Every religion in the world, including Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism, has been advocating essentially the same theme, mentioning God as the creator and stating that the objective of every human in life should be to attain the feet of God. Further, all religions emphasize adherence to a value system in life that involves truthfulness, love, and compassion, avoidance of violence, and ensuring a mindset that would be free of feelings of hatred, jealousy, and greed. More so, the Hindu religion particularly emphasizes the need to have detachment in attitude, which would consequently lead to the destruction of ego in individuals.
Billions of people around the world have been followers of one religion or another in the past several centuries and at present, accepting the ethos of their religion in letter and spirit.
While different religions speak about the birth and death processes and the after-death scenario in somewhat different manners, the fact is that what religions have been saying are concepts without any specific proof. While some religions speak about hell and heaven after death based on the actions of individuals, the Hindu religion talks about the rebirth process, where individuals would suffer or gain in the existing life based on the actions in earlier births. The term fate (karma in Sanskrit) describes this condition.
Finally, all religions insist on acceptance of the ethos advocated by the religion without questioning and lay stress on total surrender to God. In the Hindu religion, this surrender concept is termed Saranagathi (total unquestionable surrender).
In the last several centuries and at present, several saints, deep thinkers, and spiritual leaders have propagated the advocacies of one religion or another and spread the message of religion among the people. People accept these teachings and explanations readily, perhaps because they know no better. In any case, being a believer provides a sense of comfort to individuals.
Of course, there are non-believers (generally known as atheists) who do not accept the versions of religions, but they seem to have thoughts in the wilderness, with no particular clarity. While believers at least have some sort of vague idea of the origin and end of life based on what has been said in religions, non-believers do not have even this level of understanding. In such a scenario, non-believers constitute only a microscopic minority in the world population, which is not surprising.
While the place of religion in the life processes of individuals is well established, and while there have been billions of people all over the world in the past and present owing allegiance to different religions, the influence of religions on the overall behavior pattern of humans in day-to-day life appears to be only limited.
If the advocacies and ethos of religions were to have a decisive influence on the behavior of humans, then there should be no conflict or war in the world between regions and groups, and feelings of hatred, jealousy, and consequent quarrels between individuals should be non-existent. On the other hand, from historical times to the present, wars and conflicts among regions and countries and quarrels between individuals due to greed and ego are seen to be the order of the day.
It is strange that those who swear by the Bible, the Quran, or the Bhagavad Gita and other religious texts while taking an oath to assume power involve themselves in conflicts without hesitation, and such conflicts happen between religious groups too, claiming the superiority of one religion over another. Efforts are often made to convert people from one religion to another to increase the numerical strength of the religion. All these practices are contrary to the advocacies of religions, obviously implying that religious teachings have only a limited impact on the overall behavior of humans.
Why is such a situation, with religions unable to positively influence the lifestyle of humans in a manner that can be termed a civilized way of life? While people belonging to different religions are told in religious scriptures and teachings that there would be some sort of inevitable punishment for dishonest dealings and evil acts, such acts continue to be indulged in by humans even as they owe allegiance to one religion or another.
Is it that baser elements in individual minds, reflected by hate, jealousy, and ego, are indestructible and can only be suppressed to some extent, only to come to the surface again later? When wars, conflicts, and quarrels continue in spite of religious teachings over the last several centuries, can we conclude that peace in the world and between individuals is beyond reach and that it is a utopian idea? Would the peace among countries and individuals that has not happened in the past happen in the future?
There are, of course, some individuals and groups all over the world who adhere to the mental state propagated by religions; they are certainly few and far between and seem to remain isolated and not part of the mainstream.
