Shruti and Smriti

The entire scriptures and religious texts in all religions in the world can be traced as a mixture or amalgamation of ideas coming from two sources viz. Shruti and Smriti. The former refers to what is termed as eternal truth and the latter refers to their application or adaptation in a contemporary context. In fact all the conflicts between the various religious ideologies will go away if their respective scholars realise this simple truth and not waste theirs’ and others’ time by harping on Only My God (OMG) and Only My Scripture (OMS) theories. Many of the so-called experts in comparative religious studies are highly skewed towards their own religion and display complete ignorance when it comes to the fundamentals of other religions. They lack the basic understanding of Shruti and Smriti, and display absolute hatred towards other faiths.

As the word Shruti itself means, it is what has come to us by word of mouth and is seen spread all over the religious texts. The Shruti elements are easily identifiable to the impartial seekers. Shruti always refers to the eternally sustainable aspects of existence. It will have no connection whatsoever to the contemporary and will have no reference to contemporary characters or incidents in history. In stark contrast, Smriti elements will always be contextual and will have to be understood in the context. If taken out of context and applied as such, Smriti will spell disaster for mankind. I am afraid this is happening very much in our present day world. The root causes of many of our current conflicts is due to this wrong interpretation of Smriti elements from the sacred texts. What was perfectly logical in a tribal society centuries back (Smriti) is definitely illogical and out of place at present.

The best way to understand Shruti is by putting it to a simple test. All Shruti elements must necessarily relate to sustainability of mankind. For example, if some God had said Satyameva Jayathe (Truth alone triumphs), it is quite possible that we take it as Shruti. But that is the mistake we make. The Shruti element must be something like “Dharma shall always triumph” because we know very well that Truth is not always the one that will sustain us. The best example of Smriti is nothing but Manusmriti. The text also contains Shruti elements, but most of it is acknowledged to be Smriti. And we all know the debate and confusion it creates when some of the fanatics interpret it as Shruti. The same problem persists for many of the texts in the Semitic religions and the world is paying a heavy price for the human fallacy. 

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.

God Definition

The bitter fight between fanatic atheists like Richard Dawkins and uncompromising believers like Deepak Chopra has reached highpoint. In a way it looks progressive because the set of blind followers who believe in a Man look alike God breathing down the nose of all believers, watching and determining the life of each one of us is fast dwindling the world over. Church goers are few and far between among the Europeans and never ending violence and eternal bloodbath is questioning the very foundations of the youngest religion supposedly founded on brotherhood and peace. Days are numbered for both the major organized religious ideologies in the modern era when Big Bang will be taught in nursery schools. The relevance of a God which claimed to have created the universe some six thousand years ago is almost expired.

Nevertheless we cannot let the God debate go on forever in an unhealthy manner. There is no doubt that it has started affecting the evolutionary progress of Man. It is time for Homo sapiens who are about four hundred thousand years old to evolve further. But for unnecessary controversies and acrimonious debates time is ripe for the advent of a Super Race of humans as predicted by Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950). Only a synergy of Science and Religion can provide all the required tools for the evolution of entire mankind into the next stage that is vital for its survival when our life giving star Sun start turning into a Super Nova engulfing the entire planetary system. Neither Science nor Religion can achieve this yeoman task independently.

We are living in a glorious era when Science has established the Big Bang that occurred about 13.72 billions ago without any iota of doubt. Matter and energy for the entire universe as we see today was created within a brief moment of time following the Big Bang. But who or what created or resulted in the Big Bang can never be explained by Science. Many argue that it is Consciousness. It is here that a confluence can occur between Science and Religion which can take the entire human race onto its forward path of evolution without any conflict. All that is required is to define God as follows:-

“God is that which created the Big Bang and continue to be omnipresent as the passive Consciousness”

General Theory of Theology

It was not very long ago that Newtonian Physics was considered the last word in Physics because it could explain and predict all phenomena that we see around. It could even explain the motion of celestial bodies. But the whole edifice collapsed when we started dealing with the sub-atomic particles. Special and General theories of relativity were required to reach a reasonably acceptable level of hypothesis that could explain everything. We are passing through an identical phase in the case of metaphysics now. The theory of God (theology), which is central to all religions, has entered its final phase now. Rigid Science which is nothing but the other side of Blind Religion is dead and irrelevant to modern Man. Pure, impartial and realistic Science has made tremendous progress and it is challenging many of the hitherto unchallenged tidbits of Science contained in some of the holy texts. Time has also come for proposing a General Theory of Theology to explain the Science of God who is supposedly ‘controlling’ the whole universe (or multiverse).

Different religions and their own versions of God have evolved in different isolated pockets around the world at different times. Exchange of ideas and debates on the various concepts of God were physically impossible during yesteryears. Vested interests in each society kept their own concepts of God in isolation and prevented all forms of challenges to their own supremacy for obvious reasons. With the unprecedented growth in Science and Technology in the past two centuries, many such limitations have vanished. Details about any religion or any concept of God are freely available in the internet now. So also the latest in Science and Technology. But religious bigots are still trying to retard the progress of mankind by preventing free enquiry and debate. We should not allow this to happen and all progressive sections must make the debate continue without any break.

Need for God

The Big Bang theory and all pervasive Higgs-Bosons (God Particles) have been confirmed by Science. We now know for sure that our universe is 13.7 billion years old, our beloved planet about 5 billion years and Man a few million years old. All these unquestionable facts have serious implications. It will take some time for its effect to percolate into all fields of human knowledge. But it will definitely change everything we can think of. The simplicity of having everything originating from a single entity and having something that is present everywhere cannot be ignored. Though some scientists may sound over confident in their explanation of everything, the fact still remains that there is indeed ‘something’ which maintains order and evolution of universe in a particular direction. But equally important is the fact that, as a bare minimum, the very ‘something’ has to be omnipresent, omnipotent and permanent in order for everything to be as it is. All variables can be appreciated and measured only against something that is invariable in every sense.

Need for God becomes inevitable in the context of the order we see in the universe. Scientists believe that everything started off from zero energy and it was a slight tilt in the universal plane just after the Big Bang that created all the various particles constituting the universe which is still of zero energy. Then the question remains as to who or what created the ‘slight tilt’ that resulted in all that we see around. Why not attribute it to something known as God? Another important aspect is the fact that Science can talk with absolutely certainty only about physical aspects of the universe. How about all other aspects of the universe like relationships between various animate and inanimate objects? What about the social, emotional and evolutionary aspects of those with life, especially of humans? And what about the most certain and yet the most misunderstood aspects of birth and death? All these unknown aspects call for a need for God, which is nothing but the ultimate answer to everything.

Use of God   

Most part of most religious thoughts deal with human issues. Makers of religions put forth their own theories that can provide answers to various problems that confront humans. God is an essential content in all religious thoughts and each of them define it in their own convenient ways. And then they forget the simple fact it is the very same God that they have reinterpreted. Clash of religions starts from that point. It was understandable in old days because only the religion makers thought about God and claimed to have understood it. That is not the case anymore. In this age of information everyone can know about everything if one wants to. Once all of us realise the simple fact it is the very same God that we are talking about, there will be nothing more useful to us than the concept of God.

An ideal world would be one when each human being will have his own religion with a version of same universal God. This would sound an impossible dream but the concept of personal God in ancient India refers to such an ideal state of affairs. There are many who ridicule the talk about 330 million Gods in Hindu Sanatana Dharma (HSD) with out realizing the fact it is something much above their own understanding. Having a God of your own who can teach you, make you realize things, scold you, pamper you and even play with you will make all the difference in any human being, who is nothing but a bundle of flesh with ego, emotions and maximum helplessness that only he or she knows. All great men are those who have effectively used such Gods to get the best out of themselves and had immense faith within. This would include even the most acclaimed atheists among us.       

A General Theory of Theology assumes great importance in contemporary context. The best definition for God is that it is an Energy, Matter or Consciousness (all interchangeable) that is omnipotent, omnipresent and permanent. And more importantly, God is definitely not something that is making, managing and monitoring everything (especially humans) for providing rewards and punishment. It is possible to have other universes where the same God is in control but it does not matter to us. All things in this universe are evolving against the background of a permanent and unchanging God. Morality and righteousness are something that is natural in the make-up of evolved humans. While certain collective virtues take us forward in the path of evolution, the negative elements impede our progress. And ultimately it will all end up gradually only to be reborn again because the entire universe is cyclic, symmetric and of zero-energy in nature.          

Opportunities in Spectrum & Black Money

The on-going tussle in spectrum and black money may be turning murkier everyday, but the two ‘resources’ present a golden opportunity in India today. The history of black money is almost as old as mankind and in India too it dates back to ages. But spectrum is relatively new and the recently unearthed spectrum allocation scam has inducted more black money into the Indian economy than any other single exercise in the past. The yet to be constituted JPC may or may not succeed in unlocking the secrets of spectrum allocation and its related scam, but there are immense opportunities for some good offshoots latent in the present confusion. If only our politicians and law makers are imaginative enough, some novel ideas and institutions can be setup for the betterment of Indian nation and society. Let me present just two of them.

Spectrum for Religions

India is a secular nation and as envisaged by its founding fathers, all religions shall be accorded equal respect. Yet we find appeasement of the so-called minority religions and its rights crossing the limits many times. One of the most irritating practices indulged by all factions is the amount of noise pollution generated in the name of religion. Another one is the number of TV channels that have come up in recent times for propagation of religions. Under the guise of so-called comparative studies a major part of time by each religious channel is spent on finding out the demerits and weaknesses of other religions, rather than criticizing and denouncing the evil practices within one’s own religion. All this can be changed by a few reforms.

In the revised allocation of spectrum that is imminent, I would suggest a few MHz to be reserved for the various religions. With a mobile penetration of about 80% in India, all the call for prayers and religious announcements can be easily made over the mobile phones rather than creating noise pollution for the entire society. Each one can setup his or her mobile phone to receive the religious calls depending upon his or her religious preference. And the various mobile operators may also offer it free or at negligible charges. Similarly, the religious TV channels can also be allotted spectrum to operate within a certain range, perhaps at a much lower cost, with the strict conditions to deal with only their own religion. Comparative study of religions is purely an academic exercise and must be limited to the four walls of academic institutions.

National Conscience Fund

Black money of Indians in various foreign banks is estimated to be more than 25 lakh crores of rupees. Most of these accounts have been created by the swindlers themselves, but there are many which are inherited. Even worse is the case of inheritance with out even the beneficiaries being aware of it. Staunch denial by many celebrities is based on this simple fact or by using this as a convenient excuse. The entire civilized world is turning against the Swiss style banking systems and days are not far off when all nations will be willing to share the details of foreign accounts. Indian government will get the longest and most shocking list of illegal account holders in foreign countries. Investigations into the source of such funds must definitely follow, but a simple step before that can prove highly productive.

Indian government must immediately set up an Indian National Conscience Fund (INCF) for various reasons. All swindlers must be given a few months time to transfer their ill-gotten money into INCF if they so desire. And once the swindlers’ list is available from the various foreign countries, all the inherited wealth must also be transferred to INCF under intimation to those who inherited it knowingly or unknowingly. A simple legislation may be necessary to setup INCF and operate it without any unwanted judicial interference. Such a permanent INCF can also go a long way in channelizing a good portion of our black money into nation building activities. But our legislature and legislation must make it double sure that Rajas and Kalmadis do not hijack such an INCF also.

Indian nation would have literally become the world leader and a model democracy for all nations by now if we had erudite and imaginative legislators. The bane of Indian democracy is the growing number of career politicians with no knowledge other than petty politics and conducive family backgrounds. A few revolutionary legislations and innovative administrative steps can bring about unimaginable changes and strengthen our secular democracy beyond all our imagination.

MYTH OF COMPASSIONATE GOD

Concept of God is the very basis of every religion but it differs vastly between religions. As an integral part of our journey towards salvation, the different religions have defined God to be of different type and kind. There must be a concept of God in every religion and without it, everything about its beliefs and rituals would be meaningless. In all religions God is omnipotent and omnipresent. The difference lies in its other features. In some religions it is feminine and in some others it is masculine. In some it resembles humans and in some others it is quite unlike. In some it is of a particular form and in some others it is formless. And more interestingly, and of more consequence, God has definite characteristics in some that contradicts completely with those in others.

In today’s world, if one is religious it means that one is a follower of an existing established religion. And to be irreligious means that one does not believe in any of the existing religions. But this is not correct. Each one of those who are termed as irreligious may still have their own versions about God, unless of course one is an atheist. An ideal atheist must be one like Bertrand Russell who did not see any reason to believe in any form of God at any stage in his adult life (at least he said so). In a way atheism must also be considered a religion just like zero being considered a number. Perhaps Indian is the only civilization in the whole world which also accommodates true atheism as one of the means to realize God i.e. about its non-existence.

Proactive God

In many of the organized religions of the world, the concept of God is a proactive one. This is very clear from the well known expressions in everyday use among its followers. Most Compassionate God and Most Merciful God obviously refer to someone like us but with unlimited compassion and mercy towards the followers. And that our actions are always under the surveillance of God. Our goodness is rewarded and wrongness punished. But the questionable feature lies in the possibility of compassion or mercy for those who look for it following their ill deeds. To err is human but to look for an escape without any punishment is also equally human. It is this unfairness of humans that is most effectively and efficiently (mis)used by the designers of organised religions. And most people fall for such attractive gimmicks even when it relates to God.

In organized religions, God is considered an ever vigilant and efficient monitoring agency. Any form of monitoring leads to control and it is this remote control that is believed to keep Man in the right path. But what can happen if the control mechanism accommodates failures and adjusts for mistakes? The system will ultimately fail. The analogy of God with a vigilant but accommodative control system is an apt one. An ideal control system should severely punish deviations and reward compliance. And it should never allow any compromise with detected deviations lest wrong models become possible and wrong precedents would get set. The whole mechanism would collapse one day under the weight of accumulated wrongness. Unfortunately this is what happens in the case of followers of such wrong concepts of God.

Reactive God

In sharp contrast to the concept of a proactive God is the one with reactive features. This clearly means that either a reward or a punishment follows each one of our actions. A reactive God is normally dormant and becomes active only when an action takes place. It does not act of its own initiative but will only react to our actions. The concept of a reactive God fits in well with those of an independent fate or destiny. Each and every object in this universe has a purpose and follows a course of action. In the case of the animate we call this course as fate or destiny which they are born with. A reactive God will not have much role in the current status of any being but will only monitor and control the incremental effect negatively or positively based on the value of their actions.

The most rational way to explain fate and destiny as something we are born with is the theory of rebirths. Fate and destiny of anything animate at any point of time is on account of its accumulated karma from its earlier lives and deeds so far in the current life. The clear advantage in this concept of a reactive God is its unambiguous positive encouragement for anything good and punishment for any wrongdoings. If we can easily get away with our misdeeds by fooling an omnipotent & omnipresent God by playing on its compassion, it may be better not to have any God at all. God must be an all knowing and powerful yet impartial judge for all our doings at each and every moment in our lives. Eye for an eye must form the basis of natural justice dispensed by God.

As a rational being I consider it the solemn duty of each human being to think his or her own way through the concepts of God available in front of us. The concept of a compassionate or merciful God looks abhorrent to me personally. If I knowingly make a mistake I must be prepared for its punishment too. Those who think that the most benevolent, most merciful and most compassionate God would pardon or lower the punishment just because they are smart enough to repent in time and offer a confession are too ridiculous and cruel. Such a God could not have sustained life for so long in this world of struggle and competition. A purely reactive form of God that is tough, fair and just is the best one that appeals to me. Sinning must never go unpunished and if it is possible to escape the consequences of sin, then there is no God at all.