By: Kirpa Sagar

 The hearts burning today with hatred and jealousy because of controversies over Religion may automatically melt with the feelings of love and understanding, if they just look up the meaning of the word Religion in a good dictionary.

The word Religion has been described as ‘the belief in a superhuman controlling power entitled to obedience and worship.’ In other words, Religion is man’s belief in a superhuman power that controls the universe and thus entitled to be obeyed, praised and offered thanks. A little elaboration will take you to certain fundamental considerations about Religion that remain too outstanding to be challenged. In fact, it is these basic truths that seek to grant uniformity to the various religions known to the world. When we say that Religion is the belief in a superhuman power, we accept the existence of God. We may address this power as Allah, Om, Rama or by any other name, nut we do not deny its existence.

God

This superhuman power, God, controls the universe. Since when, nobody knows; up to when, nobody can forecast or foretell. It means superhuman power is eternal, a creation of its own. The description ‘controlling power’ may further mean that God is the creator, nurturer and destroyer of various objects of the universe. Nothing may alter without His will. He must, therefore, be omnipresent, all-powerful, the almighty. Moreover, since God is to ‘control’ or run everything, He must be present everywhere, in every object. He must be responsible for everything that moves or occurs in the universe. He must be present inside and outside every object. Similarly, He should be omniscient, an observer of everything that takes place in any part of the universe.

This power, God, is superhuman; so it must be formless. Man may not be able to see it with his worldly or physical eyes. Being formless, it should not be possible to burn it, cut it or split it.

Now we come to obedience. This superhuman power is entitled to man’s obedience. Why man only? It deserves obedience from every object. It is the will of God that prevails ultimately. Man must surrender before it, whether it suits his worldly interests or not. Man is too humble to make suggestions. He just cannot interfere in God’s scheme of things. If at all, he can only make use of the various objects as a custodian so long as God destines it; after all it is God who is looking after him. Similarly, wind must blow as He wills, water must flow as He wills, plants must grow as He wills.

Worship

Whatever we have discussed in the above paragraphs does not give rise to any controversies. There is hardly any scope for views to conflict. At the most one may say, "I do not believe in God" and declare himself unconcerned or indifferent in regard to Religion. But he has no substitute or alternative to offer. He cannot change the situation for those who choose to ‘believe’. Similarly, he just cannot cease to be a part and parcel of the universe, a creature of the Almighty, simply because he refuses to believe in the existence of the superhuman power that controls it. By doing so, he is only failing to appreciate what this superhuman power is doing for him and be grateful to the same.

The believers, however, do praise this power, whatever name they may give it. They admire it for whatever it has provided to them- the sun, the moon, the stars, the air, the planets, the mountains, the rivers, the oceans, the birds, the animals and so on. They are indeed grateful to this superhuman power for the numerous blessings they enjoy day and night.

The expression of man’s admiration and gratitude to God is what has been described as ‘worship’. And this is the area where uniformity has remained a mere dream. For the initiative here rests with man and not the superhuman power. Man has always shown reverence to the superhuman power as per his limited understanding depending on his natural surrounding and social environment. Simultaneously, man has been trying to know the superhuman power he believes in. Efforts have always been made to understand the relationship between God and man - another dimension of Religion.

There was a time, when man tried to know God through His creations, like the sun, moon, water, plants and so on. This led to the worship of those objects as gods, perhaps because they too remained beyond man’s control of comprehension. With the passage of time, the list of these gods went on expanding till, according to a belief, it reached thirtythree crores. Even literature that spoke of these gods became sacred, entitled to man’s reverence.

Search Lost

Man would like to offer the best available to him to these gods. Milk, honey, flowers, food grains and even animals killed for human diet started being offered or sacrificed in the worship of gods. Certain places on the earth became more significant and people started being treating them as pilgrimage spots. They would undergo penance, chant the name and sing the praise of the gods. In the process many forgot that by keeping these gods happy, man actually wanted to please or adore the superhuman power that controls the entire universe. The very search for man’s identity vis-a-vis God became lost. Instead, ignorance and superstition overlook man’s thinking. The sacred belief in the superhuman power controlling the universe was then reduced to mythology only.

The religion of worship became a symbol of culture. Different groups of people, living in different climates, speaking different languages, in the search of their collective identification acknowledged the mode of worship as one of the facets of unity, describing the same as their religion. As the groups’ multiplied, deliberate efforts were made to keep there identify distinct from others. As a result, the modes of worship too became rigid and complicated, so much so that the word Religion was reduced to a name given to a bunch of rites and rituals.

This situation has, of course, caused worry to men of wisdom from time to time. They tried to take man out of ignorance and superstition in their own way, depending on the contemporary environment - political, social, cultural and economic. However, with the passage of time, the matter became more complicated only, one of the reasons being petty selfishness of the vested interests. And experience shows that hatred and violence spread with greater speed than the forces of love and peace.

The Sant Nirankari Mission is currently endeavoring to redeem the lost definition of the word "Religion". It does not describe itself as a new religion, so that it may not be taken as another bunch of rites and rituals for the ignorant people. It is a spiritual movement, seeking to present Religion as the spirit alone, having little to do with modes of worship.

The Mission helps people to know God, so that they can realise His existence and presence, wherever they go in a temple, mosque, church and Gurdwara, rather everywhere. It enables them to understand the truth through spiritual enlightenment. It endeavours to make them appreciate man’s direct communion with God, all the time. Once you realise your identification with God, the various modes of worship become irrelevant and meaningless. Man has only to remember God and express his gratitude to Him, spiritually.

To the Nirankari devotees, Religion is a means to complete human integration with Formless God-Nirankar. God being one, He cannot be identified with any particular caste, creed or community and so is the case with Religion. There is, therefore, only one religion and that is the Religion of God. Here people belonging to different nationalities, faiths and cultures sit together, live together. There is complete unity as regards the ultimate reality. The Nirankari devotees firmly believe that religion unites and does not divide human beings. Simply because it concerns the spirit, the soul, the mind and, of course, the Super Soul, the Almighty. It blesses one with the divine vision to perceive and realise the same Divinity in all beings.

The Mission is thus evolving a new pattern of classless society wherein all God-realised souls live as world citizens, as members of the same world-family, having belief in one Formless God-Nirankar.