Is religion made by man or by God? (PK answered 7)

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Transcript

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Hare Krishna question is religion made by man or by god answer it depends on what we mean by the word religion if we look at it etymologically religion comes from the word religio which means to connect to link to bind humanity with divinity so when we look at that principle, religion at its original core has come from god god has himself come or sent his messengers and has given books like the bible, the quran, the bhagavad gita which guide us to come back to him so those people who live according to the wisdom given in these books, they are the followers of god, they become linked with god and subsequently those people came to be known as belonging to a particular religion now, in the original sense, the wisdom has come from god and the method for linking back with him has come from god but over the centuries over the millennia, often many undesirable and unscriptural things have come into religion and because of that, much of what is going on in the name of religion has not come from god it has come from man so, the original principle and process of linking back with god is something which has come from god but the many accretions which are deviations which are inappropriate things which actually do not connect us back with god they are not what has come from god they are man-made rather than rejecting religion entirely as having come from man or following religion uncritically as if it all has come from god, we have to actually study scripture understand god’s message understand god’s process for coming back to him and then follow religion in a way by which we can actually become connected with god so, religion in sanskrit word which is often used as equivalent for religion is dharma dharma originally means etymologically dhriyate, dharyate that which maintains, that which sustains, that is called dharma so, this root at its root, dharma is actually it means to sustain that which is something which sustains the existence of something, that which is the very innate nature of something else it is the nature of fire to be hot it is the nature of water to be liquid it is the nature of sugar to be sweet, similarly it is our nature to love and serve, so wherever we living beings exist, we want to love and we want to express that love through service, so our dharma in that sense is to love and to serve and this, at this level if you understand the word dharma it is definitely something innate to us, we could say it has been made by god because that is the part of our very fabric, of the very fabric of our being, so that is made by god and that nature, so that is our inner nature to love and serve now where do I direct that nature to love and serve so that we can be truly happy, that is meant to be directed towards god and through god towards all living beings so in this way the process by which our innate nature gets directed in a way that it brings lasting happiness that process is actually religion, so our nature is purified and directed towards god by which we get lasting happiness so those processes which enable us to develop love for god they are actually religion in the true sense, so in the Srimad Bhagavatam one of the most important books in the Indian scripture Vedic scriptures it says, it doesn’t talk about this religion being greater or that religion being greater, it says that, that religion which enables people to develop love for god that is the highest dharma sa vaipum saam paro dharmo yato bhakti na dhoksha je, ahai tuki apratihata yai atma suprasidati so that which helps us to develop pure love, ahai tuki apratihata which is unmotivated and uninterrupted that is the perfect path of religion so rather than saying that rejecting religion as man made or embracing religion uncritically as god made we study scripture understand the purpose of religion to channelize our innate nature and to help us find lasting happiness and then follow a religion that helps us to develop love for god