Do I really exist? Or not?

It is for the individual "each" for a soul search. What has Religion done for humankind? Especially at the present level and form. Does any religion teach you the moral right to tolerance? Why are the great personalities with credible followers not on the right thinking path? Are they afraid of losing their followers? Or are there any wider conspiracies to nullify the basic religious tenets? Here are some pointers: one can easily judge the facts. Nothing fictional. A real thought provoking passage is ready, for one to get a perspective view. Yes, right from the stone-age to the modern satelite & space-age, the human is filled with so many questions and doubts; man has been using his intellect to make research only upon second and third person objects. Man's questions and doubts are only about the world and God and even beyond! Why? Because no man ever raises any questions or doubts about himself, that is, about his own - " who am I?" - and his own knowledge ( chith), of his own existence ( sath), "Do I exist or not?". Since all doubts rise only about the knowledge, which man has of the existence of the world and God, all this time he has been eagerly making research only about these other two entities and not about himself.

What benefits has mankind derived from the progress in knowledge - the progress that it has made by dividing itself into two large sections and by researching the said two broad directions? The human intellect, which started research on the world, has now discovered a wonderful material science, which can split even atoms: the fundamental particles of which this world is said to be composed off. The discoveries made by scientific research are innumerable. But when we consider the unlimited number of objects in the world - such as the planets and stars in space which still remain unknown to us - it is clear that there can be no end to scientific research and that the human intellect can never see the other shore of the vast ocean of scientific knowledge. By discovering innumerable powers hidden in nature - such as the power of magnetism, fire, water, steam, wind, petrol, electricity and atomic energy - and by inventing all kinds of contrivances, machines and weapons to make use of these powers, scientific research has resulted in terrible great wars, which have made the whole world tremble and which have caused destruction and bloodshed on a hitherto unprecedented scale.

And what about the research made in the other of the above said two directions? Namely the "Self"? The human intellect, which started to make research on God, has produced many religions. Each one of these religions has framed and espoused many different beliefs and dogmas of its own; they have divided the people amongst themselves into many different sects, Religion & caste and they have tried to propagate and make all people follow their own dogmas. Since ignorant people are unable to comprehend the common truth which underlies all religions, they become victims to religious fanatism and (1) due to their attachment to their own religion, and (2) by that miscconception that they were brought up and forced to follow, they condemn all other religions, (3) they try to convert people of other religions to their own religion; (4) they even stoop to the level of becoming entangled in religious wars, and thus, with the help of the weapons invented by science, they also result in human bloodshed. The history of the world itself bears testimony to this fact.

Now, should we not at least try to put an end to all the evils and miseries which have befallen mankind as a result of our "rising" and using our intellects to make research upon the world and God, which are second and third person objects? And one more fact that everyone should understand - that a religion should survive and grow only on its own strength and merit; not on the weakness of another!