Acharya Prashant explains that there is no special relationship between religion and God. He clarifies that while most religions have a concept of a creator God, not all do. The fundamental point, he states, is that religion is related to man, not to God. Religion's connection is with human suffering. He refers to the inherent restlessness and ignorance in human beings, and defines religion as the right choice to remove this restlessness. In this entire process, the concept of God is not central. The speaker asserts that it is a great ignorance to believe that religion is related to God. Citing the Indian tradition where spirituality and philosophy (Darshan) are intertwined, he explains that the goal of the six schools of Indian philosophy is the liberation (mukti) of man, specifically the liberation of the ego (ahamkar). The purpose of religion is the freedom of the self from its own bondage, not the attainment of an external God. Acharya Prashant elaborates on this using the distinction between subject and object. Religion's concern is with the subject—the 'I', the thinker—not the object, which is what is being thought about. God, like any other concept or worldly object, is an object of thought. Religion's focus must be on the thinker, the source of all thoughts and worlds. When this is forgotten and the focus shifts to external objects like God, heaven, or the afterlife, it becomes a worldly affair (duniyadari), not religion. Religion is not concerned with worldly matters, whether of this world or another. This misunderstanding leads to significant problems. When religion is associated with an external God, individuals forget to examine their own troubled state. They create stories and beliefs about God, but since they themselves are in a state of confusion and 'madness', their beliefs are flawed and become superstitions. Religion is not about believing these stories; it is the treatment for our own inner derangement. The true religious path involves introspection and self-observation. The speaker concludes that if people understood that religion is for man, a revolution would occur in the religious sphere. Referencing Nietzsche's proclamation that 'God is dead', Acharya Prashant explains it as a call for humans to stop deferring responsibility to an external entity and to take their lives into their own hands. This is the essence of existentialism and also the core of ancient spiritual traditions like Vedanta. The highest ideal of religion is the purity of the mind. If 'attaining God' is understood as achieving this mental purity, then the term is acceptable.
