I have been seeking answers to a lot of questions; the questions which I have been queuing up in my mind ever since I was a child, the questions which everyone is afraid of asking because asking them is sheer disobedience to our belief-system. Nobody gave me anything except ill-fabricated and illogical answers to these questions which I could discard through minutes of reasoning. I mean, how come so many things are unexplained in our belief-systems/religions and we are still following them like unthinking mass. It seems that we are fearful of truth and nobody wants to talk about them.
Our prophets in the past who were on a noble mission to put some order in this world have written code of conduct for almost everything. But why should we obey them? Why should we even worship God? Isn’t the story of heaven and hell meant to induce fear in our minds so that we can do the so called right things instead of actually adopting them out of some inner awareness? Am I not socially programmed (hard-coded) to be something in this world? Isn’t God a generic answer to all the questions which are unanswered to us? Why does Hindu mythology reference Himalaya, but not Andes, Atlas or Alps or any other mountain range on some other planet? Similarly, why do other mythological stories relate only to their respective geographical origins? If God showers his blessings to only those who worship him, isn’t he having a desire to be respected for his might which in no way is a Godly trait? Why doesn’t someone write the mythology about next generation of Gods? Don’t they reproduce now? How come son of Greek Gods did not have a son again and there is no son of “Ganesh” and no father of “Shiva”? If God created this world, it should be perfect, then why is it evolving? Why aren’t sex (method to create life) and death (the end of life) talked about as divine? Why does society make rules and demand obedience? What is the aim of Life/existence? Why do we chant mantras the meaning of which we do not know? What consequence will an action have on my future? What is future? Is it pre-determined or I have to design it? If it is pre-determined, who determined it? Is it God? If there is no God, what explains creation? Is evolution a contradictory theory to God or complimentary?
Try to reason them all and you have started a quest, quest for truth, quest for enlightenment. Soon, you will fall into a closed loop of contradictions. You will contradict a set of beliefs and deduce some logical answers to your questions. Now, you develop a new set of beliefs with these newly founded answers. You contradict these beliefs again by reasoning out through another set of observations. To get out of this loop is the biggest challenge in the path to enlightenment. After sometime, you figure out that the answers to some of these deeper questions cannot be figured out through logical reasoning of the mind. The more you try to be logical, the more you get confused and devoid of happiness. Finding out logic in every single occurrence in this universe makes life miserable. Why is a child so happy? He does not need a reason. He does not want occurrences to be explained by logic. And try to look at the scenario vice-versa. There is no logical mind which is telling him that kicking a stone by the side of road is happiness or running after butterflies is joy. Joy is so intrinsic to him that actions follow. There is no attempt to put an order. Why can’t we be the child and why we can’t we be happy? Look at the things around you which can make you happy. Music does not come out of reasoning. It is discovered from some unknown source in the universe. No form of art comes out of reasoning. But they all make you happy.
I have been logical enough to compromise with happiness for so long. But I somehow understand the path to unlimited happiness now. Happiness and enlightenment are all intrinsic to us. Enlightenment is a serendipity which is attained in sheer emptiness of mind. All we have to do is achieve emptiness, a state of no-mind. But why then there have been only few enlightened people in this world? Because to achieve this state of no-mind is not easy in this world. We do not realize that nothing in this world should be taken seriously. We should try to laugh at every single occurrence in this universe. At the least, we should try to shut off the logical mind for some time and experience the joy of being an observer in this world. Let’s do it for no reason.
6 comments:
Did you try finding answers to all those series of questions ? :P .. or just gave up halfway !!
Btw looks like .. u turning into a professional "lekhak" !! OSHO ka kaamal !!
awesome works with the word .....thats what i was trying to tell you from whole collage life ......its cool you got the things now
Well said my dear friend. There is nothing but truth in much of those words. You jot down what’s going on in anyone's mind. Anyone who even sit for a moment and think, Why ? And the questions come pouring in, questions as you have stated.
The more we think more we realize - God, does it exist. Or is it just a mere creation of creative us. I can't say what’s the truth as I am just a child playing with pebbles at the foot of Himalaya and the answers we are looking for is like conquering the great Himalaya.
But you brought a very good analogy, we look at child. So happy so peaceful enjoying everything it does. Whats the reason of such a Bliss. S/He kicks a stone without thinking it might hurt his/her leg. S/He runs after a butterfly without the fear of being knocked down. S/He is ignorant and fearless. Fearless, partially because of ignorance and partially because of unquestionable faith. Faith on his/her father or mother. A child thinks whatever pain s/he may be it will be elevated by his/her mom. Mom is all powerful and she will take care of his/her. A blind faith with ignorance.
Faith and ignorance is bliss.
Though human grow but they don't shed this need. Need to have blind faith so that they can enjoy life without any worry. Need to just close his/her eye and say "Maa its all up to you." Thats why human have created Gods. Because as they grow they lose their ignorance they realize , their parents are mere mortal . They can't solve all problems. They create new mom dad. And again they search for blind faith and ignorance, in order to get the bliss.
Me for now is a half baked brick. Baked by partial knowledge. Neither soft soil, which give life which is joy(child) . Neither a rock, which is clam, eternity.(Gyani)
We can be ignorant and be happy we can be Gyani and be happy. Both are difficult. Its being in between which is painful. It is easy. It is our choice what we want to be.
There may be different perspectives, even on this issue. It is the perspective (an offshoot of logic/ reason) that is transplanted in all those arts, music or their interpretation. People derive more satisfaction in analysis (logical and reason based rationale) of the art than art itself. It is not without reason, I guess. There has been enough discussion on the reason. Relatively strong ideas has been put forth by rationalists to oust old fashioned champions of annihilism (thinking let us do it for nothing). Bertrand Russell can be an ideal read to understand the reason I guess.
As for as the child thesis given here, it seems cliche at best. No way child can be thought as without reason. I have experimented and observed children barely 6 month. If you just make some particular facial emotion and they change it accordingly. It shows they may not be knowing the reason of the emotion but they know it is a reason to change their state.
Heart is a mere organ, all is hidden in mind. Music and art, even though a complex form, but still are reason. Nothing in this world is devoid of reason,
@Anaishwargam - People indeed derive satisfaction in logical interpretation of mind and i agree verbatim to your saying that all is hidden in the mind. But, reasoning is always done in some frame of reference with some knowledge(strongly deduced answers) and some beliefs (some layer of doubt on top of knowledge)which reduces your receptivity to the universe. Once i met a Buddhist monk and I told him the same that i cannot belief in something without reasoning. The answer he gave left me thinking. He said, there are some answers which cannot be reasoned out,, they can just be known.. Wow! How easy is it to say that? How can i know the answers without reasoning? Well,, Try to medidate sometime and you'll get to know... The immense receptivity that you gain in meditation gives you answers to some of these questions. Patanjali and Buddha have been some of those enlightened ones who knew all the answers and that's how they figured it out. No reasoning mind in this world can match the spiritual and scientific knowledge of Patanjali. i do not discard the power of logical mind too.. It is immense, but happiness and ultimate consciousness is gained when you shut-off the logical mind. Now, this is something which I am also trying to explore in myself through experiments. :) I'll try to put it in words sometime.
Our brain has two parts:
LEFT BRAIN: logical,rational, analytical, objective, looks at part, sequential
Right brain: random, intuitive, holistic, synthesizing, subjective.
Now, our receptivity to universe is high if we are more right brained. That's where art comes from. You are able to decipher minute occurrences, subtle instances. That's why a painter has more sense of colors and curves and he can look around and draw 3-D in 2-D.
Now, logical people are left brained and contribute more to science while artistic mind is right brained..
It's the mind only which gives the answer and mind is not just about reasoning. It is way more than that.
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