Ishwar and God

It is hard to imagine a world without Gods but very much possible without an Ishwar. This is because of the essential difference between the believers of the two concepts. For its believers, God is someone who exists outside of us, whereas Ishwar is an integral part of its believers’ being. There is a big difference between the two. For the God believers, each of them have been created for a purpose and the Creator (God) is constantly watching them from outside. Each one of them are answerable for their deeds on the Judgement Day and will go to Heaven or Hell depending on the results of God’s judgement. Thus for the believers of God, everything they do in their lives is for a good judgement after their death and a world without God is simply unimaginable. This is entirely different from the Ishwar believers who spent their life after life trying to realise the spirit within them and finally to be one with it.

One of the main faith problems of India is to do with this extremely different concepts of Ishwar and God. Hindu Sanatana Dharma (HSD) that propagates the concept of Ishwar had gone through its God phase ages back. But being the one and only religious faith that was freely allowed to evolve and develop, the faith itself has realised Ishwar at least a few thousand years ago. There are still strains of God worshippers within HSD, but they do not represent the vast majority. As of now, due to this conceptual difference about the Almighty, HSD is in strong conflict with the Semitic religions coming from the Only My God (OMG) nations. Ever since the advent and development of Science as a widely accepted and convincing tool for objective assessment for mankind, the future and glory of HSD has started looking up once again after centuries of subjugation. If Science and Religion shall eventually meet at one point, it will only be in Hindu Sanatana Dharma.

It is then obvious that the truth about Ishwar is much more strong and powerful than the one of God. Nothing illustrates this point than a funny story about a cross-connection that happened to a simpleton living in one of the OMG nations. The accidental remote connection on his phone got him Heaven’s lady secretary on the other end. Quite naturally the simpleton was flabbergasted and wanted to speak with his one and only God. But promptly came the question from the secretary “Which one of the Gods do you want?”  He was shocked because he was always taught that there is only one. So he told her that there must be only one and asked rather angrily whether she is joking. But the last laugh was hers when she said that during all the weekly meeting of Gods, they always laugh about the foolishness of their believers in Earth and how they are effectively deceiving them, before they offer their prayers to the one and only Ishwar.

Indian National Secret

There is no other nation in the entire universe which is as diverse as India and yet remaining united for atleast 5000 years by now. Diversity of incredible India can be seen in almost all aspects of life that we can think of. Take a crowd of about a thousand people in any major city in India today and see the diversity among the people with regard to their colour, language, features, religion, beliefs, attire, mannerisms or even their behaviour. Such a diversity cannot be found in any part of the world, even in Dubai or London. We should learn to appreciate such a diversity bearing in mind the simple fact that we are talking about people of one single nation unlike in Dubai or London.

Many theories have been put forth in the past about the great secret behind this national unity that is unique to only Indian nation. Some people have suggested geo-political reasons for this and some others the racial ones. And quite recently the reasoning reached ridiculous levels when one egocentric and cacophonous eternal attention monger even credited King Akbar for the unity that Indians possess. Some others have credited Emperor Asoka and some others even the British. There are others who give the credit to Adi Sankara citing the four Mutts he set up at the four corners of India for strengthening the religious identity of India. And then there are others who argue strongly for Sardar Patel for uniting all the small geographical kingdoms under a single constitution. But all such physical acts cannot bring about such a unique emotional unity.

There may be some contribution by all these elements in strengthening the national unity of India. However, the ultimate credit for this unique strength of Indian nation shall always rest with Hindu Sanatana Dharma (HSD), which is the hallmark of our national identity. But for its liberal nature, logical strength and unimaginable flexibility, the national identity of India and Indians would have died a natural death during the testing times of Mughal dynasty and colonial rulers which lasted about a full one thousand years. The unique combination of Vedic knowledge and ideological resilience to repudiate any foreign alternatives have stood the test of time. With all its diversities, India remains and will continue to remain a single nation thanks to the mysterious cultural concoction called HSD.

Obamian Preaching

It has taken more than six decades for the head of state of World’s strongest (militarily) democracy to attend the most important day in the current phase of world’s largest (and longest) functioning democracy. An American President took part in the Republic Day parade of India for the first time in history on 26^th January 2015. By all accounts it was a great day for both India and USA. The visit of American President Barak Obama was a great success and the bonhomie that had developed between the first ever non-White President of USA and the first ever real Aam Aadmi (ordinary man) who became Indian Prime Minister was completely unexpected and full of promise. As they keep saying, USA and India are most natural partners in the World scenario and it remains a diplomatic puzzle as to why it has not been so.

But all the goodwill that has been generated during the visit is now threatened to be upset immediately after the President’s return to USA. Obama’s preaching about the need for religious tolerance in India has snowballed into a major storm. American preaching about religious tolerance in India is like its own preaching about racial equality, Pakistani preaching about terrorism and Rahul Gandhi’s preaching about democracy. He is simply forgetting the fact that a non-White (or even half-White) could become US President only after more than two centuries of democratic rule. Whereas in India, members of religious Minorities have always dominated the national scene and a foreign born Roman Catholic could virtually rule the nation for a full decade without any constitutional post within the first century of the current phase of Indian history.

Obama might have been playing to the Christian gallery in his home country or obliging the orders from Vatican. But he should have remembered for once that India is the World’s only continuing civilisation that has remained essentially unchanged for over 5000 years and it’s the only nation in the World that still accommodates all the religions. He should have realised the condition about the religious minorities in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan etc., and the amount of racial discrimination in USA and Africa before making such unwanted observations. The World’s strongest democracy must realise that the one and only sustainable model for World Peace is the Indian model of plurality and equality of beliefs, and its greatest message of “Ekam sat vipraha bahudha vadanti” - Truth is one, the wise call it by many names, as enunciated in its Hindu Sanatana Dharma (HSD). And definitely not the ones that use ONLY and LAST as the adjectives for its ideologies. 

PK Film and Charlie Hebdo Cartoon

Nothing could have been more contrasting to the modern world in recent times – the huge boxoffice success of a Hindi movie PK which makes a complete mockery of the religious rituals of the Hindu Sanatana Dharma (HSD) majority in India, the world’s second largest populated nation, and the horrendous massacre of journalists in the French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo for a cartoon purportedly of a religious Prophet. Atleast a few hundreds of innocent and related lives of human beings have been lost in different parts of the world on account of these cartoons in the last few years. The fundamental differences between preaching in the two underlying faiths are too obvious to be elaborated any further.

Outside faiths have always made fun of the beliefs and rituals of India’s own Hindu Sanatana Dharma without realising its true meanings and real reasons. Ridiculing the native faith is part and parcel of any invading faith. This is bound to be so when the main motive of the invading faiths is to capture as many followers as possible in order to capture political power. Isn’t it astonishing to note that both the invading faiths have failed (so far) in their political mission only in the case of India? All other civilisations (and cultures) of the ancient world viz. Greek, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Mayan, Chinese, Japanese, African etc., have been either overrun or changed beyond recognition by the two or three invading ideologies.

This necessarily calls for a study on the inherent strength of HSD in the face of tremendous onslaught by the invading ideologies. The answer is its inclusiveness and openness. In modern parlance, HSD is the only religious ideology with an Open Source Code. It is freely available for everyone to modify according to their own requirements and interpretation, except for its basic tenets of Advaita, Rebirth, Karma and Moksha, which are very much in tune with modern Science.  There is no pre-eminence for any God or Prophet or any individual. What else can be better ideology for the emancipation of mankind relevant at all times?

Right Turn of India

The recent victory of Right forces augurs well for Indian nation. Long under subjugation by foreign forces, the soul of India’s Majority has been suffocating for almost a thousand years now. Whether it is the Europeans or Mughals or even the remnants of colonial forces that were running the country for most of the period since liberation from the British in 1947, the Majority interests, hopes and aspirations have never been given the priority that it deserves. If democracy is indeed the rule by the Majority, of the Majority and for the Majority, it was non existent in India for the past several centuries, except in certain insignificant pockets. In modern terminology India was having an unsustainable form of governance.

The main reason for the subjugation of Majority interests in Indian nation has always been the unorganized nature of its Majority faith viz. Hindu Sanatana Dharma (HSD). Perhaps it is the only faith in human history which has undergone a full cycle of evolution and allows complete freedom for reforms, versions and even revolt. As it stands today, Advaita (Non-Duality) stands out as the most modern faith corroborating well with the challenges posed by the arch rival of all religions ie. Science. But in the social sphere, Advaita supports only individual pursuit of God or Truth as against the organized religions (all advocating Duality) which call for organized and collective bargains to please God and attain entry into heaven. Such forces are bound to win in the race for limited resources by an ever increasing population.

Majority of Indians still adhere to HSD and it is their unorganized will that has been tampered with for so long. The subjugation during foreign rule is understandable. But the systematic sidelining of India’s Majority during the past seven decades based on a wrong interpretation of a single word (Secularism) in Indian constitution is clearly beyond comprehension. The atrocious subjugation has reached its lowest ebb in more ‘literate’ and modern states like Kerala that it is virtually the Minorities that rule. The whole of Indian nation was heading in such a dangerous path when a messiah in the form of Narendra Modi dawned. The fact that he could get a clear mandate with simple majority for the Right forces all alone shows the silent will of the Majority in this ancient nation which sustains the oldest surviving civilization in the whole world. We can only hope that Narendra Modi triumphs in his mission.  

Advaita Established

It was anticipated for a long long time and now it has really happened. Existence of one of the most fundamental particles – rightly called the God particle – is finally established beyond any doubt. Our elite scientific community, that consists of some of the most intelligent human beings alive today, has given their seal of approval to the existence of Higgs-Boson particle that ‘substantiates’ everything in this universe by giving them mass. It is present in everything and that includes you, me, them and whatever one can think of. It not only means that the God particle is present in everything, but also that nothing is possible without the presence of God particle. For the ardent followers of Advaita philosophy in Hindu Sanatana Dharma (HSD) the new discovery is nothing surprising. The present finding merely substantiates what Adi Sankara propounded hundreds of years back.

The conflict or synergy that exists between religions and Science is reaching its pinnacle very soon. We understand from the scientists at CERN that it will take a few more months to put their final seal on God particle. But as and when it happens, the fundamentals of modern Science will reach a complete synergy with the concept of Advaita that was propounded by Sage Adi Sankara. At the end of a purely impartial, objective and sincere pursuit in search of the absolute truth, a team of most modern particle physicists, using the most modern equipment that costs billions of dollars, have come to the very same conclusion as it was conceived in the mind of Adi Sankara who is rightly considered as the most intelligent human being that ever lived. Mankind is now seeing the absolute truth in simple terms with very naked eyes.

Sankara’s Advaita

Unlike other religious philosophies, Hindu Sanatana Dharma (HSD) has always encouraged freedom of expression and reformation. The process is still going on. But its latest watermark that is unsurpassed by any subsequent reforms is Sankara’s Advaita theory. In retrospect, it looks as if it was the final culmination of a long evolutionary process in HSD that spanned over atleast 5000 years. In very simple terms Sankara was stating the obvious about an omnipresent and omnipotent God, when he said that He is present everywhere. By one stroke of logical explanation, he made all concepts and ideas about an external God, who is monitoring and judging others, completely illogical and even irrelevant. The present confirmation of an omnipresent God particle reaffirms Sankara’s theory and all the religious philosophies (mostly Semitic) built on foundations of an external God lies completely shattered. I wonder whether the Semitic religions have any future at all outside its hardcore fundamentalist followers, who might hang on for political reasons.

Sankara not only propounded the Advaita theory but went on to propose that all that we perceive is just an illusion (Maya). While there are many who have challenged the Maya theory, there has been almost complete acceptance of Advaita theory among all the saints and sages in HSD in the last few centuries. In modern times, Ramana Maharshi, Swami Vivekanand, Saibaba, Mata Amritanandamayi etc., have reasserted the Advaita principle repeatedly. Adi Sankara came on the scene when HSD was on the decline due to the revolutions unleashed by Lord Budha and Jaina. Rituals and social practices among the ordinary HSD practitioners had become unsustainable and it was natural to have revolutionaries like Lord Budha to challenge the system. But both the revolutions were unsuccessful because its theory appeals to only our logic and not to our eternal rational quest for a God. Sankara’s Advaita fulfilled all such requirements.   

HSD Substantiated

With the final seal of approval on Adviata and God particle, the stature of HSD as a religious ideology is going to reach greater heights. It is perhaps the only current religious philosophy that would be acceptable to the entire spectrum of mankind spread between ordinary basic believers and most intelligent theoretical physicists. What is present in everything is called God and when such an element of God is present in all humans, how can an external God, made up of the very same God particles, sit in judgment over any of our deeds? Any idea of an external God monitoring, rewarding and punishing humans sounds absolutely ridiculous. He, who is within us, cannot reward us for our good deeds and punish us for our heinous crimes. If we are at fault, He is also equally responsible and how can He blame us and punish us for the same? It is even idiotic to think of such a God who enjoys all power but takes no responsibility. Ever since the advent of Advaita, the concept of God is quite different in HSD.

In Advaitic HSD, God is really present everywhere and He (in fact it is She) is omnipotent. If we take only the human beings, there is God present in all of us, but in varying intensities. God particles give only the quantitative mass to all of us, but there is a qualitative element as well. It means that the heavier ones among us may not necessarily be more Godly than lightweights. It is left to the individual’s efforts to refine the quality of God within each of us and reach a state of ultimate oneness with him. HSD scriptures give enough and more ideas and suggestions about practices to be adopted in order to reach Him. All that is lacking in most of us is the will and dedication to go for it. But those who have opted and acted have always been rewarded with the ultimate bliss.

India can be rightfully proud about the involvement of two of its greatest sons in the unraveling of this greatest mystery of mankind. If the theory of Advaita was propounded by Adi Sankara, it was Prof. Satyendra Nath Bose who propounded the theory of bosons in modern times. There is nothing surprising because only a profound civilization like the HSD could have produced such outstanding thinkers and scientists. Both might have been merely following their conscience which is an integral part of one of the greatest civilizations with an accumulated wisdom of generations of sages and saints who always encouraged freedom of thought, enquiry and expression. Jai Ho Bharat.          

Evolution of Gods

The truth of evolution is absolute and it is universal. Evolutionary process is an uninterrupted phenomenon applicable to everything. Evolution is taking place every second in all living beings and because of that in the associated non-living environment too. Though God is everywhere at everytime, the concept of God is man-made and it has also undergone evolution. It is very interesting to analyse the different concepts of God and see how it has evolved over the ages into the level of Ishvar – the omnipresent and omnipotent energy that is devoid of any characteristics (nirguna) and hence beyond any man-made definition. In India the various community, caste and sectarian Gods have evolved over ages, sometimes even vying with one another and have eventually surrendered before the ultimate version of Ishvar. It is definitely difficult to think of something that is present in everything, but that is (and only that can be) what can answer all our questions convincingly and provide the much needed rational support for our faith of Hindu Sanatana Dharma (HSD).

Knowingly or unknowingly we all recognize the presence of God much before we begin to explore, study and attempt to define it. The same must be true among all living species. But we do not know how other species do it and what is the final outcome of their explorations? Man is just another living species (though many among us have lofty pretensions about our uniqueness and greatness) and our exploratory efforts about God also follow the same evolutionary path. From a mere individual feeling it develops into a collective feeling and continues to acquire the form and name of a community or tribal God. As the individuals evolve, their concepts too evolve and the community or tribal God(s) must also evolve into the perfectly logical concept of a universal God. And if it does not happen in any community or tribe, it is either due to the spiritual deficiency inherent in their pursuits or due to the take over of such spiritual pursuits by extraneous considerations.

Best Realisation

Be it Asia, Africa or Europe, the early civilizations have always displayed their zealous enthusiasm for projecting a God or a set of Gods as part of their cultural symbols. The mighty Greek did it and almost all the numerous tribes in Arabia and Africa did this without fail. In India we had our own Gods for almost all communities and castes. This is part of a natural evolution process that concerns the need and definition of God. As individuals we need a God for our worship and we always tend to reach a consensus within a community. And once some collective Gods are established, it becomes rivalry between different Gods that signifies the victory of one tribe or community over others. This process has continued across continents and now we see many such tribal Gods dominating the world scene thanks to the economic and political strength of its supporters (or worshippers). This process will continue without any end until humanity exists.

While most of the civilizations content themselves with the sight of their God or Gods gaining primacy over others, a significant minority of humans have gone further and realized the ultimate truth in this process of Godly evolution. In India we have seen bitter rivalry between Shaivism Vaishnavism, Shaktism and Smartism giving way to Advaitism, Dwaitism and Visishta-Advaitism first and finally accepting the ultimate truth as enunciated by Advaitism. It can be easily stated without an iota of doubt that the realization and recognition of Ishvar in every tangible and intangible part of this universe signifies the height of spiritual evolution that humans have achieved so far. And that remains the best realization that any human belonging to any community or tribe or caste or religion can ever achieve in his or her spiritual pursuits. Most of our inter-personal problems will disappear if this objective gains acceptance as our common target.

Best Practice

The lofty principle of Advaita is complex to comprehend for many and much more difficult to be put into practice. For most of us it will take years and years of effort to reach the level of raised divinity when we begin to see over the wall and start recognizing the divine presence in everything. It is widely believed that a Guru, someone who has already been on the other side of the wall, can guide us in easier ways to achieve the same. But this may not be a necessary condition to reach over the wall. There have been many born and self-made humans who have accomplished the feat. Ramana Maharshi and presently Mata Amritanandamayi are just two examples of the same. Having complete faith and close associations with such realized souls can definitely increase our chances of climbing the wall successfully. In short, climbing the wall is a must but it can be done in many ways. A ladder may not always be required to accomplish the feat.

It is quite interesting and baffling to note that the concept of Ishta Devata (personal god) underlines one of the easier methods of arriving at Advaita. Idol worship forms an integral part of this. In Hindu Sanatana Dharma (HSD) we often hear of the 330 million Gods that make up its pantheon. It is almost certain that this particular figure had come up when we had about 330 million humans in the entire world. The underlying principle is to have a personal god for each of us in the name and form we want. Each and every individual born (reborn and yet to be born) in this world is unique and so his or her method to search for the truth. The concept of personal gods gives such an ultimate liberty for each and every one of us to worship our own form for the one and only Ishvar which is present in all of us. And instead of worshipping one another we have the option to design (and define) our own version of God that symbolizes the ultimate reality ie. Ishvar.

Evolution of Gods must take place in all religious communities to usher in the new era of super humans as Swami Aurobindo had once envisaged. Only the realization that there is only one Ishvar and that it is present in everything can take us individually and collectively into a higher realm. Uncompromising fundamentalism and parochial religious beliefs can lead us only to our mutually assured destruction. Our current situation is akin to a semi lighted room with several individuals, several pieces of rope lying around and a single serpent let loose. We are all sighting the serpent in the piece of rope near to us and claiming it to be the real serpent. Seeing serpents in all the ropes and respecting each of them is not at all bad, provided it is with the full knowledge that there is only one serpent. But realizing the ultimate truth that both the concepts & realty of serpent & ropes are made up of the same Ishvar is Advaita that can give us the ultimate deliverance.