“There is no rigid boundary between faith and skepticism. No conviction, no ”ism,” no belief or disbelief is held without cracks, and no one lives their entire life within a single category. There are believers who, in the darkness of suffering, doubt everything. And there are atheists who, faced with the mystery of birth or death, remain silent with deep respect and reverence.
The labels that separate humans into absolute blocks are convenient simplifications, but they are inaccurate. They do not do justice to the contradictory richness of human consciousness. Every human being has at some time felt the temptation to pray, even without believing. And every believer has at some time felt a sense of emptiness, even without wanting to.
What matters is not the name we give to what transcends or moves us. What matters is the authenticity with which we respond to pain, to beauty, to the world, to others. Life does not demand that we choose between God and nothingness. It demands that we respond honestly to that which, even if we do not understand it, affects us with inescapable force and depth. To reduce another person to their beliefs or lack of faith is to forget that we all share the confusion in the face of death, the wonder of life, the longing for meaning, and the need for love.
Religion does not guarantee spiritual depth, nor does the absence of religion exclude nobility of soul. Both paths can be profound or empty, depending on how they are lived. It is not a question of uniting religions and atheisms. It is a question of ceasing to defend boundaries where there is continuity, transition, and mixing. Human beings do not fit into rigid and stable definitions.
What unites us is not a doctrine… it is the question. It is the humility of not having all the answers, and the courage to keep searching without despising others.
Instead of dividing ourselves by what we believe, we can recognize each other by what we feel and experience: by marveling at the incomprehensible, the vertigo of being alive, the urgency of living with meaning.”
Prabhuji
