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it has only prisons. I ask: "Are the temples of religion, temples or prisons?"
If religion is fear, temples will be prisons. If religion is fear, God himself cannot be more than the chief officer of the Prisons.
What is religion? Fear of sin? of punishment? of hell? or of greed? -- of good deeds, of reward or heaven?
No. Religion is neither fear nor greed. Greed is only an extension of fear.
Religion is fearlessness. Religion is freedom from all fears.
There is an old incident. Two brothers lived in a town. They were the wealthiest in that town. Perhaps the name of the town was the 'Town of Darkness'. The elder brother was very religious. Daily and regularly, he would go to the temple. He would give charities and do good deeds. He would listen to religious discourses and discussions. He would sit in the company of good people and the saints. Because of him there was a gathering of the saints daily in that house. On account of his attention to God and the saints he had become entitled to heavens in the other world. This was that the good men and the saints explained to him, and this was written in the scriptures also because those scriptures were also made by the group of those good men and saints. On the one hand, he exploited wealth and on the other he would give charities and do good things. Heaven cannot be attained without charities. There is no wealth without exploitation. There is wealth from the opposite of religion and there is religion from wealth. He exploited others, the good men and the saints exploited him; and the exploiters have always been good friends. But he always pitied his younger brother. He was no good at collecting money and consequently was getting unable to collect religion either. His behaviour, full of love and truth, was coming in the way of his reaching God. Then, he was neither going to the temple nor did he know the A, B, C, of the scriptures. His condition was definitely pitiable and his account in the other world was blank. He used to avoid the good men and the saints also, as people would avoid infectious diseases. If the saints entered the house from one gate, he would go out from the other.
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