Religion (December 1976)

Ideas of country, monarchy and religion dawned upon the mankind ages after its birth. If we try to visualize the mankind spread all over the world some thousands of year ago, we will find them spread all over the world in different pockets, segregated from each other, not knowing each other, not knowing each others' language and having no inter-communication. It was much later, when they started communicating with each other that they became conscious of their clan, their customs, their ideals as different from those of the other groups surrounding them.

Long before this awakening dawned upon the mankind, we find that the world was full of thick jungles, infested with wild animals of various odd and formidable sizes, many of whom are now extinct. The human beings that were existing on this globe at that time were no better than the wild animals that were dwelling on this earth. They were mostly staying in caves, as wild animals do even today and they did not also know the use of clothes. Due to lack of civilization agriculture was also out of question. The mankind therefore depended mainly on the flesh of the animals, which they procured by hunting. The human beings of those days had constantly to wage war with wild animals for their existence and for their food.

In the early history of the mankind, therefore, we see that, they had only the instincts like hunger, sleep, fright etc, common to the animals, who were living with them. Later on when the man became conscious of his intellect, he starred controlling others. The feelings of state, country, religion, morality etc. Dawned upon the mankind and thus it started having seperate existence by itself. This sharp line of demarcation between the human beings and the beasts is clearly drawn in a Sanskrit shloka which reads as follows:

"Need of food, sleep, fright, sexual intercourse, these are the common instincts of the human beings and the beasts; but religion is the special distinguishing mark of the mankind. The persons who are void of religion are akin to beasts". This is the meaning of the above shloka and even today we find that religion plays a very important part in the life of the human beings.

The state of a country and its religion have a very close relation. Though the problem as to which of them must have come into being first, is a bit puzzling, still it must not be quite unsoluble like the problem of the seed and the tree or the problem of the hen and the egg. If we consider closely the history of the mankind, we see that after the primary anarchy that existed in the early life of the mankind, they thought of organizing themselves as one group. This was necessary in order to fight with other aggressive groups round about. Naturally the group could not continue to live in peace unless someone governed it and led it in case of an aggression.

In those days when the human beings had to fight with wild beasts and other aggressive groups, the choice of the leader must have been naturally made on grounds of personal physical strength. It was therefore no wonder if tall, strong and stout fellows got the leadership of the group. This helped to keep down the quarrels among the members of the group and the followers got a leader to lead them when other adjoining groups attacked them for some reason or the other.

Later on the nomadic nature of the mankind left them. They started farming, rearing the cattle and the fowls and thus settled in a particular part of the world. The people, who were more or less homogeneous in their habits and customs, confined themselves to a territory and thus the idea of a country came into existence. The leader of the clan or the group by and by came to be known as the king. In the beginning the people, who were the subjects of the king, surrendered a few of their rights to the king, because they wanted security and protection; but later on it so happened that because of his rights and position, the king started behaving immoraly. He often disregarded the feelings of his subjects. It was therefore thought that there should be some sort of a moral discipline for the group and this need came to be fulfilled by the institution known as religion. In observing religion too, the people in general have to surrender some of their social rights and some restrictions are being imposed on the individuals; but the people have gladly accepted this position as the general utility of religion is to bind the people by a common tie and to hold them together.

The religion originally started with this idea of holding the people of a certain community together and binding them together. Every religion, that sprung up in this world, had this point in view. It is because of this that the moral principles of all the religions in the world are more or less the same. Sometimes the practices of a religion are disliked by certain sector of a religion and then a prophet comes forward with a new religion. The Hindu religion for example once got so much entangled in religious practices like sacrifices, in which animals were killed, that as a reaction against that, the idea of Ahimsa came into being and this resulted in the birth of Buddhism and Jainism. If we see the ethics of these religions, it is not substantially different from the Hindu religion.

Similar is the case with the Christian, Zorastrian and Muslim religions.

Most states in the world have got their state religion. The king is the defender of that faith. When the state backed the religion it was natural that some fanatics started creating atrocities under the name of religion. Even though all religions were meant for the well-being of the mankind in this world as well as in the next, still people resorted to oppression for the spread of their religion. The Muslims have made a history in this behalf. They take pride in stating that they went all over the world with the Quran in one hand and the sword in the other. The Christian missionaries also went all over the world for the spread of their religion. In most places they have been found to have taken undue advantage of the poverty of the people and have converted them to Christianity by holding some temptations.

Thus the main purpose of religion was sidetracked in many cases and the followers of the religion, which preached sympathy and kindness to others, created artrocities in the name of that religion itself. The principle of forbearance which, was preached by Christ throughout his life was flouted most by the followers of his religion. Thus though the ethics or the basic principles of the religion might be very good, they often remain locked up in religious books and the followers of that religion are turned into cruel fanatics by the priests, taking advantage of the reverence shown to them as the religious heads.

Bharat has looked to all these dangers in the religious field. Though Hinduism was the original religion of the people in this country and though Buddhism and Jainism started in this country, still. Bharat has remained aloof from declaring any of these religions as their state religion, because in addition to the followers of the aforesaid religions, the Jews, Parsees, Muslims and the Christians have also migrated to this country in sufficiently large numbers. The golden mean of giving equal freedom to all religions is therefore adopted by Bharat by declaring itself as a secular state. When the state adopts a religion as the state religion, the head of the religion comes into prominence. In the western countries where Christianity was the state religion, the Pope and Cardinal and clergy came to have a very great importance. The religious monarchy also seemed to start a sort of a parallel organisation which used to view even with the state Government on certain issues.

The separate state of the Pope in Rome is a daring example of the prominence that the religious heads get in a country. In India also we find that Buddha and his Bhikshus once upon a time came into such prominence that they were virtually controlling the state. The policies of the state were being guided by them and because of the misconstrued conception of Ahimsa and its application to the government rule, the state army became very weak and the enemies of the state overpowered them. During the time of Chhatrapati Shiwaji Maharaj, the religion was given some importance; but the head of the religion never framed the policy of the government or even influenced it. The Hindu religion no doubt got protection; but the other religions were never subdued or uprooted. However during the time of the Peshwas, the Brahmins wielded much influence. Though they could not much dabble with the politics, still they disturbed the social tranquility to a great extent and created lot of troubles in the private life of the Peshwas, with the result that they were not able to concentrate fully on their work in the political field.

Religion has thus so many facets; but the main function of the religion is to keep together the people of a society. Shri Sai Baba knew this aspect of the religion very well and He therefore never enquired about the religion of His devotee on never advised him to change his mode of prayer. The ultimate aim of all religions is the welfare of the people in this world as well as in the next. Therefore it is no use disuading anybody from the religion that he is following. Shri Sai Baba therefore selected all important things from the various religions and cultivated them in Shirdi and made them as a routine of the life at Shirdi. This made the people of all religions to feel affinity for Shirdi and for Shri Sai Baba. The Parsees, Muslims and Hindus therefore all feel that Shirdi is a seat of their religion and a place where they can observe their religious practices with full devotion. Let us all Sai devotees keep this secular spirit alive, which Shri Sai Baba visualized so early and which has raised the image of Bharat in the international field.