Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Religion, Spirituality and Fate

What is this religion, spirituality and fate? Is it an answer to man’s quest for knowing the know all or is it just a social engineering tool ? Did man create religion or religion create man? Is there anything called fate? Are human lives pre programmed and pre determined? Is the will of the human supreme or is it just a supplicant to will of god? Who are we? Where did we come from? And where are we going? These questions have been there in my mind for a long time and I am searching for answers in almost all the places I go and in each person I interact. I havent succeeded much, most of knowledge I have is shallow but still I have formed some opinions on this subject. I haven’t read any scriptures and I follow my own spiritual path, which holds no value for many fellow spiritualist for the simple reason that it is my own path. Yet, I have my own views and I am proud of them. I am planning to blog my views on this subject in the following parts.

Part I : What is the purpose of Religion?
Part II: Is Partial Virtuousness enough for men to coexist in progressive societies?
Part III: My Questions to Karma Theorists.
Part IV: What is Fate? An analogy with the Game of Chess.
Part V: My views on Atheist argument.
Part VI: Astrology and Superstitions

Part VII: Happiness. Can it explain Anamolies?

Part VIII: My Observations with Hindu Spiritualists.

Part I : What is the purpose of Religion?

My Axiom:

The ultimate desire of man is to be in complete harmony with himself and achieve complete peace of mind (which includes happiness, infact is a direct outcome of it). The collective desire of mankind is to enable man coexist peacefully in progressive societies.

My proposition:

The purpose of religion, their teachings, concepts of Hinduism such karma, rebirth, fate, concept of heaven and hell of other religions are all designed to mould man into a good and virtuous human being, make him a sociable animal, set him on the right path to ensure that he satisfies his own desire of attaining complete peace of mind and harmony with self and also peacefully co exists in progressive societies!!!

Life is a set of random events. In this randomness, some are born rich and some are born poor, some in advanced societies, some in primitive societies and many with hale and hearty, some with deadly diseases. As long as this earth was inhabited with just animals, there was no requirement to explain this anomaly or unfairness, because in the first place, most of this unfairness except being born with diseases, must have never existed. But since human beings think logically, they could not reason out this randomness and infact needed explanation which was and is beyond his comprehension. More than that, every day life offered infinite choices and man was always overawed and overwhelmed by this randomness. If he were to continue his incessant questioning, he would go insane. As such, there were nature, sun, moon, celestial objects, rain, storm, natural calamties that always were unexplainable to man. And the mother of all reasons was, he was never in control of his death. So undoubtedly, he started believing in a supreme force that controlled atleast his birth and death. The primitive form of all beliefs and religions were all directed towards worshiping nature and natural objects like the sun and moon, fire, water etc.

Side by side, man started to live in societies. What used to be actions out of mere freewill, what used to be actions which were a result of reasoning directed to merely suit his own purpose, were now beginning to be demanded to suit his group of people living in his society also. That called for a certain sacrifice of personal free will so as to enable man coexist, so that each man’s free will doesn’t affect the other men in the society. So, the social principles, ethics, virtues and vices were born, rather were created. Is creation of such things enough? Who would enforce them?

So religion was a one stop solution to kill two birds in one stone. Firstly, all the inconsistencies that nature’s randomness created would be explained as will of god or a supreme force and then it also provided a navigation tool for man not to lose his way in the vast ocean of humanity and remain sane and virtuous. The creation of god and his making God's will supreme, explained the unfairness and provided answers that would directly result in his peace of mind and happiness, thus satisfying the ultimate desire of man to achieve harmony with self. And by making religion his navigation tool to tread the path of humanity and helping him to be virtuous and keep his wits toghether, the ultimate collective desire of mankind was to form progressive societies in which virtuous men co-exist with other virtuous men.
The purpose of religion and spirituality was to put some social order in such societies by motivating men to be virtuous or putting the fear to force him to be virtuous. Ideally, all religions aimed at taming man’s freewill to be automatically virtuous rather than by fear or force. This battle of between man’ freewill and social rules and regulations which restricts it started thence. Soon, such rules codifying the ethics and morals, what to do, what not to do, the right and the wrong and so on were slowly in force and it religion was used to give a divine authority by adding all the right, to do’s etc among the virtues of man, following of which there was a carrot of heaven waiting for him after his death and vice versa for vices which included the wrong, the don’ts which if men were to indulge in, would take them to hell after death.

Hindus talk about rebirth theory to induce the spirit of goodness and benevolence by putting a carrot in front of you. That carrot is rebirth. Like wise Christians talk about heaven and hell. Going to heaven is the carrot. We are all just rabbits running towards the carrot. But not always, and definetely not all of us. Those who see a carrot and run towards it are rabbits. And those who understand the meaning of why it is said the way it is said are humans. And when you know or when you indeed have realised that being virtuous social animal is the end, you don’t require the carrot anymore for motivation. The point to be understood is that we should not do the Right thing for the reason that we will get Heaven, but for the reason that it is right. But, may be many "right" things were beyond comprehension of common man, may be someone wanted them to be followed unquestioned or many "right" things were unpalatable but since it has to be done, it needed a divine authority and religion was the one to enforce it. Religion here is to force down a medicine which otherwise man wouldn’t take it voluntarily!

At the end of this part, I would just pose two questions to the reader:

1. Is their any other purpose of religion other than the one I have stated and comprehended?

2. To exist in progressive societies, is partial virtuousness of man enough? Is partial virtuousness is all that religion / spirituality aims at to make man live in progressive societies?

To be Contd...

25 comments:

BB said...

First of all, nice post. You need to advertise your blog..I have seen hopeless posts in other blogs as well as mine getting a whole bunch of comments faster than u can imagine... and to be the first one to comment after almost 12 hrs is not some kind of a response that I expect for a post that has a whole lot to discuss!

Relativitiy screams out loud here.....nature's inconsistencies, saneness... virtuous! all are perceptional....relative..!!

I agree..religions are like code of conduct...thats the reason why I feel it should never be a birth right...people should be educated in religion and should be allowed to choose em based on their agreements/disagreements..well its too idealitic a thought!

In progressive societies, its not possible to be completly virtuous..partiality is always a part of it!...thats why its not easy for religions which are based on early codes and morals to be the perfect one for the world at this stage!

Adaengappa !! said...

Nice post..Expecting to read more !! Follow up!!

Anonymous said...

I have some comments on your post. Myself, like you, am a novice in such topics but I would like to contribute my two cents worth if its allright with you. I appreciate your opinions, so no offense meant in any of my comments.

Purpose of Religion:

You said its to turn into a good anf virtuous human being. Is that it? Or is it to live happily for the short duration that you do on this earth. Whats the point of being good and virtuous? Whats the definition of good and virtuous anyway? What in one society is considered virtue is considered base in another. Thus, I dont agree with your ultimae aim. I think its to live live happily, peacefully and most importantly, live with a feeling that your being worthwhile and not completely useless.

I agree with your reason of religion and its origins but not with the statement that man would go insane if he tried to dechpher everything around him. Thats the way man learns and thats the way he has been learning all along. He uses the norminal rule of devide and conquor. If he had not, then he would never have achieve as much as he had. He would have been so overawed with the advent of the axe or the finding that the earth is not the center of the universe that he would never had preceeded further.

Man did not start to live in societies. He had to do so for survivial If man was like the dinosaur, who could defend himself against all enemies and forces of nature, then man would still very much be an individual being instead of a societial being. But that was not the case, it was the case of group or die.

I do not belive in your creation of god. My views is that ppl need someone to look up to, someone to fear. why? simply coz thats the way they have been brought up. think of it, when your young, you fear your parents, when older, adults., then teachers, professors. Your so used ot fearing and looking up to people that when you become and adult, you need ot look up to someone or you are lost. Thus the concept of god materialised.

Gos was someone to look up to, someone to keep you in check in case you decided to do something which society does not approve, someone to fear. And thats all he is there for.

Thats why hinduism is unique. It is basically a philosophical religion. It does not force you to believe in anything, it does not force you to do anything. There is a lovely tamil saying for that 'I dont care if you believe in me, I dont care if you dont believe in me'

The Soul Doctor said...

@ Bharat

Firstly, i thank u very much for ur comments. Your views are very correct about the right to choose what to follow and what not to follow. In the absense of this right, religion and its teachings becomes a domain incapable of being changed and more perilious is the fact that, when illogical things are blindly accepted in the name of god.The hindu religion is still veryf flexible because it doesnt impose, it is not being indoctrinated and definetely not given as a add on gift for helping the downtrodden as done by various missionaries and madrasas.

Relativity is everywhere.How right is right, how wrong is wrong, how narrow is narrow and how broad is braod is something for an invidual to decide keeping in mind his society he is living.It must not be imposed and what religion infact must aim is to give that much enlightenment to man to choose the right and wrong.

Todays curse of mankind is imposing one's religion on another mindlessly and the root cause of all terrorism in religion.

And yes. this blog needs advertisement too.But a handfull of sensible comments is better than loads of silly comments.:)

regarding partial virtuousness,i have my detailed views on the next blog as part II. so I will make my view point clear there:)

@ adengappa

Thanks for visiting my blog. And thanks for your compliments.:)

The Soul Doctor said...

@ Veena

Firstly, i thank you very much for spending your time here, reading my blog and putting your valuable comments.

I agree with you 100% in whatever has been said in ur comment. I have also said the same things exactly in spirit but in a different language.

About your view that religion is to make a man live happy...I hereby quote my proposition in my blog...

My proposition:

The purpose of religion, their teachings, concepts of Hinduism such karma, rebirth, fate, concept of heaven and hell of other religions are all designed to mould man into a good and virtuous human being, make him a sociable animal, set him on the right path to ensure that he satisfies his own desire of attaining complete peace of mind and harmony with self and also peacefully co exists in progressive societies!!!


I hope you will agree!


Your point about God being there to look upto when in need. Very true. Very Very true. look at what I have said..

The creation of god and his making God's will supreme, explained the unfairness and provided answers that would directly result in his peace of mind and happiness, thus satisfying the ultimate desire of man to achieve harmony with self. And by making religion his navigation tool to tread the path of humanity and helping him to be virtuous and keep his wits toghether

I meant to include your point of view also in this, Infact I believed it conveyed it, but I agree that if I had said the way you have explained, things would have been much clearer.Thanks for that. :)

No one forces us in hinduism to follow anything.But I do have complaints against hindu spitualists which I will cover in part VIII of this series.:)

Thanks once again.

BB said...

@ Karthik...Thanks! Will wait for the partII to review it!

@ Veena
"Your so used ot fearing and looking up to people that when you become and adult, you need ot look up to someone or you are lost. Thus the concept of god materialised"

Dont we also fear conscience!? dvaita and advaitas!..what abt that!? We are never afraid of god...We respect god...we are answerable to conscience!

This brings the core definition of and difference between dvaita and advaita!

Irritating specimen said...

It is difficult to write about religion without offending someone, so I will not attempt to avoid it.

but u have done a great job at it...

First...i guess religion is there to teach and encourage morality....thats what i feel Second..is that it exists as a familiar support group of people with similar, or at least compatible, beliefs in how to live life correctly....well these gps help people at the time of need..

well i guess i am not making sense much...but awesome write up...

Anonymous said...

Hi Barath,

We definitely fear conscience. But is it tangible? I dont think so. Conscience is something that you feel, and for the maejority of people out there trying to earn their living and put food on the table, conscience is the last thing they will be worried about. Think of it, if your so poor that you see your kids going hungry day in and day out, would you think twice about doing a job which will fill their stomach just because your conscience forbids? I dont think so.

But then these people do need something to keep them in check. Otherwise they will be lost to themselves, a risk to their families and a menance to society. So whats the solution? Government? People do not look up to people. Force? Again, force is applied by people for people and is not effective. Then what? That's where the concept of an omnipotent being who is all knowledgeable and everywhere comes in. Thats where the fear that if you do something wrong, someone is watching who will make you pay for it comes. Of course, am using the word 'fear' here for lack of better word, maybe you can say reverance or guilt-feeling. Am not sure.

Anonymous said...

Karthik,

I agree you said the same thing, but your wordings did leave one to speculate. :) Maybe my fault for not having read your post more throughly. My apologies.

The Soul Doctor said...

Barath
I have posted the second part on partial virtuousness.have a look.

paparazi

thanks for the compliments.

is that it exists as a familiar support group of people with similar, or at least compatible

DOnt you feel that long explanation of yours can be crudely summed up as society and thats why we have many religions because each of them were formed to satisfy many different groups of people living in different societies?

P B said...

There is always darkness in the base of a lamp. The lamp that illuminates everything else cannot iluminate itself. Similarly, one who sees everything as seperate from self, thinks, talks, interacts cannot see "who he is". The purpose of religion is to make one go inward and seek himself. Answering any questions does not make one contented, because one answer leads to another question. Calming the mind is the solution to know secret of HIM.

The Soul Doctor said...

@ muthu

U have very rightly brought out ur view points.Firstly

Who is HIM?what is self? and what is the difference between the two?

spiritualists have always put down people from questioning their beliefs by firstly making it a taboo and secondly ridiculing the seeker's spirit of questioning itself by creating a special entity of calming one's mind.

I would be gratefull if u would read all my views (including all the parts of this series of blogs) and face the questions rather than suggesting to calm the mind...because i always feel its an easy way of escape for all spiritualists from the seeker's curiosity!!!

BB said...

Hi Veena,

Alrite! agreed on the Conscience being dependednt on the state of affairs!

"Thats where the fear that if you do something wrong, someone is watching who will make you pay for it comes. Of course, am using the word 'fear' here for lack of better word, maybe you can say reverance or guilt-feeling"

Precisely! That is what Iam trying to say...You dont fear God...you respect him/her. You fear the force that separates good and bad from your own dictionary.... dependent or independent on the situation!...But who defines the good and the bad...your conscience which accepts the religion!? or the religious mind that understands conscience!?

The Soul Doctor said...

@ barath

But who defines the good and the bad...your conscience which accepts the religion!? or the religious mind that understands conscience!?

I feel that the conscience and religious mind is inseperable.each defines the other.each is a by product of other.each is the source of other.

P B said...

I am just saying the purpose of religion from my point of view. Hinduism says about "Tath thvam asi". The slokas "poornam adham, poornam idham", "tamasoma gyothir gamayam" says man can is absolute and He is That. No partial virtuousness and stuff like that are ever discussed. What one gets by following religion is known only by following a religion. I can say sugar is sweet and can never make one know how it tastes with out making him tasting it.

BB said...

Well...abt about a person who is not religious...you mean to say he/she is devoid of conscience..?!! I think conscience comes with experiences and consequences!?
on the same note!...here you go!
http://barathrao.blogspot.com/2005/03/conscience.html

The Soul Doctor said...

[b] @ bharat[/b]

whats a religious mind? a mind that believes in god is just a part of it. if indeed religion's most important task is to make man virtuous and happy, then any mind that believes in virtuous existence of humans is religious.

This is a comprehensive argument to cover all thinking minds whethere they believe in god or not.

again, when i place my views on the atheist arguments in part V, i would be a little clearer i hope.

infact i had included these in the previous comments too, but for want of brevity i just chose to leave it!:)

Read your article on conscience! damn good argument.dont be surprised to see the same line when i take on the athiests in part V. God or no God, religion has irreparably, irreplacably and irrefutably altered the way we choose the right and wrong and our concscience is dictated by it.

@ muthu

I agree with you 100%.But this is not what hinduism "appears" to teach. It talks about karma, rebirth and fate and debilitates man right from his birth by placing him under someone else's control.

as far partial virtuousness goes, infact no religion least of hinduism propounds it. It is that man has chosen to be partially virtuous!!

P B said...

Some points though appears disconnected to convey my stand.

1)There cannot be universal teaching or universal law that pleases all.
2) There is no religion called hinduism. Under sanathana dharma we have several school of thots. All are true but based upon seekers maturity, he prefers one over other.
3) As long as a cow disobeys the cowherd and grazes in other's field, it will be tied and treated. When it knows its rules and regulations, cowherd would not tie it. Similarly, rituals are needed untill mind is mentored enough.

4) Like a doctor giving different medicines to patients based upon their disease, different theories are propunded for different people. It is mistake to think there is one religion called hinduism and it talks in 1000 tongues. Hope I am making sense.

BB said...

Well, Looking forward to read that part of your post!

BB said...

Thought I should leave a copy of my response to your comment on my conscience post here as well...!

On the feral children...yes they do have conscience...but to a very limited level...their definitions would have their own reasonings!..wud be crude though!

"Zen and art of motocycle maintenance" thats one book that I have been wanting to read for a looong time..infact I was about to after the arguments in my instincts post..and ended up sleeping with thermodynamics! :)

The Soul Doctor said...

@ muthu

Agreed to your view point. But tell me who is the cowherd and the doctor here?

By denying an universal teaching, you deny an existence of single force or god that has Created man and destroy him when his time is over! So are you an athiest?

@ Barat

LOL. I made sense of that book after 5 readings:) and still i am clueless about many things what pirsig is talking about:)

P B said...

1) As long as a ego is there, a god is also there and karma is also there.
2) The lamp analogy is applies here to, the ego which can see so many things cannot see itself. When it seeks itself as per gnanis, it finds nothing. Ego is just a illusion, which arises from self and when it is sought it just disappers into self and everything is self itself. There is no name, forms, time space etc. Snake, rope analogy has to be referred here.
3 NOw Cowherd is the apparant god to apparent ego. Doctor is apparant god taking guru or shasthras form and extending his arms to apparant ego. Guru, god, shasthras are there as long as ego is there. There cannot be second or third persons without the existance of first person.
4) All paths are true. Because, in this search for self, seeker forgets that he is self. Say someone standing in a temple, without knowing where he is standing, asks other people where is the temple. In this case, any direction shown is correct. There is no need to comparre directions shown, except whichever direction makes sense to the seeker he can take and leave the rest.
5) Above all I am so small to talk on this. I seek forgiveness for having talked as if I know something.

Anonymous said...

so here we again another mix in the pot... what is the purpous of religion that depends on ur following and your belief any one coming here to soul search in my own humble opinion should do so with nothing other than their own opinion of religion they should not be persuing it or beleiving in it if you do give up soul searching immediately religion will ofeer nothing to someone searching their soul true soul searchers believe in nothing other than the one supreme being who never leaves their side they believe in them selves and they look to themselves for their own answers and strenght they face up to and deal with all their fears troubles and sins they pay their own pennance through asking why they did as they did they find their own answers or reasons and duly suffer guilt or unhappiness for what it was they did so all by them selves they`ve found realisation of a wrong they did thoght why they did it found their very own answers thus learning made themselves pay for their sin... the real way to do things....commit a sin when involved with a certain religion u sit in a box confess ur told to say ten what ever may be... hey presto clear conscience sin free does this not leave some open to the temptation of serial sin given how easy ur sins a dealt with and forgiven...take it from me some religions and soul searching do not ad should not be mixed if u want a belief make it u u need fullfilment continuosly nourish ur soul with happiness thus allowing u to have enough to share with others an act of basic human kindness goes a long way and it makes those who did feel very good once again filling ur soul with good energy and perhaps resoring someones belief that there are some good people out there who did what they did because they were able to offer a selfless bit of kindness to another human being because they could not because its written in a book that tells they should do it then the act didn`t come from them it came from something they read that told them they should do it.. i was hoping to keep this in a nut shell but i`d hate a true soul searcher to even begin to consider tryin religion to find their answers...the purpous of religion is to create prejudice betwwen beliefs a society that is told what they should or shouldn`t do''' thus causing its followers to cast judgement over others for how they choose to live their own lives''its a place for the weak to hide a creator of wars death and endless misery over thousands of years all because a free thinkink free willed person chose to believe in something other than god he is persicuted killed what ever are these people not supposed to practice tollerance acceptance and all oher thing that make a person virtuous ha ha not likely they are judgemental hypocrites some of the worlds wosrt sinners total brain washers who guilt people into beleiving and make them think anyone not in the faith is a bad person full of sin with no values or morailty they would find better axamples of the people condemn if they looked in the mirror... the purpous of religion is to create a sanctuary for lost weak hopeless souls incapable of finding strength and guidance in themselves because they dont have the strength of mind thus leaving it to be brainwashed and guilted into believing in the greatest lie that was ever created ... if god is so powerful why not pray for him to put a ferrari on ur driveway it will never come no matter how much u believe in him but believe in ur self to get out of bed each day live ur life ur own way work hard and save and the ferrari will come its belief in u that is the key follow religion at your peril

The Soul Doctor said...

A Learned Soul


Most of the views you have written makes it appear that you are bordering your views on atheism! I have a seperate part which I will very soon publish on atheist arguments. Would address them there!

the purpous of religion is to create a sanctuary for lost weak hopeless souls incapable of finding strength and guidance in themselves because they dont have the strength of mind thus leaving it to be brainwashed and guilted into believing in the greatest lie that was ever created ... if god is so powerful why not pray for him to put a ferrari on ur driveway it will never come no matter how much u believe in him but believe in ur self to get out of bed each day live ur life ur own way work hard and save and the ferrari will come its belief in u that is the key follow religion at your peril

compared with that long comment you have written on the fate blog of mine, This line of yours is absolutely and completely contraditory and you are speaking diametrically opposite things.

Is this incogruence a manisfestation of your attitude to contradict with whatever the author has written???

creativethoughts said...

I would like to put across some points relating to your qtn 1:



One major aspect of religion is that it is a way of life, a philosophy which guides its followers to handle the uncertainties of life with assurance, live harmoniously as a society. For that matter a philosophy/line of thinking like communism is also a way of life.



Some people have such clarity of thought that their thinking power/conscience would be enough for them to handle life and its
vagaries. Generally these people are visionaries and a select few of them establish their thought process (philosophy) in such a powerful manner that other lesser mortals follow them.



Another aspect of religion is that it gives answers to those questions which from the very “beginning” have troubled mankind, which essentially is nothing but the questions about his origin and origin of everything he sees around him. And yes human logic says that there has to be a beginning, a power. Majority of religion that is actively followed urges mankind to respect this power.

--

First, why is such a question arising? Why cant religion be straight forward in explaining what God is and how man should live his life?



To explain this, take an example of Nokia N70, I like it for the camera and music player, but children would use it more for Games, a little elder ones use it only to make calls. Just like that human maturity to use the Religion
decides on what it is for them. The difference in maturity is due to karma in my words, and “randomness” in major’s words.



Infact N70 has more features than mentioned, ofcourse a Religion too in the same lines. But am not sure of my maturity and so I cant decide its borders!


Is their any other purpose of religion other than the one I have stated and comprehended?

The purpose of religion is manyfold as and when you explore the depths the more meaning and ultimately meaning beyond meaning gets created.The purpose of religion can be to provide a DIRECTION , a path or a sense of existence beyond what is seen,felt or sensed even!
Religion can act as a key to unlock the locks of one's ever runnning thoughts.For example lets ask
here

What is the fastest thing ?

Answers could range from japanese trains to rockets,light sound and all but is it ?

Some would say THOUGHTS bingo ! but have you ever seen, felt or even sensed sometimes!!!!! likeways it is said that you are

physically present in the class mentally you are somewhere else. You seem to agree with the same how can that be ???????? In hindu mythology it is stated that by velocity of thoughts people used to go out of body and go places and come back.Lets not beleive the whole story lets take it part by part "velocity of thought","out of body experience"," beyond the mind"," beyond physical" and then you feel that you would be in perfect equilibrium with nature in such a state.
Mix some THOUGHTS of science here you will feel more logical.Forces and action-reaction theorem. When
the object is at perfect equilibrium resonance and all used to occur.So religion is as and how your nurture your thoughts :
which eventually becomes beleifs and then vice mens rule and so on.
But lets underline one thing religion can cuppport your beliefs like the theories and corollaries of maths and science used to do (L.H.S = R.H.S hence proved )your equilibrium point and frequency can be different with what mine is but the bottomline is the STATE.what you feel cannot be described,penned to words but an exercise would always build your muscles of spirituality.

So religion can be thought of GYM Equipment.To tone your spiritual muscles.



2. To exist in progressive societies, is partial virtuousness of man enough? Is partial virtuousness is all that religion /

spirituality aims at to make man live in progressive societies?

This seems to be tricky one ! but lets take up a plane or 2 dimensional circle .Lets us keep ourselves as the centre and the
society that we live in as the circle periphery. now what religion would do is support things within this periphery but what spirituality would do is open up the the 3 rd dimension ( this in Hindu muythology is the third eye of SHIVA) what if I told you that you are God, you are SHIVA. I risk myself been called insane ,nonsense or whatever will strike your mind.

But if you can beleive here it is each one of us is blessed with 3rd eye all chakras and this is waht is termed as "kundlini jagran". Th energy of universe is resident in the subfolds of you "NABHI" whcih if invoked through your subconsious would take you beyond consious.This is never achievable throgh "partial virtuousness".

then what is it achievable through ????????? answer is for you to find out.