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Analysis | Share This Page | ||||||
Arrogant Priests, Hollow Religions! |
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by Dr. Rajinder Puri |
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Yet once again the arrogance of a priest has exposed the hollow pretensions of organized religion. Pakistan Prime Minister Mr. Raja Parvez Ashraf on a private visit to India to pay his respects at the Sufi shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti at the Ajmer Dargah has been boycotted by the Head Priest because he did not make suitable amends for the beheading of two Indian soldiers by the Pakistan army at the Line of Control. Earlier it may be recalled that Sikh priests disallowed an Indian army officer from paying his respects at the Golden Temple because he had participated in Operation Blue Star.
Does any human appointed representative of a spiritual order have the right to decide whether or not an individual be allowed to communicate with God by paying his respects at the shrine built in His memory? One thought that God was almighty and the ultimate judge of what treatment any individual deserved, whether it be beneficient or punitive. It seems that priests consider themselves to be as omnipotent as God and have given themselves the power to veto the right of any individual wishing to communicate with God. Thus, if a sinner would wish to atone for his sins by showing repentance to God the priest in such case would be saying:
To this writer who has no faith in organized religion it matters little whether one is allowed to visit a shrine. But those committed to various religions have need to ponder. What precisely is the authority of a priest as an intermediary between the public and God? Who appoints the priest – the spiritual inspiration considered to be the messenger of God who in effect creates a religious sect, or a bunch of ordinary humans who presume to speak in his name? If this matter is satisfactorily settled there would be considerable reduction of strife and discord in society. Buddha, Mohammed, NanaK, Krishna and Jesus would have had no problems to sort out between them. But Buddhist, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu and Christian priests have all sorts of disputes between them that divide society. Indeed, it might even be said that they present the only real problem. |
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10-Mar-2013 | |||||||
More by : Dr. Rajinder Puri | |||||||
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Comments on this Article
Kamath 03/07/2014 09:17 AM
Dr.R.K.Uppal 03/08/2013 21:46 PM |
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