From Reflections of the Self….

Nobody can deny the fact that man is a political creature. Politics is in the blood of man. There is no doubt that the entire social structure of the society that man has constituted lies on the foundation of political thought in the way men deem that they be governed by a certain set of laws that guarantee men their right of pursuit of happiness and most importantly, by compromising to some extent on the ‘natural’ freedom in order to guarantee men freedom, freedom to choose (not in the materialistic sense though, even though it is a part of the freedom that man wants), freedom to pursue an occupation that can help them to achieve their dreams and ensure the right to property and construct some set of ‘rules and regulations’ in order to construct such a societal fabric that weaves its ‘magic’ by ushering in ‘development’ in spheres important to the development of men such as science and technology, transportation (a subset of technology), a flourishing of the ‘culture’, the arts and crafts and of course a guarantee to practice any ‘religion’ that men deem fit to practice in order that they can satisfy their spiritual urges and curiosities and in turn thank their creator and pay gratitude to the ‘Lord Father’ that has set them up on the holy mother earth so that men both individually and collectively fulfill the purpose for which destiny has brought them on Earth.

However, it is not to be mistaken that religion is an inseparable part of politics but it is no surprise that religion and politics are often mixed, creating such a recipe that has proved to be a poison for the societies that men have so laboriously created. Are religion and politics linked? If yes, then what is the link and how do we refine the link so that the societies that men have created, equal or unequal, civilized or uncivilized, just or unjust, fair or unfair, don’t get poisoned in a way that the mixing up of these two concepts does often create havoc in the ‘societies’ that men have created. For this purpose it is important at this juncture to dwell in brief on the concept of religion and how the ‘culture’ of mixing religion and politics has fared.

But first of all we have to examine why men follow any type of religion and what religion is in the first place? Religion is a concept that is both personal to man and this personal concept helps man to connect with his fellow men who all think alike and this in turn develops into the formation of ‘society’ on which this write up dwelled on in the beginning. Religion is something that is so personal to man, and yet the concepts that it leads men into are so universal and ‘ever prevalent’ that the appeal of religion crosses every limit, be it geographical, cultural or even linguistic barriers. When the appeal of religion is such a universal phenomenon and politics is something that is also inherent in men, then how can the two be ever separated? It is not possible. Then how is that the concoction that has been spread that the mixing up of religion and politics always leads to disastrous consequences? It is always true? I am in no position or have any intellectual capacity to comment on the ‘mechanics’ of my assertion that religion and politics can ever be separated and both of them play an important role in the events of history. The Second World War was fought on the clashes of ideologies of how ‘society’ of men should be constituted and ‘ideology’ in turn directly affects man and his cultural surroundings. Whenever man adheres to any ideology, he chooses a ‘way of life’ that in turn influences the religion he practices, both on the individual level and on the collective level. This practice of ‘politics’ in turn reflects on the ‘universal surrounding’ of man which is manifested in the form of various world events that constitute the era of today’s world order.

In the current age of ‘the great transformation’, man needs to do a serious rethink about the interplay between the clash of the politics and religion and how these both concepts are to be gelled in a harmonious spirit so as to create a tolerant, just and an equal society that has its values rested on the freedom of every kind, that encourages and nurtures the sciences and the arts of every kind also leads to our next level of ‘evolution’ that elevates us to a datum where we assert ourselves on the universal arena and become one with our soul and the creator.

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