i am mine

i am mine



Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing wonder and awe-the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.

-Immanuel Kant 1724-1804, prussic- German metaphysician and philosopher in ‘critique of practical reason (1788)

What are the starry heavens but the god that rules our heart and the religion that we follow and what are the morals but the values inculcated within us.  They are a reason to cause awe, make a person wonder and then still be confused because I still wonder what religion is and what are the values that I follow.

Aren’t values a subset of religion, don’t our thoughts, our mind work according to the religion according to which we are brought up. Don’t we make our own values and our own morals keeping in mind the religion we follow?

Yeah the values which are against the religion and something which our religion does not permit are just ways to break free, to change the norm and to live life without thinking that you are guilty.

When I was a small kid my mother always made chant those bhajans after my bath every day. At that moment maybe it was religion but today it is a value for me. It’s not because I was forced to do it but because it’s a part of me now. Those mythological stories for bedtime, learning the dialogues from the Mahabharata for the school play,  believing that god will definitely punish that bully who ate my Tiffin today..What is it if not religion taking the shape of values when we grow up?

The problem arises when religion starts to define us. It starts to outline our life and threatens our freedom and independence or challenges our boundaries. If there are religious rules all around bounding us then is when the need to get away arises. Then we form our own religion, set a new definition for our life and make it the way went to spend it and we give that religion a name ‘values’.

When our demands are according to the religion till then we are staunch religion followers and the moment religion is strict or it restricts we are value people. The war between religion and values is old, very old and it will continue till we are not sure, that we want to be restricted or want to set our own definitions.

It’s a hypocritical way to fulfil our own wishes no matter what happens.

The people who restrict themselves in the name of religion are considered to be fanatics by the value holders and the ones following their own heart are called rule breakers in the dictionary of god lovers. This doesn’t mean that the value followers don’t love god. They just don’t follow him and follow their own self.

It’s a selfish world around moulding their religion and values according to their own means. Why don’t we just stop being a religion follower or a value holder, instead let’s just be us.

I am not religion, I am not values, I am mine.