on those defending RELIGION.

©Whenever I have asked friends from different religions to revisit their own flaws, introspect and help their communities evolve, rather than doing the needful, they start justifying anything and everything in and about their religions.

Rather than revisiting their concepts, they start rationalizing all that they accepted as perfect and holy, not by any reason of logic but only by an accident of nature, that is their birth in one or another place or ideology.

Rather than enlightening themselves on esoteric and eternal truths of life, of universe and humanity, they start flashing the flawed torches of their religious conditioning handed over to them by their so called enlightened masters.

To be truly enlightened, we all need to learn about each other's religions and philosophies, but knowing them as their blind followers know them alone is not enlightenment. Enlightenment in fact is only possible when we have examined all the facets of a subject or object.

If all points put forward by a follower of any religion were perfectly true, there would not have been the need for any debate at all.

A staunch Muslim, a staunch Sikh, a fundamentalist Hindu or a dogmatic Christian always tries to build a case supporting his own religious beliefs and his religion as such, covering up its philosophical flaws and practices. A blind follower is unable to speak a word against the flaws of his faith because he or she has been conditioned to believe that his/her religion is perfect and to doubt it is a sin.

I for that matter believe that the very fact that new philosophies and religions keep emerging in our world is itself a proof that change is the only constant.
मिटा मिटा के जो दुनिया बनायी जाती है,
कोई कमी जरूर है जो पायी जाती है।

My argument should not be read as my allegiance to any religion or my aversion to another. I am an Omnist and an Atheist at the same time, but having walked through the lanes and by-lanes of all major religions, I can verily say that jurisprudence for women in any present major religion is flawed, other than Nanak's Sikhism and Buddha's Buddhism.

Sati and mistreatment of widows, for instance the mistreatment of Hindu widows of Vrindavan is practically treating women like cattle.

Women being treated as property of men in Islam, them being treated as war booty, as loot, गनीमत या लूट का माल, and then being treated like slaves to be resold after having fulfilled the carnal desires of one master to another are highly flawed concepts.

A woman rape victim in Islam has to bring at least four male witnesses to testify that she was raped, is highly abusive of women. Even otherwise, two female witnesses being equal to one male witness in the Islamic system of justice, is an absolute injustice to women.

Its Buddha's method or Nanak's method alone which brought both genders at par. Even Christianity accepted gender equality quite recently, but the myth that Eve is the cause of fall of mankind still sustains. Positive side of Christianity is that it opened its door to accept logic over dogma in the past few centuries, but that was not easy as it still suffers from many prejudices against women, like the paradox of the Eva/Ave palindrome.

In Nanak's method or Sikhism, the Singhnis and Singh's are equal in each and every way. सो क्यों मन्दा आखीऐ जिस जम्मे राजान.....(Why should women be condemned when they are the ones who give birth to kings and saints.)....is the core principle of treating women in Sikhism.

For highly evolved spiritualists, no religion is necessary, but for those who do feel the need to follow a particular one, they all must understand that, for any religion to grow and sustain, it not only needs to be positively interpreted but also be ready to evolve and grow to achieve maximum positivity.

Otherwise it can only sustain itself with the power of sword and herein the universal principle is, 'Those who stand by the sword do fall by it'.

Although the debate must continue, as if those who can talk, will stop talking, only status quo will sustain, and that is hatred and misunderstandings amongst the followers of different religions, in a distrustful and war torn world. May good sense prevail. ....Guru Balwant Gurunay.©all copyrights reserved.