A few days ago I met four learned individuals. One was an atheist. The others were a Buddhist, a Christian and a Muslim. Though I asked the same questions each had a totally contradictory answer.

That was quite understandable but none told me "I don't know." Evidently each answer was a stock reply in accordance with his beliefs. According to the atheist, who was also a Marxist, dialectical materialism had all the answers to all the questions and according to him, Marx was the first prophet. If he were in Russia during the Stalinist era perhaps the State would have been his God.

This reminded me of Socrates of ancient Greece who declared, "All I know is the fact of my ignorance". To come to that state of publicly declaring one's ignorance shows extraordinary humility. Such a person has no arrogance and assertive answers characteristic of those who have ceased to enquire. Both the theist and the atheist have ceased all further enquiry. Their minds are water-tight compartments, programmed and conditioned to answer with a definite yes or no even to such questions as, "Is there a divine plan?"

Albert Einstein, one of the most brilliant minds of the twentieth century, never gave a definite yes or no to such questions because he was humble enough to say, "I don't know."

This reminds me of an incident when a TV guru was asked by a listener, "Is there a heaven?" and without batting an eye-lid he said yes but the telephone line was disconnected by the TV station before the next question, "How do you know?"

Whether one believes in a divine plan, heaven, hell or Nirvana or a dictatorship of the proletariat depends on the Society into which one is born, and the influence of tradition.

Whether one is a theist or atheist, Christian, Buddhist or Muslim, depends on the environment and the tradition in which one has been brought up. In a Marxist state, the majority of the people do not believe in Nirvana or God. In fact, God is an invention of man and we build churches and temples and kovils etc. separating human beings as Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists or Christians. The inventors of God ultimately get carried away and begin to kill one another claiming "My God is better than your God", or "My God is the only God".

When a mind is filled with ideas that separate man from man, that makes one a Hindu and the other a Muslim, or one an Arab and the other a Jew, life on this planet becomes intolerable. So we kill each other hoping to have a better life hereafter. Rituals, offerings to God, incense, dancing, singing, all this is an escape from reality.

No wonder Karl Marx said that religion is nothing but the opium of the masses. I think it was Voltaire who said if there were no God man must invent him.

Some believe in a jealous God. Some believe in a God Almighty, all-knowing, Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and all these are ideas. All religious dogmas, beliefs, rituals, bodhi poojas, sabda poojas 84,000 pahan poojas, pichcha mal poojas, pandals, lanterns, olu bakkas (all seen during Vesak) all these are ideas created by man. To find God or reality one must begin near, in society, not in a temple, not in a granite image, not in an image created by the mind.

All religions have tried to bring peace to this country and failed miserably.

It is only a religious mind that will see the gravity of the situation in which this world is. George Bush, the American President is supposed to be a 'born-again' Christian. If you observe what he is doing, will you call him religious? The Viet Nam War was conducted by religious minds in America. It ended in more killings than ever. Now it is Iraq. Tomorrow it may be Iran. Do you call this the work of a religious mind?