Freedom necessary from Fictions

Even as the shell of an egg is necessary to protect the embryo until it develops as a chick, religious faith is necessary for man up to a certain age or until the mind is developed and trained to the stage of thinking and reasoning so as to get good imprints of thoughts and deeds in the mind, senses and limbs. When the chick is full-grown the shell has to be broken and discarded so that the fowl may be free for survival and further development. Likewise man needs some restriction and faith in the formative years of his life. Religious faith is useful for the purpose although it does not do that job to full satisfaction. Once children have negotiated the teens, they should be free to develop their personalities understanding the natural truth. If the shell remains stubbornly intact even after the chick is full-grown inside, will it not mean death by suffocation to the fowl? Similarly if man is not freed from the fictitious faith of religion at the appropriate stage, the out-dated myths themselves would hinder his personality development.
Nature is an automatically adjusting balance. Do we not see that with the burgeoning advancement of science, the pressures of the times are eroding the respect accorded hitherto to religions? Is it not a fact that quite a few extant religions are surviving only on the props of corpus funds and mammoth donations? The generation-gap is an accepted fact in the west, if not to that extent here, and it is widening readily in life-style and faith. By the time of the next generation, many religions of today would have become remanants. Should we, who are listening to and discussing the subject, hasten the process? Not necessary! It would be sufficient if we keep ourselves free of the tangle: and instead of giving expression to adverse comments, let us introduce beneficial and useful features. Just as air leaves a vessel to the extent water is poured into it, good practices would replace unwanted habits.   - Maharishi