Few days ago, I noticed a very reputed Marathi writer giving his opinion- peace cannot be achieved without destroying the devilish concept of ‘god’ which men have created. To make it simple, this highly acclaimed author claims that we will have to destroy the concept of god and then only we can attain peace.
If one looks at the violence which is taking place around in the name of religion and god, one might think that whatever this writer is saying, makes sense. Religions and gods have been cause of more deaths than anything else. I agree.
Now, the most important question- Will the violence stop if we somehow give a full stop to the concept of god?
I don’t think so. I agree with the author till the point he says that tremendous amount of violence goes on in the name of religion and god. That does not mean that destroying the concept of god and religions will bring us back the peace. No, peace is not that cheap.
Why destroying gods and religions won’t bring back the peace? The simple answer is, if you destroy gods, people (rather we) will find something else to do violence under the name of. God or religion is just a reason or excuse to bring out the violence which is there inside us. Unless and until we get rid of the violence inside us, peace won’t come.
From where does the violence come?
Have you ever given it a thought? What makes us violent? Along with some other things, our insecurity makes us violent. We become violent when we feel insecure. It is not just a chance that the most violent person we have heard of, Adolf Hitler, was probably the most insecure person as well. Hitler was afraid of death.
If we remove gods and religions from our minds and our societies, we will hook our violence to something else. Nothing new, we know, how much violence has been done on the racial basis. The way we are moving ahead shows that there will be little violence around the religions and gods, and more around money, water, food or even Mars!
The problem of violence and peace will not be solved unless we do something about the insecurity which we have within.
Another question to ask- Why are we so much insecure?
The simple answer is, because of our ego. The stronger the ego on the surface, more insecure the person is within. We have been raised in a fashion which strengthens our ego. We have been taught in a fashion which makes us more competitive and hence, sows the seeds of insecurity within us.
The urge to possess more and more is also a cause of violence. This urge to possess also comes from our insecurity. Have you noticed? We are not satisfied with one house. We need a second or even a third home. We are not happy with one car; we need more than one. We are acquiring more and more things outwardly to fulfil our inner security. It is this attitude of us which leads to violence.
How is one going to solve this issue? As I said earlier, peace is not cheap, it comes with a great cost. The cost is our ego which is constantly looking for nourishment. Once the ego dissolves, peace arrives.
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