Religion has always been presented as the pathway to peace, morality, and devotion. Every person belongs to one or is influenced by its ideals. Yet, this writing does not aim to define religion’s structure but to uncover the deeper truths that religion has ignored, the truths it never dares to confront. What was once meant to liberate man has become a tool of bondage; what was devotion has turned into transaction.
Part I — The Reason Religion Exists
The existence of religion is born not from understanding, but from ignorance. If humanity had truly understood the essence of the divine, the very root from where the concept of God emerges, there would be no need for religions, temples, mosques, or churches. A man who realizes God within does not seek Him outside.
But the ignorance of men turned realization into ritual. People were busy taking testimonies of those awakened souls instead of walking the path they showed. They admired the enlightened but never understood their realization. Humanity never truly grasped what those awakened beings meant by “God”; rather, people clung to their words, afraid to face the transformation they pointed toward.
Realization demands the sacrifice of ego, lust, greed, and envy, yet humans, bound by attachment, chose comfort over awakening. Instead of dissolving ignorance, they built systems around it. The divine was confined within walls, reduced to a name, a symbol, and a fear. The human effort to glorify God became an effort to own Him. And in this process, liberation turned into bondage.
Had humanity understood that the eternal is not found in isolation but in awareness, there would have been no temples to visit, no rituals to perform. But man desired greatness, authority, and recognition. He built institutions not for God but for his ego, transforming worship into transaction, a bargain between fear and hope. Thus, religion became the trade of devotion for reward, of obedience for salvation, the grand illusion born from the fear of truth.
Part II — Worship and Prayers
Worship and prayer are among the most humble and sacred concepts in religion. But have we ever asked why we worship, or for what we pray? People worship God because He is believed to be the divine cause of life, deserving of reverence and devotion. Yet when it comes to prayer, this devotion takes a different turn. People pray not for truth, but for comfort, for pleasure, joy, and happiness. They seek all that brings ease and try to escape what brings pain.
Here lies the contradiction: When you worship God, you also worship the pain and death that come from Him. If He is the creator of all, then suffering too is His creation. So why do people plead only for joy and pleasure? Why do they reject what is equally a part of His will?
Such worship loses its purity. When devotion arises from attachment and desire for worldly gain, it ceases to be worship, it becomes bargaining. It no longer reflects love for God but love for one’s own comfort. God is turned into a merchant of pleasure, and prayer becomes a transaction of attachments.
This very foundation of worship and prayer, as practiced today, is false. Instead of leading toward liberation, it binds the soul deeper into the cycle of desire and suffering. Attachment grows stronger, and the spirit fades into the illusions of the mind, seeking liberation not through love and wisdom, but through wealth, status, and comfort.
Part III — The Cruelty Behind Religious Promises
Every religion preaches peace and love, yet the world continues to bleed in their names. History stands as a witness to wars, persecutions, and suffering, all carried out under the banner of devotion. Religions claim to serve God, but what kind of God demands death for His glory?
If violence and bloodshed truly connect humanity with the divine, then why do believers still suffer? Why are children born into pain, why do women become widows, why does hunger devour millions beneath the same sky of prayer? If their gods are merciful and almighty, why do their followers remain trapped in misery?
Where is the peace they promise? Who is killing whom? And who is truly glorified, the killer, the victim, or the silent god who watches? These questions uncover the cruelty and hypocrisy hidden within the grand facades of faith.
The suffering of the world does not arise from the absence of God, but from the illusion of religious superiority. People destroy life in the name of the one who created it. They preach peace but act with violence. They speak of love but build walls of division.
This contradiction exists because religion transformed truth into ideology. The more they tried to represent God, the further they drifted from Him. Humanity was demoted to a ritual, and the worship of symbols replaced the worship of understanding.
Part IV — Religion and the False Idea of Humanity
Religions often claim that they nurture morality and humanity. But humanity is not something to be taught; it is something naturally known to every human heart. If humanity must be taught, it is already lost.
A human being understands kindness, compassion, and love not through holy books but through experience, emotion, and consciousness. The failure to live by these feelings is not a failure of nature but of awareness.
Religions say they lead people to the right path, but no one can change another. A man changes only when he chooses to see truth himself. Even God, if one believes in Him, cannot change a man against his will. Every transformation is born within, not from outside preaching.
Yet, religions continue to claim that they can reform and purify others. This is their greatest illusion. They play with human suffering, turning pain into dependence. They tell the suffering man that his pain is “God-given,” and that prayer will end it. But no suffering is given by God; suffering arises from one’s choices, actions, and perception of life.
When one prays to escape pain, it is not devotion, it is fear. It is the act of begging before an unknown force to avoid responsibility. True devotion is not about asking; it is about understanding. If your search for God begins because you suffer, you are not a seeker, you are a refugee of your own mind.
Liberation is not found by running from pain but by seeing it completely. When one stands conscious before his suffering, he transforms it. Awareness dissolves misery, but ignorance strengthens it. The moment one becomes truly present, he finds the eternal within.
Part V — Heaven, Hell, Rebirth, and the Chains of Fear
The illusion of Heaven and Hell
Religions invented the ideas of heaven and hell to maintain control. “Do good and you go to heaven. Do wrong and you suffer in hell.” This is not morality, it is manipulation. It teaches people to act not out of understanding but out of fear and expectation.
When one does good for the sake of reward, he is not good; he is merely a trader of virtue. He expects pleasure for his deeds. That is not devotion, it is business. The one who lives only for heaven never lives in the present; he lives in anticipation of the future.
When life becomes a transaction of deeds, liberation disappears. A truly free being does not act for reward; he acts out of understanding and love. The essence of goodness is not in gaining heaven but in being human, naturally, without fear and without desire.
The concept of Rebirth
Similarly, religions say that a wrongdoer will be reborn as an animal or suffer another life of misery. But what is wrong in being an animal? Animals live with purity and balance. They neither pretend nor exploit; they live in harmony with nature. The idea of being punished by birth is just another invention of fear, a tool to make people obedient.
The choice of right and wrong should come not from fear of rebirth but from clarity of understanding. The one who chooses evil is not unaware of good, he simply lacks understanding. But when you teach people to do good only to avoid punishment, you make them fearful, not moral. Fear never creates understanding; it only builds bondage.
The myth of Past Life and Karma
Religions also speak of past lives and the idea that current suffering is the result of old karma. But what purpose does this belief serve? If one cannot remember or understand past actions, how does it help him to grow?
This belief weakens the power of present responsibility. It gives people an escape, a reason to avoid confronting their choices. True correction comes not by knowing past life but by transforming this one through awareness, courage, and effort.
One who constantly seeks the past will never understand the present. The truth is not found in remembering what was, but in realizing what is. The courageous face life directly; the fearful take shelter in superstitions.
Part VI — The Path Beyond Religion
All the arrangements of religion, rituals, promises, and punishments, are created for those who fear truth. They offer comfort to the weak, but not freedom to the strong. Religion is not the path of courage; it is the shelter of fear.
The one who truly seeks the divine does not run to temples or books. He faces himself. He does not pray to escape life but to understand it. He does not beg God to save him from pain; he learns to see the pain with awareness. The man who worships out of fear is not a believer, he is a captive. His worship is not love; it is a desperate trade between ignorance and hope. Religions have made people followers when life demands seekers.
True spirituality begins when fear ends. It begins when a man stops asking “What will I get?” and starts asking “What am I?” The divine is not something to be reached but something to be realized. When one sees that God is not outside but within, all rituals collapse into silence. No temple, no book, no priest can lead you to that point. It is the path of awareness, not obedience.
The essence of existence is not to serve a distant God but to awaken the divine within oneself. The one who knows this no longer belongs to a religion, he belongs to truth. In the end, religion is not the truth but the attempt to describe it. And every description is limited, bound by human fear and imagination. Truth itself needs no belief, no system, and no defense. It is free, eternal, and silent, just as the divine it speaks of.
When fear dies, when faith becomes understanding, and when worship turns into awareness, then religion dissolves, and what remains is pure humanity. That is where God truly exists: not in heavens, not in temples, but in the awakened heart of man.
By Harsh Yadav
What is the central message of “The Illusion of Religion and the Search for True Spirituality”?
The article reveals how religion, once a path of devotion and inner discovery, has turned into an institution of fear and control. It explains that people follow rituals and dogmas without true understanding, seeking comfort instead of awareness. The real message is to look within, to realize that divinity exists inside human consciousness, not in temples or scriptures.
How does the article explain the origin of religion?
According to the text, religion was born from human ignorance rather than divine understanding. When early humans couldn’t comprehend the mysteries of existence, they created gods and rituals to fill that void. Over time, these beliefs became institutions. Instead of helping man discover truth, religion began to confine it within rules and symbols, disconnecting humanity from direct realization.
Why does the author call worship and prayer a form of transaction?
The article criticizes how modern worship is motivated by desire and fear rather than love and awareness. People pray to God for pleasure, comfort, and relief from pain, making prayer an exchange rather than devotion. The author suggests that true worship should come from understanding, not from begging or bargaining for worldly happiness.
How does religion contradict the idea of true humanity?
Religions claim to teach morality and compassion, yet the author argues that humanity cannot be taught, it is already within every person. True kindness and love arise from awareness and experience, not from religious command. When religion tries to shape humanity through fear or promise of reward, it actually weakens genuine moral understanding.
What does the article say about violence and religious cruelty?
It highlights the dark history of violence committed in the name of God. Despite preaching peace, religions have often caused wars and suffering. The author questions how a truly divine being could demand death or division for His glory. The cruelty lies in how religion justifies harm under the illusion of serving a higher power, masking ego and ignorance as devotion.
What are the illusions of Heaven, Hell, and Rebirth mentioned in the essay?
The essay explains that Heaven and Hell are psychological ideas used to control behavior through fear and reward. Similarly, the belief in rebirth and karma often becomes an excuse to avoid present responsibility. Instead of facing life directly, people depend on unseen afterlives or past deeds, which keeps them trapped in fear and ignorance rather than freedom.
What is the author’s view on true spirituality?
True spirituality, as described, begins when fear ends. It is not about following a religion or performing rituals, but about awakening one’s own consciousness. A spiritual person seeks truth without the need for reward or punishment. The author believes that enlightenment is not gained through belief but through direct awareness of oneself and life.
How can one move beyond religion according to the article?
The path beyond religion is the journey of self-understanding. The author urges people to stop searching for God outside and instead realize the divine within. When one faces suffering with awareness and stops praying out of fear, liberation begins. True freedom is achieved when faith turns into understanding and worship transforms into inner silence.