A river is a source of life, nurturing people, vegetation, and animals living on the lands through which it flows. The river is only doing its duty, following it's nature or what people in the East call as 'Dharma'.
Similarly humans are true to their nature. Our lives are akin to a river, alive and full of character. All humans possess their natural qualities of lust, anger, greed, ego and attachments to people and things. We need these qualities to survive. As long as they remain within reasonable limits, these qualities will help us to live healthy and happy lives.
Lust is essential for us to procreate, that is to produce children and live healthy lives. Ego permits us to give confidence to others so that they cooperate and support our endeavours. Anger is necessary to prevent being run over by one and all. Reasonable greed compels us to go out and acquire food, shelter, security and comfort for ourselves and our dependants. Attachment is necessary for us to preserve what we have acquired with so much effort.
Nature is all about balance. As long as there is balance there is tranquility. Sometimes we develop insatiable lust or greed, unlimited anger, undue attachment or get blinded by our ego our lives get imbalanced. The imbalance always causes disharmony, inconvenience and sometimes even agony to ourselves and others. Life becomes a living hell.
Life as can be seen in every facet of nature, is about balance. As long as there is balance there is tranquility. Sometimes we develop insatiable lust or greed, unlimited anger, undue attachment or get blinded by our ego our lives get imbalanced. The imbalance causes agony and inconvenience to ourselves and others.
Awakening and wisdom lies in each individual understanding of who and what they are and what is reasonable and necessary for themselves. People who flow with nature are at peace with themselves, are compassionate, peaceful, happy and useful to themselves and others.
Over the ages and from time to time, Gurus, masters, prophets, messiahs and teachers have come, awoken and guided humanity. They made people realise that they were all spiritual beings.
Soon after the masters and Gurus left this earth, many clever but not necessarily good people have interpreted the teachings to suit their own convenience. They use organised religion not to liberate or make people spiritual but to manipulate and control them. for their own purposes
Priests and custodians of all organised religions, in league with political leaders and rulers, have discovered a powerful approach to manipulate and exploit the masses. Messing up minds they inflict on them a terrible sense of guilt, and the masses will do whatever the priests want. Guilt is mostly manufactured. They make people feel guilty not only of having these natural human qualities but even for thinking about them.
This is the reason why in the name of religion, more blood has been shed and more misery caused than all other reasons combined.
'Guilty', people feel they have sinned, and sinners need to be unburdened of their guilt. The priests can demand whatever they like of the guilty and the sinner will gladly pay the price just to feel liberated.
People will repeatedly behave true to their human nature. This will always be considered as a 'sin' by the priests. There are two choices behave unnaturally or to 'sin'. The dilemma is that both choices are bad.
This sets people up to be continuously exploited by the priests. This in turn results in a perpetual and ever increasing empowerment and enrichment of the priests and the religious bodies. Little wonder that all organised religious bodies and their caretakers are immensely wealthy and powerful and that there is a constant struggle to control religious bodies.
Many 'religious' people themselves are full of the same human qualities and 'sins' for which they ask us to atone.
Next time ask yourself if you really are a sinner before you ask for forgiveness.
