RELIGION
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Part 1
Religion, in the popular concept, is the belief in a power,  above all that is seen or heard, creating, nourishing, and destroying the whole universe.
When the earth, in the early days, was sparse of  population, compared with a the area of the land, the people lived in isolated areas, and developed their different ideas of the world.
The  one problem, which troubled them,  was the origin of the world, who created us, and why, afterwards destroyed, a seemingly arbitrary person, whom nobody can know or question, but believed doing everything for our good, a fatherfigure, the Father in Heaven, in short, GOD.
Every land  gradually all, living peacefully, accepted that each could have its God, without claiming any superiority or supremacy over others.
This  could not go on forever, but inevitably they clashed, leading to a state of  continuous warfare, between sections, who asserted that their God is more
tolerant than the other tolerant Gods.
This natural habit is not easy to change, many great men tried to do so, but, in spite of the reverence in which they were held, as God himself or his messenger,  come to earth, for leading the errant in the right direction.
The wise thinking were not satisfied with the explanation
of  God, as the supreme Power, over all other gods  because, if one God rules all beings, who creates and destroys all, the question arises, who created that Creator, and who created Him.
This will go on forever ad infinitum, an absurdity, which disproves the original theory of several gods one above the other, without end.

So, as a result of concentration on the ultimate cause of things, concluded that what is conceived as the supreme Being, can never be known.
They came to the conclusion that, to ask, who and where the supreme God, is the wrong question to ask, for there is no reason to believe in the existence of such a Being, somewhat like a human being, weak, subject to human frailties, illnesses, birth death physical as well as mental diseases.
What  is it then ?,
Nobody can  ever know, for how can one, inside a shell know who what’s outside?,
those outside however can; we are inside the shell of the world, which there is no way to know the creator of the  created world.
At  best, one can enjoy the  stories about the imagined creator, but they would be taken as true only  by the simplest minds, as is common among the people, who worship the actors, acting the part of gods in cinema shows.
The  intellectually inclined, could not accept such a simplistic idea, that GOD was like human beings, subject to the weaknesses of hunger, passionate desire, jealousy, anger, and a host of negative  feelings.
Some of them believed that the figure of  God could be clearly seen in their mind ready to accept it, by preparing the mind, for which many treatises were written, noted  among them being Pathanjali’s Yogashaasthras, which enumerates the different steps to attain that state of mind.
These steps are Yama, bodily cleanliness, niyama, mental cleanliness, praanaayaama, breath control, prathyaahaara withdrawal from of objects of senses, dhhaarana keeping an idea in mind,  Dhaarana concentration, dhyaana contemplation, samaadhi union with the Universal Soul.
Everybody was agreed that following  one’s nature, could attain the ultimate, without interfering with others, and accepted the idea that all are parts of the universal soul, but that they could not devote time to the practice of the steps of the Yoga philosophy.
Keeping this in mind, they went on doing the various duties for the upkeep of their families, drawing strength from this philosophy of all being equal, regardless of gender, power, learning and wealth.
Through the whole world, be it Greece, Arabia,Africa, India and China, this view
prevailed, and lived happily in peace and harmony, although  the adventurous and powerhungry disturbed that as usual, and led to great wars at times.
But arose another opposite view in the desert sands of Arabia, regarding the nature of God.
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on caste

MORE OF MUSINGS

Caste in Geetha:
It is not clear whether the present system of caste in Hindu society, based on heredity, was prevalent in ancient India, or whether it is a gradual petrification of ideas in the course of generations, aided by consolidation of vested interests.
The “varnashrama” system, on the other hand, is an idealized classification of professions and duties of man in the course of his life, based on the qualities of the mind.
In India, there has always been a tradition in all shastras, (ie. Sciences or philosophies), to classify the observed facts into sets, be it the number of worlds, elements, qualities, or actions. So it may have been natural to broadly classify the professions into those based on knowledge, defense, trade and service. In the same way, responsibilities in different stages of life were classified into education, parenthood, gradual withdrawal from activities, and final retirement.
These are at best guidelines for individuals during their existence, I would fancy. They are not directly associated with privileges or social status. In practice, those who were involved in the more authoritative professions could give a head start to their children, and thus they must have perpetuated a custom of “dynastic” inheritance.
However the serious texts have not given any support to this system, and always stressed on equality of all human beings. In Geetha it is said repeatedly that the divisions are based on qualities and actions, never on birth.
All great philosophers and saints in India, as indeed all over the world, have decried the inequalities and injustices of caste, and stressed on the equality of men. But it has not changed the caste system, as practiced in India, probably because it was based on social and political situations of the time, entrenched very deeply. Buddhha was the first religious leader who tried to change it; it was too premature and Buddhhism could not develop roots in India permanently.
Gandhi did his best to eradicate this, as Krishna in Geetha, through stressing the essential foundation for the divisions in qualities and vocations, and not on any birth rights. The social compulsions seem so strong that, in spite of all laws and regulations, it cannot be said to have really made much impact. The present day changes in economic and industrial production , as well as globalization, may ultimately succeed where all religious exhortations failed.
Can it be said however that this system continued for so long in India, only due to political pressure from the elite above? Hardly possible, especially in the face of mighty assaults from outside, religious as well as military. The system must have given each group, caste, a sense of autonomy, security in the form of non-interference from others in their internal management, something similar to the guilds in Europe. It must have given stability to the society during the changes in rulers, which must have appeared to occur somewhere above and too far to affect their daily life.
One result was that there was no national spirit, which could organize people into nations fighting for their identity. It was also probably the same in all societies, as they progressed from the feudal to the industrial!

final comments on geetha

When one studies different religions, or the same religion at different times, one cannot help wondering what exactly is meant by the word God in them. There is I think a gradual evolution from the simple to complex or sophisticated.As the human intelligence opens its eyes in the primitive times, and experiences various phenomena, many of them out of his control, he may wonder about these forces, apparently not visible, but certain to be there because of the evident effects. Certain things he could will and execute, many things happen in his own body and outside, which he cannot control. Used as he is to the feeling that the outside events must have a cause, he projects his anthropomorphic concepts to that force, imagining it to be something similar to him, but vastly more powerful. He might have called it by the word, "God".First, he may feel that there are very many individual gods directing each of these natural phenomena. As his reasoning powers grew and as he observed more and more the happenings around, with the resources and facilities available, he might have felt the need for a central figure. Thus must have come the idea of one most powerful god.This god however remained only that of one related group for a long time. Gradually, as the groups became bigger, from family to society,the idea of the god also must have grown larger and larger. Power was the attribute of god, most visible, but soon the necessityof keeping the society unified and stable, must have projected into the concept all the noble qualities desired in man into it, love,justice and so on.The early religions remained those of various communities, and their feeling of insecurity vis-a vis other communities made each to cling to his God as the only true one, and to deny the same status to the gods of other communities, indeed to consider god as partial to them. Unfortunately,God became some one like a chief of armed forces for each, getting involved in their petty quarrels.Wherever there was not this insecurity probably, each group was more tolerant and more willing to accept the different Gods as proper to those groups.The qualities projected in God also gradually changed; what was narrow, crude and considered unsuitable, were eliminated; and a concept of all-goodness emerged in most of the civilized communities. As man grew in his reasoning and grew out of his insecurity, and became more daring, he started shedding one by one the human qualities from the concept of God, so that ultimately it ended in accepting a sort of atheism, which meant, no God in the sense of a personal human-like figure.In any case, the ultimate reality above our own consciousness seems beyond our reason. All theories of the first cause in the end are a matter of faith. We are what faith is, as Geetha says in the 18th chapter, and that faith which is conducive to social harmony and progress is probably that which humanity will veer to.

some more musings

In Geetha, apart from sanction, or even persuasion, to commit violence as part of one's duty, it is also said that each of us is born with a natural set of qualities, which nobody can avoid. One would wonder whether it is sheer fatalism, in which case, nothing we do matters.The exhortation to practise yoga and other means to better oneself becomes meaningless.In the last chapter, it is said that we will be forced to do by nature what we try to avoid.Yet all through the book, the emphasis is on committed action based on knowledge of the realities, so that one can rise up the ladder ofdevelopment to a higher state of perfection.So it would appear that it asserts both, that one's natural inborn qualities are very powerful, and at the same time that one can rise above these, by means of knowledge and understanding. It is said that repression is impossible. What it recommends is introspection, going down to the roots. If the roots are not completely eliminated, the oldinstincts would sprout again. The way to do this is study, thinking and practice,with intense commitment. Till that time, better that one follows one's nature, gently directing it away from lower to higher levels.
I would like to fancy that it is like a computer programmed in one way at manufacture, which sets the way operations would be sequenced. The programme can be changed by one who really knows how. Till then, things have to go on, even if not in the best way.The moral, I suppose, is that one should do one's best, in whatever station one is, and not be too much perturbed if things do not always go as desired. .The important thing is a feeling of self-satisfaction and self-esteem, in feeling that we have performed to our capacity, what we judge to be our duty. It of course cannot be to ge approval from others, or to impress them. The judge is our own conscience, and the approval has to come from it, and it alone!

More musings

Is it right for Krishna to persuade Arjuna to fight, against his best impulses?

It is difficult to say no, I think.

If Arjuna had these feelings from the beginning, he could have graciously renounced and found happiness and self-respect in that type of life. But it was too late now. It was more like a passing sentimentalism, and he would have found it difficult to reconcile himself to a life of subservience to his haughty cousins, and contempt from his peers at his apparent cowardice.

He was not really ready for that sort of high living, and would have to wait until, by a process of gradual introspection to understand the futility of all this in the wide compass of the universe, he could realize fully the more lasting happiness of internal peace.

For us who do not have to meet such challenges, but have lesser dilemmas to confront, and have to decide what we should do in certain circumstances, the approach of geetha, a combination of committed action without worry about the immediate result, a firm belief that in the order of things any sincere action will not be in vain under the benevolent eyes of a God who is impartial just and loving, and the realization of our pettiness in the vast incomprehensible universe,may be appealing.

Whatever we say about the unknown origin and cause of life and universe is certainly bound by our own experience. The ultimate reality conceived by us as either a personal god or universal impersonal reality beyond our feelings and thoughts, is a mental projection, shaped by our imagination.One thing which makes the vedanthic teaching more appealing to many is that of its universality, the oneness of all irrespective of individual differences.

And its non-imposing of its beliefs on others.Instead of being a jealous god who cannot stand a rival, and who would annihilate all nonconformists, it accepts that there are differences born of individual personalities and mental makeups.

And that the fundamental criterion is sincerity and regard for others.Instead of giving commandments and orders, it asks people to think,study all that is ever written and thought by the wise and learned men, and then try to develop themselves in accordance with his nature.

The nature of humankind is categorized into 3 major types, what they call satva, rajas, and thamas, what may .be called the balanced/mature, restless/violent, lazy/inert, respectively.

And into4 classes of activities, castes, intellectual/brahmin,power-centred/kshatriya, trade/vaisya, and service/soodra. They also divide the life-span into 4 stages, student days/brahmacharya,household maintaining/ grihasthha, semi-retirement/vanaprasthha, and final renunciation of all worldly things/sanyas.

This kind of approach accommodates all sort of people and allows for diversity of beliefs and actions.God as presented here is god of all, and whichever form one worships,ultimately goes to Him only.

One criticism we can make about this is probably that this favours status quo and does not provide for changes in social organization.Probably this is not individual concern, but to be executed by God himself in the form of incarnations to set things right when things degenerates from the original values and ideals.

Musings on the Bhagavad Geetha

When one reads critically the Geetha, as a guide for living, not as a hymn to be chanted for favours handed out by a pleased deity, the first thing which strikes one may be, is it not callous and even cynical to use all these high-sounding words and philosophy, only to make Arjuna fight a bloody internecine war for the sake of material gain? similar to Arjuna’s feelings expressed in chapter 2.

If you hold the author in respect as a serious poet, you might wonder whether there is a purpose in inserting this noble philosophy in this context. The national poet of Kerala, Vallaththol, has hailed it as the bugle of detachment even in the battle field, a testimony to India’s deep spiritual commitment!

I personally should like to think that the central idea is, given the harsh realities of life, which nobody can escape, bound as he is by Nature to its laws of survival, how best can one reconcile himself to it, and at the same time strive to raise himself above them, by a basic transformation of his base impulses through a process of introspection and practice of self control. There is no room for repression, or quick fix in it. The objective is one’s finding the truest abiding happiness in a feeling of self-mastery and resulting self-esteem, and through this, stability and all-round development of society as a whole.

The means to achieve this, according to Indian tradition is, manifold, the chief being: one, positive committed action with the object of self-control, two, submission and emotional bonding to a supreme Godhead, three, intellectual search for the ultimate reality. Geetha I think assimilates all of them, and asserts that they are not contradictory, but are complementary, the basic requirement being sincerity and integrity..

It is customary to consider Geetha as divided into 3 sections of 6 chapters each, the first mainly dealing with karmayoga, the second with bhakthiyoga, and the third with jnanayoga. But there is no hard and fast separation, and it is always emphasized that they are not exclusive of the others.

There is also a gradual development of Krishna’s personality, first a frend and companion, and then guide and philosopher, and later God himself impersonating the entire universe. Towards the end he is again the old self.

God has spoken to many prophets, and devotees, but only through the mind of somebody or the other, this time through Krishna, as envisaged by Vyasa. Just as he has to assume a form to be visible to mortal eyes, he has to assume the egoistic “I” when addressing us. It should not be taken ,I think, as self-glorification.