What is the role of religion in today’s world?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, what are my views about religion? Religion is a very multivalent word. So, different people have different ideas that pop up in their mind when the word religion comes.
Now, religion can be seen as a cultural phenomena. Religion can be seen as a particular social designation. Religion can be seen as associated with a particular set of practices which people of different groups follow but these are all valid aspects of religion but they are not alone what religion is.
I explained in the talk that how we are at our core souls, spiritual beings and now just as in science, there are two aspects. There is theory and there is experiment. The theory postulates when Newton saw the fruit falling, he postulated there is a law of gravity and the experiment is what verifies or disproves.
So, in the realm of spirituality, just as in science there is theory and experiment, in spirituality there is philosophy and religion. So, philosophy is akin to the theory. The philosophy tells us that we are at our core spiritual beings, that there is a higher spiritual reality.
So, all this is philosophy. Now, at the level of theory, we don’t know whether it is true or not. It’s only experiments that tell us whether it is true or not.
So, religion is meant to be a set of practices that helps us to realize what the philosophy has taught. राज्य विद्या राज्य गोयियं पवित्रमिद बुद्धमं प्रत्यक्षावगमं धर्में सुसुकम् गर्मोवियं Bhagavad Gita Krishna says that when we practice dharma, प्रत्यक्षावगमं religion is that set of practices which gives us direct experience of higher spiritual reality. So, if religion is practiced with that purpose of experiencing spirituality, then different people can have different religious practices.
So, I come from India and whenever I try, most of the times when I go, going for a program, I go and sit in the passenger side, but the passenger side in India and passenger side in America is opposite. So, I often go on the opposite side. So, now in India we drive on the left, in America we drive on the right.
The rules are not just different, they are opposite. But the purpose is the same. The purpose is the regulation of traffic.
So, like that in religions, there are differences. But the purpose is the same. Purpose is to raise the consciousness of spiritual level.
Now, if this purpose is forgotten, then there can be conflicts. Oh, you should travel on the right. You drive on the right.
No, you drive on the left. You drive on the right, drive on the left. You can have a world war based on which side you drive on.
So, like that when people get caught in the externals, then religion can become a source of great conflict. But it is not so much a religion that is becoming a cause of conflict. It is people who have anyway a nature of being confrontational, of being quarrelsome.
These religions are the source for perpetuating their quarrels. So, religion can raise us to spiritual consciousness if we understand its purpose and we pursue its purpose. But if we divorce it from its purpose, then it can cause a lot of confrontations.
And it can be misappropriated. So, if people don’t see the religion as a spiritual search for truth, then it can become a political search for power. And then politics is often quite dirty.
The dirt can come in religion also. But religion, if it is understood as having a purpose to apply and experience what is taught in the philosophy, then it can enhance our spiritual experiences. And thereby, it can actually strengthen our moral fabric.
So, it can be a source of good if it is understood in the context of its purpose. Does this answer your question? Thank you.