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.

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.