Dear Editor,
Throughout the short history of man claims to spiritual and religious truths have been propagated by practitioners from every sect of human religious worship. But truth be told all these claims may very well amount to interpretations and theoretical constructs by individuals who are under the whip of their religious impulses and subjective desires. Central to most religion is a godhead, the organizing concept which prescribes the form and structure which its adherents and followers must conform to on their quest to discovering, knowing and becoming one with their deity.
Each religion has its own methods, techniques, rituals, morals and ethical codes for approaching and initiating contact with its object or subject of worship. And a common thread that runs through the major and popular religions of the world is an all-pervading desire to be absorbed into or gain union with its godhead – to become one with. While the concept of the deity or Godhead may differ from religion to religion, the core objective of their most devout devotees invariably remains the same – to seek the face of their supreme divine being, even if it’s for a flashing moment, to replenish their economy of hope and faith in his or her existence.
Even though all the major and not-so-major religions have their specific claim to truth of which some assert they are the sole custodians and therefore the methods, rituals and techniques for realizing that truth they invariably enjoy a monopoly over – they nevertheless make these claims at the expense of other forms of worship. It is not reassuring and securing for those who confidently claim to be solely in possession of truth to do so without ridiculing and undermining the practices and religious ways of other seekers of truth.
It is not enough for some who claim to have in their custody “the one or only way” to do so indifferent or oblivious to the claims and practices of other religion. These monopolisers of the claim to truth must espouse their claims in a manner that breathes religious hostility and intolerance. This religious bigotry is analogous to the modus operandi of capitalist markets where religious consumption is reduced to commodities; each religious sect is competitively trying to outdo the other as the only commodity worthy of consumption.
There may or may not be a divine truth residing in the bosom of every human being and other life form. But whether there is or isn’t, what the evidence suggest is that we all or most of us seems to be engaged in some form of religious or spiritual activity that is beckoning us to discover something deep within us that is much purer and more blissful than what we were conditioned to become. Whether this longing for truth, to become one with our higher divine self is an impulse we all share that is devoid of any concrete experience or there is the existence of something higher in us – a nature that’s above and beyond our baser and coarser existence – we nevertheless continue to seek.
But while we continue to faithfully seek the truth it serves us best to do so without the interference and invasion of our ego and passions. We ought to disallow our egos and passions which so often with their self-centered orientations condemn, ridicule and strive to destroy those who are engaged in divine pursuit of the very truth we are all seeking.
Orlando Patterson
