Is Religion Necessary? Poem by Rajaram Ramachandran

If there's no religion,
Then what'll happen?
Let us go to prehistoric days,
When people lived in caves.

With no other activity for them,
'Eat-mate-sleep' was the work prime.
Naked were they, with no shame,
Each one of them had no name.

They killed, by hands, animals,
As they knew not weapons.
Like animals, they ate raw meat,
And were ignorant of fire or heat.

Of them a few savage cannibals,
Ate human flesh like animals.
With no personal relationship,
Or, life style of any family type.

To possess a woman of his own,
Man was fighting with man,
Sans any kind of discipline,
Or, had moral life, to live on.

Slowly they learnt the use of stone,
Out of which, they made weapon.
Also they found the use of fire,
Freed from darkness, shed their fear.

Not knowing what was religion,
Or the meaning of civilization,
A life, just above the animals,
They led in those dark days.

If this kind of life, man now wishes for,
Religious order, there's no need for.
But the taste of modern civilization,
Gave him a life of self-discipline.

Here started the work of religion.
To cure the body, one takes medicine.
So, to cure the diseased mind,
The use of the religion was found.

'Live like a man, ' the religion teaches,
'Man's a rational animal, ' it tells us,
'With the God's gift of his sixth sense,
And to live not like inferior creatures.'

'The body dies, not the Soul, ' it says,
'There's only one God, ' it asserts,
'Though He's known by different names,
And is given various shapes and forms.'

'Father of the Heaven', Christians say,
'Allah Ho Akbar', Muslims say,
' Krishna, the Supreme', Hindus declare,
But God is one, this every one's aware.

It's just like, four strangers met,
One day, at a picnic spot,
And what they liked the most
Each one said the name of a fruit.

'It's Grapes, ' one said,
'No, it's Ankur', the second told,
'No, it's Draksha' said the third,
And 'No, it's Kismiss' the fourth said.

Then, 'Grapes, Grapes, ' a cart man sold,
'This is the fruit I like, ' each one told.
The fruit was one, but the name wasn't one,
True, God with multiple names is but one.

When God is one, why this fight is on,
God can't fight with God, for God is one,
Man can fight with man, for he's not one.
Isn't this truth known to every one?

The feeling of 'God is one'
Can arise in the mind of man
Only when his love for God
Is sincere, pure and good.

If there're no brakes, what'll happen,
When, on road, all the vehicles run?
The same thing will surely happen,
Sans, on this earth, any religion.