Religion Debated.....!!!!!!

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Time and again people have debated on the issues of religion and now with the print and electronic media , we come to know more of the opinions of a cross section of people , both who have done extensive studies on the subject and also from the common crowd.
I obviously fall in the common people category....my thoughts and my views are simple and most ordinary. So recently when I was at a gathering, my colleagues were discussing everything from the Bharat Bandhs to the fast changing weather of Shillong to the recently concluded IPL and finally to the more recent NDTV program me by Barkha Dutt on Muslims. It didn't take long for the discussion which started on a casual manner to turn more personal....the " I-I....MY-MY " types. Verses from the Holy books were quoted and unquoted and I became a silent listener, till one of them asked my opinion. What could I say ??? How could I say that religion for me is humanity, that if I wanted to feel the presence of God and if I were to follow the popular belief that to pray we had to go to the holy shrines, I could walk into any temple or church or for that matter to a mosque if i was allowed to be with Him. Personally I absolutely believe and if I am allowed to quote here from a movie that there are only two types of people in this world , the good and the bad. Yes I believe in this very strongly. I believe that the world has two ends of everything....good people and the bad people....positive and negative.....right and the wrong.....You believe in the supreme power in what ever form you imagine Him in or you don't believe in Him at all.I either give 100% to you or I don't at all....I either do my work sincerely or if I don't feel like working today I take a day off.Everything for me is on either end of the pole....just like the sun sign I belong to....both the fishes facing to both extremes.
So religion for me is just a pathway to reach out to Him. I don't care much on how He looks or what His followers wears. I am deeply spiritual in my own way. I have equal respect for my Jew brother as much as I have for my Christian sister. I would wish Ed Mubarak to my Hindu friend and a Happy Diwali to my Muslim friend and I have great friends who would wish me back too.So am not able to understand the complexities of the word "Religion". I ask myself we all believe in One God, then why this fight about how I should seek Him ???? After a heated discussion I was once asked "what did your God do for you ????" Goodness what is your God and my God???? I was much younger then,just out of school. I didn't have the maturity to take such a question in a diplomatic way. So I came home and cried and thought how dare some one asks me a question like that??? Today I would have laughed at the same question because today I stand more firm in my belief and I know He is my Potter while I am the clay in His Hand. He molded me and this is where I stand today.
My colleague snap me off my thoughts and I just look at them and say nothing. I say goodnight and take my leave along with my views.

( This post is dedicated to a friend of mine whom I had met 3 yrs ago on this day whom I believe is the one person who would understand me on this . )