Religious Duties

The more we keep matters of faith and religion personal, the better. Why? Let me explain.

Perhaps you think to yourself that you know quite a bit about religion and try to follow it purely, or actually do follow it. At the same time, you also think that the person before you is quite indifferent to and ignorant about religious matters. You want—since you yourself have come to the righteous path, since the Creator has brought you to the righteous path—for it to now be your sacred duty to show the righteous path to all other immoral and misguided people.

Now the question is: how will you do this? The very first thing you'll do in such a moment is inform the immoral, ignorant person before you about their ignorance; along with pointing out all the mistakes you notice in them—that is, all their actions or behavior, conduct, and ways that seem bad and wrong to your eyes and according to your principles.

But do you know what happens then? When you first consider a person's activities without knowing them completely, and based on some made-up notion, place them among criminals and put them in the dock for judgment, you automatically distance yourself somewhat from that person's heart. Because no matter how close you are to someone, it's impossible for you to know them completely. The more you form such opinions about someone without knowing them, the more you'll become an annoying, worthless person. Your difference from those footpath canvassers saying "Come to our car, see our ointments..." is really quite minimal. Everyone despises and pities such pushy agents of heaven. Set your own record straight—you won't have to go to hell for someone else's record. Even good-natured pushy people are always extremely annoying. Those who comment on people without knowing or by guessing are surely displeasing to the Creator.

When you mentally distance yourself from a person's emotions and preferences, no matter how many good things you say to them or how much advice you give, none of it will reach their ears—they won't actually listen to anything you say with attention or importance anymore. Perhaps they'll immediately go along with you, saying yes and nodding, but whenever you approach them about these matters or even without any purpose, they'll want to flee from you, avoid you, and you'll undoubtedly become an annoying figure to them. Most importantly, who are you or I to decide what will bring peace to whom?

You cannot become someone's favorite by constantly finding fault with them. You cannot prove yourself superior to someone by disrespecting and diminishing them. Perhaps they know far, far more about religious matters than you do, but they apply these things to themselves in private. Perhaps they are a quietly devout person. Perhaps they prefer to keep themselves and their true nature hidden. Perhaps they are steadfast and pure with themselves alone. Or it could be that they don't want anyone to force them to do anything against their will. Perhaps they want to know life's experiences more solidly, perhaps they want to know themselves through real experience. Perhaps their path to knowing the Creator is somewhat different. Perhaps they don't hang signboards around their neck and peddle religious snacks from street to street like you do. Most religious people surrender themselves to the Creator privately, in solitude, in silence.

Not everyone likes to walk the same path, and if everyone walked down the same path, nothing different would come from there. If each of our paths is different, then it's only appropriate that we determine our own path ourselves. The path that walking down it brings good to all people—that is the Creator's path. The number of such paths is surely more than one! And it also happens that when everyone together tries to set someone straight by force, disgust for the Creator itself comes to them, no curiosity to know Him awakens in them anymore. To forcibly turn someone away from the Creator like this is undoubtedly a great sin.

Letting each person live in their own way according to their own understanding is their birthright as a human being—a right that the Creator Himself has given to humanity. And that's why, after a certain age, when people begin to become self-reliant, they create their own boundaries, they learn to say "no" directly to everyone's face for things they dislike, or they protest. Then, no matter how hard you try, no outsider can control them anymore. Then the people close to that person are suddenly taken aback seeing such change in them, but after a few days they also understand that the person no longer cares about anything they say. At the end of the day, that person now does only what seems right according to their own judgment.

Then they can move away mentally or even physically if they want, always keeping themselves at a distance from others. Even though many of them are close to them, despite being close, thousands of hesitations can arise in their minds even to say two simple, natural words. Then, even being very close people, coming close becomes impossible, and the heart keeps saying the same thing from within over and over... Something has gone terribly wrong, something has gone terribly wrong!

So before such a situation arises, try to understand your own boundaries. Understand that they must grow up with their own individuality. Time will shape them under its own responsibility, the way they need to be shaped. You will only distance yourself from that person's heart because of your own mistakes. People can overcome distances of many miles, but once a mental distance is created, that distance never goes away.