GOD IS GREAT: Entry No. 4 ( Religion is not Opium but ‘Elixir of Life’ )
To me Religion is the path to understand and realize the Ultimate Reality or ‘GOD’ or cosmic consciousness.
One argument against faith in God or religions that Christopher has put forward in his book-“God is not Great” is that Faith in God or religions provide false consolation to the people. Quoting Marx, Christopher Hitchens writes – “Mars dismissed religion as the opium of the people ……The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up a condition that needs illusions….”
But looking to the benefits which authentic religions and religious people have provided for the humanization of the man the animal during the course of its biological evolution and cultural evolution during the last 5,000 years, is beyond doubt praise worthy .In view of this I will prefer to call religion as panacea (medicine) for most of the ills of human society and an ‘ elixir of life ‘and not the opium as is fashionable to label it in modern society.
The atrocities which Christopher has labeled on religions are not by the authentic or true religious people or representatives, but by the people who used the name or shade of religions to propagate their own vested interests like Kings, pseudo priests, politicians and dictators, and blind followers. Crusades were planned by these people and misused as the terrorists are now using the name of a particular religion or whose illiterate or blind followers are supporting due to ignorance, not the authentic people or followers of these religions.
Analyzing the genesis of terrorist element in Muslim religion Swami Vivekananda has written, more than 100 years ago:
" We find , in studying history, one fact held in common by all the great teachers of religion the world ever had . They all claim to have got their truths from beyond, only many of them did not know where they got them from. For instance, one would say that an angel came down in the form of a human being, with wings, and said to him, “Hear, O man, this is the message”. Another says that a Deva, a bright being, appeared to him. A third says he dreamed that his ancestor came and told him certain things. He did not know anything beyond that .But this is common that all claim that this knowledge has come to them from beyond, not through their reasoning power. What does the science of Yoga teach? It teaches that they were right in claiming that all this knowledge came to them from beyond reasoning, but that it came from within themselves.
The Yogi teaches that the mind itself has a higher state of existence, beyond reason, a super-conscious state, and when the mind gets to that higher state, then this knowledge, beyond reasoning, comes to man. Metaphysical and transcendental knowledge comes to that man .This state of going beyond reason, transcending ordinary human nature, may sometimes come by chance to a man who does not understand its science; he , as it were, stumbles upon it. When he stumbles upon it, he generally interprets it as coming from outside. So this explains why an inspiration, or transcendental knowledge, may be the same in different countries, but in one country it will seem to come through an angel, and in another through a Deva, and in a third through God. What does it mean? It means that the mind brought the knowledge by its own nature, and that the finding of the knowledge was interpreted according to the belief and education of the person through whom it came. The real fact is that these various men, as it were, stumbled upon this super conscious state.
The Yogi says there is a great danger in stumbling upon this state. In a good many cases there is the danger of the brain being deranged, and , as a rule, you will find that all those men, however great they were, who had stumbled upon this superconscious state, without understanding it, groped in the dark, and generally had, along with their knowledge, some quaint superstition. They opened themselves to hallucinations. Mohammed claimed that the Angel Gabriel came to him in a cave one day and took him on the heavenly horse, Harak, and he visited the heavens. But with all that , Mohammed spoke some wonderful truths. If you read the Koran, you find the most wonderful truths mixed with superstitions. How will you explain it? That man was inspired, no doubt, but that inspiration was, as it were, stumbled upon. He was not a trained Yogi, and did not know the reason of what he was doing. Think of the good Mohammed did to the world, and think of the great evil that has been done through his fanaticism! Think of the millions massacred through his teachings, mothers bereft of their children, children made orphans, whole countries destroyed, and millions upon millions of peoplekilled!
The Yogi says there is a great danger in stumbling upon this state. In a good many cases there is the danger of the brain being deranged, and , as a rule, you will find that all those men, however great they were, who had stumbled upon this superconscious state, without understanding it, groped in the dark, and generally had, along with their knowledge, some quaint superstition. They opened themselves to hallucinations. Mohammed claimed that the Angel Gabriel came to him in a cave one day and took him on the heavenly horse, Harak, and he visited the heavens. But with all that , Mohammed spoke some wonderful truths. If you read the Koran, you find the most wonderful truths mixed with superstitions. How will you explain it? That man was inspired, no doubt, but that inspiration was, as it were, stumbled upon. He was not a trained Yogi, and did not know the reason of what he was doing. Think of the good Mohammed did to the world, and think of the great evil that has been done through his fanaticism! Think of the millions massacred through his teachings, mothers bereft of their children, children made orphans, whole countries destroyed, and millions upon millions of peoplekilled!
So we see this danger by studying the lives of great teachers like Mohammed and others. Yet we find, at the same time, that they were all inspired. Whenever a prophet got into the super conscious state by heightening his emotional nature, he brought away from it not only some truths, but some fanaticism also, some superstition which injured the world as much as the greatness of the teaching helped. To get any reason out of the mass of incongruity we call human life, we have to transcend our reason, but we must do it scientifically, slowly, by regular practice, and we must cast off all superstition .We must take up the study of the super- conscious state just as any other science. On reason we must have to lay our foundation, we must follow reason as far as it leads, and when reason fails, reason itself will show us the way to the highest plane.
When you hear a man say, “I am inspired” , and then talk irrationally, reject it. Why? Because these three states-instinct, reason, and super consciousness, or the unconscious, conscious, and super conscious states-belong to one and the same mind. There are not three minds in one man, but one state of it develops into the others. Instinct develops into reason, and reason into the transcendental consciousness; therefore, not one of the states contradicts the others. Real inspiration never contradicts reason, but fulfils it. Just as you find the great prophets saying, “I come not to destroy but to fulfil” , so inspiration always comes to fulfil reason, and is in harmony with it."
BOMBAY TERROR ATTACK and Response of Authentic Islam : An Example
Analysing the prevalent terrorism in Muslim fundamentalists, a renowned Delhi-based Islamic scholar and thinker Maulana Wahiduddin Khan lectured on 30th November’08 , focussed on the terror attacks of few days earlier in Mumbai when he said-“Today, many Muslims have lost their wisdom, as is evident from the events which have taken place recently. Those Muslims who are said to be involved in terrorism in Mumbai gained nothing. In Palestine, the Arabs have been fighting for the last 60 years and have not achieved anything. In many places Muslims have resorted to suicide bombings, although suicide is unlawful in Islam. This is a result of deterioration and lack of wisdom. What is the reason for this madness and how did it originate?”
He further elaborated-“The reason for this madness is hatred. Hate can make a man do anything. I have studied in Muslim seminaries, madrassas and have participated in numerous Muslim gatherings, and in many of these places hatred and pride is instilled in the minds of Muslims. They are taught: ‘We are the caliphs and vice-regent of God on earth.’I once met an Arab whose first question to me was, "Who are we?" He then said: "We are the Caliphs of God on earth." I told him that this is not written anywhere in our books”. However, Muslims have made themselves the self-appointed Caliphs, and have launched all sorts of movements that propagate the ideology of capturing political power. This thinking emerged when the Ottoman and Mughal empires declined, and Muslims started considering the rest of the world as usurpers and oppressors who snatched their rights and power from them. No Muslim leader could tell this to the Muslims and pacify the political shock which they received after the breaking up of the Muslim empires in the face of Western colonialism….. As a result, all the Muslims got conditioned in hateful thinking….
This makes me ponder as to why this hate does not get finished among Muslims? This is because Muslims’ hate is a reflection of a certain mind-set….. However, a mind-set cannot be done away on its own. The mind-set which inspires hate for others in many Muslims cannot be killed like an individual. Nor can it cannot kill itself. This mind-set can be replaced by deconditioning alone……their mind-set has to be transformed to change their thinking. The thinking of Muslims has to be changed. There has to be long process of deconditioning.
There are two kinds of deconditioning: one is the Prophetic deconditioning; that is the deconditioning which the Prophet did of his companions. Then the companions did the deconditioning of some of their companions. But now there is no prophet and so self-deconditioning has to be done. This is a very difficult task. Ideological deconditioning has to be done among the Muslims to help them come out of hate.
It is essential to understand that distinction between the negative engineering of the mind and positive engineering of the mind. Today, minds are being negatively engineered with hatred and pride. Many Muslims live in this fallacy that they are a special race, and when they are not treated specially then they are frustrated and hold others responsible for their not receiving the special treatment that they expect. The mission of positive engineering of the mind is very difficult. You have to do merciless introspection. It is our test to convert the thinking of people from negative to positive.
The terrorists who assaulted Mumbai had done extensive planning. This made me think why these people were so capable of negative planning, and completely lacked any inclination towards positive planning. This sort of mentality, unfortunately, has become endemic among many Muslims. Nobody is doing planning for the positive task of spreading God’s message, and love and peace. This is because as years passed by, this work became dead in Muslims. But it alone can promote positive planning as it requires well-wishing for the whole of humankind. We must therefore focus our energies on spreading God’s love.”
I think people like Maulana Wahiduddin Khan and other intellectuals and genuine molbies and imams and true followers of Islam are the true representatives of Islam and Muslims and not the terrorists or politicians and dictators misguiding public or republic in the name of religions in some countries. This distinction should be made clear in the mind of people around the world before cursing any culture or religion for terrorism or any atrocities.
Besides it is also responsiblity of followers of muslim religion to guard themselves from the influnces of fundamentalists and jihadi,and adopted a forword looking modern approach towards religion.The old attitude of intolerance towards people trying to reform religion should goaway,as also the trend of releasing fatwa against people analysing religious facts for its bettterment.They can learn tolerance in this regard from Hindu Religion.As hindus and christans can learn attitude of Brother hood(treating people equal,irrespective of cast,and creed) from muslims.And Both hindus and muslims can learn the attitude of service to the poors from Christians.
What is needed is to eliminate attitude of hate,distrust and intolerance towards others religions and insted an attitude of rligiousity(love,compassion,frindliness,service to poor and chrity to disadvantage people) should prevail, as Swami vivekanada has wished in his concluding remarks at the final session of the Parliament of Religions,held in America in 1893 :
"If the Parliament of Religions has shown anything to the world it is this: It has proved to the world that holiness, purity and charity are not the exclusive possessions of any church in the world, and that every system has produced men and women of the most exalted character. In the face of this evidence, if anybody dreams of the exclusive survival of his own religion and the destruction of the others, I pity him from the bottom of my heart, and point out to him that upon the banner of every religion will soon be written, in spite of resistance: "Help and not Fight," "Assimilation and not Destruction," "Harmony and Peace and not Dissension."
At this juncture a prayer from Upanishads,can show us the way:
‘Asatho Ma Sathgamaya,
Thamaso Ma Jyothirgamaya
Mruthyorma Amrthangamya’ Lead me towards truth from untruth
Lead me towards light from darkness
Lead me towards immortality from Death
( Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1:3,28 around 3500 bc)
Thamaso Ma Jyothirgamaya
Mruthyorma Amrthangamya’ Lead me towards truth from untruth
Lead me towards light from darkness
Lead me towards immortality from Death
( Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1:3,28 around 3500 bc)
With Love! And best wishes
@run
Excellent post and analysis. Go Swami Vivekananda Go! We need him and Aurobindo in this political climate. I haven
Dear kurt
loving namaste!
glad you liked post and analysis(god is great-blog entry no.4).
@run
Dear Arun: I echo Kurt's praise and appreciation – for you and for Swamiji Vivekananda – he would be proud of your efforts here that continue his own mission to increase awareness and consciousness in America.
Love, Greg
Arun,
"We must take up the study of the super- conscious state just as any other science"
This is so long overdue I cannot imagine there isn't a branch of study that addresses the ultimate question of a human! when there is enough observation to have this not only as a science but also a PRACTISE.
"This distinction should be made clear in the mind of people around the world before cursing any culture or religion for terrorism or any atrocities."
Rightly said. I think religions need to go back to their roots of peace and harmony. Even educated people are not beyond using it for their nationalistic ideology. Most of them are least interested in using religion sincerely to reach God! Isn't this the main purpose of any religion!? We don't need religious schools, we need spiritual schools!
Namaste to you.
Kurt, Namaste to you too
Dear Greg
Loving Namaste!
Thanks for all the appreciations!
I pray God to make me worty of these appriciations and justified in reinstating and reinterpreating words of spiritual Mastes like Vivekananda and Arovindo for contemporary people in contemporary scientific-spiritual language and new contexts.
with best wishes!
@run
Dear rekha S
Loving Namaste!
Thanks for your intrest in My blog entries:God is Grat.
This is the propper time to go deep in the aspects of human consciousness.
Luckly lot of scientifc intrest is already there in these aspects of life.
There is no other way left(except incarporatin spirituality in every sphere of life) as people have already put maximum effort and tried all political ideologies and scientific advancements for achieving peace and happiness for humanity,but with limited results.
Time has come to infuse and apply practical spirituality in all human affairs, as a way of life.there is no other way,as Vivekananda has writen:
"Ye children of immortality, even those who live in the highest sphere, the way is found; there is a way out of all this darkness, and that is by perceiving Him who is beyond all darkness; there is no other way."
With best wishes!
@run