Irrespective of whether God exists or not and what form does God takes, God-seeking programs are self-serving programs in most human beings. Some people hate to believe in doing things that have no scientific basis. Some people love to do things that make them feel better. Some play cricket because they feel better: some peope just love cricketrs playig cricket because they feel better during that time. Some people go on top of mountain peaks at great pains to see the Sun set or rise because they feel better although they know the phenomenon is the result of the earth's revoultion.
Some persos listen to music to feel better. Some people just sing to themselves to feel better. Some compose poetry and feel better. Some people indulge in day dreaming to feel better. Desiring God is a similar activty. Most people desire God because they feel better when they do so. God-seeking programs in human toys are internally consistent: the program makes a human being to feel better and helps the program to run efficiently than otherwise. People pray and worship God to feel better; they discuss about God because they feel better by doing so. The more a God-seeking program human toy is under stress and strain, the more it gets relief by desiring God. They do not orry whether God exists or not: they just believe in God and dvelop faith and devotion on what thay have not found proof of existence.
God seeking may seem to be a kind of addiction or blind faith supersition. It is just similar to people believng in the power of the national army to defeat the army of the eemy natin's army. It is hust like the blind faith that revolution led by the Communists will soon end the oppression of the poor by the rich. It is just like the supersitions that the Government is powerful enough to eradicate economic recesion, unemployment and inflation. It is just like the small chld's belief that its father is the most powerful in the World. It is just like the scientists' dream that one day human beings can destroy and recreate the Universe.
Irrespective what notion a human toy has about God, the desire to be with or without God - however superstitous or scientific - is an integral elment of the software progrm that runs the human toys. By praying to God, some human toys get peace of mind. By praying to God, some people get confidence in themselves. By singing prayers, some peole enjoy both peace and happiness. Concentrating on God helps some to forget all worries and problems. Some people come out of fear by desiring God to protect them. Some love god to enjoy the plasure of loving one who does not reject love or want some gift of love. It is so simple to Trust God because one knows that God will reveal your secrets to others. When one feels bad because one has done something one would not have liked to do, one finds relief in seeking pardon of God. Seeking God helps one to forget failure in discharging responsibilities assumed by one. It is so simple to derive benefits out of God-seeking. Human toys software therefore often has this God-seeking element to enable other parts of the software to remain active. And, because of its prevalence, God-seeking it appears to be the most popular concept in human beings. If God really existed and asked for rating, God would have recived overwhelmingly dominating rating. Just try taking a few repeated large sample surveys asking people to rate, on an unanynomous basis, God and many other popular things in the world including sex, nation, soccer, any government on a 10-point scale. God's popularity can be measured empirically.
It may look surprising that a concept over which there is no agreement, something whose existence has not yet been scientifically established is so popular. But, it would not remain a surprise if this God-seeking program is the most widely found element in human software.
Most people seek God because God-seeking guna is the most common genetic inheritance. Yet, getting God seems to be the rarest of events among human being. To realize God all the time as an infinite, ceaseless source of all things in creation, as something inherent in each infinitsimal part of the creation, and as both both contained in and container of creation is perhaphs beyond the sensual and mental capability of human toys. The probabilty of this part of the human toy software getting activated appears to be as close to close zero as possible. Gita says that this realization is the ultimate objective worthy seeking. The method is Yoga, something almost impossible to practice with perfection.
All god-seeking is desirable but the best is when that ends in becoming unceasing, infinte, ego-less desire-free, action-less, unperturbed existentence of equanimity.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
Why Desire God?: Gita & God 37
Man believes in/ wants/ does something or the otherdepending on what the properties he has genetically inherited make him belive, make him want/ desire and forces him to do. Ultimately Man does not do anything beyond what the God-sent message implanted in him(through His creative and transformation process) enables and directs him to believe, think and do. Each being is a toy manufactured and operated by a self-suffiecient Guna-filled software. Man has no independent status: a toy is the slave of the properties and gunas that makes the toy. Only some toys have software that makes them desire God. Desiring God is not an independent decision of a toy but the result of genetically inherited guns software responding to the external impulses activating the software.
The question is what does God want by creating toys such as Man or other things?
God's Creation evolve and behave in the variety of ways and since He is desire-free, ego-free and attachment-free, He can have no want. He just witnesses, by being everywhere and in every thing, the drama that the illusive properties of desire, want, ego and attachment and etc, enact in the process of infinite existence and transformation of His Creation.
It is for the same reason of differential guna properties inherited and the external impulses, one Man wants to know what Man really wants, while another Man does not see any purpose of trying to know that. The first man may perhaps come to know one day the answer, the second man may also come to understand the answer without the urge to know: the chances of any Man knowing the entire thing however is very low - just about zero.
Still, the software and the external impuses, forces some people to desire God, some others to desire knowing God and still some others not worry about God while a few to preaqach that since God does not exist, there is no need to try knowing or desring God. Different toys do different things.
Let us assume that God does not exist and hence the toys were not made by God but the result of some chance factors which are unknown as yet or unknowable (so far no one and no scientist has been able to claim full knowledge of who created these so-called toys that compose the entire Creation). Some toys therefore can just call that that unknown factors or the unknowable factors as nothing but a single God. It is just a term for the ultimate source of or cause of all that is in the Creation. So, simple an idea: God is the yet Unknown or the Unknowable ultimate cause/ source of everything that science is trying to find out without success so far.
Thus, if the Unknown or the Unknowable exists, God exists. If something exists, it is possible that some toys may desire to know the Unknown or the Unknowable. The scientist toys as a group are programmed to do that ceaselessly and the method they follow is the method of science. But there are some other toys which are programmed to believe that the scientific methods may not succeed in knowing the ultimate Unknown or the Unkowable (since no scientists can provide a scientific guarantee to that effect, even though Science has discovered many Truths that were not known earlier and some celebrated scientist had admitted about a century ago that he knew very little of the what all has to be known). So, some "non-science" toys try to know the Truth/ Unkowable by alternative methods like faith or meditation and the like. But to know or desire something these toys needed some definition of what they are to desire or like to know. Different God-seeking program toys have different definitions.
All who desire God to start with generally have ego, desire and functioning senses. That's common to those who do not desire God. The desire for God is often a subsidiary desire. First, the desire may be to avoid fear of adverse things to happen: by desiring God and praying the fear goes. Ruling out adverse situations is the primary desire, getting over that fear and desire to get God's help is the subsidiary desire. Second, some people desire to see beutiful and amazing things. The subsidary desire is to pray and thank God who creates such beautiful and amazing things in the Universe and in life so that He gives or continues the boon of satisfying the desire to enjoy beatiful and amazing things. Third, some people has the primary desire to acquire some powers from the Almighty infintely powerful God: the subsidiary desire is to get in touch through some subsidiary desire to get in touch with God like prayer and good deeds so that God gives the power to do great things and achieve success. Fourthly, there are some persons who desire to have peace and bliss that they think only God can give: the subsidiary desire is to try to get into God's fold by prayer, austerity and good deed. Fifth, some persons just want to know God and desire to merge with God for no other reason. Many people have more than one of these desires, depending on the software of ego-guna-sense combination they inherit and the external environment they happen to face at different points of time.
The 'non-science" toys are programmed to desire God/ the Ultimate Unknown: from a scientist' point of view this may appear unscientific and meaningles. But these toys exist in reality among our midst: they include rich and poor toys, educated and uneducated toys, men and women, children and parents, scientists, engineers, medical doctors, politicians,and so on. God in Gita says such 'God desiring programmed toys' of various types exist and this is empirically verifiable hypothesis. Gita says all such toys have programs that are desirable but the best or the rare programs are those seek God as the Single and the Ultimate aim. This also is an empirically viable hypotesis that can be tested. And, the rarest realizes that aim of realization of God. But what is the utility of such god-seeking programs inserted in the human toys?
The question is what does God want by creating toys such as Man or other things?
God's Creation evolve and behave in the variety of ways and since He is desire-free, ego-free and attachment-free, He can have no want. He just witnesses, by being everywhere and in every thing, the drama that the illusive properties of desire, want, ego and attachment and etc, enact in the process of infinite existence and transformation of His Creation.
It is for the same reason of differential guna properties inherited and the external impulses, one Man wants to know what Man really wants, while another Man does not see any purpose of trying to know that. The first man may perhaps come to know one day the answer, the second man may also come to understand the answer without the urge to know: the chances of any Man knowing the entire thing however is very low - just about zero.
Still, the software and the external impuses, forces some people to desire God, some others to desire knowing God and still some others not worry about God while a few to preaqach that since God does not exist, there is no need to try knowing or desring God. Different toys do different things.
Let us assume that God does not exist and hence the toys were not made by God but the result of some chance factors which are unknown as yet or unknowable (so far no one and no scientist has been able to claim full knowledge of who created these so-called toys that compose the entire Creation). Some toys therefore can just call that that unknown factors or the unknowable factors as nothing but a single God. It is just a term for the ultimate source of or cause of all that is in the Creation. So, simple an idea: God is the yet Unknown or the Unknowable ultimate cause/ source of everything that science is trying to find out without success so far.
Thus, if the Unknown or the Unknowable exists, God exists. If something exists, it is possible that some toys may desire to know the Unknown or the Unknowable. The scientist toys as a group are programmed to do that ceaselessly and the method they follow is the method of science. But there are some other toys which are programmed to believe that the scientific methods may not succeed in knowing the ultimate Unknown or the Unkowable (since no scientists can provide a scientific guarantee to that effect, even though Science has discovered many Truths that were not known earlier and some celebrated scientist had admitted about a century ago that he knew very little of the what all has to be known). So, some "non-science" toys try to know the Truth/ Unkowable by alternative methods like faith or meditation and the like. But to know or desire something these toys needed some definition of what they are to desire or like to know. Different God-seeking program toys have different definitions.
All who desire God to start with generally have ego, desire and functioning senses. That's common to those who do not desire God. The desire for God is often a subsidiary desire. First, the desire may be to avoid fear of adverse things to happen: by desiring God and praying the fear goes. Ruling out adverse situations is the primary desire, getting over that fear and desire to get God's help is the subsidiary desire. Second, some people desire to see beutiful and amazing things. The subsidary desire is to pray and thank God who creates such beautiful and amazing things in the Universe and in life so that He gives or continues the boon of satisfying the desire to enjoy beatiful and amazing things. Third, some people has the primary desire to acquire some powers from the Almighty infintely powerful God: the subsidiary desire is to get in touch through some subsidiary desire to get in touch with God like prayer and good deeds so that God gives the power to do great things and achieve success. Fourthly, there are some persons who desire to have peace and bliss that they think only God can give: the subsidiary desire is to try to get into God's fold by prayer, austerity and good deed. Fifth, some persons just want to know God and desire to merge with God for no other reason. Many people have more than one of these desires, depending on the software of ego-guna-sense combination they inherit and the external environment they happen to face at different points of time.
The 'non-science" toys are programmed to desire God/ the Ultimate Unknown: from a scientist' point of view this may appear unscientific and meaningles. But these toys exist in reality among our midst: they include rich and poor toys, educated and uneducated toys, men and women, children and parents, scientists, engineers, medical doctors, politicians,and so on. God in Gita says such 'God desiring programmed toys' of various types exist and this is empirically verifiable hypothesis. Gita says all such toys have programs that are desirable but the best or the rare programs are those seek God as the Single and the Ultimate aim. This also is an empirically viable hypotesis that can be tested. And, the rarest realizes that aim of realization of God. But what is the utility of such god-seeking programs inserted in the human toys?
Friday, March 5, 2010
Desirelees Vegetable Life: Gita and God 36
Someone pointed out: without desire or ambition one becomes a vegetable and do not remain a human being. If one classifies human beings as those creatures which have desires, then the desireless creature is not a human being. Everyone would have to agree with him, given his definition. But does that mean that desireless creatures are vegetables? No, because if vegetables are desireless then, so are the rocky mountains fish. So a desireless entity maybe a fish also. We seldom think logically but think that we are great at logic.
Does vegetable mean useless or worthless? Vegetables are useful to human beings. If Krishna who spoke Gita to Arjun was desireless, he was a vegetable and yet useful to Arjun, a human being with desire.
Are not desires common to all beings. The desires work independently through the Gunas in the body cells, DNAs, RNAs, etc. Animals show desires. Vegetables also have desires to grow operating through the working of their cells when live
and deire to get rotten sometime or when cut out from plants for human and animal food intake. Human beings with desires and ambitions are therefore some from of animals and vegetables.
What may distinguishes a human from animal or vegetble is that the human has also cells inside that can work against desire. The human being often does not act against one kind of desire - like to enjoy sex or food or comfort and allow the desire to know the Creaor, the Creation and the creative proces. Those who have such strong desires to know may become scientists, and, when they give up all sensual desires but the only desire that remains is to know the Creator, they become
superhuman beings. And, when such superhuman beings realize the god, they cease to have any more desire. They do everything without beng connected to desire. They become one with the Creator and God. Vegetables do not
become one with the God, nor do animals.
Try being vegetable: a human would not become an attractive vegetable. By giving up desires and ambitions, a human being will become more attractive to other human beings and will enjoy greater peace and many other things (that other human beings desire and may or may not get fulfilled) without desiring them.
The oint is not whether a person without desire is a vegetable or animal. The point is why to pursue a goal of becoming desireless? Onle very small percentage of population try to become desireless for the rest of their lives. Most rate is a person who has given up all desires. Let me see one and find out if such a person is more like vegetables or something better than a human being. I do not think that I will ever get such a opportunity to be near or in the company of a desireless person.
Gita is a science. It defines a learned and wise man as one who strive to be always in the path of Yoga to realize the Self or God. Gita defines Salvation as the state of a human being who is ego-less,desire-less and merged in equanility and therefore totally unaffected by whatever goes on his body or the external environment.
How to achieve that State? Should achieving that State desirable? Can everyone achieve that State? These are the questions Gita seeks scientific answers to. But these issues need to be exlplored in detail.
Does vegetable mean useless or worthless? Vegetables are useful to human beings. If Krishna who spoke Gita to Arjun was desireless, he was a vegetable and yet useful to Arjun, a human being with desire.
Are not desires common to all beings. The desires work independently through the Gunas in the body cells, DNAs, RNAs, etc. Animals show desires. Vegetables also have desires to grow operating through the working of their cells when live
and deire to get rotten sometime or when cut out from plants for human and animal food intake. Human beings with desires and ambitions are therefore some from of animals and vegetables.
What may distinguishes a human from animal or vegetble is that the human has also cells inside that can work against desire. The human being often does not act against one kind of desire - like to enjoy sex or food or comfort and allow the desire to know the Creaor, the Creation and the creative proces. Those who have such strong desires to know may become scientists, and, when they give up all sensual desires but the only desire that remains is to know the Creator, they become
superhuman beings. And, when such superhuman beings realize the god, they cease to have any more desire. They do everything without beng connected to desire. They become one with the Creator and God. Vegetables do not
become one with the God, nor do animals.
Try being vegetable: a human would not become an attractive vegetable. By giving up desires and ambitions, a human being will become more attractive to other human beings and will enjoy greater peace and many other things (that other human beings desire and may or may not get fulfilled) without desiring them.
The oint is not whether a person without desire is a vegetable or animal. The point is why to pursue a goal of becoming desireless? Onle very small percentage of population try to become desireless for the rest of their lives. Most rate is a person who has given up all desires. Let me see one and find out if such a person is more like vegetables or something better than a human being. I do not think that I will ever get such a opportunity to be near or in the company of a desireless person.
Gita is a science. It defines a learned and wise man as one who strive to be always in the path of Yoga to realize the Self or God. Gita defines Salvation as the state of a human being who is ego-less,desire-less and merged in equanility and therefore totally unaffected by whatever goes on his body or the external environment.
How to achieve that State? Should achieving that State desirable? Can everyone achieve that State? These are the questions Gita seeks scientific answers to. But these issues need to be exlplored in detail.
Seeking God- A Selfish Desire?: Gita & God 35
Gita prescribes giving up ego and Desires and recoomends pursuit of Salvation or the Bliss of Liberation. But isn't pusuit of Salvation or Liberation or God a Selfish Desire? Some brilliant minds wonder, struck by the words we use and their different connotations.
Liberation/ Salvation/ Moksha/
Merging with God are all selfish, even if believers of Gita may
object to the use of the term desire and selfish pursuit with these great objectives of life. Words have different connotations and different persons do not like all these conotations.
That Salvation is a desire and a selfish desire does not
in any way create problem for me. All desires are desires and
all desires are looking forward to self satisfaction from the fulfillment of desire. But there is a great difference. The path to liberation and the attainment
of liberastion is of a different class/ category than all other desires/ objectives of
human beings. When one is on the path of liberation, any other desire is a constraint. All other desires are for sensual pleasures. Striving for
liberation calls for giving up all sensual desires. All other desires when fulfilled satisfies ego. When liberation takes place ego vanishes. The path to liberation is to shed ego and submit to God Almighty.
Desire for Salvation requires giving up all other desires. Those who have one or more sensual desires may also have desire for getting God's power to
some extent atleast in order to be able to satisfy some other sensual desires. All other desires are driven by ego: desire foir salvation requires
driving out ego. When one is trying to drive out ego, he is being anti-Selfish.
The desire for Salvation is calling one to give up self-interest or self-satisfaction through enjoyment of sensual pleasure through actions driven by ego and the gunas/ properties of the body, mind and ego. Even when someone is worshipping God, or giving alms to the
poor or helping the weak or tryinng to be perfect in his work or praying for protection / comfort, he may be doing this to satisfy his ego and enjoy the sensual pride of being a great
man or a pious man or a famous man or a man accumulating Punnya or wealth. But this
is not the desire for Salvation or liberation or achieving God. Only when someone is worshipping God, or giving alms to the poor or helping the weak or tryinng to be perfect in his work only and exclusively for the sake of trying to concentrate on the thought of God, as actions to live a life of equanimity,
as step to give up all desires, is he treading the path to fulfill the desire for Salvation.
It is clear and simple to understand this essential difference between the ego-driven, sensual desire- killing objective of Salvation and all sense- gratifying, ego-bolstering objectives.
It does not really matter whether I call the objective of Salvation (in the sense that it has been defined in Gita) as a selfish pursuit of desire. Words can confuse. If I happen to know the difference, I am fortunate. Gita says those who travel the path of Salvation is rare: those who attain salvation is even much more rare. Rarity does not signify common selfish desire as we usually understand.
Liberation/ Salvation/ Moksha/
Merging with God are all selfish, even if believers of Gita may
object to the use of the term desire and selfish pursuit with these great objectives of life. Words have different connotations and different persons do not like all these conotations.
That Salvation is a desire and a selfish desire does not
in any way create problem for me. All desires are desires and
all desires are looking forward to self satisfaction from the fulfillment of desire. But there is a great difference. The path to liberation and the attainment
of liberastion is of a different class/ category than all other desires/ objectives of
human beings. When one is on the path of liberation, any other desire is a constraint. All other desires are for sensual pleasures. Striving for
liberation calls for giving up all sensual desires. All other desires when fulfilled satisfies ego. When liberation takes place ego vanishes. The path to liberation is to shed ego and submit to God Almighty.
Desire for Salvation requires giving up all other desires. Those who have one or more sensual desires may also have desire for getting God's power to
some extent atleast in order to be able to satisfy some other sensual desires. All other desires are driven by ego: desire foir salvation requires
driving out ego. When one is trying to drive out ego, he is being anti-Selfish.
The desire for Salvation is calling one to give up self-interest or self-satisfaction through enjoyment of sensual pleasure through actions driven by ego and the gunas/ properties of the body, mind and ego. Even when someone is worshipping God, or giving alms to the
poor or helping the weak or tryinng to be perfect in his work or praying for protection / comfort, he may be doing this to satisfy his ego and enjoy the sensual pride of being a great
man or a pious man or a famous man or a man accumulating Punnya or wealth. But this
is not the desire for Salvation or liberation or achieving God. Only when someone is worshipping God, or giving alms to the poor or helping the weak or tryinng to be perfect in his work only and exclusively for the sake of trying to concentrate on the thought of God, as actions to live a life of equanimity,
as step to give up all desires, is he treading the path to fulfill the desire for Salvation.
It is clear and simple to understand this essential difference between the ego-driven, sensual desire- killing objective of Salvation and all sense- gratifying, ego-bolstering objectives.
It does not really matter whether I call the objective of Salvation (in the sense that it has been defined in Gita) as a selfish pursuit of desire. Words can confuse. If I happen to know the difference, I am fortunate. Gita says those who travel the path of Salvation is rare: those who attain salvation is even much more rare. Rarity does not signify common selfish desire as we usually understand.
Alloting Time for God: Gita & God 34
Minds bring in new questions and new ways of looking at God. One common question is: ‘How can I develop intense longing for God or the Self? I want to become totally restless for getting God?’ Once this question is explored, one could come to a conclusion: continue to explore the question, continue to search for God or stop thinking about longing for God.
One is not seeking to attain the state of intense longing for God or restlessness in search of God. One is seeking God. If the objective and goal is only God, why try seeking restlessness. Restlessness is not the objective - getting God is the objective.
If I find myself restless for many other things, I would not be able to concentrate thoughts continuously on God. Without the help of God one cannot reach either God or avoid restlessness for other things. I can only pray to God continuously for helping me to remove all other thoughts from my mind and concentrate my mind on God. I can do whatever I do but simultaneously and continuously thinking that God is making me do all these things. I can continuously explore what is God is all about even as I do other things. I can fill my mind and ego with only the desire to get God, irrespective of whether it is feasible or not.
One way to reach the state of intense longing for God is to follow the paths of those who had experienced such state and pray to God for His grace. Without His grace, I cannot develop intense longing for Him. I heard stories of what Mirabai did or Shree Chaitanya Mahaprbhu did and about so many others great Sadhaks. If I so wish I may follow their path and experiment as a scientist does to explore what happens as one tries to and, if successful, able to submit all of one's moments exclusively to Him and not use any moment thinking of anything else other than God. Maybe I will reach that stage of intense longing for God. Mabe not.
The past and current life has been expended swimming in the deep waters of Maya and sensual desire fulfillment. Maybe in future, I may feel that I am gasping for breath swimming without any destination to reach. Maybe then only I may start seeking God with progressively greater intensity so as to be able to get out of the water and achieve liberation from this bondage. Maybe I will continue to be in the delusion of life of sensual pleasure and pain with God as a spare time recreation. I do not know the future for certainty.
But I know that I will cherish the idea of being with God for moments together if He exists and allows me that chance. That is the gain so far.
One is not seeking to attain the state of intense longing for God or restlessness in search of God. One is seeking God. If the objective and goal is only God, why try seeking restlessness. Restlessness is not the objective - getting God is the objective.
If I find myself restless for many other things, I would not be able to concentrate thoughts continuously on God. Without the help of God one cannot reach either God or avoid restlessness for other things. I can only pray to God continuously for helping me to remove all other thoughts from my mind and concentrate my mind on God. I can do whatever I do but simultaneously and continuously thinking that God is making me do all these things. I can continuously explore what is God is all about even as I do other things. I can fill my mind and ego with only the desire to get God, irrespective of whether it is feasible or not.
One way to reach the state of intense longing for God is to follow the paths of those who had experienced such state and pray to God for His grace. Without His grace, I cannot develop intense longing for Him. I heard stories of what Mirabai did or Shree Chaitanya Mahaprbhu did and about so many others great Sadhaks. If I so wish I may follow their path and experiment as a scientist does to explore what happens as one tries to and, if successful, able to submit all of one's moments exclusively to Him and not use any moment thinking of anything else other than God. Maybe I will reach that stage of intense longing for God. Mabe not.
The past and current life has been expended swimming in the deep waters of Maya and sensual desire fulfillment. Maybe in future, I may feel that I am gasping for breath swimming without any destination to reach. Maybe then only I may start seeking God with progressively greater intensity so as to be able to get out of the water and achieve liberation from this bondage. Maybe I will continue to be in the delusion of life of sensual pleasure and pain with God as a spare time recreation. I do not know the future for certainty.
But I know that I will cherish the idea of being with God for moments together if He exists and allows me that chance. That is the gain so far.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Right to Experience Yoga Path - Salvation Not Assured: Gita & God 33
Before I realize God's, all of a sudden sadhna ends abrupty just before death. Like Maharaj Bharat, I remember a Deer that I killed, I lose all the benefit of my sadhana and get born as a Deer. What is the use of all sadhna activities if I am going to have a miserable result for not being careful enough? Who guarantees my salvation through Sadhna or Yoga.Gita seems to say that the thoughts at the time just before death affect the nature of future birth. If I think of God at that time, I get liberated. If I happen to think of evil and sensual desire, I have to struggle again in the next birth to get salvation. This may continue birth after birth. Since there is no guarantee that I would get liberated, why should I try again and again in vain? This is a valid and legitimate question that arises in the mind? I should answer to this question.
First, I recognize that no one can guarantee fulfillment of desire even if the desire happens to be one of attaining salvation or merging with God. God says in Gita that I do not exist except in delusion. God says that Self / Atman never dies and never born. He says Self is always in the state of realization in the sense of being in God Himself. Then, why should He say that I will have problem if I happen to think of something else than God? God in Gita is obviously not a child or an ignorant person. He cannot say what I interpret as having said. The only meaning of what he has said about thoughts at the time just before death could be that he is saying that a person following and practicing Yoga can slip very easily from the path of Yoga. And that could happen even just before death. This highlights the great difficulty in remaining steady on the path of Yoga. The objective of Yoga is to remain on the path till the last moment that one can be in Yoga, i.e., the moment one leaves his breath and then dies. This is the only interpretation that is consistent with the essence of Gita;s lessons. The God in Gita could not been illogical person to say inconsistent things.
Human population or the life form has been growing all the time. There is birth of a new life form every moment. Each of the new born has God contained in that life in the body, mind, ego and the Self. It does not mean that some specific body, or specific mid/ intellect/ sense/ ego or Self has to be born again. It only refers to the continous cycle of creation, maintenance, destruction and transformation. The purpose of Yoga is to experience in the live body the complete unison of the ego, intellect, mind, thoughts, actions and senses with the Self (that is always in Realized State). When that experience of unison is in its complete state, the ego vanishes, the mind becomes still and thought-less, desires disappear and senses work without desire. It is such a state that there is no experience of pleasure or pain and no experience of action or death.
Maybe my interpretation as described above is wrong. But still I have to question the question. If I am so interested in salvation with intensity increasing over time, why should I be afraid of slipping from the path of Yoga any time at all? Yes, there is great probability of deviating from the path of Yoga due to influence of the Maya influenced Gunas. But that is exactly what I am fighting to overcome and win over. I do not go to War just thinking that I may get defeated. God has told me that I have the right only to action/ work/ performance but not the consequences of such action/ performance. My only desire is Salvation and nothing else. My only work for that is to perform Yoga and be in Yoga. If I am in Yoga continuously, even the desire for salvation will vanish and I am in bliss. I want to experience that. State. When I am in that state I have no further desire and I remain there ad infinitum. Where is the question of being in vain?
Finally, assuming that I get defeated by the Gunas and they make me fall out of the path of Yoga, what do I lose? I have already experienced the quality of living on the path of Yoga. That should encourage me to come back to the path of Yoga to fight again with the Gunas influence with greater resolve. Failures are the pillars of success.
No one can guarantee salvation. Even if one is not successful in realizing God, the progress one makes towards that goal makes the person achieve a different life. He/ She may be satisfied with this life-time achievement or he/ she may not.
If he/she is satisfied, it does not matter whether or where he/she is born in the next birth. Even for believers in rebirth, the next birth is a different try/ attempt one has to make to realize God. It is said that the Purva Samskriti (the inheritance of the Stavuic gunas that one developed in the previous birth) could help him / her to continue the progress to the realization of God. Of course, much will determine what he actually happens to do in the next birth. Whether this is true or not does not matter. If in this birth, a person has been able to attain a fair degree of equanimity, he/ she would not be at all upset by the possibility of his/ her next birth being as deer or pig or mosquito or tiger or poor beggar in a poor country: for he/she would have realized that every being in this Creation is the same and one should be indifferent to the type of next birth.
If one is not satisfied with his/ her progress towards the path of realization of the Self/ God, he could be still be happy with the progress that he/she has made in this life and would look forward to the next birth to continue to the progress towards the ultimate goal.
Those who are interested in Bhog and wants just to keep themselves fit through practicing Yogic methods of sadhana can at best achieve that goal. The goal of self-realization cannot be achieved through partial devotion to that goal while pursuing material goals in life. There could be such Sadhaks who want to develop some mystical / magical powers through Sadhana. They may achieve only that.
The possibility of any thought other than God arising in the mind of a Sadhak arises only if one is still not focused on the single goal of realization of the Self and God. Even when peopole get into accidents, they pray to God before they die. The sadhakas are likely to think of God all the time even while they are eating, discussing, bathing, reading newspaper: so they are unlikely to get into trouble of unwanted rebirth because at the time of death they were sleeping or discussing politics or property. Because at the back of their mind, the thought of God is expected to remain. For example if at the time of death, a person was reading about a criminal's life or the the beauty of a deer, the sadhak is only thinking of these as the Creation of God. If he/she is thinking about investment in property, he is thinking that God has been guiding him/ her to take a decision. If he is thinking of eating fish, he is thinking of God instructing him to eat fish. Thus, he has lost his ego to God. The thought of God remains all through. Why should he be worried about what his/ her next life could be.
If a Sadhak is serious in continuing along the path to Salvation, he shall at least be prepared to continue his/ her efforts in the next birth. That resolve is always in the back of his/ her mind. He/ she does not have to worry about what his next birth would be if he happens to think of a jackal or a thief or a murder or a rape incident. Even if he/ she happen to be angry at the moment of death, a Sadhak is aware that this is God's play. He/ she has completely submitted to God.
First, I recognize that no one can guarantee fulfillment of desire even if the desire happens to be one of attaining salvation or merging with God. God says in Gita that I do not exist except in delusion. God says that Self / Atman never dies and never born. He says Self is always in the state of realization in the sense of being in God Himself. Then, why should He say that I will have problem if I happen to think of something else than God? God in Gita is obviously not a child or an ignorant person. He cannot say what I interpret as having said. The only meaning of what he has said about thoughts at the time just before death could be that he is saying that a person following and practicing Yoga can slip very easily from the path of Yoga. And that could happen even just before death. This highlights the great difficulty in remaining steady on the path of Yoga. The objective of Yoga is to remain on the path till the last moment that one can be in Yoga, i.e., the moment one leaves his breath and then dies. This is the only interpretation that is consistent with the essence of Gita;s lessons. The God in Gita could not been illogical person to say inconsistent things.
Human population or the life form has been growing all the time. There is birth of a new life form every moment. Each of the new born has God contained in that life in the body, mind, ego and the Self. It does not mean that some specific body, or specific mid/ intellect/ sense/ ego or Self has to be born again. It only refers to the continous cycle of creation, maintenance, destruction and transformation. The purpose of Yoga is to experience in the live body the complete unison of the ego, intellect, mind, thoughts, actions and senses with the Self (that is always in Realized State). When that experience of unison is in its complete state, the ego vanishes, the mind becomes still and thought-less, desires disappear and senses work without desire. It is such a state that there is no experience of pleasure or pain and no experience of action or death.
Maybe my interpretation as described above is wrong. But still I have to question the question. If I am so interested in salvation with intensity increasing over time, why should I be afraid of slipping from the path of Yoga any time at all? Yes, there is great probability of deviating from the path of Yoga due to influence of the Maya influenced Gunas. But that is exactly what I am fighting to overcome and win over. I do not go to War just thinking that I may get defeated. God has told me that I have the right only to action/ work/ performance but not the consequences of such action/ performance. My only desire is Salvation and nothing else. My only work for that is to perform Yoga and be in Yoga. If I am in Yoga continuously, even the desire for salvation will vanish and I am in bliss. I want to experience that. State. When I am in that state I have no further desire and I remain there ad infinitum. Where is the question of being in vain?
Finally, assuming that I get defeated by the Gunas and they make me fall out of the path of Yoga, what do I lose? I have already experienced the quality of living on the path of Yoga. That should encourage me to come back to the path of Yoga to fight again with the Gunas influence with greater resolve. Failures are the pillars of success.
No one can guarantee salvation. Even if one is not successful in realizing God, the progress one makes towards that goal makes the person achieve a different life. He/ She may be satisfied with this life-time achievement or he/ she may not.
If he/she is satisfied, it does not matter whether or where he/she is born in the next birth. Even for believers in rebirth, the next birth is a different try/ attempt one has to make to realize God. It is said that the Purva Samskriti (the inheritance of the Stavuic gunas that one developed in the previous birth) could help him / her to continue the progress to the realization of God. Of course, much will determine what he actually happens to do in the next birth. Whether this is true or not does not matter. If in this birth, a person has been able to attain a fair degree of equanimity, he/ she would not be at all upset by the possibility of his/ her next birth being as deer or pig or mosquito or tiger or poor beggar in a poor country: for he/she would have realized that every being in this Creation is the same and one should be indifferent to the type of next birth.
If one is not satisfied with his/ her progress towards the path of realization of the Self/ God, he could be still be happy with the progress that he/she has made in this life and would look forward to the next birth to continue to the progress towards the ultimate goal.
Those who are interested in Bhog and wants just to keep themselves fit through practicing Yogic methods of sadhana can at best achieve that goal. The goal of self-realization cannot be achieved through partial devotion to that goal while pursuing material goals in life. There could be such Sadhaks who want to develop some mystical / magical powers through Sadhana. They may achieve only that.
The possibility of any thought other than God arising in the mind of a Sadhak arises only if one is still not focused on the single goal of realization of the Self and God. Even when peopole get into accidents, they pray to God before they die. The sadhakas are likely to think of God all the time even while they are eating, discussing, bathing, reading newspaper: so they are unlikely to get into trouble of unwanted rebirth because at the time of death they were sleeping or discussing politics or property. Because at the back of their mind, the thought of God is expected to remain. For example if at the time of death, a person was reading about a criminal's life or the the beauty of a deer, the sadhak is only thinking of these as the Creation of God. If he/she is thinking about investment in property, he is thinking that God has been guiding him/ her to take a decision. If he is thinking of eating fish, he is thinking of God instructing him to eat fish. Thus, he has lost his ego to God. The thought of God remains all through. Why should he be worried about what his/ her next life could be.
If a Sadhak is serious in continuing along the path to Salvation, he shall at least be prepared to continue his/ her efforts in the next birth. That resolve is always in the back of his/ her mind. He/ she does not have to worry about what his next birth would be if he happens to think of a jackal or a thief or a murder or a rape incident. Even if he/ she happen to be angry at the moment of death, a Sadhak is aware that this is God's play. He/ she has completely submitted to God.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Old Age is Yet the Golden Age:Gita & God 32
How old was Krishna and Arjun when the later gave the former a lesson on Yoag just before the Kurukshetra War? That would be any one’s guess. Probably Krishna and Arjun were of the same age group. Krishna treated Yudhistira as elder. When the Krukshetra war took place, Krishna was already in Dwarka, after having spent the childhood and adolosent period in Vrindavan. He must have been around 18 when he killed Kangsha. Then, he married and spent time in Dwarka as a potential leader of the Oligarchic Yadav Kingdom. Then he attended the Sawambar of Druapudi. Arjun won Draupadi but Krishna did not contest. So at that time Arjun and Krishna might have been between 19-22. Arjun spent lot of time in exile – 14 years. The Krukshetra war started after that. Krishna’s son fought bravely in the War. He must have benn around 15-16 years’ old. So, at the time of War Krishna and Arjun must have been in the age group 35-40. Not after too long a time after the War, Yudhisthir and his brothers went for, in a sense, real vanaprastha. So, Arjun and Krishna could have been close to 50 at the time of war.
Why am I concerned about their age at the time they were discussing Yoga? They were not children or in the prime of their youth. They have lived through much of their Gruastha. So, they were old. Old age is golden period for Yoga.
It happens that many start seriously thinking of Salvation, Self. Atman, God and Yoga when they become old. They might have been praying and worshipping God religiously with a view to living more peaceful, comfortable lives and face little problem with God’s blessings. But only few thought of death, after death, and salvation. But they worry about the constraints in the form of PHYSICAL AND ECONOMIC DEPENDENCIES at that stage of life.
Certainly, with age and retirement from income earning activity, it may be a great problem to live life in Wanaprastha and Sanyas stage, unless, of course, one and in most cases, both husband and wife together, prepare for that life. The only preparation that is needed is complete submission to God. Old age is the most ideal and convenient stage for all this. Once a person or a married couple submits to God, by definition, they no longer rely on their limbs or income / wealth, they no longer fear ill health, disease, weakened limbs, senses, organs and approaching death: they no longer need to long for food and drink or clothes or even bed or shelter. In such a state, worries need not arise. On the other hand, persons who reach such a stage find food, drink, clothing, shelter, help, medicines, assistance, etc just flow to them even from quarters they had never anticipated earlier. God seems to take care of those who submit all worries to God and just become intensely keen to merge with God.
True, such persons are rare. What do the others do? Old age problems are bound to come and would have to be faced. There is no way out. One can only try to forget about these problems or bear with these problems by continuous praying to God for relief, protection and liberation, and by giving up ego, anger, opinion, expectations, desire and attachment to personal habits and tendencies of the past. Tolerance and endurance is the only valuable attribute of old age - the greater the tolerance, the better the life is. People do all these to various degrees and make their living better to that extent comfortable. Those who continue to try to manipulating others, emotionally or otherwise, to live more comfortably, almost always fail and suffer all the more.
There was an illiterate old man whom I knew would not go to a doctor even if he had fever for a few days. He would say that he had to bear the discomfort and pain as these are the result of his prior karma or fate. In old age, there is no way to do fresh Karma to avoid suffering resulting from past Karma.
I cannot do anything if I get lung or other cancer now having been a smoker for over 40 years. I cannot get back my perfect eye sight whatever I may do. My digestation ability powered by the micro-biological cells and atomic sub-particles within me, can only worsen: I need to adjust my food habits. I have to enjoy now a different life than when I were younger: the only thing that I can do is to prepare myself to tolerate or endure the old age physical and mental pain and suffering. I can only endure what I cannot cure. I can, if I so wish, simultaneously pray to God to forgive me, protect me and liberate me. I can look at diseases, hunger, suffering and death as God Himself. I can also stop thinking bad about others and stop criticizing others. If I do these, I hope God will take care of me through some means. Even if God does not, my suffering would reduce because of my higher degree of tolerance/ endurance and zero degree of disappointment with my situation.
Probably, it would have been easier for me to live Wanaprastha and Sanyas, had I realized all this when I was in Brahmacharyya and Gruhastha. That was the period when I could have started building up my capabilities to deal with Wanaprashtha and Sanyas, that is the period from when I should have learnt to give up anger, disappointment, fear, expectation, desire, greed and tendency of manipulating others: I should have learnt to pray to God with all of my heart rather than ritually, learnt to avoid smoking, spending away money and give up habits that would be difficult to give up later. I did not do much then. Fine, but it is better late than never. I try now and learn to live with weak / malfunctioning aids like eyes to see, hand and feet to do, ears to hear, mouth and teeth to eat, memory to recall, mind to think, hearts to pump, etc. I will do now whatever I can do to keep these going as long as they can to help me. Maybe one day God, if He exists and is capable, will finally take care of me. There are many people who suffer from birth until death at old age: can I be one fortunate enough to minimize that suffering at this old age. I do not know. But I can try. Sorry, I cannot preach any solution that I have not experienced as satisfactory.
If Arjun and Krishna had lives that ended pathetically after a phase of old age, great loss of relatives and friends, as perceived by common standards of evaluation, why should my life at this end-phase be any better? Rather, this is the time, if God allows my mind to work logically and scientifically and my heart becomes bereft of anger, ill-will and fear, my ego will progressively decimate to allow the Realized Self to takeover from me.
Why am I concerned about their age at the time they were discussing Yoga? They were not children or in the prime of their youth. They have lived through much of their Gruastha. So, they were old. Old age is golden period for Yoga.
It happens that many start seriously thinking of Salvation, Self. Atman, God and Yoga when they become old. They might have been praying and worshipping God religiously with a view to living more peaceful, comfortable lives and face little problem with God’s blessings. But only few thought of death, after death, and salvation. But they worry about the constraints in the form of PHYSICAL AND ECONOMIC DEPENDENCIES at that stage of life.
Certainly, with age and retirement from income earning activity, it may be a great problem to live life in Wanaprastha and Sanyas stage, unless, of course, one and in most cases, both husband and wife together, prepare for that life. The only preparation that is needed is complete submission to God. Old age is the most ideal and convenient stage for all this. Once a person or a married couple submits to God, by definition, they no longer rely on their limbs or income / wealth, they no longer fear ill health, disease, weakened limbs, senses, organs and approaching death: they no longer need to long for food and drink or clothes or even bed or shelter. In such a state, worries need not arise. On the other hand, persons who reach such a stage find food, drink, clothing, shelter, help, medicines, assistance, etc just flow to them even from quarters they had never anticipated earlier. God seems to take care of those who submit all worries to God and just become intensely keen to merge with God.
True, such persons are rare. What do the others do? Old age problems are bound to come and would have to be faced. There is no way out. One can only try to forget about these problems or bear with these problems by continuous praying to God for relief, protection and liberation, and by giving up ego, anger, opinion, expectations, desire and attachment to personal habits and tendencies of the past. Tolerance and endurance is the only valuable attribute of old age - the greater the tolerance, the better the life is. People do all these to various degrees and make their living better to that extent comfortable. Those who continue to try to manipulating others, emotionally or otherwise, to live more comfortably, almost always fail and suffer all the more.
There was an illiterate old man whom I knew would not go to a doctor even if he had fever for a few days. He would say that he had to bear the discomfort and pain as these are the result of his prior karma or fate. In old age, there is no way to do fresh Karma to avoid suffering resulting from past Karma.
I cannot do anything if I get lung or other cancer now having been a smoker for over 40 years. I cannot get back my perfect eye sight whatever I may do. My digestation ability powered by the micro-biological cells and atomic sub-particles within me, can only worsen: I need to adjust my food habits. I have to enjoy now a different life than when I were younger: the only thing that I can do is to prepare myself to tolerate or endure the old age physical and mental pain and suffering. I can only endure what I cannot cure. I can, if I so wish, simultaneously pray to God to forgive me, protect me and liberate me. I can look at diseases, hunger, suffering and death as God Himself. I can also stop thinking bad about others and stop criticizing others. If I do these, I hope God will take care of me through some means. Even if God does not, my suffering would reduce because of my higher degree of tolerance/ endurance and zero degree of disappointment with my situation.
Probably, it would have been easier for me to live Wanaprastha and Sanyas, had I realized all this when I was in Brahmacharyya and Gruhastha. That was the period when I could have started building up my capabilities to deal with Wanaprashtha and Sanyas, that is the period from when I should have learnt to give up anger, disappointment, fear, expectation, desire, greed and tendency of manipulating others: I should have learnt to pray to God with all of my heart rather than ritually, learnt to avoid smoking, spending away money and give up habits that would be difficult to give up later. I did not do much then. Fine, but it is better late than never. I try now and learn to live with weak / malfunctioning aids like eyes to see, hand and feet to do, ears to hear, mouth and teeth to eat, memory to recall, mind to think, hearts to pump, etc. I will do now whatever I can do to keep these going as long as they can to help me. Maybe one day God, if He exists and is capable, will finally take care of me. There are many people who suffer from birth until death at old age: can I be one fortunate enough to minimize that suffering at this old age. I do not know. But I can try. Sorry, I cannot preach any solution that I have not experienced as satisfactory.
If Arjun and Krishna had lives that ended pathetically after a phase of old age, great loss of relatives and friends, as perceived by common standards of evaluation, why should my life at this end-phase be any better? Rather, this is the time, if God allows my mind to work logically and scientifically and my heart becomes bereft of anger, ill-will and fear, my ego will progressively decimate to allow the Realized Self to takeover from me.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Transforming "I": Gita & God 31
Why is the resistance to accept the Truth that all that is here and there and everywhere is nothing but God (Vasudeva Sarvam). Exalted souls show symptoms of this realization,seemingly having taken refuge in / merged in God by loosing their existence (I-ness). Why can’t I?
God is everywhere and in everything and everything is in God (Basudeb Sarbam in
Bengali and Vasudeva Sarvam in Sanskrut) is the Truth so easy to
understand and prove. I may have no scientific or intellectual resistance to
accepting this Truth. (I accept the Truth that Cigarette smoking is injurious to health, but I resist any thought or contemplated action to quit smoking. Similarly, I fail to live every moment of my life in accordance with this Truth. Gita says only rare is a person showing symptoms of living this Truth.
The resistance comes from the illusion/ delusion (Maya) that gives birth to ego (‘I’ as distinct from others) and desires and actions to fulfill desires.
Yoga (Karma, Gyan and Bhakti) is the only method to overcome this illusion, says Gita.
But it is so difficult to practice Yoga. Even as I write this, my mind subconsciously says that I am writing, I do not exist in the phenomena of thinking, desiring, acting, enjoying and suffering that is produced by certain operating gunas of the cells in what I call as my body and mind and the gunas (properties) of the cells surrounding my body.
I do not exist and hence I do not think or act and hence I am not writing this out. This composition is destined to take place and has nothing to do
with my belief that I exist or do not exist. I agree. But it is the habit from Childhood that I believe that something in this body named Basudeb Sen thinks, decides and does things
independently and in response to some impulses from the external environment.
This habit is the resistance, this habit is the difficulty. This moment I decide that I have no existence, the next moment I think that I am doing
something. Reason: to give up the illusion of my existence, I am under the illusion that I exist at least to give up the thought I exist. This is the crux of the issue.
An alternative is to imagine “I’ being merged in God Almighty (I am that) and witness the fool in the body called Basudeb Sen thinking that it is doing something and therefore it exists. Even then the thought of ‘I’ still persists as the particular one merged in God. So long as thoughts and actions for anything including giving up ego or desire or anger and/ or in pursuit of being merged with God is identified as
emanating from a particular identified body or force, ‘I’ persists. It is probable that the moment there is no
identified source/ cause/ owner of thoughts or actions; ‘I’ vanishes because all thoughts and actions lose their identitities as well. When boiled rice gets crushed under the teeth, no grain of rice gets distinguished. All identities and distinctions get lost. When water flows along the river or floods submerge lands, individual hydrogen molecules are not distinguishable. Individual atoms or cells do not have names: they are there everywhere but
no distinction, no identity. Electric power lights all homes but no distinction which kWh unit powers which home or which bulb. Neutrinos pass through everything in this Universe but no particular identified neutrino is distinguishable.All this is Vasudeva Sarvam.
I can get lost if all other things also lose their identities. That is only a state or phenomenon: the state of Self Realization - it is not my self realization.
So, I cannot achieve Self-realization by definition. The question of why can’t I practice Vasudeva Sarvam or live a life of equanimity does not arise. It is not what Gita prescribes for me. Gita just says that Yoga may lead to the emergence of such a state of equanimity as a phenomenon associated with the behavior of a living body. I cannot realize the Self: the Self is always in a realized State. A rare body may give expression to or exhibit the symtoms of such Self Realized State where "I' does not exist.
Why should I try to get rid of ‘I’ if the attempt is more or less guaranteed to fail: maybe the quality of 'I' changes in the process and that may be a gain to 'I'. But that is a separate issue.
God is everywhere and in everything and everything is in God (Basudeb Sarbam in
Bengali and Vasudeva Sarvam in Sanskrut) is the Truth so easy to
understand and prove. I may have no scientific or intellectual resistance to
accepting this Truth. (I accept the Truth that Cigarette smoking is injurious to health, but I resist any thought or contemplated action to quit smoking. Similarly, I fail to live every moment of my life in accordance with this Truth. Gita says only rare is a person showing symptoms of living this Truth.
The resistance comes from the illusion/ delusion (Maya) that gives birth to ego (‘I’ as distinct from others) and desires and actions to fulfill desires.
Yoga (Karma, Gyan and Bhakti) is the only method to overcome this illusion, says Gita.
But it is so difficult to practice Yoga. Even as I write this, my mind subconsciously says that I am writing, I do not exist in the phenomena of thinking, desiring, acting, enjoying and suffering that is produced by certain operating gunas of the cells in what I call as my body and mind and the gunas (properties) of the cells surrounding my body.
I do not exist and hence I do not think or act and hence I am not writing this out. This composition is destined to take place and has nothing to do
with my belief that I exist or do not exist. I agree. But it is the habit from Childhood that I believe that something in this body named Basudeb Sen thinks, decides and does things
independently and in response to some impulses from the external environment.
This habit is the resistance, this habit is the difficulty. This moment I decide that I have no existence, the next moment I think that I am doing
something. Reason: to give up the illusion of my existence, I am under the illusion that I exist at least to give up the thought I exist. This is the crux of the issue.
An alternative is to imagine “I’ being merged in God Almighty (I am that) and witness the fool in the body called Basudeb Sen thinking that it is doing something and therefore it exists. Even then the thought of ‘I’ still persists as the particular one merged in God. So long as thoughts and actions for anything including giving up ego or desire or anger and/ or in pursuit of being merged with God is identified as
emanating from a particular identified body or force, ‘I’ persists. It is probable that the moment there is no
identified source/ cause/ owner of thoughts or actions; ‘I’ vanishes because all thoughts and actions lose their identitities as well. When boiled rice gets crushed under the teeth, no grain of rice gets distinguished. All identities and distinctions get lost. When water flows along the river or floods submerge lands, individual hydrogen molecules are not distinguishable. Individual atoms or cells do not have names: they are there everywhere but
no distinction, no identity. Electric power lights all homes but no distinction which kWh unit powers which home or which bulb. Neutrinos pass through everything in this Universe but no particular identified neutrino is distinguishable.All this is Vasudeva Sarvam.
I can get lost if all other things also lose their identities. That is only a state or phenomenon: the state of Self Realization - it is not my self realization.
So, I cannot achieve Self-realization by definition. The question of why can’t I practice Vasudeva Sarvam or live a life of equanimity does not arise. It is not what Gita prescribes for me. Gita just says that Yoga may lead to the emergence of such a state of equanimity as a phenomenon associated with the behavior of a living body. I cannot realize the Self: the Self is always in a realized State. A rare body may give expression to or exhibit the symtoms of such Self Realized State where "I' does not exist.
Why should I try to get rid of ‘I’ if the attempt is more or less guaranteed to fail: maybe the quality of 'I' changes in the process and that may be a gain to 'I'. But that is a separate issue.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Doer's Imaginary Existence: Gita & God 30
Gita says that since no body is a real doer to think that ‘I am/ you are or he doing’ is delusion or illusion. The mind is not the doer, the intellect is not the doer, the Self is not the doer. Man is not the doer. Then, who is the doer? Is is all mystery?
It is a perfectly valid question. And, one should if possible and to the extent one is capable must explore this mystery.
To start with, best is to forget what Gita says. Just observe a phenomenon and ask who does something to create this phenomenon. Sun rises in the East. Does the Sun rise? Really speaking the Sun does not rise. We assume that the Sun, Moon, Clouds, Ocean Water, Trees do not have mind or intellect or Self. Sun burns and gives light, the Earth moves round the Sun, Moon reflects Sunlight, Clouds burst and transforms into rain, Ocean water churns and evaporates to form clouds. Burning takes place, so do earth’s orbiting, rains’ falling and water’s evaporating. These things do happen. But we only say that certain things do certain things as doer. But do they really do anything? They do not do anything. It is the property/ guna/ nature of these things that they seem to be associated with certain events and phenomena. These things happen but no body does: none is the doer of these things.
The Truth is that there does not have to be doer to explain the observed action of doing. The concept of doer is a convenient imaginary product of mind and intellect. In reality doer does not exist and does not need to exist for any phenomenon and event to take place. The human race and the Universe would continue the same way it has been doing even if we assume that there is no Doer. The concept of “Doer” is consistent with all that happens but is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition to explain whatever happens. The cocept of the existence of a ‘Doer’ therefore is a superstition and matter of faith.
To explain all that happens in the Creation/ Universe, the assumptions that are needed are various properties or gunas that lead certain objects including life forms like human beings to behave in certain manner under certain conditions. A car runs but stops if there is no fuel. Car does not do anything. The phenomenon of car running happens given the properties of the car and certain properties of other objects in the environment of the car. A man eats at certain times if food is available. Man eating is a phenomenon that results from the properties / gunas/ nature of the man and other objects surrounding the object man. Similarly, it is not necessary to really believe that a man acts or does: the phenomenon of man's behaviour occurs. There is no doer.
The concept of doer is an illusion. We do not need a door for the Universe, Creation and the processes that continue in the Creation. Thus, the basic question as to who is the doer just does not arise. The answer to that question is simply that no body does: doer does not exist. Things happen without any doer. Since this is the Truth, Gita says remove the ego of doing.
But I am a scientific man. I need more than the above logic to prove the non-existence of ’Doer’. I should be able to empirically test that ‘Doer’ does not exist. So, better I collect and use empirical evidence on the existence of ‘Doer’. How? If I can show that a particular human does indeed behave differently under the same internal and external conditions, I would have some reason to suspect that the a ‘doer’ may exist. If my suspect ‘doer’ does the same thing every time under the same set of internal and external conditions, I would tend to doubt the existence of ’doer’: for, this man acts exactly as the car does when running: same road, same traffic, same driver, same passenger, same fuel, same traffic, same temperature, leads to same behavior and performance by the same car. Man becomes just like another car that has no ‘Doer’. ( I am not confused with the driver being a ‘doer’ because the driver is an external condition).
Unfortunately, seldom does the same person remain in the same external and internal condition over time. The internal and external conditions change. So, the behavior also changes. Even if I observe a child trying to learn walking, it learns from the first few failures and then succeeds to balance and walk. The behavior changes over time due to change in internal conditions: increased learning and experience. What is the alternative way to test for the existence of ‘Doer’ in Man? A somewhat less rigorous but scientific approach would be to do control experiments over many people. This is the method the psychologists follow. I select two samples of people. One group I treat with some information and training, keeping the other group as it is. Then I put the groups into an experiment. If the behavior of the controlled group and the other group differs statistically significantly, it would tend to cause worry to me as training and information becomes the cause of behavior rather than the existence of ‘Doer’. On the other hand, if I have chemical/ biological/ cellular statistics on the individuals and make my control groups formed on the basis of similarity of characteristics based on such diagonistic/ laboratory clinical test data and then observe that groups behave differently under given problems to solve/ external conditions to respond to, I would suspect that my suspect ‘doer’s in different persons are nothing but chemicals/ cells, proteins, acids and DNA/ RNA, etc. Then, the concept of ‘Doer’ loses relevance. I do not any more need the concept of ’Doer’ to explain variations in behavior of people: I can directly explain that the cause of behavioral differences are the properties of the biological and atomic composition of different persons. The ‘Doer’ vanishes because it does not anymore serve my scientific inquiry.
Gita is based on such empirical methodology of science: the’ Doer’ essentially is an imaginary artifact that is nothing but a bonded slave of the Gunas. Thus, we arrive at the conclusion that emerges is that no one is a doer. If I remain steady and settled in that Truth, I will identify myself with an identity of non-doer. As non-doer, all are the same - equanimity follows automatically. That non-doer cannot logically have any desire and therefore any action to satisfy any desire. My body, mind and intellect may still be part of the phenomenon of satisfying desire through certain behavior. Just like the Sun burns but the Sun is not the doer of burning. The phenomenon of burning of a type is what we call burning: that is the guna of Sun. I do not do anything nor does he or she : none is a doer. The gunas play them out.
One that realizes this Truth every moment is the Self: But the Self also does not do - it is not a doer of realization of Truth. The Truth realized state is named Self or Atman or Paramatman or God.
Self is not like a grand old man who cannot work / do and therefore is thinking of God all the time. Self is not a man or woman or animal or a physical object: it is the state or realized truth as against the state of slavery of Gunas. Both exists simultaneously - the first never changes and continues indefinitely while the later changes virtually every moment and transforms and at some stage just disappears. The first is not observable by the senses, the second is an observable phenomenon for the senses.
It is a perfectly valid question. And, one should if possible and to the extent one is capable must explore this mystery.
To start with, best is to forget what Gita says. Just observe a phenomenon and ask who does something to create this phenomenon. Sun rises in the East. Does the Sun rise? Really speaking the Sun does not rise. We assume that the Sun, Moon, Clouds, Ocean Water, Trees do not have mind or intellect or Self. Sun burns and gives light, the Earth moves round the Sun, Moon reflects Sunlight, Clouds burst and transforms into rain, Ocean water churns and evaporates to form clouds. Burning takes place, so do earth’s orbiting, rains’ falling and water’s evaporating. These things do happen. But we only say that certain things do certain things as doer. But do they really do anything? They do not do anything. It is the property/ guna/ nature of these things that they seem to be associated with certain events and phenomena. These things happen but no body does: none is the doer of these things.
The Truth is that there does not have to be doer to explain the observed action of doing. The concept of doer is a convenient imaginary product of mind and intellect. In reality doer does not exist and does not need to exist for any phenomenon and event to take place. The human race and the Universe would continue the same way it has been doing even if we assume that there is no Doer. The concept of “Doer” is consistent with all that happens but is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition to explain whatever happens. The cocept of the existence of a ‘Doer’ therefore is a superstition and matter of faith.
To explain all that happens in the Creation/ Universe, the assumptions that are needed are various properties or gunas that lead certain objects including life forms like human beings to behave in certain manner under certain conditions. A car runs but stops if there is no fuel. Car does not do anything. The phenomenon of car running happens given the properties of the car and certain properties of other objects in the environment of the car. A man eats at certain times if food is available. Man eating is a phenomenon that results from the properties / gunas/ nature of the man and other objects surrounding the object man. Similarly, it is not necessary to really believe that a man acts or does: the phenomenon of man's behaviour occurs. There is no doer.
The concept of doer is an illusion. We do not need a door for the Universe, Creation and the processes that continue in the Creation. Thus, the basic question as to who is the doer just does not arise. The answer to that question is simply that no body does: doer does not exist. Things happen without any doer. Since this is the Truth, Gita says remove the ego of doing.
But I am a scientific man. I need more than the above logic to prove the non-existence of ’Doer’. I should be able to empirically test that ‘Doer’ does not exist. So, better I collect and use empirical evidence on the existence of ‘Doer’. How? If I can show that a particular human does indeed behave differently under the same internal and external conditions, I would have some reason to suspect that the a ‘doer’ may exist. If my suspect ‘doer’ does the same thing every time under the same set of internal and external conditions, I would tend to doubt the existence of ’doer’: for, this man acts exactly as the car does when running: same road, same traffic, same driver, same passenger, same fuel, same traffic, same temperature, leads to same behavior and performance by the same car. Man becomes just like another car that has no ‘Doer’. ( I am not confused with the driver being a ‘doer’ because the driver is an external condition).
Unfortunately, seldom does the same person remain in the same external and internal condition over time. The internal and external conditions change. So, the behavior also changes. Even if I observe a child trying to learn walking, it learns from the first few failures and then succeeds to balance and walk. The behavior changes over time due to change in internal conditions: increased learning and experience. What is the alternative way to test for the existence of ‘Doer’ in Man? A somewhat less rigorous but scientific approach would be to do control experiments over many people. This is the method the psychologists follow. I select two samples of people. One group I treat with some information and training, keeping the other group as it is. Then I put the groups into an experiment. If the behavior of the controlled group and the other group differs statistically significantly, it would tend to cause worry to me as training and information becomes the cause of behavior rather than the existence of ‘Doer’. On the other hand, if I have chemical/ biological/ cellular statistics on the individuals and make my control groups formed on the basis of similarity of characteristics based on such diagonistic/ laboratory clinical test data and then observe that groups behave differently under given problems to solve/ external conditions to respond to, I would suspect that my suspect ‘doer’s in different persons are nothing but chemicals/ cells, proteins, acids and DNA/ RNA, etc. Then, the concept of ‘Doer’ loses relevance. I do not any more need the concept of ’Doer’ to explain variations in behavior of people: I can directly explain that the cause of behavioral differences are the properties of the biological and atomic composition of different persons. The ‘Doer’ vanishes because it does not anymore serve my scientific inquiry.
Gita is based on such empirical methodology of science: the’ Doer’ essentially is an imaginary artifact that is nothing but a bonded slave of the Gunas. Thus, we arrive at the conclusion that emerges is that no one is a doer. If I remain steady and settled in that Truth, I will identify myself with an identity of non-doer. As non-doer, all are the same - equanimity follows automatically. That non-doer cannot logically have any desire and therefore any action to satisfy any desire. My body, mind and intellect may still be part of the phenomenon of satisfying desire through certain behavior. Just like the Sun burns but the Sun is not the doer of burning. The phenomenon of burning of a type is what we call burning: that is the guna of Sun. I do not do anything nor does he or she : none is a doer. The gunas play them out.
One that realizes this Truth every moment is the Self: But the Self also does not do - it is not a doer of realization of Truth. The Truth realized state is named Self or Atman or Paramatman or God.
Self is not like a grand old man who cannot work / do and therefore is thinking of God all the time. Self is not a man or woman or animal or a physical object: it is the state or realized truth as against the state of slavery of Gunas. Both exists simultaneously - the first never changes and continues indefinitely while the later changes virtually every moment and transforms and at some stage just disappears. The first is not observable by the senses, the second is an observable phenomenon for the senses.
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