that’s the case with all Religions. Just like a game of Chinese Whispers completely changes the original message,
Religions have lost their meaning over time and today Religions are no better than kindergartens. Every now and then, there comes to be on earth a saint who spreads the true message of God. However, it is a matter of time before a new Religion is formed in his name and the original message of God disappears into insignificance.
We need to stop here. Let us be clear that no Religion in this world is better than the other. They teach us the basics of God and that’s it. We need to take a Spiritual exit, a path that goes within, that moves away from Religion. Not against it, but further onward, forward, Godward, inward, so that we can evolve and grow beyond Religion to Spirituality. That’s the way to evolve and realize God.
All Religions teach us good basics
The world today has hundreds of Religions, though the majority of the world believes in less than five major Religions. So, which is the best Religion? It hardly matters!
Whatever be the Religion, they all teach us good basics. Religion teaches us to live a moral life, to live with ethics, to do good and to spread peace. This does not mean that there are no unscrupulous elements in each Religion that hijack even the basics and provoke people in the wrong way. We know of several such examples, but we cannot blame Religion for that. There are a few people who try to spoil the name of Religion but let us avoid those isolated cases. Religion, by and large, teaches humanity good basics.
However, as we grow, it is for us to use our intellect to question all the belief systems and choose what is right. We don’t have to continue believing in all the things we were taught. Sure, we should believe in a God, a power, the Creator. We need to be grateful to God. We must pray and we must praise God. All Religions say this. If any Religion does not teach these basics, then it is not a Religion at all. Religions tell us to respect our parents and our elders. Does any Religion deny this? All Religions ask us to share our wealth with the poor and serve them.
The problem starts when Religion, the kindergarten starts giving a university class. Then the ABC of God is not enough to make us graduate Spiritually. We need to realize this. This is the essential problem. The problem is not in the basics, it’s in the advanced knowledge that Religions don’t educate us with. Each Religion says that its God is the most powerful, its God is the only God and others are fake or not real. This is wrong. Because of this false advocacy, people get influenced and this causes unrest in the world today. The world is gripped by religious differences. There is war and terrorism, and so much anxiety in the world due to Religion. Isn’t it strange that something like Religion, something about God is causing anxiety and stress in the world? How ironical that Religions should bring the world to such a state!
Let Religion remain at its basics and it will be good for all. Then we must use our inner conscience, our intellect and our own wisdom to discover the truth about God.
The problem is that we don’t graduate
Where does the problem start? In school, we go to kindergarten, but do we get stuck there? Of course not! We remain in nursery till we learn the basics. Then we go to primary school, high school and university. But unfortunately, in Religion, we don’t graduate. Even a man of 80 is still in the nursery. He is still repeating the ABC of Religion and has not graduated Spiritually. What a pity! This is the problem. We must learn to graduate beyond Religion and realize the Truth about Spirituality. We must realize that we are not the body and mind, we are the divine Spirit. We must realize this Truth if we want to grow Spiritually. Sadly, most of us don’t grow Spiritually. We remain in kindergarten all our life and so we remain ignorant and we suffer.
We don’t need to change our Religion
Many people make a mistake thinking that they need to change their Religion. No, of course not! We don’t need to change our Religion. All Religions are kindergartens. We need to grow beyond Religion.
We need to grow beyond personal Gods. We need to realize that God is not a religious God. God is a power, a universal power, a cosmic power that governs the whole universe. God is beyond human comprehension. We must realize this. We don’t realize this because we are stuck in the kindergarten called Religion. Then, we move from one kindergarten to another kindergarten. How does that help? We are still learning the same ABC of Religion. It’s of no use! Changing our Religion does not help us at all.
We need to evolve, grow, and graduate from Religion to Spirituality. We need to go on an inner quest, a search for God, then only will we realize the Truth. Changing Religion will only make us repeat the nursery class till we die. Many people make this mistake. They think one Religion is bad and they move from one Religion to another and they think that they have found God. No, sadly not! God cannot be found through Religion. God has to be discovered through self-realization and finally, through God realization. God has to be realized Spiritually and Religion can only be a good kindergarten, that’s all.
We must change our beliefs
One thing is very important. Whatever Religion we belong to, we need to question our belief system. Whatever we believe in, whatever rituals we perform, whatever prayers, poojas and ceremonies that we perform, we need to ask questions as to why we are performing this. We should not be ignorant and continue to follow our belief system. This is wrong. We need to ask questions and we need to investigate until we realize the Truth. This is a challenge for us before we discover God.
If we believe that we will go to heaven after we die, then we must ask the question, where is heaven? How will we go there and if we die and our body is buried on earth, then who will go to heaven? Just believing Religion and its theology does not help. We need to be practical and ask relevant questions that will help us realize the Truth. Just because our Religion tells us that we will go to heaven after we die and we will have to face the final day of judgement, we still need to ask questions as to who will face the final day of judgement, how will we be rewarded or punished and who will eventually face this? Such questions will help us change our beliefs and ultimately make us realize the Truth. It’s no using changing our Religion. Rather, we need to change our belief system.
Fall in love with God
How will we ultimately graduate Spiritually? The key is love and devotion for God. If we truly love our God, whoever that God is, then we will seek God passionately and this will lead us to the Truth. We will ask questions and these questions will get us the answers and finally, we will discover God. But if we don’t love God, if we rather love the world, then we will be immersed in the pleasures of this world and we will forget God. Not many people in this world go to a church every Sunday, to a mosque every Friday. If they do because they are forced to, it’s of no use. Even if they go every week, but their mind is elsewhere, how will it help? If they are devout but only devout out of fear of God, it is meaningless. The key is love for God.
We need to truly love God. We need to have gratitude for God. We must be grateful to our Lord who has given us life. We need to appreciate God for this wonderful universe. All this is a way to love God. It is said that one must have a triple yearning for God to discover God - love that a miser has for gold, love that a young child has for its mother that it has just lost and love that a lover has for his beloved. If we love God with this triple yearning, then we are sure to realize God.
Refuse to accept the myth
If we want to discover God, the first thing we need to do is refuse to accept the myth. Whatever Religion we belong to, as we have said several times, does not matter. Spirituality is not against Religion. It respects all Religions and endorses that Religion is a good foundation to believe in God. But the problem is that Religions become overwhelming in their mythological tales. They go overboard to convince people about God. Then they talk of God’s miraculous powers. Since people don’t understand the truth, Religions make superstitions and rituals that make people get bound to Religion. In a way, we get drugged and we cannot leave this addiction. It’s sad because, in the bargain, we are believing in all the myth of Religion. We need to break this. We need to question every myth. If we are performing a prayer, we must ask for the relevance of the prayer. If we are repeating a mantra or a hymn, we must understand it. If we are performing a ritual, we must ask why.
Unless our “Why?” is answered, we must not do anything. We must stop all blind belief. We must stop all mythological rituals. We need to break the myth as we realize the Truth about God.
That is the first thing we must do starting today. Whatever be our Religion, we must differentiate between myth and Truth. If we are told a fairy tale about God, we must not accept it. We must ask questions about our God, where God is and who God is. We cannot just accept mythological tales. We must investigate, go deep within till we realize the Truth. Then only we will realize God.
We must keep on and on, till we realize God.
Do we really love God? Are we true in our quest, our search for God? Then remember this - we need persistence! We need to keep on keeping on. Keep on till we realize God.
We must find out more about our God. Investigate where our God was born. Who is the father and mother of God? How can God be made of skin and bone? Where did God come from and where did he go? If there is some mythological tale, then we must not blindly accept it, but keep on at it. If we keep on searching for God, we will realize God.
God has to be realized. It is an intuitive experience. Don’t expect even your Spiritual Master to hand God over to you. It’s not possible! God is everywhere. Unfortunately, we are blind. To realize God, we have to open our “real eyes”, then we will see God! When we realize God, we will discover God. But it is possible! It will happen if we keep on and on.
Finally, if we love God, we want God, we must be still. We must listen to God. God speaks but if we are living in so much noise, then we cannot listen to the sweet voice of God. Of course, God exists. We all know it! We must not doubt this!
Once a scientist questioned the existence of God. He went to a Spiritual Master and stayed there for several days and eventually he agreed to disagree. He said, “There is no God!”, despite the Master’s effort to explain that God exists. On the final day, as he was leaving, he came to say ‘goodbye’ to the saint. He saw a beautiful globe and he asked, “Where did you get the ornate golden marble globe from?” The saint said, “Oh! I don’t know. It just appeared on the table one day.” The scientist got angry and he said, “If you don’t want to tell me, then just say you won’t tell me! But telling me that it just appeared is nonsense!” The saint got an opportunity to tell the scientist, “You don’t agree that this little globe has to have a manufacturer, but you think that this big globe called the earth, just came about. How is that possible? There must be a Creator of this earth, a Creator we call God.” The Scientists eyes were opened and he realized that a Creator exist.
While there is no doubt that God exists and only fools can deny this, it is not easy to realize God. We need Religion and we don’t need to change our Religion. However, Religion is only a kindergarten and it teaches us basics. We need to go beyond Religion, we need to realize the Truth about God, only then can we realize God.
If you really want God, be ready to change.
Don’t just believe the myth, that’s all so strange.
You don’t need to change your Religion and your God,
You just need to further your quest to find your Lord.