I was initiated into these thoughts after we were invited for Shabbat dinner to our friend's (from Isreal) place and we happily obliged them. After seeing the ceremony my exact feelings were- whether you are a hindu, sikh, muslim, christian or a jew or a better way to put it is, if you are a human, you have the same feelings of love, pain, anger, ego, frustration, hate, and fear of failure and unknowns. We, the frail and weak human beings, seek intervention of our respective Gods to help us sail smoothly through the journey of life.
When we arrive in this world we come naked, all we are covered up with is the amniotic fluid from the mother's womb. And there is no difference in that cover for the human species. It is only after the birth that we acquire different identities labeled by name, profession, caste, religion, nationality etc. and all these labels are man made. Convenience of identifying a person in the population of 7+ billions on the basis of some of these distinct labels might be a valid reason to use them. But its time that the idea to use any of them to foster the feelings of divisiveness leading to perception of superiority/inferiority among the masses(as has been the acceptable norm up to now) should be done away with. The outcome of such an idea has always been the conflicts and unrest in the world.
Isn't it ironical, that in spite of the fact, that our (humans) needs are same, feelings are same, ways of expression are same still we have so many conflicts amongst us ? This happens in our day to day life with our friends, colleagues, relations and accumulatively on a much bigger scale as nations. The way we are today, unfortunately, any of these divisions is an acceptable reason to kill or die for !
To understand what, when and where, went wrong that led to this skewed idea of life, is something we should be spending our energies and resources on ! We need to do a lot to get a solution which will fix this issue. One simple way to start with can be , we live life trying to understand and appreciate this simple fact - life is a journey between the two doors - birth and death, and we all have each other, the fellow human beings and other living creatures as our companions. The journey for sure would be more pleasant ! And this beautiful desire of John Lennon can become a reality !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwUGSYDKUxU