Written by: Aarya Chhetry - 24005, Grade XI
Posted on: 26 July, 2022
Religion is the guide through which a human is given a method of their lifestyle. It is the very essence through which a life is given a meaning and it is actual a governing body which controls society, people and its behaviors. The origin of religion dates back to old times when prehistoric humans first discovered fear. When people didn’t understand nature and didn’t know how to control the resources of nature, they began to fear it. To feel safe they started to pray and worship the things that they couldn’t comprehend. Thus, religion was born.
Religion is a very systematic way of controlling people, their thoughts, hopes, beliefs through the fear of god. In Hinduism, the caste system was introduced in the early pages of the Rig Veda where it states that people’s castes are based on the parts of Brahma. The Brahmans are said to be born through the mouth lord Brahma hence they are considered the highest likewise the castes born from the so called feet of Brahma became the untouchables. The vedas weren’t written by a single person and not in a single day, rather it was written in a long span of time through many Rishis and it is evident that they tangled with the originally passed down ideologies to benefit them and them only. Maybe the original ideology of the vedas was to give people a sense of meaning at a time when people were senseless of the purpose of their birth but this later changed into a very complicated and well thought out governing system where people were controlled in benefitting the upper castes. The people who understood the power of religion used it to benefit themselves and the people who were in the unknown were forced to be bottom feeders in the fear of god. One of the greatest examples of a religion being turned into business is Buddhism. The true essence of Buddhism is to serve for humanity not for an unknown god but the people turned the man who came for the salvation of humanity to a god. Buddhism states that rather than offering heavy offerings to a statue in the name of god, use those offerings to serve the needy yet we can get a look at the huge statues of Buddha, the gumbas and offerings made in his name. The original Buddhism didn’t have gods, they were later added by the monks in order to counter the then growing popularity of Hinduism. The stupas that are getting established now in the name of peace are just a decoy for the donations that go in the pockets of businessmen.
Religion was and is a business but without it a society won’t function. The biggest issues around the world are based on religion even on of the greatest genocide in history named the holocaust was also based on religion. Without religion people will go back to the prehistoric stone age where the basic goal of living would be to survive and reproduce. Every religion gives out a concept of god and serving that god and following the rules instituted by the god in their holy book when they don’t even realize that those books were written by humans to become powerful in this world where reality is stranger than fiction.
