Fanatics use God’s name to give God a bad name Gita 16 17

Fanatics use god's name to give god a bad name we live in a world where we are often filled with dread and the prospects of religious fanaticism wherein people blow up innocent people in the name of religion now we need to understand when this happens what is actually happening these people may claim that they are doing it in god's name, they may even utter god's name at that time but actually they are doing it for their own twisted purposes which they are justifying in the name of god and they do a big disservice to god because they repel the vast majority of people away from god and thus they end up giving god a bad name so fanatics use god's name to give god a bad name now why does this happen because they have misappropriated god as an element for justifying their own story of course they may use god's word but they often interpret those words of god to suit their own story of course they may be influenced also by others who have fed that version of the story to them but they have internalized that story so this possibility of people using god for their own purposes instead of becoming an instrument for god's purposes this is pointed to in the bhagavad gita in the 16th chapter which talks about especially the demoniac nature 16th, 17th says atma sambhavita sthapda pinama namadha anvitaha yajante nama yajyanste dambhena vidhi purvakam so those people who are demoniac they may also do some activities that seem religious but yajante nama yajyanste if they are doing any kind of sacrifices those are in name alone and dambhena vidhi purvakam they do it out of ego and avidhi purvakam they do not follow proper scripture they don't have any understanding of the ultimate purpose of scripture so we need to what do we need to do we have to counter this at two levels firstly there has to be at a strong governmental level the kshatriya response has to be to stop such fanatics at all costs because nobody has a right to kill innocent people and simultaneously there is a brahmana response there is a intellectual response and there is a martial response the intellectual response has to be to ensure that God is not given a bad name by this by explaining properly what God's teachings are and what God stands for and who stands for God truly not just nominally or self servingly so when we do this then we can counter the effects of fanaticism so the way to end fanaticism is to understand what God's purpose is truly and to become an instrument for his purpose to understand that God is the well-wisher of everyone and we are also meant to become well-wishers of everyone in the service of God the Bhagavata describes humility, tolerance kindness and service attitude as the qualities of those who are devoted to God so thus when we are become genuinely devoted to God then we can counter the deadly influences of fanaticism individually and collectively thank you, Hare Krishna.