Holiness And Piety Don't Ensue From Any God Or Religion

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 3 April 2024 "Koi Zaroori Nahin Ke Muqaddas Jazba Sirf Khuda, Deen Aur Tasawwuf Ki Jaanib Se Hi Aaye" Tawaaf Hussain (It's not necessary that a sacred thought or emotion should ensue only from a god, religion and spirituality) A tourist says to his guide, " You must be proud of your town. I was especially impressed by the number of Churches in it. Surely, the people here must love the Lord." "Well," says the cynical guide, "they may love the Lord, but they sure as hell hate each other." Like the little girl who, when asked, “Who’re pagans?", replied , " Pagans are people who do not fight about religion." Jonathan Swift aptly said, "We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.” It's really ironic that as religiosity and spirituality, which is just a euphemism for religiosity, are on the rise, hatred and fights in the name of religion and god are also increasing rapidly. The great Persian mystic Khaqani was eating dates during the daytime in the holy month of Ramzan (not Ramadan). Seeing this, a holier-than-thou said, "What are you doing? You're not observing Roza (fast)? " He cursed and abused Khaqani and went away. The great mystic looked skyward and said, "I'm eating dates instead of fasting and thanking you. And there are people who abuse their fellow beings in a holy month. Oh Allah, tell me what's holiness?" Holiness and piety are the two most sublime qualities that no religion or spirituality can teach you. In other words, they cannot be inculcated. All religions teach you religiosity and religiosity makes you hateful and fanatic. Holiness and piety come from within. Both are immanent human traits. One doesn't require any religion or spiritual mumbo-jumbo to be holy and pious. Holiness and piety are two most sacred human spirits that are independent of religion, spirituality and even your so-called god. A person once asked the Buddha, "Can humans be holy and pious without any faith in god and religion?" The Buddha said, "My whole philosophy is based on this. You can be holy and pious without being religious and god-centric." Once you're aware of your intrinsic holiness and piety, you're no longer religious and no religiosity guides you. No god ever makes you holy and pious. You're born holy with piety. By the way, Buddha believed that every human was potentially divine and sacred. Humans don't require extraneous/external divinity. The very idea of celestial divinity is a concoction of all man-made faiths. It's within you. You're the most sacred, pure and divine. You need no god, no faith and no rituals. Ironically, Buddha's simple teaching, known as Ketayan in Pali, itself degenerated into a doctrine and became an ism; Buddhism. Once this realization dawns on us that we're all born with holiness and piety and every individual is congenitally pious, religion and extraneous religiosity will vanish and we'll be able to relate to every creature, living or non-living, with a sense of universal love. All hatred caused by religion and spirituality will peter out eventually. Remember, holiness is wholesomeness. When one's wholly aware of one's piety and divinity, one becomes acutely aware of his/her conscious existence. That's satori. It requires no religious or spiritual intervention. But like a musk-deer which is unaware of the source of its musk, we're all in search of holiness and piety through the labyrinths of god, religion and fashionable spirituality that create bitterness and bad-blood. Lastly, just like holiness and piety don't ensue from any god or religion, morality also doesn't come from heaven! Humans created all moral precepts over a period of time. Stop giving credit to what you've never seen and experienced. ---- An abridged version of this write up has appeared in The Economic Times, April 2. ---- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/holiness-piety-god-religion/d/132066 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism