ISWARADARSANAM

Iswara Darsanam.

Prata Smarana Stotram,

(Adi Shankara).

Prata smarami hridi samaspurudatmatatwam

Sachit sukam paramahamsa gatim turiyam

Yat swapna jagrat sushuptamavaiti nityam

Tadbrahma nishkalamaham na ca bhuta sangha:’

( Early morning, I consciously recall the brilliant ‘Atma Tattvam’ that enlivens my heart. ‘Swarupa Anubhuti’ is attained by ‘Paramahamsas’ in Turiya avasta! It is our “Prajna” in ‘ Sat-Chit-Ananda’ bhavam that make us experience the ‘ Jagart, Swapna and Sushupti’, state of existence. I realize that I am not mere mixture of inert ‘ bhutas ’. I am ‘Nitya-Suddha-Brahmaam’! Iswara is ‘Sarvavyapi’. But each one of us should first search for HIM in our own heart. This is the secret of ‘Satya Anubhuti’.)

Pratar bhajami manasam vacha samagamyam

Vaco vibhanti nikhila yadanugrahena

Ya neti neti vacanairnnigama avocan

Tam deva deva ajam actuhta mahuragryam.

‘Brahma satyam’ is beyond the reach of words and mind. All ‘Words’ have their origin from the ‘Satya Swarupam’. Vedas explain that ultimate truth by rejecting all by “Neti Neti”. I worship today morning that “Jagadiswara” who is immortal and the primordial cause behind this universe.

Pratar namami tamasa paramarkavarnam

Puram sanatana padam purushotmakhyam

Yasminnidam jagadasheshamasheshamurthau

Rajwam bhujangmaiva pratibhasitam vyi.

I worship early morning that effulgent ‘Purushottama’ who is ever shining beyond the veil of darkness. The entire universe is projected in that rope like a serpent. It is complete and eternal. All those who worship that ‘Purushottama rupam’ will never be swayed by the worldly desires.

Slokatrayamidam punyam lokatraya vibhushanam

Prata: kale padhedyastu sagathet paramampadam.

The three slokas quoted above are sacred hymns recognizing the supremacy of GOD, on our universe. It is an adornment to Lokatrya ( There are three lokas to a human being: Bhumi, Vayu and Aakasam ). Those who chant the three punya slokas daily, early in the morning, will attain ‘Paramam Padam’. May the blessings of ‘Jagdhishwara’ always be showered on you!

The angry young man’s response to God!

“I don’t believe in God. Why should I visit any temple? I have not felt any necessity for it! I have much better things to do in life.”

n Anonymous youngster

These are angry words, often heard from the new generation of educated youngsters, many of them settled abroad, (including the projeny of those who have gone abroad in the sixties onwards) particularly from Hindus. They could be techies/ scientists/ administrators/ doctors/teachers in schools/universities etc, who are fairly successful in their life/ careers. Very few of them are atheists by conviction. Educated youngsters consider themselves to be intelligent, well informed (Thanks to Internet and Google!) and rational in their approach to God/religion. They don’t believe in God as they have nothing particular to be gained from chasing after the unknown entity called ‘God’ ! Some of them may be holding a view that it is old fashioned to believe in God as that exposes one’s weakness? I have come upto this level in my life and career, due to dint of my own merit alone and not due to God’s grace ! Many youngsters turn to Communism and leftist oriented thinking, as apparently it gives them an intellectual image! And Communism has brain washed all its followers that belief in God is like consuming narcotic drugs and it is habit forming! So, the Communist Party will not give membership to anyone who believes in God!

Youngsters are perhaps disgusted with the hypocrisy, falsehood, corruption, communal riots, mass killings and other social evils/ undesirable activities carried out in the name of religion/ God, all over the world. In India, all political parties unabashedly use religion/caste for securing their ‘vote banks’ in electoral politics. You can’t blame the younger generation who constitute over 60% of India’s population, for their negative attitude towards religion/God. They are very concerned about the wrong doings in our civil society, caused by the mix up of religion, politics and criminal gangs. The intensity of the estrangement of youngsters towards religion in the rest of the world may vary in degrees-but it is very much there! In the history of mankind, largest number killings of fellow human beings have taken place in the name of God, between rival religious gangs, across centuries!

A small number of youngsters particularly from minority communities, who strongly believe only in their God, hate followers of other religions/Gods and rival sects of their own religions (eg. Shia vs Sunni, Catholics vs Protestants, Jews Vs Muslims!). They turn fanatics and populate the rank of terrorists all over the world. Strangely, many of the youngsters, as they age, start believing in God and follow the religious faith in which they are brought up, and start participating in religious activities, in India! I am not sure of the position abroad. Many non-believers, convert themselves into believers, when they suffer from some incurable diseases or faces other calamities/reverses in life. This belated religious awakening is futile, like taking an Insurance policy after a serious accident! Most of the parents/elders are uncomfortable with these disturbing behavior of their own children. But they are largely helpless, but concerned, with the negative attitude of their own grown up children. The parents are aware of the futility of their intervention! Obviously, the youngsters are misled due to their ignorance or superficial knowledge of God/religion/spirituality. Elders expect that in due course, their children will realize their mistakes and mend their ways.

This negative attitude on the part of the youngsters explain the reason why many of the Christian churches abroad are getting closed, particularly in the West-Scandinavian countries, UK/USA/Australia/New Zealand etc, as fewer number of youngsters attend church services. Youngsters, by nature, rebel against all orthodox traditions and beliefs. They feel, that temple/church services are routine and monotonous. There is nothing to be learned/ gained from church/temple, attendance/services. Several instances of sexual exploitation of women, young children by Christian priests, drove innocent children out of the portals of Churches. Educated youngsters hold the view that the existence of GOD, as a creator-controller-destroyer of the universe has not been proved scientifically/mathematically. There is a general view that the concept of GOD arose out of man’s fear of the unknown! Ultimate refuge in GOD as a means of last resort, is promoted by mythology, epics and religious scholars, for their own ends?

What did our thinkers/scientist’s view about GOD?

Let us have a broad survey into the thinking/ findings of modern thinkers/scientists, who were very influential in shaping the modern world in the 19th and 20th Centuries. They were instrumental in ushering in brilliant thoughts / scientific discoveries, that revolutionized the modern world. What was their approach to the concept of God and how far they were influenced by God in the pursuit of their missions?

What was Socrate’s idea of God?

We do not know what the historic Socrates thought and spoke by himself. Because Socrates did not leave any writings! All we know about Socrates is mostly from Plato’s and for a lesser part from Xenophon’s writings. Possibly, the Socrates from Plato’s early dialogues resembles the historic Socrates. In Plato’s Apology Socrates tells us that the God Apollon at Delphi declared Socrates to be the wisest man. Socrates says, that from this time on, he tries to verify this declaration by testing the knowledge of his fellow companions. Hence Socrates claimed that his mission in Athens was triggered by the God Apollon.

What does Socrates say about the idea of the good in the republic?

Like the sun makes all things visible and keeps everything alive, so the idea of the God makes all other ideas recognizable for the human mind.

How did he act on this idea?

According to Plato, Socrates’ mission is to go around showing his fellow companions how to recognize the power of the ideas and to teach them to apply this knowledge to become more virtuous.

Also, how would you know that his idea of God is correct?

There is no proof for the existence of Socrates’s God or any other god.Nevertheless one can try to follow Socrates’ advice to make aware one’s own limits. And to strive for knowledge and acting accordingly. That’s a kind of enlightenment.

Plato and Aristotel’s vision on GOD.

To: sophia <sophia@liverpool.ac.uk>
Date : February 11, 1996, 13:34:52
Subject : Re: Existence of God

“ Hi Everyone,

What exactly is Plato’s position concerning the existence of God? Also ,in which of his works can I find references to God? Is the position of Aristotle somewhat similar in the existence of God? If not, how does he differ? Any help with this would be appreciated.

Reply from Dimitri.

The first problem with your question is that you talk of “God” with a capital G. This doesn’t exist in Plato, and, for that matter in ancient Greek literature; because God is not the name of a person but a common noun. Thus Plato speaks of “the Gods (hoi theoi), or “the God (ho theos)”, in some cases of “God”, but then in the same way we would talk of “man”, using the word as a generic name. He also speaks of “the divine (to theion)”.

Thus, if by “God” you mean the God of christianity, Yawhe, the Holy Trinity and the like, there is none of it in Plato or Aristotle. However, if you are looking for “traces” in Plato and Aristotle of a concept that somehow anticipates this God, or if you want to know what is their stand as regards what we are used to call “religion”, this is another matter.

Then you want to know what concept of “God” you are looking for. Is it the concept of a single “God”, that is, of a monotheistic religion? Is it the concept of “God the maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen”? Is it the concept of the “Logos that was in the beginning, the Logos that was in God, the Logos that was God”? Or is it yet something else?

If you are looking for Plato’s “religion”, I think you should mostly look at book X of the Laws, and at the Timæus (as a whole, I would add). But this is only part of the answer. I think Plato knew perfectly well that on such matters, it is impossible to give complete answers with human words. Thus, he tried to approach the question from different angles and give partial complementary (and not contradictory) answers, both negative (what Gods are not, what we should not believe) and positive (what we may safely believe about Gods and the divine, and questions of “origins” and “ends”).

In that respect, the answers he gives in the Timæus have to be “qualified” by the purpose of this dialogue: it purports to show man how he should look at the kosmos, that is “theorize” it (from theorein, which means in Greek “contemplate”), to find in it traces of an organizing “intelligence” and use it as a model for our organizing work as builders of lawful cities as “just” men endowed with logos that is, a divine parcel in our own souls. And you must keep in mind that Plato himself repeats times and again that he does not states definite truths but tells only “likely myths”.

In it, you will find not “God”, but a “demiourgos”, that is a “worker” (etymologically, demiourgos means “one who works for the demos, that is for the people”), which is immortal by nature but works from a model and has to deal with anagkè, necessity. Though he does not seem to be the maker of “place (chôra)” and matter, he is the maker of time, “a moving image of eternity”, and of “lower” Gods, that are only immortal by his will. These Gods represent the immortal living creatures that are needed to have all sorts of creatures in the kosmos. They are the makers of man as the “host” of a divine soul (the logos) handed them by the demiourgos. But you will also read that the kosmos is often referred to as a “God”, endowed with a soul.

In the Laws, you will find what Plato deems the needed “religion” to ensure order in the city. Basically, men have to hold three key tenets: that Gods exist (that is, that the world is not a purely “material” thing, product of chance or necessity); that they care for the world; and that they cannot be “bought” or corrupted by men’s gifts or prayers. But there, he makes clear that he does not pretend to give the last answer on such difficult questions.

In it you will find also the root of Aristotle theory of the unmoved mover. But whereas Plato is well aware of the limits of his own discourse, Aristotle wants to give complete answers and thus takes “literally” what was for Plato only a partial insight into possible answers.

And then, there is the question of “forms” and especially of “the good that is beyond being” (Republic, VI). But this would lead us too far away. And the question of how literally Plato himself would take his own “myths”. Eventually, if you want to know what Plato thinks about “the divine”, you may have to read all the dialogues, and see how it fits within his suggested answers to such questions as the purpose of life, the role of reason in man, the relationship of becoming to being, of time to eternity, of visible to intelligible, and so on…

Another problem with your question has to do with the term “existence”, which would require that we investigate the concept of “being” in Plato and Aristotle. The key to this problem, for Plato, lies in the Sophist: “being” is the least meaningful predicate of all. To say that something “is”, is to say nothing at all until you say “how” it exist, that is, to what other forms it “participates”, and for what purpose it “is”, that is, what its “good” is. As soon as you say “God”, it “is”; that is, there is at least something in your mind that “is” in a certain way. But then, does it relates to some other “being” outside your mind, that is the question. Thus, the problem is not “existence” but “relations” (kind of an anticipation of some of Augustines’ theories on the Trinity).

Nietzche’s idea of God.

ORIGIN.

The idea is stated in “The Madman” as follows:

God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?

— Nietzsche, The Gay Science, Section 125, tr. Walter Kaufmann

But the best known passage is at the end of part 2 of Zarathustra’s Prolog, where after beginning his allegorical journey Zarathustra encounters an aged ascetic who expresses misanthropy and love of God:

When Zarathustra heard these words, he saluted the saint and said “What should I have to give you! But let me go quickly that I take nothing from you!” And thus they parted from one another, the old man and Zarathustra, laughing as two boys laugh.

But when Zarathustra was alone, he spoke thus to his heart: “Could it be possible! This old saint has not heard in his forest that God is dead!”

— Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, tr. R.J. Hollingdale

Explanation.

Nietzsche used the phrase to sum up the effect and consequence that the Age of Enlightenment had on the centrality of the concept of God within Western European civilization which had been essentially Christian in character since the later Roman Empire. The Enlightenment had brought about the triumph of scientific rationality over sacred revelation; the rise of philosophical materialism and Naturalism that to all intents and purposes had dispensed with the belief in or role of God in human affairs and the destiny of the world.

Nietzsche recognized the crisis that this ‘Death of God’ represented for existing moral assumptions in Europe as they existed within the context of traditional Christian belief. “When one gives up the Christian faith, one pulls the right to Christian morality out from under one’s feet. This morality is by no means self-evident… By breaking one main concept out of Christianity, the faith in God, one breaks the whole: nothing necessary remains in one’s hands. This is why in “The Madman”, a passage which primarily addresses non-theists (is a range of both religious and nonreligious attitudes characterized by the absence of espoused belief in a God or gods).Tthe problem is to retain any system of values in the absence of a divine order.

The ‘Death of God’ is a way of saying that humans — and Western Civilization as a whole — could no longer believe in a divinely ordained moral order. The death of God will lead, Nietzsche says, not only to the rejection of a belief of cosmic or physical order but also to a rejection of absolute values themselves — to the rejection of belief in an objective and universal moral law, binding upon all individuals. In this manner, the loss of an absolute basis for morality leads to nihilism. This nihilism is that for which Nietzsche worked to find a solution by re-evaluating the foundations of human values. This meant, to Nietzsche, looking for foundations that went deeper than Christian values.

Nietzsche believed that the majority of people did not recognize this death out of the deepest-seated fear or angst. Therefore, when the death did begin to become widely acknowledged, people would despair and nihilism would become rampant. This is partly why Nietzsche saw Christianity as nihilistic.

Albert Einstein’s view of GOD.

In January of 1936, a school girl named Phyllis wrote to Einstein to ask whether you could believe in science and religion. He was quick to reply.

Letter of Miss. Phyllis to Einstein:

MydearDr.Einstein,

We have brought up the question: ‘Do scientists pray?’ in our Sunday school class. It began by asking whether we could believe in both science and religion. We are writing to scientists and other important men, to try and have our own question answered.

We will feel greatly honored if you will answer our question: Do scientists pray, and what do theyprayfor?

We are in the sixth grade, Miss Ellis’s class.

Respectfully yours,

Phyllis

He replied a few days later:

DearPhyllis,

I will attempt to reply to your question as simply as I can. Here is my answer:

Scientists believe that every occurrence, including the affairs of human beings, is due to the laws of nature. Therefore, a scientist cannot be inclined to believe that the course of events can be influenced by prayer, that is, by a supernaturally manifested wish.

However, we must concede that our actual knowledge of these forces is imperfect, so that in the end the belief in the existence of a final, ultimate spirit rests on a kind of faith. Such belief remains widespread even with the current achievements in science.

But also, everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that some spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe, one that is vastly superior to that of man. In this way the pursuit of science leads to a religious feeling of a special sort, which is surely quite different from the religiosity of someone more naive.

With cordial greetings,

your A. Einstein.

Sir Bertrand Russel’s idea of GOD!

Was Bertrand Russell An Atheist or Was He Really an Agnostic?

R. Perkins BRS AM 2012

It’s quite clear that up until he was sixteen or so, Bertrand Russell did believe in the existence of God, understood in the traditional Judeo- Christian sense. It’s also clear that from roughly that time on, he abandoned his belief in God on grounds of lack of evidence. But it’s less clear whether his lack of belief should be described as “agnostic” or “atheist”. Russell himself considers the question on several occasions, but his conclusions are not completely unambiguous.

We ought to understand right away that Russell was concerned with the traditional Judeo-Christian concept of God as a perfect being — all powerful, all knowing and all good (all PKG).

In his Autobiography he recounts his WW1 prison experience in which the warder asks his religion. He replied “agnostic.” The warder asked him how to spell it. When Russell did so, the warder wrote it down remarking, “Religions are many, but I suppose they all believe in the same God.” Russell writes that this exchange kept him cheerful for a week.

In his famous 1948 BBC debate with Father Copelston, he explicitly calls himself an agnostic. And in a 1953 paper “What Is An Agnostic” Russell says the atheist — as opposed to the agnostic — claims that we can know there is no God; and he denies that he would make such a claim. So too in his 1962 Essays in Skepticism (pp. 83–4) and in his 1959 interview with Woodrow Wyatt (BR Speaks His Mind, p. 20), Russell says that he does not claim certainty (or to have a “conclusive” argument) for God’s nonexistence. These passages do strongly support the claim that Russell was really an agnostic, not an atheist.

But significantly, in the same period he also often says that he regards the epistemic status of God’s existence as “exactly” the same as that of the Olympic gods or the Norwegian gods. He says he can’t prove that they don’t exist either. As he puts it in his 1959 interview with Wyatt:

“I don’t think it certain that there is no such thing as God, no. I think it is on exactly the same level as the Olympic gods, or the Norwegian gods, they also may exist. I can’t prove that they don’t. I think they are a bare possibility.”

The Christian God, he thinks, is no more likely to exist than the gods of Homer, which he — and most us — believe non existent. So, in a practical, popular sense, his position could be better described as “atheist.” As he puts it in his 1962 Esays in Skepticim (Philosophical Library): [Therefore] If I am to convey the right impression to the ordinary man in the street I think I ought to say I’m an Atheist…. (pp. 83–84)

The point to take here is that Russell’s epistemic similarity between the existence of the Homeric gods and the Christian God makes it fairly obvious that he thinks that it is significantly more reasonable to believe that God does not exist than that He does. And in that sense it’s misleading to call him an agnostic rather than an atheist.

In a little known 1939 lecture at U of Mich, unpublished until 1996, Russell considers the existence of a limited deity along the lines of that argued for by H.G. Wells and others. Of such a God Russell says: : “That sort of God is, I think, not one that can be actually disproved, as I think the omnipotent and benevolent creator can.” Vol. 10, “The Existence and Nature of God”, p. 258. See HO, item 2.

Just what sort of proof Russell likely had in mind here is a question we shall address presently.

Let’s understand “atheist” as one who holds that there is justified, if not conclusive, reason to believe there is no God. We needn’t be concerned here with a detailed account of the epistemology of evidence beyond saying that when the evidence for a belief is warranted and makes the belief significantly more likely than not to be true, we can say the belief is justified, perhaps even “known”, though in a sense short of certainty. In this sense, it seems pretty clear that Russell did believe that God does not exist, and in that sense, was an atheist. Now, the important question becomes: why did he believe this? What sort of evidence did he think warranted belief in God’s nonexistence?

Russell’s Evidence for the Nonexistence of God.

I contend that Russell’s evidence is developed in two cogent arguments that incorporate some of the same ideas that science uses when it goes about assessing empirical hypotheses. The main idea is the idea of testability, the idea that if a hypothesis or theory is true, it will make a difference in the world in some measurable, observable way. This is closely connected to the idea that hypotheses (under certain conditions and assumptions) make predictions about what we will observe. And if those predicted occurrences are indeed observed, then the theory has thereby been confirmed. But if not, if what the theory predicts is not observed to occur, the theory has been confuted. Russell uses this scientific method of assessment, especially the method of confutation, in his assessment of the God hypothesis.

But before we consider Russell’s atheistic arguments, let’s first look at an example of Russell’s that has become widely cited in recent years, but that could be misunderstood as showing that Russell thought that the God hypothesis could not be confuted and that agnosticism was the most that a scientific examination of such a hypothesis could warrant. I’m talking about Russell’s “china teapot” example which he compares to the problem of proof for God’s existence. Many orthodox people speak as though it were the business of sceptics to disprove received dogmas rather than of dogmatists to prove them. This is, of course, a mistake. If I were to suggest that between Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is an intolerable presumption … to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. (CPBR Vol. 11, “Is There A God?”, 1952, p. 548)

The implication, up to the last sentence, might seem to be that God, like the teapot, can’t be disproved, and the most we can do is to doubt — and thus, we can’t get beyond agnosticism. But what Russell is actually doing is taking the tea potters (and, by analogy, the theists) to task for taking lack of proof for the teapot’s nonexistence as good reason not to doubt its existence, and even as sufficient evidence to affirm its existence. This would clearly be the fallacy argumentum ad ignorantium !

One problem is that belief in God, as with celestial teapots, needs positive evidence — not merely the absence of evidence for the negative (the nonexistence of God or celestial teapots). In other words, the burden of proof is on the believer. Of course, agnostics aren’t believers, and they have no burden of proof. But atheists are, i.e., they believe in the nonexistence of God. And I don’t think Russell means to exclude them from the burden of proof. More on this in a minute. Another problem with the above teapot fallacy is that our lack of evidence may be temporary. Tomorrow, for example, we may have more powerful telescopes capable of seeing teapot-sized objects tens of millions of miles away. And if we did, then we may be in a position to put the teapot hypothesis to a test, and thus confirm or confute it.

And this brings us back to the issue of Russell’s evidence for his belief that God does not exist. His reasons seem to come down to two sorts of arguments — one well known, the other less so. Of course, these won’t be conclusive proofs in the sense of a valid argument with premises that are certain or unable to be doubted. Russell held that almost everything could be doubted. He more than once claimed that he couldn’t strictly prove that the world was more than five minutes old (e.g. Religion and Science, Conquest of Happiness, Analysis of Mind), or that there was a material world independent of our experiences (Problems, Ch 2). But he certainly thought that belief in these things was justified and more reasonable than non-belief.

Let’s look at two atheistic arguments both of which are suggested by Russell and which, I believe, he would have regarded as cogent. And this brings us back to the issue of Russell’s evidence for his belief that God does not exist. His reasons seem to come down to two sorts of arguments — one well known, the other less so. Of course these won’t be conclusive proofs in the sense of a valid argument with premises that are certain or unable to be doubted. Russell held that almost everything could be doubted. He more than once claimed that he couldn’t strictly prove that the world was more than five minutes old (e.g. Religion and Science, Conquest of Happiness, Analysis of Mind), or that there was a material world independent of our experiences (Problems, Ch 2). But he certainly thought that belief in these things was justified and more reasonable than non-belief.

But significantly, in the same period he also often says that he regards the epistemic status of God’s existence as “exactly” the same as that of the Olympic gods or the Norwegian gods. He says he can’t prove that they don’t exist either. As he puts it in his 1959 interview with Wyatt:

“I don’t think it certain that there is no such thing as God, no. I think it is on exactly the same level as the Olympic gods, or the Norwegian gods, they also may exist. I can’t prove that they don’t. I think they are a bare possibility.”

Carl Sagan’s view on GOD.

Isaac Asimov described Sagan as one of only two people he ever met whose intellect surpassed his own. The other, he claimed, was the computer scientist and artificial intelligence expert Marvin Minsky.

Sagan wrote frequently about religion and the relationship between religion and science, expressing his scepticism about the conventional conceptualization of God as a sapient being. For example: Some people think God is an outsized, light-skinned male with a long white beard, sitting on a throne somewhere up there in the sky, busily tallying the fall of every sparrow. Others — for example Baruch Spinoza and Albert Einstein — considered God to be essentially the sum total of the physical laws which describe the universe. I do not know of any compelling evidence for anthropomorphic patriarchs controlling human destiny from some hidden celestial vantage point, but it would be madness to deny the existence of physical laws.

In another description of his view on the concept of God, Sagan emphatically wrote:

The idea that God is an oversized white male with a flowing beard who sits in the sky and tallies the fall of every sparrow is ludicrous. But if by God one means the set of physical laws that govern the universe, then clearly there is such a God. This God is emotionally unsatisfying … it does not make much sense to pray to the law of gravity.

On atheism, Sagan commented in 1981:

An atheist is someone who is certain that God does not exist, someone who has compelling evidence against the existence of God. I know of no such compelling evidence. Because God can be relegated to remote times and places and to ultimate causes, we would have to know a great deal more about the universe than we do now to be sure that no such God exists. To be certain of the existence of God and to be certain of the nonexistence of God seem to me to be the confident extremes in a subject so riddled with doubt and uncertainty as to inspire very little confidence indeed.

Sagan also commented on Christianity and the Jefferson Bible, stating “My long-time view about Christianity is that it represents an amalgam of two seemingly immiscible parts, the religion of Jesus and the religion of Paul. Thomas Jefferson attempted to excise the Pauline parts of the New Testament. There wasn’t much left when he was done, but it was an inspiring document.

Regarding spirituality and its relationship with science, Sagan stated:

‘Spirit’ comes from the Latin word ‘to breathe’. What we breathe is air, which is certainly matter, however thin. Despite usage to the contrary, there is no necessary implication in the word ‘spiritual’ that we are talking of anything other than matter (including the matter of which the brain is made), or anything outside the realm of science. On occasion, I will feel free to use the word. Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognize our place in an immensity of light-years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual !

Stephen Hawking’s idea of GOD !

Hawking invoked the name of God in his seminal book A Brief History of Time, writing that if physicists could find a “theory of everything” — that is, a cohesive explanation for how the universe works — they would glimpse “the mind of God.”

But in later interviews and writings, such as 2010’s The Grand Design, which he co-wrote with Leonard Mlodinow, Hawking clarified that he wasn’t referring to a creator in the traditional sense.

“Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist,” he wrote in The Grand Design. “It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.”

Using language about God, Hawking told TIME after the book’s release, is more figurative than literal.

“God is the name people give to the reason we are here,” he said. “But I think that reason is the laws of physics rather than someone with whom one can have a personal relationship. An impersonal God.”

Hawking considered himself an atheist

Hawking spoke more plainly about his thoughts on God in an interview with Spanish publication El Mundo.

“Before we understand science, it is natural to believe that God created the universe. But now science offers a more convincing explanation,” he said. “What I meant by ‘we would know the mind of God’ is, we would know everything that God would know, if there were a God, which there isn’t. I’m an atheist.”

(Source:- All quotes from the Web/Wikipedia)

Analysis of Thinkers/Scientists’s views.

It could be seen from the views of eminent Thinkers/ Scientist’s on God reproduced above, that most of them were atheists or agnostics. Sir Bertrand Russel and famous scientists like Albert Einstein, Carl Sagan, and Cambridge Prof. Stephen Hawking were all atheists or blissfully vague about their notion of God. But they had greater respect for the laws of nature! They never cared to find out who laid down the laws of nature and who ensures its rigorous implementation! They had only a vague notion of an unmanifested force controlling nature! It is rather naïve to contend that nature is on ‘auto pilot’ and there is nobody to regulate it ! And what is nature? In its broadest sense, nature is the natural, physical or material world or universe. You can never have an effect without a cause? What about human nature? Is it caused primarily by nature or human culture, behavior and personality, which are nurtured over ages? Anyway, our great Thinkers/Scientists were/are unable to give a convincing answer to these perennial questions of existence of our universe.

Bhagavad Gita has clearly laid down that the example followed by the elite of the society will be followed by the rest of the people and whatever standards they set by exemplary acts, all the world pursues.

“Yad acarati Shrestaha tat evataro janaha

Sayat pramanam kurute, lokas tad anuuvartate.” ( BG-3–21)

So, there is no surprise, that youngsters are following the example of these eminent men in our society. Thinkers/Scientists have openly expressed their frustration and disgust with organized church/religious activities. A generation of Thinkers/Scientists of the19th, 20th and 21 Century rejected the traditional concept of GOD as the same does not gel with their spirit of enquiry/scientific processes of arriving at truth. They devoted their entire life in pursuit of their mission to unfold the secrets of nature, pursue unexplored areas of knowledge, enhance the quality of human life on earth through development of Science and Technology; they invented improved gadgets for better communications, travel, entertainment, high speed computers, artificial intelligence, flights into space using jet planes / powerful rockets etc. Modern Govts. use scientists and technocrats, in developing weapons of mass destruction by the sly, ( all in national interest!) in order to enhance their country’s strategic superiority. National Govts. use destructive weapons as a bargaining chip in their geo-political games. New generation of Scientists/Technocrats have no say at all, against the misuse of Science/Technology for the destruction of this universe. They quietly acquiesce with their national Governments, in their selfish interest.

Most of the Scientists/Technocrats may not have/had time to read and digest Vedas/Scriptures or pursue any spiritual ‘Sadhanas’, which needs enormous time and patience. Apparently, they had no time/patience to look into nuances of religion/philosophy or spirituality. But, all of them were/are overawed by the mysteries of the cosmos and the marvels of creation! According to them engagement in scientific research is only route to unravel the mysteries of the universe. They developed their own theory on the age and origin of the universe using scientific tools and strive to find cogent explanations to the myriad mysteries of the universe. The theory of ‘Bing bang’ and ‘Black holes’, Quantum Mechanics, Universe Vs Multiverses, Theory of expanding Universe etc flowed out of their thought process. They publish their theories in Scientific Journals and gain wide appreciation, commercial benefits and credit from National Govts /Academies and other international agencies, by way of recognition like Nobel Prize etc.

But it is a fact that modern Science has not been able to provide convincing answers to the unfathomable marvels of creation, births/deaths of beings, existence of millions of galaxies, several million light years away from earth in the infinite space, without boundaries, for the last several millions of years. Even common features of the earth like the splendors of nature, periodic calamities like wars, earthquakes, lightning, cyclones, which cause havoc on the face of our earth, taking a heavy toll on human life are all beyond their control? Scientists have no answer or lasting solution to end the ongoing conflicts/wars raging in several countries of the world, nor successful in putting an end to the rising environmental pollution, global warming, or bring about world peace. Invention of Plastics was considered as a great blessing to start with-now it is proved to be a curse! Plastics is found to be a worst pollutant on the face of earth. In fact, accelerated scientific growth has provided manifold avenues for irreversible environmental pollution. Newer weapons of mass destruction are a real threat to genocide on an unprecedented scale, threatening world peace and even the very existence of this universe, as a whole. Our intelligentsia or political leadership, have no solution to the nagging problems facing the world community. Social evils like discrimination of people on the basis of caste, color and creed, growing incidence of child labor, prostitution, food adulteration are all raging. The increasing violence in public life due to communal/religious/ political/territorial enmities, corruption on the part of ruling politicians, civil servants and business men, the increasing gap between the rich and poor, all remain as vexed problems facing most of the nations, affecting world peace.

Are we doing enough to protect our precious EARTH?

“What is the fate of celebrated environmental protection efforts launched by UN sponsored agencies for the last 30 years?

Two species of vertebrate, animals with backbone have gone extinct every year, on an average, during the past century.

Scientists say Earth undergoing “Mass Extinction Event” the first time since, Dinosaurs disappeared some 65 Million years, and sixth in the last half a billion years.

About 41 % of amphibian species and more than a quarter of mammals are threatened with extinction.

About half of coral reefs have been lost in the last 30 years.

The global population of 3706 monitored vertebrate species-fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles-declined by nearly 60 % from 1970 to 2012,

25,821 species of 91,523 assessed for 2017 ”Red List” update were classified as ‘‘threatened’’.

Of these,5583 were “critically’’ endangered, 8,455,’endangered’ and ’11,783’ “vulnerable”.

African elephant numbers dropped to 415,000 in 2016, down to about 111,000 over 10 years

There are an estimated 8.7 million plants and animal species on our planet. This means about 86 percent of land species and 91 percent of sea species remain undiscovered!

Of the ones we do know,1024 mammal,1469 bird,1215 reptile, 2100 amphibian and 2386 fish species are considered ‘threatened’.

Also threatened are, 1414 insect,2187 mollusc, 732 crustacean, 237 coral and 12,505 plant,33 mushrooms and six brown algae species.

Annual economic losses as a result of deforestation and forest degradation alone may be as high as $ 4.5 billion !

A conference of UN’s Biological Diversity (CBD) agreed in Nagoya in japan in 2010 on a 20-point plan to turn back bio-diversity loss by 2020.

The plan’s so called ”Aichi” bio-diversity targets include halving the rate of habitat loss, expanding water and land areas under conservation, preventing the extinction of species on the threatened list, and restoring at least 15 percent of degraded ecosystems.

( Sources:- WWF living Planet report ,IUCN Red List, PLoS Biology ,Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences, CBD and UNEP.-TOI-16–03–2018).

What is the way forward ?

It is evident from the analysis made above, that National Govts. all over the world, including the UN, Non-Govt. Voluntary agencies have all failed to protect the planet from global warming and increasing environmental pollution. Efforts made by all the agencies cited above are not succeeding-not due to any lack of sincerity on their part, but due to the very impermanent nature of the universe! Nothing on the face of earth is eternal except God! Everything is in a state of flux! Everything man made, will perish in course of time. Nobody will be able to save the planet, when the preordained time of dissolution of this universe comes! But that does not mean that we can allow the planet to be destroyed beforehand. We have a solemn duty to protect the planet we are living in. Enmity and hatred originate in the minds of men/women due to natural imperfections in our thinking, character and mode of living. Unless, ‘Dharma’ and eternal human values enshrined therein prevail inside people’s hearts, enmity and wars will continue, till the very end of this universe! Irreconcilable political differences among the member nations of UN, have eluded world peace. What happens if even these meagre efforts made by the National Govts / UN etc are stopped/stalled? The position will invariably worsen quickly and it is worsening!

As many of us are aware, the prime mover behind the 2016 Paris Summit on Environmental Protection Efforts ie. USA, has backed out of the treaty, after Donald Trump was elected as US President in 2016. Many of the undeveloped/underdeveloped nations have severe pressure of resources required for discarding fossil fuel utilization and go in for renewable energy sources. Global warming is causing irreversible changes in climatic conditions all over the world. Polar ice caps are melting at a faster pace than ever before and small island nations situated close to sea level will go under sea water, sooner or later! Unless the world community take urgent proactive efforts against global warming, and for world peace, the future of mankind is bleak.

India’s great response to the world spirituality.

Rishis of India, in ancient times, did pioneering work, in the study of this universe as a whole, right from its origin, from time immemorial. Their finding was that this vast universe cannot exist without a very powerful controlling force. That force is called “Iswara” or GOD! One can conceive of him as ‘formless’ or with as many ‘forms’ as one likes. This universe is created, sustained, controlled and dissolved at HIS will! They also found out the ways and means to improve the quality of human life on the face of this earth and their daily chant was for ‘Santhi- Santhi — Santhi” (Peace). They took up “Iswara Darsanam”, through the technique of “Know Thyself “, as their primary mission in life. Rishis postulated the slogan “Know thyself”, thousands of years before Greek Oracles, philosophers / thinkers adopted the same and inscribed it on the Temple of Appllo, in ancient Athens! Rishi’s strategy was to look inward to study their own SELF more closely and stop looking at the material world outside, for God’s presence. The human perception of this universe is always conditioned by the limited ambit of the five sense organs. Modern science has accepted that even some animals, birds, reptiles and fishes have better visual, audio and smelling capacity than man! The human perception of our universe using the finite, five sense organs is imperfect, incomplete and distorted!

Rishi’s findings of long years of contemplation (“Tapasya” or “Dhyanam”) find expression in their revelations, which are captured /preserved in the form ‘Shrutis’, commonly known as Vedas (authorless, so divine origin). ‘Dhyanam’ or meditation essentially involves the crossing the boundaries of one’s physical and mental frame works and getting new insights from divine source. It is said that the technic of ‘Dhyanam’ travelled from India to China along with Buddhist Monks, and there it was known as Ch’an and when it reached Japan it was known as ‘Zen’, a process of getting direct spiritual insight, without any external support. The knowledge acquired through ‘Dhyanam’ was transmitted across generations, through word of mouth, thousands of years ago! The sacred knowledge contained in Vedas was transmitted through generations of Rishis and their followers, from father to son and Guru to Disciple, called “Guru-Shihsya Parampara”. The following chant pays tributes to the generations of Gurus- Shiyas, starting with Lord Sadashiva, through generations of Shankaracharyas, who kept the lamp of Vedic knowledge lit, across generations, without the support of any external medium!

“Sadasiva smarambham

Sankaracharya madhyamam

Asmadacarya paryantam

Vandem Guruparamparam”

Unfortunately, the most precious knowledge so obtained was confined to the four walls of Ashrams and selected Brahmin households in India. The social degradation that set in the society, during the post Vedic period, prevented its continued sharing among all the ‘ Varnas’ in India. The social deterioration of the system of ‘Varna-Ashrama-Dharma’ prevented its wider dissemination. The modern world came to know of the immense wisdom contained in Vedas and Upanishads, primarily due to stellar work carried out by a few western scholars like Max Muller, John Woodroff, Wilson Johns, Arnlod Toyanbee, Pof. Frtiz Stall etc in the 18th, 19th and 20th Century. They took up the study of Sanskrit language and delved deep into the oriental spiritual realms. They gained access to rare palm leaf manuscripts, oral rendition of Vedas/Upanishads/Suktams by a few living scholars. While some of the alien scholars were practicing ‘Sadhaks’, many got it wrong due their constraints of acquiring deep knowledge in Sanskrit language and in their failure to adopt Hindu ethos. Perhaps, some of our spiritual ‘knowledge treasure’ has been lost for ever, due to lack of effective means for its safe preservation and transmission. Many of the old/precious Indian palm leaf manuscripts are now preserved in German/European/American Museums/ Universities.

Rishis had probed into the fundamental questions on the very precarious existence of this universe, in a breath taking cosmic balance of magnetic-gravitational fields, in its infinitesimal proportions, for millions of years. As we all know, our Scientists have estimated that Earth orbits around the Sun, on an average around 93 Million Miles away, taking almost one year to complete an orbit. The earth revolves around the Sun, at a speed of 30 KMs per second. In addition, the earth spins on its own axis. A point near the Equator must move at a speed close to 1000 miles/Hr, to create day and night on earth. But the inhabitants of earth hardly feel the terrific speed/spin! The sages were also fascinated by the wide variety of fauna and flora found on Earth, all created from ‘Panchabhutas’ — (a real miracle!) — on one of the smaller planets in the solar system! It is through their long and strenuous sessions of ‘Dhyanam’ for several years, inside remote caves in Himalayas, that the divine knowledge of the existence of GOD, as the substratum and fountainhead of all creations, was revealed to them.

God Realization.

The path for God realization, is given in simple words by Rishi Vedavyasa in Srimad Bhgavatam, an epic authored by him to explain the significance of Krishna ‘avataram’, of Lord Maha Vishnu. Vishnu Bhakta, Prahlada, is presented in Bhagavatam as the son of Hirnyakasipu, an Asura king. Prahlada, a child prodigy, while sharing his innate spiritual knowledge with his co-students, felt that human life has the unique distinction of honoring one with “Purushartham”, which is eternal! The relevant words of Prahlada is as follows:-

“Sri Prahalda uvaca:

Kaumara acharet prajno

Dharman bhagavatan iha

“Durlabham manusham janma

Tad apy adhruvam arthadam.” (Bhagavatam-7–6–1)

Meaning: Sri Prahlada uttered: Right from the childhood, children endowed with “prajna” (purest form of wisdom and intelligence) should practice their ‘Dharma’-ie. Utmost devotion to God. Human life is a very rare gift from God; but impermanent. So, make full use of the human life span, for attainment of Mukti or liberation from the cycle of births and deaths. There are 84 lakhs divergent ‘jiva yonis’ on our earth. ‘Manushya Yoni’ is only one among them. So, the chances of a ‘Jivatma’, in its eternal sojourn through births and deaths, getting a ‘Manushya Janmam,’ is extremely rare. Once you are born as a human being, you may die at any time. So, before you die, make the best of the rare opportunity. Realize your own SELF in this life itself through ‘sadhana’- the search for the ultimate truth that can liberate you from this cycle of births and deaths!

Sanatana Dharmam!

Vedas are the primary source of wisdom of ancient India. The basic tenets of “Sanatana Dharmam’’ are enunciated in Vedas. The four Vedas, were obtained as revelations (Sruti-what is heard) of over thousands of years of strenuous efforts of generations of Rishis. They are oral compositions in a language that was used for ordinary communication. Prof. Fritz Stall who studied Vedas has opined that the Vedas had no founder or supreme authority! He felt that Rig Veda was composed by poets who were household names in ancient India such as sages like Visvamitra, Bharadvaja, Dirghatamas etc. But he has admitted that he is not guided by any cogent evidence to draw this conclusion! Vedas have left no Manuscript, Books, Temples, Icons / Idols, to link them. They have always been regarded as storehouse for knowledge for yugas! They embody the existence of a full- fledged civilization under the name “Sanatana Dharmam”. Vedas do not expect loving devotion or Bhakti bur clear understanding of its tenets. The Vedas are not the Bible of any religion in any of the conventional senses of that term. They were transmitted across generations of Rishis and their ‘Sishya parampara’, through word of mouth. Prof.Fritz Staal of Berkley University has praised the tremendous efforts of Brahmins of India, in preserving the traditions of Vedas. “Brahmins of India preserved with astounding precision the oral tradition, more or less faithfully over a period of three millenia or more………. Fathers taught their sons and teachers their pupil, how to recite, chant and apply ‘Mantrams’ to ritual, without concern for meaning ”. Mantras and rituals are the main channels through which Vedic civilization shaped Hinduism. “Mantras are not mysterious statements with deep meanings. They have no meaning as they are not statements and they are not statements because they have no language……… A Mantra may have power or may perform a particular function. It has to be pronounced on a particular occasion. It may consists of the words of a language-Vedic Sanskrit- but the meaning of the Mantra is not meaning of the words and none of the systematization of the expressions through applies to Mantras ,unless it is by chance.” Prof.Stall

Mantras are more like a ‘Password’ in Computers! Mantras remain invariant in history and Geography! The text of Mantras do not change over ages. In ancient India Mantras were kept as secrets and guarded jealously by the Brahmins. In later years, some of the Mantras were inherited by Buddhists, Jains and Tantriks. They travelled from India to SE Asia, crossed Himalayas from Kashmir to Central Asia, China ,Korea, Japan and Tibet and finally reached Euro-Americans. Chinese Traveller Hiuantsang had recognized that Mantras are untranslatable! Though the syllable “OM” has remained the same in Tibet and Japan, “SVAHA” is adopted as “SOWAKA” in Japan. Throughout India also, Mantras are preserved in the original Vedic Sanskrit language it was set, but slight variations in the intonations are noticed in respect different reciters from different region .What counts for Mantras is not its word meaning but form, which is its basic feature of creativity. I personally feel that had the Brahmins of India understood the real meaning of what they chant daily by way of Hymns / Suktams in temples, the history of India would have been different and their stock in the social hierarchy would have remained high!

Role of Veda Vyasa in the compilations of Vedas.

Vedas were edited and compiled under four different names (Rig, Yajur, Sama and Athrva) by the sage Veda Vyasa also known as Krishna Dvaipayana or Badarayana during the Mahabhatra period.(About 5000 years ago) The story behind the origin of Maharishi Veda Vyasa is interesting. Once Sage Parasara, the author of Vishnu Purana, happened to cross Yamuna river. A fisherwoman by the name Satyavati, was in charge of the ferry-boat. Sage Parasara was the sole traveler in the boat. In midstream, the sage got enchanted with the beauty of the boatwoman and sought physical relations with her. Satyavati readily agreed, but on four conditions:-

i)The relationship should not be noticed by anyone from the shore,

ii)The progeny that comes out the relationship should be a scholar of highest reputation

iii)The fish smell from her body should be transformed into fragrance

iv) Even after the relationship, she should remain a virgin.

All the four conditions were agreed to by Sage Parasara. Thereon, the boat they were travelling was enveloped by a dark cloud and an artificial island was created in the midst of the river. Satyavati, a ‘malsya gandhi’ was turned into fragrant damsel. Together they got down into the island and the physical relationship was consummated. The same day, the Sage Parasaran left the island. A dark son was borne to Satayvati on the same day and he was abandoned in the forest with the condition that he should come back to the Mother whenever she wished. As the child was borne in the island and as he was black in color, he was called Krishna Dvaipayana! Vyasa turned out to be an Amsa avatara of Lord Vishnu and a great poet. He is the grandfather of Pandavas and Kaurvas, the heros of the epic Mahabhartam! As the compiler of Vedas, sage Badaryana is also known as Veda Vyasa, popularly. He has also written the famous epics of Mahabharata (longest Mahakavya in Sanskrit- over one lakh slokas! ) and Bhagavata, (story of Krishna avatara and its purpose) primarily to motivate ordinary people to live according to their “Dharma” and attain Moksha. Sage Valimiki wrote Ramayana, the story of Shri. Rama and Sita, both incarnations of Maha Vishnu and his consort Godess Lakshmi, in the Treta Yuga, which continues to motivate millions of Hindus to live according to the tenets of ‘Sanatana Dharamam’, in their life.

Vedas.

The four Vedas are named as Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva. Broadly, on the basis of subjects dealt with in Vedas, they can be divided into three sections- Karma Kandam, Upasana Kandam, and Jnana Kandam. The instinct of every child right from its birth till death, is to search out for food for survival and thereafter seek happiness. But when man realized that by mere hard work alone, he may not be able achieve his twin objectives, he started looking for alternate avenues where his wants could be met. Karma Kandam of Vedas explain the ways and means to please Devas and reach heaven through the performance of various Yagas. Later, people realized that their stay in Heaven is not permanent as once they exhaust their ‘‘Punya phalams” they have to return to earth and start the cycle of births and deaths, again. Bhagavad Gita clearly lays down that

“ Tetam bhuktwa swargalokam visalam

Kshinam punye karmalokam vishanti.”

So, people started searching for a place which is more precious than heaven and their search took them to “Iswaro Upasana”. They realized that with the blessings of God, they could attain the Sat-Chit-Ananda” padam. For that purpose they started worshipping God in “sakakra rupa’’ and with God’s blessings they can find solutions to life’s problems. The need for Upasana Kandam in Vedas arose in this context.

Vedas are divided into four parts on the basis of subjects dealt with, therein. They are Samhita ,Brahmanam, Aranyakam, and Upanishds . Ancient sages of India, divided human life into four segments- viz:- Brahmacharyam, Garhastyam, Vanaprastam and Sanyasam. Brhahmacharya stage is the period of education of the child. The student learns the Samhita portion of Vedas by heart, sitting near a Guru. After the Smavarthanam, he enters into Garhastyam and learns the Brahmanas, which are interpretations of Samhita, based on which various ‘’Anushtanams’’ are performed. Once the Grihastashrami has children and after they are grown up, the responsibilities of the household are transferred to the children, and the Upasaka enters into Vanaprastam, to do ‘Tapascharyas’. Aranyakas are helpful to the ‘Vanaprstanasharami’ to do necessary Upasanas during this stage. The next is the conclusion stage of the Manushya Janmam where the Upasaka enters into Sanyasa Ashramam. By now the Upasaka would have exhausted all his worldly desires and attained a degree of contentment and maturity. The Upanishad portion of the Vedas containing philosophic discussions comes to his rescue at this stage. Thus, a Manushya Janmam comes to actualize ‘Upanishad Dharmam’ at this last stage of life.

Though Upanishats mention the names of several Acharyas in it, it is not based on their lives. Rishis who are the authors of various Upanishats, have immortalized their ultimate knowledge in it. The philosophic discussions contained in the Upanishats are the source of Vedic wisdom of India. A study of Upanishats take you to the highest stage of spiritual wisdom available in the world.

What does Vedas say about GOD?

Vedanta has very crisp observations about Iswara. Five ‘Mahavakyams’ from the four Vedas are quoted here:-

Rig Vedam- Itareyo Upanishat-“Prajnanam Brahma”-Consciousness is Brahma.

Yajur Vedam- Brihadaranyka Upanishat- “Aham Brahmasmi”- I am Brahma.

Sama Vedam –Chandogyo Upanishat- “Tattvamasi”- You are Brahma.

Atharva Vedam- Mandukyo Upanishat-“ Ayam Atma Brahma”- This Jivatma is Brahma”.

Atharva Vedam-Mandukyo Upanishat- “ Satyam, Jnanam,Anantam,Brhma”- Brahma is

Truth, Knowledge and Infinity”

The above five ‘Mahavakyas’ sum up the substance of the Vedas and what they state is one and the same thing-this Universe is the creation of Brahman or Iswara and you and I are part of that Brahman. If a seeker has understood this cardinal truth, that is the first step in his spiritual realization! Many people fail to understand the real import of these “Mahavakyams” and they lament — how can a frail human being with all weaknesses be God, or even a part of God? If he is God, why is he so helpless when subjected to endless torture throughout his life, from birth to death with all sufferings? Why did God create him in such a helpless state? Well, all these delusions will be removed once you delve deep into spirituality. The real import of the ‘Mahavakyams’ is well explained by Swami Chinmyanadaji in his talk, in a simple way-

“ Let us make a return journey to the place from where we have come! Leave aside all your thoughts/fears and travel with a serene mind to your source of origin! Close your eyes. The first question that comes to your mind is where did I come from? Mind replied- from my Mother’s womb. Come on, let us go there. Fine, our journey starts from Mother’s womb. How did I reach my Mother’s womb? Mind replied to that question also. You were inside the body of your Dad. You fell into Mother’s womb in liquid from, as semen. The sperm from my father and egg from Mother’s womb joined together and a foetus was born. That has grown into a full blown baby in ten months time, inside the Mother’s womb. Let us again make a return journey to my father’s body. How did I get into my father’s body? I got into the blood and semen in my father’s body from the food he has eaten. Then where were I before my father ate his food? Perhaps I was in the mango he had eaten. So, before I got into the fruit I was inside the mango tree. How did I get into the Mango tree? Perhaps I was hiding in the water absorbed by the tree from the soil. Water has come from the earth and earth is made up of Panchabhuta-ie. Aakasam ,Vayu Agni , Jalam and Bhumi. That means I was a part of the Panchabhutas before I was born as a human being ! In short, I was/am a part of this universe for ever in the ‘Viratrupa’ -Brahman” !

Looking from that point of view, the entire universe is made out of Panchabhuta. During the long journey on this earth I was part of Panchabhuta for a very long spell in different forms. As stone, grass, plant, dog, tiger. I may have taken birth in different forms of fauna and flora for millions of years on this earth, before I was borne as a Human being. When I die, my body disintegrate and goes back to the Panchabhuta. It is so fearful to think about it ! At the end of this long struggle for existence in different births, I got a Manushya Janmam, at the very end. Then why did I commit all these cruelties and sins during my short span of life as man/woman on this earth? The wide variety of living and non-living beings found on earth were my refuge and they formed my fodder and perhaps I was once their fodder. Don’t you have gratitude to one, who provided you a shelter and food in your past life?

That is why our ancient Rishis were very respectful of Mother Nature and our environment as a whole, both living and non-living objects, without any discrimination. Whatever you find on the face of this earth is your part and parcel and tomorrow you are going to be one among them. Then why do you want to acquire more wealth on this earth? What is the need for distinction on the basis of different caste and creed and differentiation between man, woman and animal kingdom? On the face of this earth, a man and an ant have the same rights. Constant Motion and changes are a regular feature of this universe. Those who consider that human life on this earth is one of bondage, remain in bondage for ever. One who feels free, remains free for ever. I am aware of these. The whole universe is a part of me. It is because of me, the whole universe is in existence, in motion. I provide the energy for the sustenance of this universe. Yes, I am Brahman!!! What is stated in Brihadaranyka Upanishad,“Aham Brahmasmi” is therefore totally true!”

- By Swami Chinmayanda.

What is ‘Purushartham’?

Mokshaprapti or Mukti (liberation) attained through the genuine pursuit of varna, ashrama, dharmas is ‘Purushartham’?

What are Varnas?

There are four ‘Varnas’ or classification of human beings ordained by Hindu Dharma sastras-ie. Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vysya and Sudras. This classification is very scientific, broad-based, on the basis of genetic charactristics born with every man/man. In Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna admitted that ‘Chatur Varnam’ was created by him :-

“ Chatur varnam maya srishtam

Guna karma vibhagasah

Tasya kartaram api mam

Viddhi akartaram avyam” ( BG-4–13)

This sloka in Shrimad Bhagavat Gita has created endless misunderstandings among the Dalit Hindus in India! What Lord Krishna stated here is that the four Varnas which was in existence in the society were recognized by him according to the differentiation in the gunas and actions. ‘ Varnas’ should not be equated with ‘caste’. That was a grave mistake committed in translation, by some of the English writers. Our Historians borrowed it and Dalit politicians swallowed it without proper understanding. They used it as a political tool to fight against other castes in India. The literal meaning of the word ‘Varna’ is colour and not caste. Colour in this context is a poetic description of the segregation in the society. The centre for all our action is the ‘Chit’ or mind. The mind is the seat of all basic qualities (guna) of the individual; ie. the “Sttava, Rajo, Tamo” gunas . All the three qualities are inherent in every individual in varying degrees. The action performed according to gunas is “ Guna Karma”. We are all borne with a ‘Satvic, ‘Rajasic’, ‘ Tamasic’ character, in varying degrees ! Some people may object to this division on the ground that these are all discriminatory classification based on Manu Neeti, to degrade Dalits! This argument is totally naïve, borne out of sheer ignorance and primarily raised by some of the political leaders and social activists belonging to Dalit castes/tribes in India. Many of the politicians are either illiterate/semi- literate and they have no clear understanding of Vedas/Upanishats! Even educated Dalits have turned themselves into saviors of their caste and creed, after mortgaging their intellect!

Modern psychologists agree that all human beings inherit through their DNA certain characteristics from their parents! The mental temperament of every human being could be classified into three categories.

Sattva- Energetic, mature with positive outlook, serene, contemplative, calm, composed, detached from selfish and worldly desires.

Rajsic- Hyper-active, agitated thoughts and frenzied action, quarrelsome nature with too many desires in mind.

Tamasic- Inertia, Lethargy, sloth, sleep with no intellectual conviction, leading to a dull and inactive life. The Tamasic type of people has to be virtually pulled out of their bed every day!

The above three ‘Gunas’ found in different proportions in each individual, accounts for the heterogamous nature, character and behavior of human beings. Every individual possess all the three Gunas in varying degrees. Some have ‘Sattva’ guna predominant over ‘Rajas’ and ‘Tamas’-they are called ‘Sattvic’ persons. The predominance of ‘Rajas’ over the other two creates a ‘Rajasic’ person. And predominance of ‘Tamas’, a ‘Tamasic’ person. The law of nature is such that ‘Sattva’ guna in an individual dominates early in the morning from 4 AM to 6 AM. His Rajas and Tamas lay dormant during that period. Similarly, Rajas predominantly manifests during day time ie.from 6 AM to 6 PM. Tamas shows up at night from 6PM to 4 AM. This is a universal law applicable to all human beings.

The mission of every human being in life should be to raise himself from ‘Tamas’ to ‘Rajas’ and ‘Sattva’, with ultimate destination of self-realization.

“Asatoma sat gamaya

Tamsoma jyotir gamaya

Mrityoma Amritam gamaya”.

Ordinary people of the world are generally selfish by nature. Acquisition and accumulation of material wealth by any means and its consumption for greater happiness of the self with family members seems to be the primary motive of the materialistic /consumerist society of ours. An attitude of renunciation, spirit of service and sacrifice to society is considered as essential trait of a civilized behavior. The concept of ‘Nishkama Karma’ enunciated in Bhagavat Gita becomes relevant in this context. As one advance in age, normally a sense of detachment grows in you, and a spirit of inner peace and happiness prevails.

Caste System in Inida.

The much talked about caste system in India has its origin from the above three gunas or temperaments of human beings. A child borne in a Brahmin family normaly would have predominantly ‘Sattvic’ nature and a little Tamas and Rajas. A Kshatriya has mostly Rajasic temperament and Shudra, Tamasic temperament. But Manu Smriti has clearly laid down that:-

“ Janmana jayate Shudraha

Samskarat Dwijamutchate”.

Meaning:- All are borne as Shudras, our upbringing and culture make a person a Dwija-twice borne, ie. Brahmin! This classification of human beings is applicable all over the world-not particularly to Hindus! In the ancient India, an intelligent mode of allocation of work in the society was made, based on the innate temperament of each individual. Brahmins were assigned the task of priesthood and spiritual pursuits. The warrior class called Kshatriyas, was assigned the task of wielding weapons for protection and fighting for the country; the Vyshya class was assigned trade and commerce and Shudras the manual labor. But there was no prohibition in a Vyshya taking up cultivation or Brahmin taking up Kshatriya’s work, so long as his temperament suited it. It is already predicted that in Kaliyugam, these traditional work allocation would alter when ‘ Vyshyas’ may control fortunes of the country and Shudras may become the rulers! The Varna system developed for the benefit of the society based sound principles of genetics. But it appears that a scientific mode of division of labor in the society has been branded as a curse and caste based reservations in education/employment and aggrandize- ment are raging in our society.

What are Ashramas?

There are four Ashrmas- age based life stages in one’s human life-ie. Brahmacharyam, Garhastyam, Vanaprstam and Sanyasam. One has to pass through the above four stages in life inevitably, for the human life to be complete. Every human being necessarily has a Balyam (childhood), Kaumaram (teenage), Yauvanam (adolecense), Garhstyam (family life )and Vardhaykam (old age) at the end of one’s life, unless one dies prematurely. The traditional mode of living of almost all people has undergone a sea of change in the 20th and 21st century, in view of the rapid socio-economic, changes that was witnessed in the world over. While the first two Ashramas are routinely undergone by all human beings all over the world, the last two Ashramas, ie. Vanaprastam and Sanyasam are not observed physically in its true sense, even though body/mental disabilities force one to adopt the last two stages of life, unknowingly.

What is Dharma ?

“Dharma” a Sanskrit word, is a very fundamental concept in Hinduism, which offers no single word translation in any other languages, including English! It has different connotations in Hinduism, including Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. According to Hindu Dharma Sastras, it is the religious and moral law governing individual conduct, throughout the span of human life. The concept of ‘Dharma’ is the greatest contribution made by Indian Spirituality to the world.

Dharmas, enshrined in Vedas, are not codified in one scripture/text. Dharma Sastras written in Sanskrit can be classified under four different heads-

1.Sutras (terse maxims)

2.Smritis (Shorter or longer treatises in stanzas)

3.Nibandhas (Digest of Smriti verses from various sources

4.Vrittis (commentaries on individual Smritis)

(Source: Brittanica.)

Dharma that applies to the whole Universe is ‘‘Prapancha Dharma’’. The primary duty of all rulers of different countries and the UN is to observe Prapancha Dharma. Any act/omission causing annihilation of living beings, or causing irreversible environmental pollution etc, would constitute a violation of Prapancha Dharma.

What every individual human being has to observe in his life is-“Manva dharama”, consists of Truthfulness, Vidya, Vivekam, Determination, Ahimsa, Cleanliness, Tolerance, Control of anger, Kindness and Generosity towards all. (Manu smriti-6.92)

In addition, there is ‘Swadharma‘ to be followed by everyone, according to one’s class, status and position in life. A King (in democracies the PM/CM/Minister) has to rule his country according to “Raja Dharma”; a soldier has to defend/ fight for his country, a farmer has to cultivate his land, a ‘Vyshya’ has to be engaged in trade, business, a Grihasta ashrami has to follow Grihasta Ashrama Dharmam and a son/daughter has to observe his “Putra Dharmam” etc.

What is ‘Dharma’? What are its essential features? The ultimate source of all forms of knowledge about Dharma can be traced back to Vedas and Upanishads. Manusmriti (2.6) points out that “Vedo akhilo Dharma mulam”. But merely reading the text of Vedas and Upanishats daily, would not qualify you the test of living according to Dharma! You have to live according to the tenets of Vedas- it may appear to be a tough task. But once everybody start living according to their Dharma, life becomes easier, nobler and the world would be a better place to live in. Dharma is still alive from the living examples of those who have lived by it. It is well stated that “Dharmo rakshati rakshitaha”- means that if you protect your dharma, dharma will in turn protect you! This is a solemn Divine promise. The primary cause for all wars/ breach of world peace, is due “Adharma” practiced by wider sections of society. What are you going to gain in this life by living according to the tenets of your dharma?

Yanjyavalkya Smriti(6.92) says that-

“Ayam tu paramo dharmo

Yad yogena atmadarsanam”.

Yanjavalkya, exhorts all people should aim at observance of their own Dharma, by development of their own ‘self ’ through Yoga, during the tenure of their life. One may call it ‘Atma darsanam’,’Atma Jnanam’, ‘Iswara Sakshatkaram’ etc, as you wish. While living in this world, according to the tenets of ‘Manava/Swadharma’, the ultimate aim should be ‘Iswara Sakshatkaram’. Four different Yoga routes are suggested in this regard- Karma Yogam, Bhakti Yogam, Jnana Yogam, and Raja Yogam. When an individual lives according to his ‘Swa Dharma’, and all his activities are performed as ‘Nishkama karma, aimed at “Loka Sangraham’’ without any ego or selfish motive, his ‘Swadharma acharanam’ will lead to “Atma darsanam’’. Those who are daily engaged in true worship of God by chanting “bhajana kirtanams” with utmost devotion, are following ‘Bhakti Yoga’ and those who are engaged in daily ‘’Dhyanam’’ ‘’, Japam ‘’and ‘’Atma Tatwa Vicharam’’ are following “Jnana Yoga” and those observing “Dhyanam” and “Samadhi” technics are followers of Raja Yogam.

People are expected to choose any of these ‘Yoga margas’, suiting their taste and attitudes. Generally, it is observed that all creations of God in this world, both living and no-living, scrupulously follow their ‘Dharma” without fail, except human beings! All living beings, (except man/woman) follow their Dharma, primarily guided by their instincts. Look around us in the universe- all celestial objects/forces of nature, unfailingly goes around doing their Dharmas, ordained by God, like Sun, Moon, Stars/Galaxies, Panca bhutas, Seasons, Trees, Plants and Animals etc, except man/woman who are endowed with ‘ Visesha Buddhi’ ! When a man/woman utilize their ‘Visesha Buddhi’ for their own selfish motive, appropriate results will follow called their ‘fate’. So, ultimately you alone are the architect of your own fate! Every human being has the liberty of choice- to do their Dharma in this life and realize the SELF or fail to do their Dharma and face the consequences in this life itself mostly or in the lives thereafter! There is no escape from the results of one’s past-karma.

What is Moksha ?

The ultimate liberation of a ‘Jivatma’ from the ordeal of repeated cycle of births and deaths, resulting in complete identification with the “Paramatma” ie. ”Jivatma-Paramatma Samyogam” is Moksha Prapti (liberation from the endless cycles of births and deaths). This is a logical culmination of the process of evolution of every human being. What happens if people are not interested (it seems to me that majority of the people are not interested!) in Moksha? Well, you will have the pleasure and pain of continuing in the eternal cycle of births and deaths, through 84 lakhs of “Jiva Yonis”, as different species of living or nonliving entities on earth, depending on your ‘Karma Pasam’ in the previous births, till the very dissolution of this universe!

What / Who/ Where is GOD ?

This is a fundamental question that is raised by every child when he is taken to a temple/church/ mosque for the first time, after the child is able to speak to their parents. When a child asks for the first time-what is God? Parents are foxed to give a straight forward simple answer as words cannot capture the entity called GOD. So, the next best alternative is to point out to the image of the deity installed in the ‘sanctum sanctorum’ of the temple/church and escape from the embarrassment. The child looks at the idol in awe and devotion as he is watching his elders looking at the idol and close their eyes, stand motionless for a few seconds, receive prasadams (offerings of flowers, vibhuti, chandan etc) from the priest, and do ‘pradakshinams’ (circumabulations) around the sanctum 3/5/7 times This image of God gets imprinted in children’s mind forever.( I don’t know what explanation Muslim/Jew parents give on their God to their children.)

Temples.

Vedas have not indicated any link with any Temples/Mutts anywhere in India. It is therefore obvious that Temple worship started only after people started worshipping idols as symbols of their cherished GOD. Later a special architectural stream developed, for the carving of idols and the installation of idols inside the temple. In due course, the Kshatriya rulers took it up as a part of their State’s responsibility to construct and maintain the temples, in their country; Tantra Sastra was developed as a separate stream of knowledge/art to design the idols/temples for its orderly upkeep and maintenance. Most of the ancient Temples in India, Sri Lanka, Mayanmar and in many nations in SE Asia were designed, constructed and maintained by the local rulers with the support Indian artisans.

Temples were designed and constructed as a symbol of the deity in micro form. The idol installed in the temple out of Stone or Metal (Pancha Loham) has no ‘Caitanyam’ of its own, until its consecration. The ‘Caitanyam’ gets infused into the idol, when a “Prana Pratishta” is done by the ‘Tantri’ who is conversant in Vedas and Upanishats; What he is infusing into the idol is his own “Prana Sakti”, an extension of cosmic power, which you may call by the name Brahman or God or Iswara. The expectation is that all those who visit the temple and worship the idol, will identify this fact and the ‘Prana’ inside their body is one with the’ Prana sakti’ infused into the idol by the Tantri. That is why in several temples it is written outside very boldly, the words “Tatvamasi”-you are that Brahman! But the lay public hardly realize the symbolic value of temples/idols. They go with their routine shopping list into the temple and seeks God’s blessings for the fulfillment of their worldly desires and in return make some offerings of cash/flowers/oil/ghee etc, some kind of a quid pro quo, and expect that everything would be alright in their life!

The State owns/controls Temples in India.

In India, the State has the ownership of most of the major Hindu temples and the income from the temples is sometimes diverted for other developmental purposes also, a practice started by the British rulers to subjugate Hindus. The Indian constitution loudly declares that India is a Secular, Democratic, Republic and the State has no business in managing Hindu temples. But the democratically elected Govts. of all political parties have no qualms in following the British practice as they do not want to deprive the State of the vast income earned from temples. Landed property of most of the temples were encroached by the people and even after Court’s intervention, restitution of the temple properties is not carried out. As Hindus are a very tolerant lot, the practice continues even now. But when it comes to the question of other religions like Churches of Christians/ Mosques of Muslims, then the norms of secularism is strictly followed! Secularism in India, in effect, is anti-Hinduism! This dichotomy in public policy of State Govts. in India is indefensible by any logic.

Tragedy of poor Spiritual growth among human beings.

The greatest tragedy of human race is that spiritual development of over 99 % of the people is stunted within the precincts of the temple/church/mosque, forever. People show no inclination to grow further in the spiritual path nor live according to the norms laid down by their religion/Holy book /prophet! Leading a life according to the tenets of Dharma Sastras, holding on to truth, honesty, and kindness to fellow human beings and other creatures of God on earth are enjoined on Hindus. But how many Hindus can claim that they truly live according to the tenets of ‘Sanatana Dharmam’ ?

Spirituality is alien concept to vast majority of the people of all religions! They have left it to be the concern of Sanyasis/Priests. This is like children studying only in primary classes in schools, in pursuit of their educational goals, and then en-masse drop out from the school, altogether! The alienation of spiritual and moral values in life is the most vital factor affecting peace and harmony in this world. Very few parents take care to inculcate religious/spiritual values among their wards as many consider that it is old fashioned to ask children to pray God daily. As the children grow up , their attention get easily diverted to multifarious activities of life, like pursuit of academic attainments, finding a means of livelihood, then a mate, setting up a family, amass wealth by any means and indulge in sensual enjoyment of life, even when it may cause damage to their health and life. In the daily struggle for life, many youngsters get entangled into crime, drugs, sex, corruption and violence. As some of these activities are centered around religious institutions, during festivals etc where people crowd around, some people start attributing all these vices to the entity called God and religion! The aversion building up in their mind coupled with ignorance and lack of spiritual education, find expression in people following Atheism, Agnosticism, Communism and all other ‘isms’. Many just drift around in life without any moorings and when any calamity strike them, they think of God’s support. As we advance in Kali Yugam, fewer people are destined to steer back into the saner path of righteous living and ultimately realize God!

IN Search of GOD.

Can we have a precise definition of God? Unless one has an opportunity to understand clearly the very concept of God, at least on an intellectual plane, there is no question of even striving for ‘Iswara Drasanam’?

As a concept, ‘Ishvara’ in ancient and medieval Sanskrit texts, variously means God, Supreme Being, Supreme Soul, Lord, King or Ruler, Rich or Wealthy man, God of love, deity Vishnu, Shiva, one of the Rudras etc ! The word ‘Īśvara’ never appears in Rigveda. However, the verb does appear in Rig Veda, where the context suggests that the meaning of it is “capable of,able to” etc. It is absent in Samaveda, is rare in Atharvaveda, appears in Samhitas of Yajur veda. The contextual meaning, however as the ancient Indian grammarian Pāṇini explains, is neither God nor Supreme being.

The word Ishvara appears in numerous ancient Dharma sutras. However, Patrick Olivelle states that there Ishvara does not mean God, but means Vedas. Deshpande states that Ishvara in Dharma sutras could alternatively mean King, with the context literally asserting that “the Dharma sutras are as important as Ishvara (the king) on matters of public importance”.In Saivite traditions of Hinduism, the term is used as part of the compound word “Maheshvara” (“Great Lord”) as a name for Shiva. In Mahayana Buddhism it is used as part of the compound “Avalokiteśvara” (“Lord who hears the cries of the world”), the name of a Bodhisattva revered for her compassion. When referring to divine as female, particularly in Shaktism, the feminine Īśvarī is sometimes used. There are different Schools of Thought dealing with the subject ‘Ishvara’ in Hinduism.

Among the six systems of Hindu philosophy, Samkhya and Mimamsa do not consider the concept of Ishvara, i.e., a Supreme Being relevant. Yoga, Vaisheshika, Vedanta and Nyaya schools of Hinduism discuss Ishvara, but assign different meanings. Ishvara is a metaphysical concept in Yogasutras. It does not mention deity anywhere, nor does it mention any devotional practices (Bhakti), nor does it give ‘Ishvara’ the characteristics typically associated with a deity.

In Yoga school of Hinduism, Ishvara is neither a creator God nor the universal Absolute of Advaita Vedanta school of Hinduism. Some theistic sub-schools of Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism, inspired by the Yoga school, explain the term Ishvara as the “Supreme Being that rules over the cosmos and the individuated beings”. Malinar states that in Samkhya-Yoga schools of Hinduism, Ishvara is neither a creator-God, nor a savior-God.

Zimmer in his 1951 Indian philosophies book noted that the Bhakti sub-schools refer to Ishvara as a Divine Lord, or the deity of specific Bhakti. Modern sectarian movements have emphasized Ishvara as Supreme Lord; for example, Hare Krishna movement considers Krishna as the Lord,. Arya Samaj and Brahmoism movements — influenced by Christian and Islamic movements in India — conceptualize Ishvara as a monotheistic all powerful Lord. In traditional theistic sub-schools of Hinduism, such as the Vishishtadvaita Vedanta of Ramanuja and Dvaita Vedanta of Madhva, Ishvara is identified as Lord Vishnu/Narayana, that is distinct from the Prakriti (material world) and Purusa (soul, spirit).

Radhakrishnan and Moore stated that these variations in Ishvara concept is consistent with Hinduism’s notion of “personal God” where the “ideals or manifestation of individual’s highest Self values that are esteemed”. Riepe, and others, state that schools of Hinduism leave the individual with freedom and choice of conceptualizing Ishvara in any meaningful manner as he or she wishes, either in the form of “deity of one’s choice” or “formless Brahman (Absolute Reality, Universal Principle, true special Self.

Samkhya school of Hinduism

Samkhya is categorized as one of the several major atheistic schools of Hinduism, by some scholars. Others, such as Jacobsen, Samkhya is more accurately described as non-theistic. Ishvara is considered an irrelevant concept, neither defined nor denied, in Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy. This hymn is one of the roots of the Samkhya Yoga.

Nasadiya Suktam (Hymn of non-Eternity, origin of universe):

There was neither non-existence nor existence then;
Neither the realm of space, nor the sky which is beyond;
What stirred? Where? In whose protection?

There was neither death nor immortality then;
No distinguishing sign of night nor of day;
That One breathed, windless, by its own impulse;
Other than that there was nothing beyond.

Darkness there was at first, by darkness hidden;
Without distinctive marks, this all was water;
That which, becoming, by the void was covered;
That One by force of heat came into being;

Who really knows? Who will here proclaim it?
Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation?
Gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe.
Who then knows whence it has arisen?

Whether God’s will created it, or whether He was mute;
Perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not;
Only He who is its overseer in highest heaven knows,

Only He knows, or perhaps He does not know.

— Rigveda 10.129 (Abridged, Tr: Kramer / Christian) .

In Yoga school of Hinduism.

The Yogasutras of Patanjali, the foundational text of Yoga school of Hinduism, uses the term Ishvara in 11 verses: I.23 through I.29, II.1, II.2, II.32 and II.45. Ever since the Sutra’s release, Hindu scholars have debated and commented on who or what is Ishvara? These commentaries range from defining Ishvara from a “personal god” to “special self” to “anything that has spiritual significance to the individual”. Whicher explains that while Patanjali’s terse verses can be interpreted both as theistic or non-theistic, Patanjali’s concept of Ishvara in Yoga philosophy functions as a “transformative catalyst or guide for aiding the yogin on the path to spiritual emancipation”. Patanjali’s concept of Ishvara is neither a creator God nor the universal Absolute of Advaita Vedanta school of Hinduism.

In Vaisesika school of Hinduism.

Vaiśeṣika school of Hinduism, as founded by Kanada in 1st millennium BC, neither required nor relied on Ishvara for its atomistic naturalism philosophy. To it, substances and paramāṇu (atoms) were eternal, they moved and interacted based on impersonal, eternal adrsta (अदृष्ट, invisible) laws of nature. The concept of Ishvara, among others, entered into Vaisheshika school many centuries later in 1st millennium AD. This evolution in ideas aimed to explain how and why its so-called “atoms” have a particular order and proportions. These later-age ancient Vaiśeṣika scholars retained their belief that substances are eternal, added Ishvara as another eternal who is also omniscient and omnipresent (not omnipotent). Ishvara did not create the world, according to this school of Hindu scholars, but He only created invisible laws that operate the world and then He becomes passive and lets those hidden universal laws do its thing. Thus, Vaisheshika’s Ishvara mirrors Deus otiosus of Deism. Vaisheshika school’s Ishvara, states Klaus Klostermaier, can be understood as an eternal God who co-exists in the universe with eternal substances and atoms, but HE “winds up the clock, and lets it run its course”!

In Nyaya school of Hinduism.

Early Nyaya school scholars considered the hypothesis of Ishvara as a creator God with the power to grant blessings, boons and fruits. However, the early Nyaya scholars rejected this hypothesis, and were non-theistic or atheists. Later scholars of Nyaya school reconsidered this question and offered counter arguments for what is Ishvara and various arguments to prove the existence of Ishvara. In Nyayasutra’s Book 4, Chapter 1 examines what causes production and destruction of entities (life, matter) in universe. It considers many hypotheses, including Ishvara. Verses 19–21, postulates Ishvara exists and is the cause, states a consequence of postulate, then presents contrary evidence, and from contradiction concludes that the postulate must be invalid.

सिद्धान्तसूत्र : ईश्वरः कारणम्, पुरुषकर्माफल्यदर्शनात्
पूर्वपक्षसूत्र : न, पुरुषकर्माभावे फ्लानिष्पत्तेः
सिद्धान्तसूत्र : तत्कारितत्वादहेतुः

Proposition sutra: Ishvara is the cause, since we see sometimes human action lacks fruits (results).
Prima facie objection sutra: This is not so since, as a matter of fact, no fruit is accomplished without human action.
Conclusion sutra: Not so, since it is influenced by him.

— Nyaya Sutra, IV.1.19 — IV.1.21

Centuries later, the 5th century CE, Nyaya school scholar Prastapada revisited the premise of Ishvara. He was followed by Udayana, who in his text Nyayakusumanjali, interpreted “it” in verse 4.1.21 of Nyaya Sutra above, as “human action” and “him” as “Ishvara”, then he developed counter arguments to prove the existence of Ishvara. In developing his arguments, he inherently defined Ishvara as efficient cause, omnipotent, omniscient, infallible, giver of gifts, ability and meaning to humanity, divine creator of the world as well as the moral principles, and the unseen power that makes the karma doctrine work.

In Mimamsa school of Hinduism.

Mīmāṃsā scholars of Hinduism questioned what is Ishvara (God)? They used their pramana tools to cross examine answers offered by other schools of Hinduism. For example, when Nyaya scholars stated God is omnipotent, omniscient and infallible, that the world is the result of God’s creation which is proved by the presence of creatures, just like human work proves human existence, Mimamsa scholars asked, why does this God create the world, for what reason? Further, they added, it cannot be because of Ishvara’s love to human beings because this world — if Ishvara created it — is imperfect and human souls are suffering in it. Mimamsa scholars of Hinduism raised numerous objections to any definition of Ishvara along with its premises, deconstructed justifications offered, and considered Ishvara concept unnecessary for a consistent philosophy and moksha (soteriology).

In Vedanta school of Hinduism

Advaita Vedanta.

Advaita Vedanta school of Hinduism posits Ishvara in a number of ways (metaphysically, epistemologically), then cross examines it, reasoning that there is no room for Gods and Deity. Adi Sankara of Advaita sub-school of Hinduism states that Self-knowledge is the paramount and soteriological goal of Man, where the monistic principle of Oneness of Self, every living being and everything in the universe is part of self-realization and moksha. Sankara states the Self of every individual is Ishvara, in his text Upadesasahasri, everyone and everything is connected, integral oneness of Brahman (Ultimate Reality, Universal Absolute, Supreme Principle). Ishvara is that which is “free from avidya (ignorance), free from ahamkrti (ego-sense), free from bandhana (bondage)”, a Self that is “pure, enlightened, liberated”. To Advaitins, Ishvara is the efficient and material cause of the creation, yet another name for the creative and expressive aspect of the Brahman that is in every living being and everywhere. There is no distinction between Jiva (living being) and Ishvara, and any attempts to distinguish the two is a false idea, one based on wrong knowledge, according to Advaita Vedanta.

Advaitin’s Ishvara is similar in some ways to Adi Buddha of Madhyamika Buddhists; Advaita Vedanta shares monism foundations and methodology with Buddhism, but is not a nastika philosophy, as the Madhyamika school of Buddhism. Like other schools of Hinduism, Advaitins believe that there is a “Self” and “Soul”, unlike Buddhism which believes in “no self, no soul”. Advaitins use the construct of Ishvara, to build their concept of “transcendent self”.Nelson states that Ishvara, to Adi Shankara, is a paradigm for living liberation. “ईश्वरःअहम्”-Ishvara, I am !

— Adi Shankara, Upadesasahasri 2.3.1, 2.10.8

Other Advaita Hindu texts resonate with the monist views of Adi Shankara. For example, Isa Upanishad, in hymn 1, 5–7, states Ishvara is “above everything, outside everything, beyond everything, yet also within everything”; he who knows himself as all beings and all beings as himself — he never becomes alarmed before anyone. He becomes free from fears, from delusions, from root cause of evil. He becomes pure, invulnerable, unified, free from evil, true to truth, liberated like Ishvara.

Vishishtadvaita Vedanta.

Ishvara, in Vishishtadvaita Vedanta sub-school of Hinduism, is a composite concept of dualism and non-dualism, or “non-dualism with differentiation”. Ishvara, Vishishtadvaitin scholars such as the 11th century Ramanuja state, Ishwara is the supreme creator and synonymous with Brahman. Equated with Vishnu in Vishishtadvaita or one of his avatar, he is both the material and efficient cause, transcendent and immanent. Ishvara manifests in five forms, believe Vishishtadvaitins: Para (transcendent), Vyuha (emanations), Vibhava (incarnations), Ant-aryamin (dwells inside), and Arca (icons). According to this sub-school, states John Grimes, Ishvara possesses six divine qualities: Jnana (knowledge), Bala (strength), Aisvarya (lordship), Sakti (power), Virya (virility) and Tejas (splendor).

Ramanuja’s Vishishtadvaita concepts provided the foundation for several Bhakti movements of Hinduism, such as those by Sri Aurobindo and has been suggested as having influenced Basava’s Lingayatism.

Dvaita Vedanta.

The Dvaita (dualism) sub-school of Vedanta Hinduism, founded by 13th century Madhva, defines Ishvara as creator God that is distinct from Jiva (individual souls in living beings). Narayana(Vishnu) is considered to be Ishvara, and the Vaishnavism movement arose on the foundation developed by Dvaita Vedanta sub-school.

Ishvara (God) is a complete, perfect and the highest reality to Dvaitins, and simultaneously the world is separate reality for them, unlike competing thoughts in other sub-schools of Vedanta. In Dvaita sub-school, Jiva (individual soul) is different, yet dependent on Ishvara (God). Both possess the attributes of consciousness, bliss and existence, but the individual soul is considered atomic, while God is all encompassing. The attributes of Jiva struggle to manifest, while of God it is fully manifested.

Madhva states that there are five permutations of differences between Jiva (individual souls) and Ishvara (God): between God and souls, between God and matter, between souls and matter, between one soul and another soul, and between one material thing and another material thing. The differences are both qualitative and quantitative. Unlike Advaita Vedantins who hold that knowledge can lead to Oneness with Everyone and fusion with Universal Absolute, to the state of moksha in this life, Dvaita Vedantins hold that moksha is possible only in after-life if God so wills (if not, then one’s soul is reborn). Further, Madhva highlights that God creates individual souls, but the individual soul never was and never will become one with God; the best it can do is to experience bliss by getting infinitely close to God.

The world, called Maya, is held as the divine will of Ishvara. Jiva suffers, experiences misery and bondage, state Dvaitins, because of “ignorance and incorrect knowledge” (Ajnana). Liberation occurs with the correct knowledge and attainment unto Lord Narayana. It is His grace that gives salvation according to Dvaita sub-school, which is achievable by predominance of sattva guna(moral, constructive, simple, kindness-filled life), and therefore Dvaitins must live a dharmic life while constantly remembering, deeply loving Ishvara.

Achintya-Bheda-Abheda.

Acintya bhedābheda is a sub-school of Vedanta representing the philosophy of inconceivable one-ness and difference, in relation to the power creation and creator, Ishvara, (Krishna).

In Sanskrit achintya means ‘inconceivable’, bheda translates as ‘difference’, and abheda translates as ‘one-ness’. Spirit souls are considered part of God and thus one with Him in quality, and yet at the same time different from Him in quantity. This is called acintya-bheda-abheda-tattva, inconceivable, simultaneous oneness and difference.

Caitanya’s philosophy of acintya-bhedābheda-tattva completed the progression to devotional theism. Rāmānuja had agreed with Śaṅkara that the Absolute is one only, but he had disagreed by affirming individual variety within that oneness. Madhva had underscored the eternal duality of the Supreme and the Jīva: he had maintained that this duality endures even after liberation. Caitanya, in turn, specified that the Supreme and the jīvas are “inconceivably, simultaneously one and different” (acintya-bheda-abheda).

Carvaka school of Hinduism.

Cārvāka, another atheist tradition in Hinduism, was materialist and a school of philosophical scepticism. They rejected all concepts of Ishvara as well as all forms of supernaturalism!

In search of GOD.(contd)

It is clear from the above analysis of various Schools of Thought in Hinduism, that there is no unanimity at all on the conceptual frame work of “Ishvara”. Perhaps that may be the ultimate resolve of “Ishvara,” himself (!) as words are incapable defining HIM precisely! HE is infinite, formless and beyond human comprehension, using the five finite sense organs of human beings. Hindus have no grudge against “Iswara” in not being too transparent to their sense organs! Hindus do not have a feeling that Iswara is deliberately hiding from the devotees. In fact, he is present everywhere in this universe as is the ‘Isavasya Upanishad’ swears: “Isvasyamidam sarvam”. It is clearly stated in Bhagavad Gita that Iswara is residing in the heart of every human being and like a machine it makes them work with the help of Mayasakti. Take refuge in HIM with all Thyself, and Thou shall gain eternal peace

“Iswara srvabhutanam hridese Arjuna,tishtati

Brahmayan sarvabhutani yantrarudani mayaya.

Tamevam saranam gatca sarvabhavena Bharata.

Tad prsadad param santi stanam prapsaysi sasvatam” (B G- 18–61–62)

It is this intrinsic quality of ‘all inclusiveness’ and ‘tolerance’ of the followers of “Sanatana Dharmam” that prompted them to welcome with open arms people belonging to other faiths who landed in India, thousands of years back. No other nation in the world has ever displayed such a liberal attitude towards people belonging to other faiths! This broadminded policy coupled with political disunity and inadequate military might, has cost India very dearly in terms of several foreign invasions, plunder, loot and even disintegration of India as one nation, for about 2000 years. Hindus never believed /practiced in converting people from other religions into Hinduism as they firmly believed that all religious faith leads to only one GOD, whatever be the name, he is known! Religion is a matter of personal conviction for Hindus not a blind belief imposed from above by a Church/Organization/Bible/Quoran, using force/sanction or punishment. It is based on clear knowledge and not blind faith ! Hindus accommodated atheists, agnostics and even Communists into its fold ! Hindus firmly hold the view that one religious text or theory or image can never capture HIM as a whole, as HE pervades the whole Universe. In effect, the ‘Virad Rupa’ of the whole universe, is his gross manifestation. The smallest particle in the world-Paramanu (atom)- is his Sukshma manifestation! The lack of clear conceptual clarity itself is the essential feature of Ishwara! Perhaps this nebulous state of affairs will remain so, till the very end- ie. dissolution of this universe! If so, is it necessary to search out for such a hidden entity from all his creations?

God in Vedas/Upanishads.

Let us make a brief survey on the attributes of God given in Vedas/Upanishats. Hindu Epics and Mythology have several stories about, innumerable Gods, to be precise, almost 33 ¾ crores of Devas in different names, forms and attributes! An ordinary Hindu may get totally confused as to which God should he /she should worship? If I chose one particular God as my “Ishta Devata” in life, what about the other Gods, whom I reject or abandon? Will other Gods act against my interests or will they deprive me of their blessings? In fact, that is one of the reason, why Hindus are ridiculed by critics from other religions. It is difficult to please multitudes of Hindu Gods peacefully, because they are countless! All these confusions arise because of gross ignorance of the critics about Hinduism!

Not many people in this world are aware that God can be worshipped in two forms! There are several “Sakara” rupams and a “Niarakara” rupam of God ! One can choose the formless entity or in any beautiful form of your choice, based on the stage of your spiritual development. Religious scholars always advice ordinary ‘Sadhakas’, to start worshipping GOD in any ‘Skarara rupam’, of his choice, because it is easier to retain a lovable image of God/s/Godess/es in the mind than an abstract formless entity ! Worshipping a God in “Nirakara Rupam”, as an abstract entity, is indeed a very difficult task, particularly for beginners. It is easier to capture and retain a beautiful/pleasant image/images of Gods you love in your mind and worship, than a formless entity. As one advance in one’s ‘sadhana’, perhaps one can shed the image of God and contemplate on the formless entity. When you reach that degree of spiritual maturity, it may not be necessary for you to visit temples, or do nama-japams etc. Once you realize that you are a part of the creator and realize that God resides in the core of your heart, traditional observances prescribed in the ‘Srutis’ can be dispensed with. “Ekam Sat,Vipra bahuta vadanti’’ is a Sutra quoted from Rig veda- Truth (Being or Existence or God is ONE, though sages call it by different names )!

First thing, a seeker should understand is that there is only one God for the whole universe! That stance would set at rest all internecine quarrels between rival religions / religious groups. Then why do different religions distinguish their God from all other Gods, in names and forms of worship? In fact, Vedas or Upanishads contain no names of any Gods in the whole text! The name Rudra or Vishnu appears in some of the Samhitas; those names have to be understood in the literal meaning only. ‘Rudra’ means one who is able to make you cry — one capable of awarding severe punishment for wrongdoers! Vishnu means-“ Vyavesti vyapnoti iti Vishanu ” –that which pervades everywhere in this universe is ‘Vishnu’. This is another synonym of God, for ‘Sarva Vyapi’. The images of Siva and Vishnu, Brahma and Devis etc and worshipped in temples by millions of Hindus were all created during post-Vedic periods, much after the introduction of Vedas. Gods are shown with the different attributes, dresses, adornments including weapons. These were all the creation of later generation Rshis /Seers, artists/idol makers, mythologists according to their ‘sankalpam’ for attracting ordinary people into Hindu fold. They are presented as “Avatarams” of the “Supreme Self who took birth like human beings, fulfilled the purpose of their incarnation and departed from the world . A realized soul will never be carried away by such different images/idols, of God. No doubt, they are powerful symbols capable of attracting the imagination/attention of millions of devotees. A genuine seeker should realize that GOD is only ONE and he is formless absolute consciousness without any attributes or limitations . God has no Father or Mother ! He has no birth or death as HE is immortal .The stories woven around characters of Ramayana, Mahabharata and Bhagavata are all for the purpose of capturing the attention of lay believers. Till such time you realize that a vital link to the ‘universal consciousness’ is dawn inside you, your ‘sadhana’ is incomplete. I am aware that many Bhakti Cult followers will frown at my observation!

There is only one God, and you can identify him by any number names as you like. There is no Hindu God or Christian God or Jew God or Buddhist/Jain God or Muslim God in this universe! Then why followers of each religion have given different names/forms, method of worship etc to their Gods and fight each other? Well, that is because of the inherent heterogeneous characteristics and divisiveness of human race belonging to divergent geographical origins, linguistic, and cultural, backgrounds. Anthropologists have classified all human beings by a common prefix as “Homo sapiens’’ (primate species to which modern human beings belong), as the basic structure of all human beings are clearly distinguishable from all other species of animals. The only difference is that human beings are endowed with ‘Vishesha Buddhi’ which has been deprived to all other beings. Yet, one can find that each human being is clearly different from the other, in looks, attitudes, tastes, behavior and thinking. That is the uniqueness of nature and divine creation.

Usually, faith in a particular religion is infused into each one of us right from the very childhood by our parents. Very few people change their faith, in between, unless they are persuaded/influenced/converted by force/inducement/threat. Voluntary religious conversions by genuine conviction are very few. Conversions only help to enlarge the numbers of one particular religious sect against others, leading to increasing tensions, conflicts and wars. The tendency to beef up the strength of the members of their religion is mainly found only among Christians and Muslims. Ultimately, all religions can provide access only to a single God in charge of this whole universe! Those who oppose this view are either religious fanatics or they have a vested interest in proliferating their religion/God or they are doing it for their political gains!

God at close quarters!

Let us now proceed to have a closer look at GOD of followers of “Sanatana Dharma”, (Hindus) the oldest form of spiritual pursuit in the world Vs the rest. Of the total world population of 5.8 Billion in 2015, 2.1 billion(31.2%) are Christians,1.8 Billion(24%) are Muslims,1.1 Billion(15%) are Hindus,0.5 Billion(6.9 %) are Buddhists, Unaffliated people are 1.2 Billion(16%),Folk Religion are 0.4 Billion(5.7%) and Jews constitute only 0.01 Billion(0.2%).The growth projections of Christians is 224/225 M by 2030–35 and 2055–60 period .Muslims population in the world is expected to cross the Christian population by 225 M in 2030–35 and excel to 232 M in 2055–60! The Hindu population in the world is expected to be around 1 Billion, mostly in India, even by the turn of the 21st Century. ( Based on Pew Research Centre studies on Religious Population Growth) .

The ‘Semitic Religions ’ ie. Christianity, Judaism and Islam and even Buddhism/ Jainism are less than 2500 years old. The Semitic Religions appeared on the world scene with a Book based scripture, Prophet and sword to spread their wings. The turbulence we noticed on the religious front in the world is only about 2500 old! It is doubtful whether the Semitic Religions may survive another 2500 years of its existence, due to inter / internal religious struggles. The Sunni Vs Shias, the Christians vs Muslims, Jews Vs Muslims are so intense that it can trigger a third world war any time. However, scientific projections of religious growth, give weightage to the growth of Muslims and Christian population over all other religions. But the Hindus, followers of “Sanatana Dharmam”, may outlive all other religious sects due to its inherent strength.

Eka sloki of Shankara.

Adi Shankara was borne as a Naboothiri Brahmin, at Kaladi in Kerala in the 8th Century AD. He is considered as a divine incarnation of Sri Parameswara. He was born to devout Brahmin couple, called Sivaguru and and Aryamba. They made ardent prayers to Lord Sri Parameswara in Vadakkumnathan temple in Trichur, for a child. Pleased with their prayers, God appeared to them in their dream and sought their choice, whether they wanted a short lived brilliant son or a simpleton child, with long life! They opted for the former choice. When Shamkara was only three years old, he lost his father and he was brought up by his mother. From the beginning ,Shamkara, was attracted towards spirituality and sanyasam. He showed remarkable scholarship in his spiritual studies and mastered all the four Vedas by the age of eight years.

Shankara’s commentaries on the premier ten Upanishads, Brahma Sutram and Bhagavad Gita (called Prastana Trayam) are the authentic texts in support of Advaita Vedantam. Borne as a child prodigy, in matters of Vedas, Upanishads and Mantrams , he set out to conquer the spiritual summit of India by engaging in ‘Tarka’ (Debates) with other acclaimed masters in the field. He had only a short life span of 32 years, as willed by God. During his country wide pilgrimage from very early childhood, he sharpened his spiritual knowledge and intellectual discourses/debating skills under the tutelage Sage Bhata Govindapada, in whose Ashram on the banks of river Narmada, he stayed for a reasonable period of time. Govindapada was a ‘shishya’ of famous Rishi Gaudapada, who wrote the authoritative commentary on ‘Mandukyoupanishad’, widely known as ‘Mandukya Karika’. After achieving a lot of success in the revival of Hinduism in the ancient India, Shankara seems to have abandoned his body at a very young age of 32, from the Himalyan abode of Kedar. In the meanwhile, he was able to set up four celebrated Mutts at four distant parts of India, at Kanchi/Sringeri in the South, Dwaraka on the West coast, Badrinath in the North and Puri on the East Coast of India, which are functional even now. He set in motion a virtual spiritual revolution to revive Hinduism and this development heralded the virtual extinction of Buddhism from Indian soil. Undoubtedly, Adi Shankara laid the foundations for the revival of Hinduism in India.

As a young ascetic, Shankara realized that those who venture out into the field of study of Vedantam in search of ultimate truth, are foxed due to innumerable obstacles. Traditional Brahmin priests had monopolized the field of spiritual knowledge in ancient India. They were exclusively engaged as priests in all temples by the Kshatriya rulers in charge of innumerable small states. Brahmins virtually drove out people belonging to other Varnas from the management/control of all religious institutions, in their selfish interests to protect their superiority and means of livelihood. In the ancient India, people from all Varnas were free to practice spirituality. The story of Valmiki who wrote Ramayanam and Veda Vyasa who wrote Mhabharatam, Bhagavatam and who edited and compiled all the four Vedas stand as eloquent proof of my assertion. Even among the ‘Saptarishis’ some of the members like Agastya,Kasyapa and Viswamitra were from the Dalit class. But in later years, spiritual Knowledge was practically held back from people belonging to other Varnas, particularly from Vyshyas and Shudras, by the Brahmins.. Brahmins and Khashtriyas practiced untouchability and discrimination on the basis of newly emerged ‘castes and creed’ in the society. This had caused wide spread social disunity, and deterioration in the social mobility of the Hindu society.

Vedas, Upanishats and its commentaries in Sanskrit language are pretty tough and beyond the easy comprehension of ordinary people. Knowledge of Sanskrit was a prerequisite for acquiring spiritual knowledge. Sanskrit language was the key factor for spiritual progress. Organized educational institutions were non-existent in most parts of India. Asharmams of sages were the only refuge for seekers of knowledge. As access to Ashrams/Tapovanams were restricted by the Kshatriya rulers and Brahmins, a major section of the society were cut off from the main stream of spiritual knowledge .Universities at Taxasila and Harappa were set up only 2500 years ago by Buddhist scholars for the spread of Buddhism. For acquiring spiritual knowledge by Hindus, one has to live under a single roof with a devoted Sage, who is a scholar-tutor, for years. Even Shankara was treated as an outcaste by the local Nambuthiry Brahmins of his native place, even after he was accepted as an authority on Vedas and Upanishads. The local Nambuthiris never extended to him normal courtesies due to a brilliant scholar/philosopher. Shankara had given a solemn promise to his Mother, when set out for ‘Sanyasam’ that he would be near her bed side, whenever she wished. Towards the end of his Mother’s life, when he visited his native village in Kaladi, the local Nambuthiries never participated in the cremation of Shankara’s mother, after her demise. The communal and caste barriers were so strong in India, then.

In order to overcome this handicap, Shri Shankara wrote several simple Vedanta Prakaranams for the use of ordinary people. If one reads these Prakaranams, with due attention, many of the doubts of a genuine seeker of truth will be cleared. Ordinary people are of widely different attitudes, tastes and occupations. While some are captivated by the logical arguments advanced by the writers, others are fascinated by the literary/lyrical beauty and style of the works. Perhaps to attract ordinary people who are preoccupied with life’s struggles, Shri Shankara wrote the ‘Eka sloki’, in which the ‘Vedanta Satyam’ is very concisely revealed, in a simple style. Shri Shankara followed the Upanishadic style of a question answer session between a Guru and Shishya to reveal the ultimate truth. To the intelligent questions raised by the teacher, the student is made to give replies-the style is so simple and easily grasped. Let us proceed to the text of ‘Eka Sloki’-

“Kim jyotistava bhanumanahanime Ratrau pradipadikam

Syadevam ravidipadarsana vidhau Kim jyotirakhyahime

Chakshu stasya nimilinadi samaye Kim dhirdiyo darsane

Kim tatrahamato bhavan paramak Jyotostatadasmi prabho” !

Meaning: Q. What is the source of light to you?

A. Sun is the source of light to me during day time and at

night I get light from lamps etc.

Q. Alright, Tell me, what is the source of light that enable you to see sun and lamps lamps the during day time and at night?

A. My eyes enable me to see sun, lamps etc during day and night.

Q. OK, When you close your eyes, what is the source of your light?

A. When my eyes are closed, my intelligence is the source of my light.

Q. What illumines your intelligence?

A. ‘I’ myself is the source of my intelligence.

Q. So the “ I” in ‘you’ is the final ‘light’ of all lights in this world!

A. I agree with you, Prabho !

In a short and concise conversation, the ultimate truth is revealed to seeker by the learned teacher. All living entities have this self-luminous consciousness called ‘ I ‘ in existence, inside. This consciousness is also called the ‘soul.’ It is this ‘indivisible consciousness’ that enlivens all ‘sukshma’ and ‘stoola’ parts of our body. Once this consciousness leaves the body, we are dead to this world. That is why the Rishis postulated that the gross world outside exists only so long as we are alive and we have full consciousness. It is in the light of this self-luminance that the world outside exists for us. So, our consciousness alone is true. All others are inanimate. Vedanta classify this universe under two different heads-‘Drik and Drisyam’- the man who sees the world and the world that is seen. In the language of physics, matter and energy. The finite form of matter is energy. In the early part of twentieth century man has succeeded in breaking this barrier. Nuclear energy was invented by breaking the barrier between matter and energy. People now realize the frightful impact of that discovery. Albert Einstein did not directly invent the Atomic Bomb. But he regretted his valuable assistance to the US Govt. to develop the nuclear Bomb. Now it is a very powerful tool in the hands of unscrupulous Presidents/Prime Ministers of nuclear nations to terrorize the whole world, of total destruction!

What is the solution to the problem?

I started this paper with a problem I noticed in India, of growing number of our youngsters getting alienated from spirituality. This growing ‘spiritual ignorance’ that may end in a calamity was clearly anticipated by our seers, thousands of years back! They had found a right solution to the problem. They held that the very purpose of human life itself is to acquire “Purushartham” through Dharma, Artha ,Kama and Moksha”. ‘Know Thyself’ (Who am I ? ) is the route they have chosen for the search. Not many of our youngsters have any clear awareness of these matters. Their targets and achievements in life are ‘ worldly ’ and they have no hope of any life beyond death. So they don’t care for spirituality at all ! Even in this life, for achieving success they adopt any means and when they fail they curse their fate and go down in life miserably! Their ideas of successful living is acquisition of wealth, power, status in society by any means and greater sensual enjoyment in life. When they fail, they feel miserable, frustrated and turn towards suicide from life. Many of them get afflicted by serious diseases, divorces, accidents in life and for all these setbacks they curse their fate (God), without knowing that they alone are responsible for their own fate and it is their estrangement from GOD and divinely ordained “Dharma” that has created all these tragedies in life !

In Bhagavad Gita it is clearly stated in ‘Purushottama Yoga’ (Ch-15–10–11) that :-

“Utkramantam stitam vyapi bhunjanam va gunanyitam

Vimutha nanupasyanti pasyanti jnana chakshutaha

Yantato yoginaschinam pasyantatmanavaastitam

Yatantoapyakritatmanam nainam pasyantacetasa”.

Meaning:- Those who are deluded does not perceive HIM at all ! They go forth and enjoy all the three Gunas. Only those who have the ‘eye of knowledge’ perceive HIM. Yogis who strives to see the Lord lodged in themselves, see HIM very well. Others, even if they strive, see HIM not. It is therefore absolutely necessary that our youngsters should develop their ‘eye for knowledge’ for ‘Iswara Darsanam’ and for success and contentment in life. Adoption of spirituality as a path to realize ultimate truth in life would the correct guide and philosophy to success in life. Getting the services of a right Guru/Spiritual master is, no doubt, a good solution. But the process of identifying a right Guru may be difficult, expensive and sometimes it may end in a tragedy as not many devoted Gurus are available in the market; rather the number of imposters are too many! So “Svadhyaya”, (start reading books on spirituality) participation in ‘Jnana yajnas’, pilgrimages conducted by reputed spiritual organizations, practice of yoga, meditation etc are the ways suggested. My own experience in life is that as you progress in your spiritual path, Guru/s suitable to your path/ taste will come to your assistance, by God’s grace, and the journey beyond would be easier.

In Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna has made the following assurance to all devotees:-

“ Sarva dharman paritajya

Mameka saram vraja

Aham tva sarvapapebhyo

Mokshayshyami ma suca.” (BG-18–66)

After giving all advice contained in the Bhagavad Gita, Bhagavan has finally assured Arjuna that even if they sacrifice all their Dharmas, they may take ultimate refuge in HIM alone and I shall deliver you of all the sins and assure you of moksha prapti. What a great assurance and solace to a forlorn human soul! So, one can abandon everything in his life, except his ‘saranam’ to GOD! All human beings should hold on to that ‘Satyam’, as the last refuge, till the very end!

God was a very ‘familiar entity’ in my life right from early childhood, thanks to the upbringing. Regular visit to the nearby temples on specified days, and worship of different deities was inculcated in me by my grandmother and mother, from very early childhood. Joining a Christian Middle School and a Christian College added new dimensions to my religious diversity. Several questions arose in my mind ? Why, there are several Gods in different attire, adornment and methods of worship? And why does every religion swear by their God as the only God people should worship? Further, a bully class mate of mine once threatened me that I would be baptized into Christianity, by sprikling holy water kept inside the Church ! The ‘religious confusion’ from my mind was cleared only after Rev. A.A. Pylee, Professor of History in the Union Christian College, Alwaye, gave an inspired lecture to our class about Advaita Vedanta and the role of Adi Shankara, in the revival of Hinduism. It was my fortune that a practicing Christian priest/teacher opened my eyes to a new vista into Hinduism! I was very proud of the fact that a simple Nambuthiry Brahmin boy, borne and brought up in Kaladi near Alwaye, rose to the eminence of causing revival of Hinduism in the whole world, in the 8th Century. That ignited my mind to search out the wider realm of spiritual knowledge, for the ultimate truth that would satisfy my spiritual hunger. My endeavor is continuing even now!