Called by thousands of names Prophets, Gurus, Murshid, Teacher, Messiah, all of them unselfish masters have since time immemorial come showed humanity the way and then left. They were a light unto themselves and humanity tried to follow them.
Politically inclined people can spot opportunities much easier than the masses. They have always seen great power and wealth to be made by appointing themselves as the exclusive marketing agents of the Gurus, Messiahs.
So these self appointed agents set up gigantic multinational institutions called organised religion, to market and take full advantage of the goodwill, and light of the now departed masters.
While masters possess the breath of life itself, a religion is lifeless, a mere body without a soul.
When real masters are replaced by paid preachers or teachers, the magic of the message is greatly diluted if not completely lost. What remains are empty words, mere songs, complex rituals and soul-less political establishments.
Religions use complex rituals, nuances, etc. written and spoken in undecipherable language. They expect the masses to follow unnatural behaviour, demand total obedience and following by the faithful to a small group of priests.
Institutions are political in nature, and whenever there is politics, the worst aspects of human nature tends to come to the fore. Power struggles are common, and power seeks only its own absolute monopoly and continuity.
To increase their power, every religion employs an army of priests, assistants and missionaries to spread the 'message', which is nothing more than recruitment drives under various guises and to acquire wealth an power for the religious institution. The 'message' also conveniently grants religious leaders special privileges and the masses to merely serve the religious leaders.
Now preachers try to replicate the energy and light of the Masters to guide people. They resort to holding up holy books /scripture as divine lamps. The mangers of organised religion and the paid priests have granted themselves exclusive rights to hold up the lamp for others to unquestioningly follow.
They ask that people follow the persons carrying the lamp. But have you noticed the base of the lamp is always dark?
The lecturers, preachers and the leaders are themselves in the dark. A darkness possibly created by a mix of greed, lust, vanity, power, wealth, and anger, and the insatiable desire to possess your mind, body, possessions, wealth and influence.
The ones in darkness hold up the lamp, beckon us to follow them along their path. They want you to surrender all that is yours to them including your soul. If you do not surrender they will legislate it, and enforce it. History is full of examples of religious leaders fabricating, misleading, manipulating, etc, and if not successful with these measures, confiscate wealth, torture, and kill to take followers to the promised land and heaven.
The priests need the power of rulers and the State to stay in power and the rulers need the priests to legitimise their reign. A convenient symbiosis, where two sets of people in the dark thriving off each other. Look closely and you will find that politicians and religious leaders share the same characteristics.
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Sadly, man lives in fear. Fearful creatures are easily confused and will cling to any thing that offers a way to mitigate their fear. The priests know this and there is a race to recruit followers as soon as they are born and often even before birth. More the number of followers of any religion, the greater the hordes of people to be used and sacrificed and greater wealth at there disposal.We, each one of us, has great individual potential. In fact that is the only true potential we possess. However to realise that potential we must be one with ourselves not with the crowd or the mobs. Each one of us has our own lamp, that we can use to illuminate the path ahead. The base of this lamp is bright and there is nothing hidden from the glare of this lamp. All we need to do is turn it on.
But we dare not to turn it on. We are fearful that we will discover horrid things about ourselves. So what? As there are nights, there are also days. We humans all have strengths and weaknesses, look within and you will find many wonderful things in life and within you.
We are all originally divine and we can realise our divinity through meditation.
Once discovered our divinity will automatically drop all negativity. Then fear is banished, wonder fills us and childlike we will become, innocent, pure and fearless.
Be your own lamp, for your existence begins and ends with you and your spirit, and not that of the other person holding up their own lamp.
