Religions, Festivals, Happiness

It's Christmas time. I enjoy hanging the outdoor lights, decorating the Christmas tree and having the children home for the holidays. I do not even belong to any church, but these festivities make me happy. I did similar things in a different country in a different context. The festival of light called "Diwali" in India, the playing with color at "Holi" were also happy times for me some four decades ago. You don't have to be a Hindu to have fun at such times. But then you don't have to participate either if you only think in terms of religion.

I am not sure what the fuss is all about saying Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. If some one wants to include all regardless of religious affiliation, why should any one get offended. By the same token, if my saying Merry Christmas makes someone happy, I have not lost a thing. My philosophy is that even if you do not subscribe to the religious concept behind the ritual, celebrate it as a cultural tradition, enjoy and make others happy. Those who want to celebrate from a religious perspective (and that makes them happy) they should certainly do so, but not be offended if others do not. We live in a small world that's not segregated anymore. It's a beautiful world with diverse color of the rainbow and each color adds to the over all beauty. "Live and let live."

The problem with religion is that it generally differentiates (or divides) people instead of unifying. Religion has a connotation of rituals, i.e. how one practices ones belief in God. A person practicing certain rituals of a religion can be spiritual, but spirituality does not necessarily mean one has to practice or believe in the established rituals. Religions and religious practices are man made, where as spirituality comes from within based on certain fundamental values and philosophy of life with humility towards something supreme (for a great majority of the people) as a guiding light for the unexplainable (yet) existence of this universe and beyond.

Unfortunately, supposedly in a more civilized world today we see Protestants and Catholics fighting in Northern Ireland. We continue to witness the never-ending Middle Eastern conflict (obviously, it has many more facets), the Hindu-Muslim riot in India, past Bosnia conflict, etc. When a priest giving loud and boisterous sermon on a Sunday morning declares that those who do not subscribe to Jesus would go to hell, when someone flies an airplane into a tall tower killing thousands of innocent civilians thinking that he is carrying out his God’s instructions, when Hindu chauvinists displaying khaki shorts and saffron cloth incite people to destroy a mosque supposedly on the birth place of their God, when an invaluable sculpture of Buddha is destroyed because it symbolizes an alien religion, when people are willing to blow themselves up killing innocent bystanders in the name of religion, then such organized religions spell disasters. To make matter worse, when a government sponsors or favors a religion, it establishes injustice or inequality for some. A fair and just government must not mix religion in its functioning as it has to serve all people with all beliefs, thoughts, and philosophy.