Enough has been said and discussed about the concept of God. The never ending inquiry about theology, evolution of life and both will never find sure conclusions. Lately, I have been undergoing a mind boggling rumination regarding the interrelation (if it exists) among faith, religion, astrology, god, philosophy and karma, not necessarily in that order.
Can it be that prior to 1500 AD, there was no scientific explanation to why rains occurred or why did the sun set, and the people in those days personified the natural elements to be some supernatural forces or Gods. Is this how nature worshiping started? Otherwise how do we say that the gods too had the same anatomy as ours? People had visualized them as their look alike. And to express the magnificence of powerful gods in imagination the dual hands and multiple heads were added.
If religion does not answer the life questions then what can? Can Philosophy do? We have the most amazing philosophy in India. The Hindu philosophy helps one to quench the thirst of inquisitions through self study.
Again, I am hovered with a regret that religion had taken over philosophy. Why is the influence of chanting mantras in Sanskrit above the power of philosophy? Why had the learned clan in ancient India not pressed on spreading philosophy but bound people in blind faith? Faith, in its literal meaning, is a belief without proof. What was the logic behind the rituals? The way things were prescribed to be done. How were they going to answer questions like why we were born on this land, belong to these parents, belonged to this caste, this class and this race? There had to be some credible calculation.
It is unfortunate that secular ideologies and teachings were overshadowed by religions and rituals. There had to be philosophy and doctrine rather than god and religion. For me, my dream doctrine would be a school of thought which preaches secularism, harmony, help, duty and ethics, patience and tolerance towards others opinions and perceptions.
After all, all that we possess is not caste, religion, race and wealth but consciousness. To harness this inner potential should have been made everyone’s dharma. It is not god but consciousness and mind that should be observed. These entities are like time and space; vast, immeasurable, possess no dimensions such as length and breadth or starting and ending. This argument stands out in support of another ancient philosophy which lost light, called the Carvaka or Materialistic Philosophy. This says that entire function of a human being is his knowledge and his Conscious. In today’s society of established believes, it is impossible to revive philosophy.
The Bible says that god is omnipotent and omnipresent. I am asking is it not ‘energy’ that is present everywhere? That shows energy itself is God, god is energy. Like we worship other natural elements, we have been worshiping energy although we haven’t acknowledged it. It is the cosmic energy that fills every space carried by particles and waves travelling in time. There is abundant cosmic energy which brings balance. It is the energy of supreme consciousness and intelligence which helps in leading a happy life and also transforms the conscious. It obviously requires effort to gain command over the mind. For a common man, this sort of understanding is difficult. An ordinary human being needs something easier to trust upon, to feel secure. That is why faith prevails.
Someone who escaped at the nick of the time from a dreadful accident or achieved something without expectation would term it as either god’s blessings, luck or favoring stars! I don’t deny astrology to be mathematics and science, it absolutely is. But, the pandit in the temple asking us to perform a graha shanti puja, people offering costly ghee and milk in the background chorus of chanting some mantras in an alien language is something beyond my comprehension. How is it that even greatest reformers like Vivekananda haven’t spoken about Probability?
Keeping in mind all the restrains in your life, for a certain event to occur, probabilities play a role. The Schrodinger’s equations shows it lies between 0 or 100%. It cannot be determined accurately whether it is 0 or 100 as the wave functions vary with time. To that matter, nothing of astrology or quantum physics can predict anything accurately.
The theories of Karma Siddantham and destiny can also find explanation from probabilities and possibilities. The Karma mimamasa of Hindu Philosophy professes that Karma is not god- centric but human-centric. Until we are born, it is a probabilistic event, after that, probabilities are transformed into possibilities. We can influence the outcomes of our lives through our Consciousness. Our intelligence and free will to react and respond is what decides our destiny. It was rightly said by someone- “Our destiny lies within us”. The concept of dharma, or performing duty is to establish harmony and peace in cosmic life. And it does not require any explanation as to why our karma comes back to us. It comes due to repetition in interaction which in turn increases probability.
I must have sounded too fanatic throughout. I am not bent upon proving that religion is irrelevant. As a secular atheist, I respect other’s belief in God. I am not for propagandizing the scientists fraternity but all this is a fair contemplation of any aware person. My zestful inquisitiveness will not end here. If life is about touching, feeling and living in the present moment, why believe in superficial things or invisible supernatural things?