There are religions and religions, and there are philosophies and philosophies connected with them. Invariably all religious philosophies are cantered around the concept of Ishwar. But has any seen this Ishwar? How can we see or feel Ishwar? I am sure there are no convincing answers to all such ‘inconvenient’ questions. Billions and billions of human beings have lived here in this planet before us and probably billions will follow us. Many divine personalities belonging to different regions, races and religions have claimed to have seen or felt or realized Ishwar, but none of them could show Ishwar to another individual.

It is said that Swami Vivekananda once challenged Sage Ramakrishna Paramahamsa to show him Ishwar and the Sage could go as far as giving him a feel. Experiences of those who claim to have seen Ishwar vastly differ and even those who claim to have felt Ishwar’s presence have much varied experiences. One thing is very clear – that Ishwar has no permanent form nor feel.

The extent of knowledge about Ishwar is so very confusing that it is very difficult for ordinary humans to comprehend it easily. Many individuals have used this situation very cleverly to their own advantage. I am afraid most of the architects and inventors of newer and newer methods or ways to understand Ishwar fall into this category. More than making ordinary people understand about the real meaning of Ishwar, they have used the opportunity to create cults and beliefs that could help them attain power, both political and material. If we analyse the advent of any of the new religions carefully, we can never miss the truth that a major factor is struggle for or against a powerful state or ruler. Those who wanted to sustain or attain power used an enlightened individual as proxy to achieve their ambitions. That is why we find many religions have fallen after some time. Only the most organized can succeed, but that too would fall because the intentions are not to help people but to control them.

Axiomatic Advaita

There are several funny and illogical suggestions that have come to stay among the brain washed followers of organized religions. One such is the concept of Ishwar as someone who has a particular form. Many say that Ishwar is a gigantic version of humans and resembles us. Many more keep telling their followers Ishwar is closely watching our deeds (all six billion of us!). And that Ishwar rewards and punishes each one of us on the judgment day according to our thoughts and deeds. Their flights of imagination include heaven and hell as incentives and threats for blindly following the dictates of religious leaders. One look at these ideologies is more than enough to recognize the real intent and realize that it is definitely not salvation for the individuals. It is greed and thirst for power all the way. And a majority of terrorists are generated from these types of beliefs due to such inherent faults.

In sharp contrast, the concept of Advaita is like an open source code with no single author. There is nothing hidden and nothing that questions the innate rationality of human beings. If Ishwar is the one who has created and owns this incomprehensible universe, how can it be so simple as to resemble us and to bother about us. It is even ridiculous to believe that it will give us messages, warnings, rewards and punishments. It is even more absurd to think of Ishwar as something or someone different from everything in this universe. Logically and rationally it has to be something that is part of us and present in everything. And that is precisely what the ancient seers of India could conceptualize so convincingly thousands of years ago. Adi Sankara popularized the concept of Advaita and Einstein’s ‘objective reality’ is nothing different. Advaita answers all the questions of any rational human being who is enjoying absolute and unlimited freedom of thought.

Advantage Advaita

There are several advantages associated with the wonderful ideology of Advaita. Many of the modern and ultra-modern social concepts can stand on their own foot only if we can make all people realize the extent of uniformity and commonality in our make-up. Advaita is a great eye-opener in this regard. In many respects it is the legitimate forerunner for all the leftist ideologies in this world. The utopian concept of Socialism can make sense only when there is equality, fraternity and liberty among people. And that is exactly what the realization of Advaita brings about in all of us. Everything is made up of the same entity (let us call it Brahmons -http://www.pseudodictionary.com/brahmons) and just that simple understanding is enough to bring in equality and fraternity among human beings.

Another great advantage is the extent of anti-globalisation that is embedded in Advaita. Very often we feel disturbed at the shameless display of hypocrisy and double-standards exhibited by organized religions when they are denouncing the current evils of globalization and liberalization. They are opposing globalization fully hiding the fact that they are doing all dirty things to globalize their own religions. By uninhibited induced and coerced religious conversion, they are attempting to bring everyone under their concept of a single faith. But Advaita stands for the opposite of all these. Each one of us is made up of elements of God and we have God within us. Now it is upto to each one of us to device our own methods for its realization. There is no coercion and inducement. Each individual enjoys complete liberty in their spiritual pursuits. In fact Advaita gives us the freedom to develop our own religion and modify it as we go along.

The on-going CERN experiments are expected to unravel the mysteries of our universe much more with the help of solid scientific evidences. But for followers of Santana Dharma the end result is crystal clear. When a part of Brahman is present in everything (and nothing) in this universe, the final result of any exploration into the mysteries of our universe is obvious – we will end up seeing a part of Brahman itself. And if ever we can reach such an infinite level of magnification, we will only see a sea of Brahmons floating around everywhere. And such a collection of Brahmons is what we call as Brahman. Then we will realize that The One and Only Truth is (TOaOTi) Advaita.     

September 28, 2008

Top | Spirituality