Does religion divert our energy from real well-being?
Atheists argue that just as taking opium distracts people from working for real well-being, so does believing in religion. Is that true?
Religion does indeed direct our vision to another world, an eternal world – the kingdom of God. Does this other-worldly hope make us indolent or impotent to work in this world?
No.
This is not to deny that some people may become negligent about their worldly responsibilities. But that’s because they misunderstand or misapply the teachings of religion.
What is the nature of religion’s actual contributions?
Throughout history, many of the greatest works of art, architecture and literature have been made by religious believers. Their belief didn’t cause them to reject everything of this world for the sake of God, but inspired them to do wonderful things in this world to glorify God.
Millions of people have been motivated by their religious beliefs to acts of charity and compassion.
In addition to looking at religion’s practical contributions to the world, we also need to assess religion’s conceptual attitude towards the world, so that we can gauge whether it has an opiate-like effect.
No doubt, religion promises us a better world beyond this world. At the same time, it instructs us that, to attain that world, we need to act morally and responsibly in the here-and-now. This injunction contributes to making things better in this world.
The Vedic worldview informs us that our spiritual development takes us through four progressive stages: dharma (religious practice), artha (holistic economic prosperity), kama (physical and emotional satisfaction) and moksha (liberation from material existence). Thus, it outlines a masterplan that integrates both this-worldly and other-worldly wellbeing.
Similarly, the Bhagavad-gita centres on a call for devotional activism in this world. Arjuna wanted to renounce the world, but Krishna instructed him to engage in the world and to engage the world in devotional service by establishing the rule of morality and spirituality in the world.
The Gita’s teachings of bhakti offer a dynamic way that helps us to contribute to this world while also attaining the next world. The path of bhakti urges us to neither romanticise nor demonise the world, but instead to utilise it and thereby realise God.
Many people, including most atheists, romanticise the world, picturing it to be the arena where they will fulfil their fantasies. When the world dashes and smashes their dreams, they sometimes oscillate to the other extreme and demonise it; they paint it as an intrinsically evil place meant to be shunned at all costs.
The Bhagavad-gita (02.64) urges us to avoid attachment and aversion, thereby pointing to a balance between these two poles of romanticisation and demonisation. Further, the Gita (05.29) declares that the world belongs to God, Krishna, and so should be utilised for his service. When we lovingly offer the resources of the world to the Lord of the world, this devotional contact with the all-pure Lord purifies us. This purification peels away the layers of ignorance and forgetfulness that have obscured our spiritual identity for eons.
As we realise our spiritual identity, we understand that rendering devotional service to Krishna is our natural, eternal activity as his beloved children. This understanding inspires us to continue serving Krishna with conviction and devotion. Then, as we rise from self-realisation to God-realisation, we discover that all the peace and joy we were constantly searching for externally was present all along in our own hearts in the form of Krishna, the source of all peace and joy. Facilitating us to get that realisation is the world’s ultimate purpose.
Thus, Gita wisdom helps us steer clear of the extremes of romanticisation and demonisation in dealing with the world. By showing us the middle path of utilisation, it leads us to life’s ultimate perfection: realisation of Krishna.
Srila Prabhupada demonstrates this devotional dynamism in our times. Did the religion of bhakti make him inactive when he could have been active? Far from it, it made him super-active at an age when most people were becoming inactive. Despite being at an advanced age of 70, Srila Prabhupada travelled all over the world several times, wrote dozens of books, and established over 100 temples. For him, religion far from being an opium was a vitaliser and animator.
That same rejuvenating potency of religion is available to us too. All we need do is to assimilate and apply the principles of bhakti, which the Bhagavad-gita (18.66) indicates is the summit of religion. Thus, the true contribution of religion, especially in its highest expression of bhakti, is far from that of an opiate. And its contribution is far higher than merely being a source of better physical and mental health, though these may come out. It provides a lasting and fulfilling direction for our innermost longing for love. By so doing, it makes our life meaningful, purposeful, joyful. Nothing enriches our life as does bhakti.
Atheism, on the other hand, devalues life into a meaningless accident, a procession of dead chemicals. It offers little, if any, reason for compassion and all reasons for utilitarianism – use anything and anyone for one’s own pleasure, for this life is all that exists and life is meant for enjoyment and there’s no God to oversee how we get that enjoyment. Such a worldview fosters immorality, corruption and degradation.
So, if evidence and reasoning were allowed to speak, perhaps the question would need to be turned around: might atheism be the opium of the masses? A deceptive and destructive opium that has been widely fed to people in the name of science, secularism and social progress while it actually erodes the foundations of our material and spiritual wellbeing? This reminds me of the nature of the bird, ostrich; whenever is faced with a predator, it buries its head in the soil, forgetting that that does not stop the predator from having its prey. Similarly, trying to take our mind from reality by postulating many atheistic philosophy does not kill the existence of the Supreme God (Krishna).
