Spills from life: Morality vs Religion, or Morality=Religion?

            The four main think tanks and campaigners of the Morality concept are: Religious institutes, Social establishment, Individual disposition, and Nature/Life conservationists. In this series of exploring the purpose of morality and its relevance in life, I would explore the different shades of morality that I have discovered or rediscovered. There are so many diverse understandings and numerous misunderstandings attached to the concept of Moral Consciousness.
             I choose Religion as the first model of morality for discussion in this article. While I’m not interested to write an essay on the history of religion, I would like to broadly discuss how the many branches of Religion have influenced the psychology of people and affected their day-to-day lives. All the religions around the world are founded on the concept of morality – ‘to be good, to be right, to be truthful, to be selfless, to be self-disciplined, and so on.’ But the cardinal principle of the religious theory rests on the concept of complete subordination to the Supreme entity, which is known by varied names, such as God, Bhagwan, Rabb, Allah, Nirankar, and many more. Humankind has tried to lock spirit’s aura in the institute of religion, and with that came the hierarchy of ‘controlled’ evolution of mind. Every religion has its own set of parables or ‘moral’ stories and examples to compete with the other religions in the current market. But all the fables speak of similar morals, as mentioned above. ‘To be good, or not to be’ decides whether a person is a moralist or a corrupted human being. This raises a serious spiritual dilemma: According to the theological expectations, a moral- religionist is a person who is expected to submit unconditionally to his/her belief ( blind faith, in other words). Usually, such an individual would aggressively follow what he has trained his mind to believe (Self- brainwash) and might not be open to debate or asking questions. So, what’s the morality in such thinking? Well, devotion in totality is moral, just as skepticism is immoral; acceptance is moral, just as questioning is immoral; moral is in the unreasoning, and logic is immoral. In other words, the strict code of religion is ‘fear’ – ‘One could face the wrath of an angry God, if one asks questions,’ ‘Unconditional devotion could be awarded, but defiance would be punished.’ If it’s not clear enough yet, then let me confess- I do not believe in the wrathful celestial-ness, and I do not see any morality in punishing people, rather than be offered a chance to improve and reintegrate. Even in the man-made social justice, we’ve reached the stage of rehabilitation, with however much success; at least we are trying for all the moral reasons. But the point here to make is – The divine justice must be surely much more sagacious than the ingenuity of the engineered law and order invented by the lowly humans. But the puritanical morality lies in the sinner being chastised.  
                        Blind faith, ritual routines, feeling perpetually guilty, accepting theory without questions, trying to strangulate sub-conscious voice, denying your life to improve, etc are but negative vibes and have no base in morality. It’s an unfortunate and misplaced morality preached by ritualistic religionists and has no connection with spirituality. I would dare as much to say that any religion without true moral values of spiritual-ness is like a heart with no pulse.
            This brings to another shade of morality in religion- ‘God is forgiving.’ As humankind, we’ve reached this stage after much endurance and persistence, as history would tell. The establishment of the religious lobby is indeed evolving; we must persevere as a long way to go yet. I much prefer this concept of the Omnipotent, as there is love in forgiveness, there is care in forgiveness, and there is generosity in forgiveness. A very moral form of spiritualism, and categorically resonates with my belief. The supreme entity within this concept is more like a parent figure than a dictating ruler. Evolving religiously is based on seeking moral guidance from divinity. Such guidance is received in weighing our karma/actions in life against moral reasoning. Morality here is based neither on punishment nor on the feeling of perpetual guilt. One grows the power of introspection and generates a common sense of right and wrong. This is called growing conscience. Once morality rises from within, it stays in the auto mode in life. For me, this is the perfect spiritual awareness. One could match it up with any compatible religion- some like to match blue with orange, others might prefer blue with white, and so on and so forth.
            Hence, it’s fair to conclude that before we become too enthusiastic about claiming that ‘God is one, but it’s MY God which is the ONE,’ we need to seek, and develop our understanding of what is being moral means. So, in the light of its basic definition that ‘ Morality is to recognise the difference between good and bad’,  here’s what I think moral-ness is, : ‘To be truthful to your own self and don’t waste precious energy to judge others’, ‘Find yourself in own heart before trying endlessly to win someone else’s,’ ‘Respect yourself before surrendering to a misconceived mysticism’, ‘Be patient with your concerns and open to skepticism’, ‘Accept that it’s dignified to recognise own pain and express it’, ‘It’s not greed to desire more to improve life’- This is my definition of moral mindset, which generates positive vibes and optimistic mindset. In other words, the moral sense evolves when a person conquers own self. God is in truth, God is in patience, God is in dignity, God redresses pain, God manifests your desires. Finding God is the supreme moral value one could achieve, and it all starts with finding your ownself. Be religious, as I am, but find the essence of religion in spirituality, not in invented dogma. I believe this is the core connection between religion and morality.