R series

Religion:
During the usual exchange of emails with Vijay, I started thinking more about this concept that we all seem to have built around ourselves. My first claim (Prabhakar, thanks!): whether one is a believer or not, he is bound by religion. The very fact that he chooses to not believe in it, he proves that such a concept does exist and goes on to give the believer reasons justfying his belief(or rather disbelief). I was trying to gauge how much religion forms the basis of one's living. Do people act in a certain way because they belong to a certain religion or they belong to a religion and thereby act in a certain way. What I am trying to pick here is if religion is the cause or the effect of people's practices.

While there a group of us wondering why we are doing whatever we do in the name of rituals(and there are some who fail to find any compelling reason follow rituals at all), there are another group of ppl who don't even think about this "why" part. It doesn't seem too difficult to understand why as a brahman, one needs to wear the sacred thread. In my view, the sacred thread is a constant reminder to him that he belongs to this community and needs to follow a certain way of life. But as Vijay rightly pointed out,this is a constant reminder and do we need this constant reminder? well,Yes, like one tends to forget a language unless he continues speaking it, rituals can fail to pass through generations, unless it is practiced. A mon avis, Religion is a way of life, a faith/belief, habit. But key here is to remember that one cannot force a habit (ever tried giving up smoking or sticking to your New Year resolutions?). It is a personal choice. What has been rather depressing is that relief work for the tsunami affected areas have also been tainted with fanatic religious motives.

will continue later(rather late in the night/trop tot le matin)