DFS

Step aside for a moment into a world where there are no boundaries or divides. A world that is beautiful where no one thinks evil, does evil or intends evil. A world which doesn’t know the meaning of jealousy and greed. Everyone helps each other to move forward and upward continually. One where we all recognize that we are parts of the same body carrying out different functions for the body(world) to function harmoniously. A return to paradise, heaven on earth. How wonderful will it be?

Rather, the entire world seems to be living in disharmony. One where we are taught that being successful means finding our names on the Top 100 Forbes list or one of the 100 such “top” lists. What we see around is a cut-throat world where one and all strive to reach the top of the ladder, even if it has to be at the cost of stamping or bringing down others on the ladder. There is no time to spare for the hurting. At different levels, we somehow contribute to the survival of the fittest, one of the primary ideas of Hitler that we “publicly” detest. All that technology seems to have effected is to make our houses bigger but hearts smaller and countries more powerful but equally more susceptible.

For a start to this series, let’s look at the larger perspective, what if there was no religion or country for that matter. All religions focus on love as the central concept and all of us practicing our humanity. But the longest wars in recent memory are due to religious differences. Religious intolerance has somehow found its way into our thinking process again at different levels. No one would want to associate themselves with Lord Vandemort in the world famous Harry Potter series. The pure blood concept, wherein Lord Vandemort considers wizards born of mixed blood ( one parent is human and the other parent is wizard ) to be of lower status( mud-blood ) and unworthy to be called wizards, is something we find deep down even in “good” people who would normally not be willing to accept it publicly. Maybe an atheist is better because he/she would neither love nor hate a person at any level due to his religion. If anything, he/she might hate the religious bigots who preach on how to show love toward others without having the most basic clue of what it is.
Why can’t we see and understand that we all worship the same God. We may seek him and address him differently because we were born into different religions or our circumstances led us to see the beauty and liberation in a new religion and accept it as the path toward salvation or moksha. Did not the same God create a christian, a jew, a muslim, a hindu, a buddhist, or an atheist for that matter.

The old testament from the bible may teach that Israel is God's own country and "believers" may believe that Jesus is the only way to salvation. Hindus may believe in Karma and that our current actions will influence the caste we fall into in our next birth or finally attain moksha. Islam(which means "to enter into peace") may teach that Allah is the one true God and Prophet Muhammad brought the all-comprehensive message. Is this what these religions teach as their central concept? What matters is that these beliefs were passed on to us by inspired people who taught us according to their individual experiences.

What if someone was born in a small tribal village where there has been no contact with the outside world and they had no oppurtunity to learn about any religion. On what basis will they be judged. Christians might argue that the world will not end till the gospel has reached that village and hindus might say that they will continue to be reborn till they cross the different stages. That's missing the point, the present. If Jesus or Brahman or Allah were here, they'd much rather have us think of everyone as God's own and treat each other with the same respect and love. What is happening is that we tend to think of ourselves as the superior race deep down and the other as the ignorant one. With this comes the religious segregation at different levels of our consciousness.
It is even sadder to see people say that a person is suffering because of his or her religious beliefs and we’ll not share in their misery until they come to the “awakening”. The question is to determine who really needs awakening. Being a Christian, I sometimes feel that if Jesus were to be born again and was he to challenge the teachings of the new testament, he would be crucified by the very people who claim to follow him.
The greatest religions have liberated its people from years of being controlled by the law and rules laid down from ancient books. Rules are meant to serve people! When people forget why they follow rules and use it as a tool for hate, it is time for change.
A truly godly person is one who helps another person in his/her time of need on this journey called life. To quote Pope John Paul II, one who supported religious tolerance and asked for forgiveness for the intolerance of previous popes,

“Religious tolerance is based on the conviction that God wishes to be adored by people who are free: a conviction which requires us to respect and honor the inner sanctuary of conscience in which each person meets God.”

While in this zone, it’ll be proper to also address the ghastly and bloody wars that have been fought over political boundaries, even while billions are still being invested into building the most elaborate security mechanisms.
Through the course of history, kings and rulers of the stronger nations have only been concerned about extending their territories and filling their own coffers at the expense of other nations. Egypt, Rome, Greek and many more civilizations were considered great primarily because of how big their "civilizations" were. More recently, we are quick to point out the flaws of Hitler and Stalin, but in the same vein, it's also true that the English crown was the cause for much bloodshed before they started "civilizing" societies they occupied.

The same can be seen all the more with countries in our current global world. The richer countries are aware of their power and superiority and will take every given opportunity to remind the lesser nations of their might. Why don’t we realize that in this circle of life, everything goes around and we’ll need to lean on each other for support at some time or the other. It will be better for the world if moving forward; we can be a bit more accommodating of growing countries and help everyone in the world have access to the most basic facilities. If not for anything else, just to realize that we could have been born anywhere. We could have been in some slum where there is no sense of decency for the self or no shelter provided.

The world will be a better place if we could stop for a moment and realize that we could have been born into any religion and in any country.

What if we could all think of the world as our country and God as our religion. A government is meant to provide its people with good rules to live by which will promote harmony and betterment of the society. A religion is supposed to teach one to love another as himself /herself. Where these two have ceased to perform their primary duties, surely, we can all do with a lot less hatred and animosity. It is possible, only if we could imagine. A country is formed out of states. Surely, it wouldn’t be out of place for a global country which is formed from all countries in the world. And as for religion, no matter which God you pray to, we are all praying to the same all-consuming fire. We can help each other walk towards God or see God in each other for we are all one. We were created and cared for by one God. We are humans and there is only one difference amongst humans really - male and female.

I'd like to sign off by listing a song from John Lennon called Imagine. I am not a dreamer and I hope you are not too. And by the way, if you haven't seen the movie "Life is Beautiful", it is one moving tale of how life can be made beautiful, if only.

Imagine lyrics by John Lennon
Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one