The Creator !!!

The Creator !!!

Saw the movie 'PK' yesterday, a satire on the 'business of God' very much in line with an earlier film 'OMG'. Near the end of the movie in the debate, pk identifies the key difference between the 'belief in God' and the 'agents of God'. This was presented with forceful argument.

But I will like to take it beyond this and here is my submission on the creator which carries forward the thoughts expressed in my earlier blog  'God & Science' (http://agarwalsp.blogspot.in/2012/09/god-and-science.html)

Dr Raghuvir in his essay ‘Taj’ wrote ‘Manushya Ishwar ki sarvottam kriti hai – Man is God’s best creation’. 

Sometimes I look at this differently and is tempted to believe that it might be more appropriate to say “God is the best creation of human mind”.

Humans as they would have progressed from an ‘Adi-manav’ to a more intelligent being as compared to other animals, would experience many natural and personal phenomena for which he had no visible explanation. This would lead him to create a super-being who makes all these inexplicable things happen around him and also in his personal life. In moments of despair, he would look to support from a higher super-being which soon translated into belief in God.

And what a belief it was as to perpetuate for all times to come and became a source of great inspirations to humans as they started worshipping to please him. The paintings, the sculptures, the dance forms, the poetries, the decorations, the architecture of temples and churches. These all became a part of this creation. It became a source of great strength and a means to follow a value system for the good of the humankind. 

But this was not all. They were also wars, invasions, atrocities ... all this in His name and it is here that the danger lies.

So while we can only salute this ‘Creation', we also need to need to protect this beautiful belief created by us. 

Mahabharata - Dharma & karuna (piety & dignity)

The last episode of ‘Mahabharata’ helped define Dharma in its true sense.

During the ‘dice game’, it was quite disturbing to see ‘adharma’ winning in the presence of all the great followers of ‘Dharma’ .. Bhishma, Drona, Vidur and Dhrishrastra himself. What disturbed was how so much indignities can be inflicted upon when all such great believers and practitioners of dharma were present.

This was replied by Balram and Krishna in the last episode.

Balram said “ It was Dhrithrashtra’s ‘Dharma ka abhiman’ which prevented him from subjecting indignities on his brothers and wife.

Then Krishna discusses ‘what is Dharma’. He says ‘Dharma is like a tree, of which ‘pran and vachan - vows’ are only its branches. But its root is ‘karuna – dignity & piety’. If there is no dignity-piety, there is no dharma.

In the dice game all the followers of dharma were following their vachan and pran but had forgotten their’ karuna – piety & respect for dignity’. Therefore they allowed ‘adharma’ to win while they were holding on to their hollow dried branches of pran and vachan.

What a powerful thought from such a great philosopher and story teller, Ved vyas, who has such a great understanding of Hindu thought & philosophy.

Only if we had understood this important place of ‘karuna – piety and dignity of humans’ then all those atrocities which is continued in the name of ‘dharma-culture-tradition’ could be avoided.

Remember greatest human virtue is ‘Dignity’ which came much before the religion itself.

Blog 2

God and Science

Introduction

It was just a coincidence that I came to know that Sudhanshu Maharaj is giving his discourse in Singapore at a temple very close to where we stay.

I was quite impressed by the one-liner of the Maharaja on TV which said ‘ Rachnatmak hone ke liye Srajnatmak soch jaroori hai’ meaning ‘ To be creative, you need to think positively’. What a powerful thought !!! I was therefore looking forward to listen to him and that opportunity fell in my lap here at Singapore.

The Discourse

Sudhanshu maharaj's discourse was simple but impressive without too much 

paraphernalia. He spoke in a simple tone more conversational. What he preaches also is simple methods by which you can live in peace and harmony with your family, neighbors and surroundings. He strongly recommended a place for personal meditation or ‘manan’. The session starts with a relaxing ‘Dhyan’ exercise and culminates with a question answer session. Even the Q-A session is very simple with people asking questions related to family, health and children.

The Question

However it was the last question that made me write this blog. A person spoke about the current scientific theory of creation of the universe, known as ‘Big bang’ and wanted to know if it contradicts the belief of ‘God as creator of the universe. 

Maharajji, as expected tried to downplay the role of science and held on to the religious belief of GOD as the creator.

I have really no problem with this. Everybody is entitled to his belief. But my own opinion in this regard are little different.

GOD and Science

I have been brought up with deep faith in religion and GOD and my education has taught me to be scientific in my thoughts. I do not find any problem with these two to co-exist. In fact there roles are quite different. The following shloka from Gita is one of my favorites:

The first five parts of earth, water, fire, air and sky represent the physical parts of the universe whereas Heart, Mind and Ego represent the consciousness.

What science does is to investigate the true nature of the physical aspects of our universe whereas the religion and spirituality guide our consciousness.

Scientific era

As I delved into the scientific discoveries of Galileo, Newton, Einstein and so many others, particularly after my retirement and return from Colombo in 2003, there is no doubt that scientific discoveries are one of the greatest endeavors of human mind. I am awed at the intellect, perseverance and dedication with which these scientists worked to unravel the laws of nature and created better societies for us. Their task was not simple. They had to work against the existing beliefs, even getting executed in the process. But as Newton said, they kept on standing over the shoulders of their predecessors to see far beyond. Today we know that various natural phenomenon. Like thunder, lightning, solar-moon eclipses, comets etc. are not ‘ acts of God’ but are normal physical phenomenon governed by laws of Physics.

Early Scientists

When we talk of our scriptures and mythological stories, this was also an attempt by the early humans who were trying to find why these things happen. His early mind assigned these to ‘acts of God’ and created many mythological tales. These tales, though without any scientific basis, helped the human mind to find an answer to natural phenomenon. As time passed, he would have seen a certain pattern in these activities and started wondering if there were some natural laws that made these events happen. This helped him build up a logical reasoning.  These were the first scientists who worked with minimum of tools but explored lots of possibilities. Their life would not have been easy, as they had to work against the existing beliefs. But it was their perseverance that enabled science to progress. All the older civilizations can boast of such early scientists.

Conclusion

The discovery of ‘Big bang’ is one such event which we all, as a human race can be proud of. Our own beliefs in GOD and religion will continue to guide our consciousness.

So let us salute Edwin Hubble and others while we hope GOD to guide us to live happily and I said in my last blog:

Prayer

Prayer                                                                                                                       7-Sep-12

It is customary to start a new activity with a prayer. Following in this tradition, my first blog is a Prarthna of which I have very fond remembrance since my childhood. But first the prarthna and then I will like to share those fond memories.

I was in 6^th or 7^th standard, about 12 years old when the evening prayer system started in our family. Ours was a large joint family with four families residing close to each other and shared the joys and sorrows together.

I was very young at that time and can only suppose that the motivation for such a system possibly arose from an event which had shaken up the whole family. My grand-uncle shri Lakshminarayanji, we used to call him ‘babbaji’ both with affection and respect, was the guiding figure of the family. He must have been the originator of this system to bring the family together and to face the challenges together.

On every Sunday, we all, about 50, will assemble on the terrace in the evening at 7 PM for 1 hour prayer session.

After recitation of this prayer, some of us will recite Ramayana choupayees, Surdas Pad or Kabir’s dohe and other similar devotional or inspirational verses/prose. Since I used to read these type of books regularly, everybody will encourage me to recite these which I did with great enthusiasm.

There are now only a few members of that time who may remember this event like Balmukund chachaji at Kareli, Shivnarayan chachaji at Indore, Narendra chachaji and Munnu bhai at Gadarwara. I don’t know if Chandu and Rajju still remember since they were very young !!!

This prayer is so much more relevant in today’s context when we pray for ‘sahnaavabatu, sahna-bhunaktu and sahya-veerya-karvavahe’.

My First Post

Hii,

Welcome to my newly created blog with help from Karann, my grandson!!!!