In my belief and to the extent of my knowledge, Hinduism had never been a path to 'reach' or 'reach out to' God. It is just a way of life, which, if you practice, will lead to you living a healthy and contended life. Even orthodox branches of Hindu philosophy such as Yoga and Saankhya do not even subscribe to the concept of God.
Yet, there is a larger volume of hindu philosophy which states that there is something called as God. But, many have failed to read further and realise that the text does not explicitly say that this God is something material. Greatly respected sages like Vyasa have even written in texts like Srimad Bhagavatam that the positions of Gods like Indra, Siva, Brahma and Vishnu are just temporary.
Something like a Principal of a College, Vice-Chancellor of a University, the Governer of a State and the President of India. Taking the example of the president, he is the supreme commander of the armed forces and the head of the nation and these powers come with the post and are not of the person who occupies the post. As with any post, there is the question of a qualification. In my belief, the qualification required for the 'God' posts is having enough sense that who/what God is.
God is a state of realization (not a state of understanding) that everything that exists and that is imaginary is from the same source and is bound for the same ultimate destination and hence is the same.
You may ask, "What is the purpose of prayer, worship, idols, temples etc. if there is no entity as a God to address to. ". The answer is simple and has already been said umpteen number of times by luminaries like Swami Vivekananda.
The belief of the existence of a greater entity, who would bail us out of trouble and who is watching over our wrong-doings is necessary for the growth of any civilization. The former thought helps the group survive troubled waters and the later helps curtail anarchy
Even after hearing this logic, there may be many who would argue, "How can you explain the different everyday miracles happening..".
"We, humans, are the only species to have laughter."
Laughter is a way to express that you are humoured. The other species may not resort to an oral way of expressing. If you grin in front of a chimpanzee, it will think that you want a brawl.
"The entire envoriment is in a delicate balance. The global warming caused due to this disruption is evident. Isn't it a miracle that such a complicated system came into being in the first place and stayed in balance."
The system is complicated. But, it by no means is in a balance, we now exist in a time period when the 'pointer' is near the centre. Wait till the tide changes.
Further, nature is always experimenting. It gave big lizards a chance to dominate the earth for 16 crore years and gave them a test of fire where they could not handle the heat. We have been around for a mere 1.3 lakh years and have been 'dominating' for less than 20000 years...Isn' that just a blink of a eye??
Then comes the question, "There are so many things in this world that science cannot explain. Are they not acts of god??"
In my opinion, it is not science that is flawed or unable to expain everything. It is the human being who is unable to expain everything with his limited interpretation of science (physics, chemistry or mathematics)
Wonder how every year's panchangam is accurate in predicting amavasai, pournami and grahanams, when it would require most of us to consult a calendar to know the day on which 1st of Jan 2008 would be. It is better understanding of mathematics.
People who see vibhooti forming from plain 10ps coins when a Swamiji recites a mantra, think that it is a miracle. However, they are unaware of the effect of mercuric chloride on aluminium. It is not the flaw of science but the flaw of the observer in failing to figure out the chemistry.
Many 'devout' do thee-midippu (walking on red hot coals) or lying on a bed of nails. The reason for them escaping unscathed is attributed to His grace, by some. But, it is trivial to a person who knows his physics that it takes some time for the human feet (where the skin is the thickest) to feel the heat , and nobody actually walks slowly on the coals. The bed of nails is an example of how a weight distrubuted over many points would dissipate the pressure at each point to a level where there is no skin penetration.
None of the points that I have written about here go against the teachings of Vedas. They only state that give preference to religion over material, spirituality over religion and Truth over spirituality. But, strangely, my views do not coincide with the current concept of Hindu religion. I wonder who went wrong and where.
I would like to seek the Truth..
very well written Kumar. I believe that God is some positive energy which is all pervading. In today's world when there is so much stress all around, peace of mind is a rarity. So believing in this energy and trying to meditate upon it for a short time everyday will provide the mental strength to face our day to day lives more efficiently.
ReplyDeleteLots of miracles happen in our daily life like the flower blossoming,the foetus in the womb and th child birth.Science can only explain the process but not explain why it should happen only that way.Who started it all and why? The Supreme power is unfathomable.It cannot be understood in One Janmam.Birth and death are unpredictable. That itself is a mystery?Miracle?.
ReplyDeleteIf we probe these natural miracles we might get a clue to the All Pervading Power but to reach HIM is a Bhageeratha Prayatnam.
I appreciate this blog of yours.
ReplyDeleteI have not read Vedas completely & tried to comprehend the meaning of those, but I have interacted with Vedic pundits & other great Scholars. What I have understood from them is that Vedas don’t promote any religion, rather, as you mentioned ‘a way of life’. They have huge Chapters on Karma. Vedas suggest that you have to do this & that, do yaga, yagna etc. One has to make the so called Indra & his colleagues happy by offering so & so..& so forth. In a society that we live in today, it is really difficult for a person to believe all this and live by these standards. I doubted these and was trying to understand the origin of the Vedas. In my quest I happen to meet few masters who helped me in clearing my disbelief. This is that I understood from them.
This world has been a mystery since ages. People started to question this world? The basic question was how and why? They naturally started thinking and they got answers for those which satisfied their logic at that time. They are now called as Scientists. They went outwards, tried to apply the laws they discovered and made things for daily employment and started to evolve.
There was another sect of people who realized that these discoveries were giving them comforts but they were not fully content. They wanted to know something that would quench their thirst of knowledge. They dropped the questions why & how. They asked a question. I deem that is what the whole spirituality is about. They questioned; “To whom is this world?” They delved deep into themselves and understood the TRUTH behind the whole existence. The Proclamation was “Aham Bramhasmi” (I am just using the Sanskrit as I am familiar with that. Jesus might have said the same with his language, Mohammed in his own, language is irrelevant. I just want to convey their assertion). Their quest ended after the realization. They were Blissful. Out of their compassion, they tried to impart the knowledge that they had realized to all others. Few people who saw them were able to comprehend the truth. In Sanskrit, we say ‘Mouna Diksha’. But most of them were not able to comprehend this. The reason being, that they were not able to delve deep within themselves. Their mind was going outward. So the sages, (the realized souls) gave instruction to do pranayama etc to make the mind single pointed. There were many who still were not able to perform this. So they were asked to do Japa. For those who were not capable to even do that, they were asked to do yaga, yagna etc. Still people were reluctant to do that. So, they were told that, if they perform this poojas, they would get be king, get money etc. All these were just to pull in immature souls and make them eligible to comprehend the TRUTH. Maharshi Vyasa took pain in editing all this & brought out the 4 Vedas. The essence of Vedas comes at last Chapters of the Vedas, which are well known as Vedanta or Upanishads. All other chapters are just to prepare the soul to understand the truth. When a highly mature soul reads the Upanishads, the realization happens that there is nothing to be done or realized.
I described all this to emphasize that the whole purpose of the Sanatana Dharma is to make a soul realize the real nature. Many immature people read this & made use of this for their selfish motive and exploited the society. Shakaracharya, with his great efforts reestablished the Vedantic truths with his Bhashya of the Prasthanatraya. I request you to study those works of Shankara & brood over those proclamations and wait for the truth to explode in you. Don’t worry about the Hindu Religion or the Sanathana Dharama as it has the power to protect itself.
A Seeker of Truth
Very interesting read.
ReplyDeleteNow i want to read the Vedas or at least a part...
Question the questioner, Seek the seeker, for within him lies the truth. TRUTH can not come from an external source. Find out to whom these questions (Quests) arise, and you will find that it is neither the body nor the mind, but the SELF (In Deep Sleep/Sushupti - there is no body no mind, but not our existence - which we experience, find out the Experiencer). - By Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi.
ReplyDeleteShiv (Satyam Param Dheemahi)
"They only state that give preference to religion over material, spirituality over religion and Truth over spirituality."
ReplyDeleteThis is beautiful. don't wonder about trivial things (Krishna says in the Gita, Do not go for 'Viplava' revolution/reformation of the others, instead go for Inner-reformation that will take care of the rest)
Shiv (Satyam Param Dheemahi)