Roots of Secularism

Religious Extremism v/s Secular Extremism

To start with, let us revisit the definition of Secularism. A secular state is a state or country that is officially neutral in matters of religion, neither supporting nor opposing any particular religious beliefs or practices. A secular state also treats all its citizens equally regardless of religion, and does not give preferential treatment for a citizen from a particular religion over other religions. Atheism is about not believing in god, in other words, denying the existence of god.

Some time back, there was a nice poem circulating in the chain mails that caught my attention. It described how through the history of America, in the name of secularism, instead of becoming intolerant to religious discrimination, it has become intolerant to religion itself. Removing all forms of prayers from schools, public assemblies; religious passages from text books and many other such acts has made the Western civilization godless. Though these countries wear the garb of secularism, but instead of being tolerant to all the religions they have become intolerant to all religions. And sadly, India is marching forward in this direction.

On scrutinizing study of the religions of the world, any intelligent man can recognize that the underlying principles are the same. They can be summarized as:

· God is one, the supreme.

· Love God - This includes chanting his name, worshipping him.

· We, the living entities (humans, animals & plants) are all his children.

· Be a good human being - cultivate honesty, compassion, mercy.

· Restrain from sinful life - stealing, killing, adultery etc

The details, terminology may differ a little bit, but the goal remains the same. But deluded by greed, lust and anger, we have forgotten this. And in the name of religion we are either waging wars or turning totally deaf to the message of God. People ask, "If God is there and if religion is so perfect than why are the things happening in the world that are happening?" If a person is given instructions and follows them whimsically, then only a dull headed lame person would conclude that the instructions are wrong and should be done away with.

Similar is the present condition of our country today. Thanks to the sponsorship by the state, our great spiritual culture is withering away. There may be many committees formed for maintaining peace, but no matter how many peace keeping forces be created and deployed, but no peace can come unless we take the message of god in all earnest.

In Bhagvad Gita, Lord Krishna declares "samah sarvesu vedesu", i.e. one who knows oneself to be a part and parcel of the supreme god, has a vision of equality and then he sees all equal. What to speak of human beings, he considers even a cow, an elephant, a brahmana, a dog and a dog eater at same level. Why? Because he sees the supreme self in all. This principle brings us to real secularism. Roots of secularism are thus embedded in the religion – True religion. Artificially trying to turn the country into a godless society will only lead to demoniac results. Recent unfortunate events of Mumbai are one of them.

[Update: Read this new article. It talks about how secularists in US are bent on taking out Christ from Christmas]