WHEN YOU are lost in anxiety, doubt or sorrow, you turn to the Almighty through the path of religion and you find peace and contentment.Beyond the realm of fantasies of the material world that leads you to delusion, is a latent world of truth.

And when you are in search of that ultimate truth, it can be termed as spirituality. It’s religion that offers you the direction and serves as a yardstick in determining your spiritual sense.

The scientist contends and substantiates it with experimental proof that it’s the force of gravity that maintains the earth and the other planets in its orbit or traces the evolution of the earth to the Big Bang theory. While on the other hand, some have traced the origin to the divine power and in that attempt they created religion.

Religion, etymologically is derived from the Latin word rel (l) igio, which has two derivations. One refers to the means to gather, count or observe the signs of divine communication and the other means to bind together man and supernatural powers.

To some it is a path to salvation and for others a way of life. Whatever, it cannot be ruled out that religion plays a significant role in upholding the virtues of benevolence, integrity, tolerance and empathy, from an individual to the collective level.

It is religion that provides you the precepts, delineates between the sacred and the profane and sets the norms and standards. But ultimately, it all depends upon the conscience of the individual and is left to the individual to heighten religion as a tonic or to denigrate it as the opiate of the masses.

As far as the religion of Kerala is concerned, the origins could be traced to Hinduism.

Then came in the Islamic faith and Christianity with its various sects. The other Indian religions like Buddhism; Jainism had some influence among the Hindus and was found scattered with their migration to Kerala.