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by
Sri Bimal Mohanty
VOL
No.86
April: 2008
FROM ATHEISM TO THEISM OR FROM TAMASA TO JYOTI
Based on the lectures by Sri Bimal Mohanty
Tamaso ma jyotirgamaya mrtyur ma amrtam gamaya – lead me from darkness to light, from transitory to eternal – is one of the most favourite prayers of the sanatana dharma. The reason for that is pretty obvious. Not many prayers exist that in so few words, cover the entire specification of sadhana and thereby the total aspiration of a sadhak.
A simple prayer it is. Yet at different levels of our consciousness, what profound truth it reveals! At base intelligence level it is rightly understood as our progress from lack of knowledge of things to clearer understanding that helps us to find our way through unknown and unseen pitfalls of life and protects us from destruction or ‘death’. That happens to be the first requirement for physical existence, the nature’s relentless effort for self preservation.
But then what? Is that all that is to life? Do I have to merely exist?
When intellect (viveka) within us starts stirring, and it happens to all at some point of time, we start feeling uncomfortable with questions like:
Kastvam koham kutah AyAtah – where from you and I came?
Kutah sma jATA – what is our source?
Kim kAranam- what is the purpose?
JivAma kena- by what we live and exist?
Kva ca sampratisthah- where is our final abode?
Kena sukhetaresu vartAmahe- by what reason I oscillate between all opposites like pleasure and pain?
AdhisthAtA kena- who is that controller of all these?
Yes, these doubting questions shaking the mind are what differentiates humans from the rest of the beings and puts man at the top of the evolutionary process.
No human being, irrespective of his level of conscience is designed to escape these thoughts. It may be today, tomorrow, months or years after or even many births later but the fire never dies. It is in our character.
It is no doubt true that our day to day worldly demands keep us tied down to our mundane physical existence. Yet the scriptures have concluded that this indeed is merely an excuse, the strongest excuse of self centred and ignorant minds. But the wise see in this situation the very reason for intelligent analysis. In life, all the time we keep running after something or the other. Admittedly, every living being is in need of some thing. And when ever any one is in need he looks towards someone’s help who may be capable of fulfilling the want which he himself, has not been able to.
So let us analyse our needs. A careful study will find that there are really four categories of need that cover all our needs. Rest are all variations of these four. One category is of those who are in distress – physically or emotionally- known as Artas. No matter how much one tries, no one, no king, no government is capable of mitigating human distress.
At times like this the mind wonders- ‘Could there be some one capable enough to remove my distress?’ Is it not worth a try to find out? When such a thought crosses the mind even the diehard atheists and agnostics pause a little to think. When a stress-shaken mind under deep mental agony exclaims – even not committed fully to it- ‘Oh god! help me’, that is the first loose brick in his concept of so called atheistic mind-set
But that is an uncomfortable state of mind for an atheist. He is silently challenging his own convictions. So the mind –an intelligent mind- probes to know more about the idea of God. That is the other category known a jijnasu- the one wanting to know more about this unseen power. A jijnasu has no qualms about the presence of this power that guides his existence. He contemplates to know more about it and in doing so draws strength.
The third category belongs to people who are the ones who need adequate resources for smooth sailing in life. They are the arthArthis. Artha truly means all resources and not mere money. Every one is in need of resources known as sampadas. ( Please read about sampadas in the article ‘Kaumaram, Yauvanam, JarA….’ in the January 2008 issue of AHWAN). No one can boast that he is equipped with all resources that he needs. So, every one craves to acquire resources. From where can he get it? Obviously from a lender who is the possessor of resources. Openly or surreptuously, everyone prays for the resources to come his way. As life progresses, this prayer only gets stronger and stronger.
When such thoughts have grown in one’s mind, the knowledge of God which was a dormant sleeping seed, has grown into a sapling. The knowledge or jnana has dawned. This the category of ‘knowers’ or jnanis. As life progresses with small or large achievements, any person with average intelligent pauses to think- did all these things fall on my lap entirely by my own efforts? A suspicion (if that is the correct english word here for anubhava) grows in his intelligent mind that some unseen power has been working side by side with him, supplementing his efforts and making things happen. By this time the foundation of atheism or agnosticism is crumbling.
In the Bhagavad Gita, the Lord tells us:
ChaturvidhA bhajante mAm janAh sukrtinh Arjuna
Artah jijnAsuh arthAtrthi jnAni ca Bharatarsabha
The four types, who believe and worship the concept of God, are the distressed, the knowledge seekers, those in need of resources and those who are endowed with wisdom.
Since every one is in need, every one also looks towards a mitigator of his needs. In whatever form he conceptualizes his benefactor, it eventually leads to that supreme benevolent power we define as Brahman, God or whatever.
However, this need based approach to God is mostly at our physical level of existence. But the serious questions that we raised in the beginning are not necessarily arise in our physical domain. But man, as distinctly different from an animal can never be confined to only the physical dimension. As we have discussed before, we all live in a multi-dimensional existence – physical, mental and psychic simultaneously. Therefore, depending upon the consciousness level of each dimension, every one returns to those questions sooner or later. (Please refer ‘Dimensions of our existence’ in September and October 2006 issues of AHWAN)
Brahman, God, Spirit etc are not external to the beings and their souls. These are names by which we identify the source of all that is highest, enlightening, bliss, benevolent and peaceful – the perfect and absolute truth about things. These characteristics are also the goals of every existence. If one does not evolve, does not cast away the imperfections and strive for absolute perfection, does not rise from a lower ‘being’ to higher, is there any meaning in one’s existence?
Denial of ‘Brahman concept’ is denial of belief and aspiration as well as possibility for all to rise to their highest levels. The eternal truth is to rise and rise to excellence and the impossibility of stagnancy in an inferior state. Brahman or God epitomises that excellence.
Atheism, agnosticism are all states of an evolving mind. They have their place in the journey of progress.
God is the source of knowledge – the gnosis, where all unanswered questions rest and culminate until the answers are progressively revealed to us. If we believe that we continuously add to our knowledge, that inter-alia also means that we are ever in contact with God unconsciously or consciously.
Unfortunately there are many to whom life’s eternal questions still appear to be like sophisticated mental games. To them, the life that we live, is the only reality. The body that we have is what only matters. It is wasteful to try to escape from this reality and indulge in an unreal domain, they think. Such thoughts, advocated by persons like Charvaka and others appear sound enough. But they are sound enough when we can not think beyond a very basic and animal existence. After all, is this not the pre-occupations of all animal lives where the viveka is underdeveloped or suppressed? But this is not a sustainable existence.
A time comes, whether aided by nature or through self efforts when the ‘lower being’ in us revolts against this lower existence and squirms to rise to higher mental and psychic stages. That is the first realization that there has to be something which is more comfortable and worthwhile. The original questions keep rising again. Whatever that ‘something’ may be, the being tries to reach out for it. That is the beginning of shedding atheism.
Leaving aside blind beliefs and dogmatic denials, when we say ‘we do not believe in God’, often the expression refers to an idea of a personality that we ascribe to God. But we all believe in virtues. ‘Truth’, ‘Forgiveness’, ‘Purity of thoughts and actions’, ‘non-violence’, ‘control over passions’ etc, are all qualities adored by all, followed by all. These are divine attributes, every spiritual ideology believes in. We say, these are aspects of ‘divinity’ or the divine entity, which serves as the ultimate ideal of our evolutionary growth. That entity which, amongst other things, possesses all these divine attributes, the summum bonum, is what God is. When we believe in these qualities, we believe in the possessor of these qualities.
Belief in God is latent in every creature.
Agnosticism is a phase in one’s existence when, one is still searching for self expression, expression of one’s own beliefs and one’s own ideal- a natural stage in the ‘being’s evolutionary process.
Some people still wonder that such a feeling may be possible to develop in case of believers or Astiks but it has no meaning for those who are non-believers or Nastiks. In a deeper sense this is not really so. God, – correctly speaking that original source which is Brahman - is an integral part of our constitution. The nine constituents that combine in you, me and every creation are the five organic elements, the mind, the discerning power and the life force, the last overriding one is Brahman. Hence we all have divinity as our source. It is natural for everyone to discover belief in one’s own source. There are no non-believers. A non-believer is essentially a believer who is still groping for expression, and sooner or later returns to believe. We are all built that way.
From this initial state, rest follows easily.
What happens when two intelligent entities, the self and the Supreme Self, are put together continuously? Each becomes an influencing factor on the other. None can dispute this. Eventually the stronger force exercises the total control over the weaker entity. The metamorphosis of the weaker towards the stronger takes place gradually. The characteristics of the stronger, flow into the weaker, in a somewhat osmotic process enforcing the gradual change. Now, if this superior powerful entity happens to be benevolent, loving, omnipotent, omniscient which is The Brahman, it is only natural that the outcome will be beneficial, satisfying and to our ultimate good. Our Upanishads describe it as satyasya esah pravartakah. (He is the guide of the essence of all beings). The power of this realization of constant presence of God beside us has been recognized by all forms of sadhana in all forms of spiritual philosophy. As soon as the mind recognizes His presence by the natural process – its own svabhava – the divinity within us awakens as if from slumber. The feeling is somewhat akin to as if a pleasant and uplifting euphoria starts creeping into us. It starts influencing our very nature and behaviour. No great effort is required. Only willingness is needed. And then what happens?
When we are in the presence of our children for example, our behaviour pattern takes a form conducive to parent child relationship. We behave automatically like a parent. Similarly in the presence of your wife or husband you do not behave like a parent. The most conducive conjugal relationship governs your behaviour. If we are in the presence of our employer in the office our behaviour pattern changes into something further different. In the same manner the very thought of The Lord beside us, will shape our behaviour that will befit His presence and prohibit us from doing something improper. We all have experienced it when we visit a temple, a church or a mosque. The very idea that we are in the presence of God has a benevolent effect.
The effect is quite positive. As soon we imagine ourselves feeling his touch, sitting in his lap, engulfed in his arms, the very nature of divine scheme of things works. We voluntarily surrender and The God gladly accepts us and takes over to guide us in all our actions. In subtle ways instructions from him starts flowing in every conceivable situation.
But whatever knowledge we may acquire about Brahman, which we all understood in small degrees or in large measure, may have added to our wisdom. But only to the extent it was comprehended or intelligently understood by our antahkarana i.e. our mind, intellect and ego-self is the extent to which we were exposed to Brahman. All of us were exposed to Brahman but how much His hand touched us, is determined by the extent this knowledge has percolated into our innermost space.
Realising the inherent best in one’s own self , is interalia realizing the Divine, the Brahman, the end of all atheism. Sri Aurobindo explained this in his article ‘The ego and the dualities’, that “Man, because he has acquired reason and still more because he has indulged his power of imagination and intuition, is able to conceive an existence higher than his own and even to envisage his personal elevation beyond his present state into that existence. …….. His dream of God and heaven is really a dream of his own perfection.”
That is when tamasha, the dark mist of ignorance has been driven away by jyoti the light of knowledge. The prayer Tamaso ma jyotirgamaya has been answered.
