Holiness And Piety Don't Ensue From Any God Or Religion
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
3 April
2024
"Koi Zaroori Nahin Ke Muqaddas Jazba Sirf Khuda,
Deen Aur Tasawwuf Ki Jaanib Se Hi Aaye"
Tawaaf Hussain
(It's not necessary that a sacred thought or
emotion should ensue only from a god, religion and spirituality)
A tourist
says to his guide, " You must be proud of your town. I was especially
impressed by the number of Churches in it. Surely, the people here must love
the Lord." "Well," says the cynical guide, "they may love
the Lord, but they sure as hell hate each other."
Like the
little girl who, when asked, “Who’re pagans?", replied , " Pagans are
people who do not fight about religion."
Jonathan
Swift aptly said, "We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not
enough to make us love one another.”
It's really
ironic that as religiosity and spirituality, which is just a euphemism for
religiosity, are on the rise, hatred and fights in the name of religion and god
are also increasing rapidly.
The great
Persian mystic Khaqani was eating dates during the daytime in the holy month of
Ramzan (not Ramadan). Seeing this, a holier-than-thou said, "What
are you doing? You're not observing Roza (fast)? " He cursed and
abused Khaqani and went away. The great mystic looked skyward and said, "I'm
eating dates instead of fasting and thanking you. And there are people who
abuse their fellow beings in a holy month. Oh Allah, tell me what's
holiness?"
Holiness
and piety are the two most sublime qualities that no religion or spirituality
can teach you. In other words, they cannot be inculcated. All religions teach
you religiosity and religiosity makes you hateful and fanatic. Holiness and
piety come from within. Both are immanent human traits. One doesn't require any
religion or spiritual mumbo-jumbo to be holy and pious. Holiness and piety are
two most sacred human spirits that are independent of religion, spirituality
and even your so-called god.
A person
once asked the Buddha, "Can humans be holy and pious without any faith in
god and religion?" The Buddha said, "My whole philosophy is based on
this. You can be holy and pious without being religious and god-centric."
Once you're aware of your intrinsic holiness and piety, you're no longer
religious and no religiosity guides you. No god ever makes you holy and pious.
You're born holy with piety. By the way, Buddha believed that every human was
potentially divine and sacred. Humans don't require extraneous/external divinity.
The very
idea of celestial divinity is a concoction of all man-made faiths. It's within
you. You're the most sacred, pure and divine. You need no god, no faith and no
rituals. Ironically, Buddha's simple teaching, known as Ketayan in Pali,
itself degenerated into a doctrine and became an ism; Buddhism.
Once this
realization dawns on us that we're all born with holiness and piety and every
individual is congenitally pious, religion and extraneous religiosity will
vanish and we'll be able to relate to every creature, living or non-living,
with a sense of universal love. All hatred caused by religion and spirituality
will peter out eventually. Remember, holiness is wholesomeness. When one's
wholly aware of one's piety and divinity, one becomes acutely aware of his/her
conscious existence. That's satori. It requires no religious or spiritual
intervention.
But like a
musk-deer which is unaware of the source of its musk, we're all in search of
holiness and piety through the labyrinths of god, religion and fashionable
spirituality that create bitterness and bad-blood. Lastly, just like holiness
and piety don't ensue from any god or religion, morality also doesn't come from
heaven! Humans created all moral precepts over a period of time. Stop giving
credit to what you've never seen and experienced.
----
An
abridged version of this write up has appeared in The Economic Times, April 2.
----
A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul
is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He
has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several
languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/holiness-piety-god-religion/d/132066
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