Everyone has opinions. Opinions are good, but they are the problem too! How many of us really give a thought to what someone else tells us, their thoughts, opinions, suggestions etc? While it is true, that the only thing in the world that is truly free, is opinion, and is available from anyone, at anytime, why is it that invariably we denounce the opinions of others, and move into a shell of denial?
This is something that has bothered me for quite a while now. People who know me wll, might have noticed a sudden religious turn in me. I think spiritual thought is something everyone gives their mind to at some point of time, and few beliefs, ideas have started taking shape in my head over the last two years or more. This pain about denial happened a while back, over lunch, when a couple of friends and I were discussing the origins of theism. What I couldn't understand then, and also from discussions from rationalist friends (with due to respect to them, since Kamal Haasan says in a talk, "Don't call us atheists, we have a different name, call us rationalists!") in the past, is why a talk with them begins with denial.
Let us take a small detour into history, before we continue on this topic. India has had a rationalistic influence over say, the last 100 years. Maybe from the days of E.V.Ramasamy Naicker (the man they call Periyar), rationalism took a strong root in Tamil Nadu. There were others too, and the combined effect of theirs is a huge part of what they call rationalism in India today. But before the wave of rationalism in India, (the arrival of which was absolutely necessary I believe, since it tried to fight casteist politics at its roots) let us rewind by centuries. Some of India's greatest scientists/mathematicians/astronomers, such as Aryabhatta, Varahamihira, and the others, were people who walked the tight-rope between rationality and spirituality, albeit very successfully. Later, even in the times of Madhava, there was a thin rope between the two today seemingly diverse areas. Another strong area of interest of the former two, was astrology, a science in the days of yore! Varahamihira, was in fact, an astrologer par excellence, and is widely considered the last great astrologer this country saw! So, what intrigues me is, when every Tom, Dick and Harry goes around talking atheism in the capacity of an expert, while these were people too, who knew what they were doing, and does it make them fools, that they believed in the idea of a super-power? Getting back to the original question, why do we have to outright deny, without giving it a thought? This was the same of the Greek researchers, if I may call them so. Forget ancient history, the "Einsteinien model of God" was very close to what Advaita calls god too! So, did Einstein not know what he was talking about? For someone who could comprehend ideas that eluded human thought across histories, plainly in the mind, was he so dumb, that he could not out-think this idea of a power?
I'm trying not to be a fundamentalist Hindu here, but it irritates me when someone talks about Hinduism as a religion, and as something that makes a fool out of people. Firstly Hinduism is plainly a philosophy, actually a collection of philosophies, of which atheism is one too! When one talks to me about casteist Hindu politics, and people fighting in the name of Hinduism, yes, it does disgust me too that people do it, but when we are talking ideas, and talking philosophies, it would help to be faithful to the truth behind the idea being propogated! If atheism were taboo among Hindu philosophies, then there wouldn't be the name Jabali in the Ramayana, nor would there have been the creation of a Buddhist philosophy, which works on very close levels to atheistic principles.
Now, does this mean that following Hindu rituals, or reading the scriptures make me any less rational? I have been brought up in a rational manner too, and according to my definition of rationality, it just means seeking answers. Seeking answers to questions, whose answers I do not know! I would never go behind a curtain and hide because I don't know the answer to a question. When a question is being posed, I would not deny the existence of such a question either, as most of my rational friends would do. I would rather face the question, and try to find answers to it, try hard enough. Either in a straightforward manner. Or in a manner, which has been tried and tested. They call it achaara. Tradition. The idea says, some questions to which you aren't able to get an answer for, you would be able to find one, slowly, over time. Following your traditions, would give you the answer over time, in the form of impact in your life! Being a rationalist here, I've seen my father following it and reaping benefits, my grandfather doing the same, why wouldn't I do the same? All I'm doing is, equating 1+1 to 2. Rationality also believes in deducing, and if deductions aren't wrong, aren't stupid, then what I'm doing wouldn't be either, right? After all, what's life without a little bit of mysticism and mystery? :)
This is something that has bothered me for quite a while now. People who know me wll, might have noticed a sudden religious turn in me. I think spiritual thought is something everyone gives their mind to at some point of time, and few beliefs, ideas have started taking shape in my head over the last two years or more. This pain about denial happened a while back, over lunch, when a couple of friends and I were discussing the origins of theism. What I couldn't understand then, and also from discussions from rationalist friends (with due to respect to them, since Kamal Haasan says in a talk, "Don't call us atheists, we have a different name, call us rationalists!") in the past, is why a talk with them begins with denial.
Let us take a small detour into history, before we continue on this topic. India has had a rationalistic influence over say, the last 100 years. Maybe from the days of E.V.Ramasamy Naicker (the man they call Periyar), rationalism took a strong root in Tamil Nadu. There were others too, and the combined effect of theirs is a huge part of what they call rationalism in India today. But before the wave of rationalism in India, (the arrival of which was absolutely necessary I believe, since it tried to fight casteist politics at its roots) let us rewind by centuries. Some of India's greatest scientists/mathematicians/astronomers, such as Aryabhatta, Varahamihira, and the others, were people who walked the tight-rope between rationality and spirituality, albeit very successfully. Later, even in the times of Madhava, there was a thin rope between the two today seemingly diverse areas. Another strong area of interest of the former two, was astrology, a science in the days of yore! Varahamihira, was in fact, an astrologer par excellence, and is widely considered the last great astrologer this country saw! So, what intrigues me is, when every Tom, Dick and Harry goes around talking atheism in the capacity of an expert, while these were people too, who knew what they were doing, and does it make them fools, that they believed in the idea of a super-power? Getting back to the original question, why do we have to outright deny, without giving it a thought? This was the same of the Greek researchers, if I may call them so. Forget ancient history, the "Einsteinien model of God" was very close to what Advaita calls god too! So, did Einstein not know what he was talking about? For someone who could comprehend ideas that eluded human thought across histories, plainly in the mind, was he so dumb, that he could not out-think this idea of a power?
I'm trying not to be a fundamentalist Hindu here, but it irritates me when someone talks about Hinduism as a religion, and as something that makes a fool out of people. Firstly Hinduism is plainly a philosophy, actually a collection of philosophies, of which atheism is one too! When one talks to me about casteist Hindu politics, and people fighting in the name of Hinduism, yes, it does disgust me too that people do it, but when we are talking ideas, and talking philosophies, it would help to be faithful to the truth behind the idea being propogated! If atheism were taboo among Hindu philosophies, then there wouldn't be the name Jabali in the Ramayana, nor would there have been the creation of a Buddhist philosophy, which works on very close levels to atheistic principles.
Now, does this mean that following Hindu rituals, or reading the scriptures make me any less rational? I have been brought up in a rational manner too, and according to my definition of rationality, it just means seeking answers. Seeking answers to questions, whose answers I do not know! I would never go behind a curtain and hide because I don't know the answer to a question. When a question is being posed, I would not deny the existence of such a question either, as most of my rational friends would do. I would rather face the question, and try to find answers to it, try hard enough. Either in a straightforward manner. Or in a manner, which has been tried and tested. They call it achaara. Tradition. The idea says, some questions to which you aren't able to get an answer for, you would be able to find one, slowly, over time. Following your traditions, would give you the answer over time, in the form of impact in your life! Being a rationalist here, I've seen my father following it and reaping benefits, my grandfather doing the same, why wouldn't I do the same? All I'm doing is, equating 1+1 to 2. Rationality also believes in deducing, and if deductions aren't wrong, aren't stupid, then what I'm doing wouldn't be either, right? After all, what's life without a little bit of mysticism and mystery? :)
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