I have my own way of thinking about God. This thinking has crystallized after reading both our Hindu as well as western philosophies. I know that nothing is final in philosophy and I myself may change my thinking with time. As of now, these are the views I hold about God and the Universe. I am particularly indebted to the western philosopher Spinoza and think similar to him on many issues but differ from him on some. I am also indebted to the Upanishads themselves.
God which I call the Supreme Being (Brahman of the Upanishads) is the only existence and there is nothing that is not God. Its existence is not dependent on anything else. It is the cause and reason of all existence. It is infinite, eternal, self-existent, self-caused. It does not have anything called will. It does not do anything thinking of an end. If it does something thinking of an end it means it has a desire. Desire arises only when something is lacking. When there is nothing else apart from it, when it is complete by itself why would it have a desire or will? You can see that a lot of this thinking is also stated in the Upanishads. But there are many aspects on which I differ with the Upanishads.
This Supreme Being does not have a separate identity from ours as humans tend to think, we are an inseparable particle of that whole. The Supreme Being does not think. Thinking is essentially a human process. We think about something because there are many things we do not know and many ifs and buts in life. We think about things that give us pleasure and that give us pain. But the Supreme Being is above pain and pleasure and it is supreme and no other principle guides it. It is all comprehensive, and is the collective whole of everything. Therefore it has nothing to think about. Simply because man thinks he feels that the Supreme Being should also think.
I feel that the Universe stretches in an infinite number of dimensions. We do not know and can neither visualize what lies behind the Universe. Einstein says that the universe curves in on itself and we cannot go anywhere without the universe being there. But despite all his brilliance Einstein is still a human being and his thinking is essentially human. We know only 3 dimensions-Length, Breadth and Height. Even if we consider Time to be a dimension there are only 4 dimensions known to man. The Supreme Being stretches in an infinite number of dimensions. How much may science develop, man would never be able even visualize the ultimate reality because he simply does not possess the mental faculties to comprehend it.
I have a great analogy (this is my own idea and I have not taken it from any ones thought) for visualizing the role of man in the universe (which in turn is God). See the human cell, which our scientists have discovered. Cell is a part of the human body. It multiplies and therefore the body grows, it dies and the body dies. It is a part and parcel of our body and is never separate from it. It can never exist separate from the body. Similarly a body can never exist without a cell. The cell unconsciously fulfills all the functions that are required for the human body. It does not know that it is a part of the body because it cannot think like humans do. It does not have a brain. Similarly each particle in the Universe is a part and parcel of the whole. The Universe cannot exist without that particle and the particle cannot exist without the Universe. I call each particle perfect because it fulfills its function perfectly. It cannot be anything else but perfect because if this particle is imperfect, then so is the Supreme Being of whom it is a part. This is the reason why I do not believe in Good and Bad per se. All deeds happen within God and are again perfect by themselves. That is why I do not believe in anything called sin either.
But if that is the case, then how to determine what a person should do. Good and bad can be defined in a different way without linking them to God. That is by taking society as a base. Why is the society formed? It is for the mutual benefit of the individuals that are part of it. Man is like any other animal, the only difference being his brain. In the olden times man lived in the open and in caves as animals do today. But that was an insecure life. He had to continuously hunt for food. It may be available one day and not available on another. He had to sometime fight for his food. Similarly, some other man may covet his mate and take her by force if he is stronger. There was chaos and the stronger always prevailed. Even the stronger man was not safe from attack from a still stronger man. Therefore everyone was insecure. Slowly with time man discovered that association with each other protected him from such insecurity. That is how society came into existence. Since society is formed for mutual benefit, anything that threatens to destroy the fabric of society should be termed as bad and that helps the smooth perpetration of the society as good. Seen this way, a murder is bad because it hurts an individual for whose benefit society is formed. A person helping another person is good because it will improve the security of the person who is a part of the society. Good and bad can also change as per the circumstances and are only relative the ultimate aim being the smooth continuation of the society. At the same time none of the concepts set forth by the society should be accepted unquestioningly. Everything should be questioned and inquired into to find whether it helps the smooth existence of the individuals that form its part. It should also be dynamic and adapt itself to the changing environment so that it accepts modern ideas continuously and does not hinder the development of independent thought. There was a time when people were persecuted just because they said that the earth revolved around the sun. Giordano Bruno was burnt at stake for believing in the concept of pantheism. I feel that those things are bad because they restrict the freedom of an individual and thereby harm the society as a whole.
I do not believe in a soul. Consciousness and body are never separate. Consciousness arises when certain conditions of the body are fulfilled and ceases when those conditions are extinguished. We can never find the whys and where fore’s of this because this is related to the ultimate reality and we do not have the mental faculties to even comprehend it.
The problem with man is, he thinks that he can understand everything that is happening in the universe. He thinks that because he has a structured way of thinking, everything should come into his thought. It never occurs to him that he is no better than a particle of sand in the universe’s (I should say a multiverse) scheme of things. A cell can never comprehend its significance in the body it helps to perpetrate; similarly man can never comprehend his significance either.
Man has invented God in his own model to explain away the unexplained. Man feels, so he expects the God to feel, man juxtaposes all the good qualities as defined by him on to God. Since all the good qualities as defined by society are appended to God, the concept of God is never bad for society. God is in fact the ideal man as per society. This concept puts the fear of the other world into man and tempers him to an extent so that he moderates his actions and controls himself. That is why I say that religion is a necessary thing for society. But it should not become so rigid as to restrict the progress of the society itself for whose benefit it has been formed.
No religion was founded with a bad intention, and the idea is to bring peace to humans. Unfortunately, religious interpreters twist religion for their own benefit with the result that the original teachings get obscured. An amazing example is Buddhism. Buddhism was founded as a reaction to the idolatry of Hinduism and Buddha was totally against idol worship. Nevertheless, his followers worship Buddha’s image now, which is totally against his own teaching. This is how interpreters distort religion and change its original meaning.
No comments:
Post a Comment