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Author, 2012
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www.krimiga.com
This book is self-edited by the author
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Content
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FOREWORD
When I was a small kid of 5 or 6 years, I
had an experience that appeared then to
me most terrifying. My father who was
running a small restaurant (coffee shop
would be more appropriate) took me once
with him to the market place to do some
shopping. I was joyfully holding his handand merrily trotting along when he went
from shop to shop. It so happened that at
one of the shops, I left his hand and was
enjoying the market scene and looking atsome of the wares being sold there. I did
not notice my father moving away to
another shop and I followed another man,
who was about my fathers build, without
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ooking at his face. My dad too thought
hat I was right behind him. After moving
a few yards I realized to my utter horror
hat the man I was following was someoneelse and I could not locate my dad in that
crowded market place. I was appalled an
errified at the thought of getting lost and
osing the warmth and support of my dadhands. I cried my heart out and felt totally
helpless in the world of grown-up men.
Possibly at that instant of agonizing
oneliness and helplessness, I offered my
first little prayer to and plea for help from
God. That scene has remained etched in
my memory for ever.
Looking at this incident from the
perspective of a grown-up, I realized that
man has always turned to an imagined
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higher power whenever tragedies or
disasters or situations of utter
helplessness confronted him.
The early man turned everything he could
not comprehend or control into a God to
whom he would appeal time and again to
save him from troubles and disasters.Thus men started to fear, worship or pray
o the forces of air, rain, fire, mountains,
sun, moon and anything beyond his mental
reach.
More often, when we are doing well in
ife or have reasons to be happy and
comfortable, we tend to take for granted
hat we deserved these situations in life.
Only when troubles, disasters, frustrating
situations or major stumbling blocks
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confront us we, by our very nature, rush to
seek help from some unknown force that
we think must exist and will come to our
aid. It is only the weather-beaten mind thahas experienced many ups and downs in
ife that can look at life a little more
dispassionately and a little more wisely.
Even these wise men, in one way oranother, accept the need for a higher force
without which many questions of life and
he universe remain unanswerable.
Leave aside the philosophers, scientists,
sages and saints who, in their own way,
with their own deep study or spiritual
experience, tried to provide some answer
based on their intellectual insight or close
encounters with the cosmic oneness that
pervades the universe. For the purpose of
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his book, let us consider how the other
vast majority of ordinary men and women
ncluding the writer, look at and try to find
answers for many inexplicableexperiences of life.
Common Man here should not be
mistaken to mean dumb, unintelligent orow I.Q. human beings, devoid of higher
feelings. The term is only meant to
ndicate the vast majority as opposed to
he elite few who have attained greatness,reputation and respect due to their
achievements in specific fields. In this
context, I recall an excellent poem by
Robert Service, which I take the liberty o
reproducing below:
The Ordinary Man
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If you and I should chance meet,
I guess you wouldnt care;
Im sure youd pass me in the street
As if I wasnt there;
Youd never look me in the face
My modest mug to scan,
Because Im just a commonplace
And Ordinary Man.
But, then, it may be, you are too
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A guy of every day,
Who does the job he is told to do
And takes the wife his pay;
Who makes a home and kids his care,
And works with pick or pen..
Why, Pal, I guess were just a pair,
Of Ordinary Men.
We plug away and make no fuss,
Our feats are never crowned;
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And yet its common coves like us
Who make the world go round.
And as we steer a steady course
By Gods predestined plan,
Hats off to that almighty force,
THE ORDINARY MAN.
When we probe deeply into the mindset o
ordinary mans apparently nondescriptife, we can perceive flashes of some
deepest feelings and great insights amidst
pleasures and pains, ecstasies and agonie
he experiences. Every man is a
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philosopher in his own way. We can see
both dirt and divinity in him.
ts true that the concept of God originatedout of necessity of the primitive man to
ook to some greater power for support
and consolation, and out of awe of the
unknown and unexplained in Nature, andunreachable sky above. But when man
began to think and reason, he began his
search for God or the ultimate truth also
hrough intellectual means.
The need for and faith in a greater force
han us, which we call God in common
parlance, varies according to the socio-
cultural and even the geographical
background one is born in and brought up
But the bottom line is always the fear,
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curiosity and awe of the unknown.
Of the pre-historic man we can only
deduce how they approached the questionof the existence or otherwise of a
supernatural being, but the past few
centuries of recorded history give ample
evidence of how the diverse faithsevolved in different parts of the globe
among different tribes and communities.
We will briefly survey in this book thecore ideas and beliefs of different
religions and philosophies. One thing is
obvious: The human race has certain
common traits and identically wired
brains, however advanced a civilization
may be or whatever intellectual heights
some men might have reached. As we can
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see in todays world, even some tribal
nstincts still exist in different forms in ou
so-called modern communities.
have tried to trace in this book,
herefore, the raw instincts of the
common man progressing towards
higher levels of intellectualphilosophical), rational (scientific) and
deeply religious (spiritual) approaches to
he search for a deeper meaning to our
existence and the secrets of the universe.
When we talk of evolution, either in
biological, philosophical or any other
sphere, we should also look into every
mans individual evolution which can giv
a clue as to why different men take
different paths in life and how he or she
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comes to believe or disbelieve the
existence of a supernatural being or the
possibility of an ultimate spiritual
experience. I believe that not only mansstatus in society, his financial position, hi
success and failure, are clearly affected
by this personal evolution, but also his
beliefs, his philosophy and approach toife in different stages are a reflection and
direct effect of this evolutionary process.
n the chapter on Individual Evolution I
will discuss this concept in greater detail
On the one hand, each of us has his or her
own little world to live in. On the other,
each of us is part of a larger scene,
starting with family, community and
society; and on a wider scale the earth, th
other living beings, the sky, the stars and
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all cosmos. This sense of belonging can
give each of us at some time or the other,
he realization of oneness with a larger
reality. Whenever we get in tune with thisruth are the occasions when we, so to say
speak to God, the author of this Oneness.
Expanding on this thought, we have to alsoanalyze, both in spiritual and scientific
erms, mans brief journey in Time and
Space. This is essential for a better
understanding and appreciation of the giftof life on this planet. And finally, for the
purpose of this book it is of vital
mportance to consider the imperative of a
synthesis of science and spirituality,
reason and faith.
must emphasize at this stage that the
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houghts, ideas and philosophical
nterpretations given in this book are of a
person born and brought up in the Indian
culture and traditions and necessarily thisflavor will remain throughout the book
even while dealing with the larger picture
But one thing is universal, the heart of
man. I again feel compelled to express thihought through the medium of a poem
written by Frank Carleton Nelson, whose
work I reproduce below:
The Human Heart
There is a heap of love in the human
heart,
If we just dig down a bit;
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Its the masterpiece of the Mighty Hand
And He gave His best to it.
Theres a heap of good in the most of
men,
Just underneath the skin,
And much would show that we never
know,
Could we only look within.
Theres a lot inside that we never see,
And perhaps we never know,
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til fortunes turn and we are down and
out,
or sickness strikes us low;
But the heart is right in the most of men
When the truth is really known,
And we often find that the heart is kind
That we thought was cold as stone.
We sometimes tire of the road so rough
And the hill that seems so steep,
And we sometimes feel that hope is gone
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And we sit alone and weep.
And then when our faith is burning low
And we lose our trust in men,
True friends appear with a word of chee
And the sun comes out again.
And so I claim that the heart of man
Is about what it ought to be,
For its made of goodness through and
through,
Could we look inside and see.
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God made all things and He made them
well,
On the true and perfect plan;
But He did his best in the greatest test,
When He made the Heart of Man.
aturally, I have tried to put both my headand heart into this book.
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Acknowledgment:
Finally, I wish to express my deep
gratitude to the various writers quoted inhis book. The ideas and thoughts
expressed in their great works were very
enlightening and helped me formulate my
own thoughts on the main theme of thisbook.
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CHAPTER 1 - Evolution of
Faith
When we talk of Faith we are talking of
human beings; it is a product of the humanmind. On the one hand, Faith results from
he interaction of man with the external
world around him and his response to the
dangers of living in this world. On theother, it is also a bye-product of the
restlessness of the inner world of his
selfhood. The great Indian philosopher,
Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, states in his bookRecovery of Faith, that if nature has
horror of a vacuum, the human soul has a
fear of emptiness. It, therefore, needs
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faith in something to fight this emptiness.
All of us, once in a while, feel that
emptiness, even amidst luxury, happiness
and loved ones around us. On suchoccasions we have a feeling of inner
solation, utter loneliness and
purposelessness in life. This feeling of
separation or isolation possibly beginswhen the child comes out from the warmth
and protective shield of the mothers
womb.
We attempt to fill this inner vacuum with
any kind of faith that can give us a sense o
protection, support, a feeling of belonging
and being a part of a higher
consciousness. There is also in us a deep-
seated inner desire for miracles and hence
stories of miracles abound in all myths
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and religions.
f necessity is the mother of invention, we
can say with certainty that God was thefirst invention borne out of human
necessity. In the words of Dr. S.
Radhakrishnan, men insist on believing
n something, for we cannot submit to anunknown fear, and man is never nearer
o God than in the extremities of his
anguish. As he observes, belief may be
difficult but the need for believing isnescapable. And Voltaire said in an
earlier era: If God did not exist, we
would have to invent him. In a different
one Samuel Butler said once: Faith: You
can do very little with it, but you can do
nothing without it.
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Man first needs to solve the problems of
survival. When basic needs are taken care
of, he also looks for some form of
enjoyment. For the first need, he looks forhelp from a superior power and he feels
he same power can, on prayer, grant him
resources for the second need.
n an article I read in Time magazine
October 25, 2004) written by Jeffrey
Kluger entitled Is God in our Genes? he
raises the question (which modern dayscientists, particularly biologists have
been debating) whether God came first or
he need for God. If we go back to the
early mans plights, it is easier to
conclude that the need for God arose first
Was that need itself orchestrated by God
so that His children would eventually go
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nearer to Him, is another unanswered
question.
The need for believing can arise fromphysical pain or dangers, from
psychological and emotional stress or
situations of helplessness. It can also aris
out of intellectual and rationalcompulsions to find answers for many
unknown areas of life and the universe.
This rational curiosity arises out of our
nborn trait of trying to match the causewith the effect.
A fascinating account of how early man
could have pondered over the possibility
of a supreme power, is given in the book
The Physics of Consciousness by Evan
Harris Walker, part of which I am
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reproducing below:
Let us go back to mankinds earliest
imes. Think of homo hobilis looking outnto the cosmos, gazing into the blackness
of a fearful night with sparkling wonder
spread across the vaulting sky.
Think of such a man alone in the nights
stillness, looking at the stars. He blinks
his eyes and wonders. His mind
ranscends the immediate hazards of theday, and he sees things in the sky which he
cannot reach. He sees for the first time the
edge of his own being and looks beyond,
perhaps forming the first thoughts of some
new understanding, the first thoughts of
some new knowledge and he falls sleep.
Somewhere in that early time, in a pattern
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of stars seen overhead, in the stirrings of
an image in the bush, in a lifeless form tha
did not move from its forest bier, the first
roubled questioning thoughts came toearly man
The clash between early man and nature
has woven a pattern of fact andllusion..We have carved stone God
answers. Our carved Gods have failed
and have been replaced.
Mans divergence from other animals was
accelerated by his ability to form thoughts
and develop his power of reasoning.
Every animal to quote philosopher
Radhakrishnan again, is perfect in its
own way; it fulfills itself within its life
cycle. It is no doubt subject to death but is
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not aware of it. This awareness
separated man from other animals and
made him a philosopher from early times.
n the evolution of faith in the humans, one
of the causative factors is the relative lack
of instincts, whereas in other animals
instincts and reflexes play a greaterpart in their fight for survival. M. Scott
Peck, M.D. in his book Road Less
Traveled and Beyond, has this to say on
his subject.
one of the things that seems to
distinguish human beings from other
creatures is our relative lack of instincts.
Having few instincts, we are compelled to
earn. Since we dont instinctively know
many things, we have to be taught how to
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behave and deal with problems in life.
With our mind more attuned to thinking
han other creatures, we think and reacto situations. This thinking part gave rise
o faiths and beliefs. Of course these are
culturally conditioned beliefs, varying
from place to place and situation tosituation.
Over thousands of years mans faith,
consisting of wishful thinking and make-believe became myths and legends, and
gave rise to magic and religion. With
ncreasing role of reason in humans,
science developed, primarily as an
antithesis to religious faith, and an
ncreasing belief in the primacy of man
and his imagined ability to control and
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manipulate Nature to his advantage.
n the villages of my native land of Kerala
n south India, we can see in many placesstones depicting snakes which were
worshipped and offered milk. In earlier
imes there were many cases of death due
o snake bite as no medical cure was thenavailable. Therefore, men thought that by
worshipping snakes, they could ward off
he danger of snake bites. And from the
stories of Hindu mythologies arose theworship of cows, monkey-God, elephant-
god etc. as these gods were said to have
divine powers, according to these
mythological stories. Similarly we can
find that in other parts of the world,
worship of natural objects arose for
varying localized reasons. Worshipping
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he dead in the hope of their return was
prevalent in Egypt, for instance, and the
dead bodies were embalmed and kept in
he pyramids specially built for kings andeading men.
Similarly in the island of Bali in
ndonesia, there are water temples that dohe rice terraces there. Priests perform
rituals there to protect the islands water,
which in turn is needed to nurture the
slands rice crops.
Faith can at times make the believer think
hat, if you pray to God sincerely, He can
make anything happen nothing is beyond
God! This reminds me of a story I read in
a book (as told by Sir Eric Roll
honestly, I do not know who he is or was)
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which goes like this:
A little boy was observed by a minister
n church praying very fervently; but mucho the pastors surprise, he was also heard
o say from time to time Tokyo, Tokyo,
Tokyo. So when the service was over,
he minister went up to the boy and said,Son, I was very pleased to see you
praying so devoutly, but do tell me why
did you keep saying Tokyo, Tokyo,
Tokyo? The little boy replied, Well,you see Sir, I have just been taking my
geography examination in school, and I
have been praying to the Lord to make
Tokyo the capital of France.
The act of believing was evidently a bye-
product of fear of life, need for security,
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hope of a hereafter, and fear of loneliness
and alienation from close ones and the
community or tribe. Death and
nexplicable natural disasters added to theneed for some kind of faith in an almighty
rescuer. The fear of facing ones own
death has always been a strong factor in
he beginning of faith. It applies to you, mand everyone. We all know that once born
death is inevitable. But everyone wants to
ive long. The great comedian Woody
Allen once said, I dont want to achieve
mmortality through my work I want to
achieve it through not dying!
Mans fantasy-prone nature created in his
mind a colored world of fear and danger
and forced him to relate to any higher
force he could imagine. What thought
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would possibly have gone through the
early Neanderthal man is beautifully
expressed by John Horgan in his book
Rational Mysticism. He says: If aeanderthal mistook a tree creaking
outside his cave for a human assailant, he
suffered no adverse consequences other
han a moments panic. If the Neanderthalmade the opposite error mistaking an
assailant for a tree the consequences
might have been dire. Over time, as
natural selection bolstered our
anthropomorphic tendency, it extended
beyond specific objects, events, and
phenomena to all of nature. We interpreteeven the most random-seeming natural
phenomena as the acts of a wrathful or
oving deity. Religion and mystical
visions of divinity underlying reality are
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ust extreme manifestations of our
compulsive anthropomorphising.
As a writer said, we create in our mindGods of our imagination and, if a frog
were to think of God, it would visualize
Him as a Divine Frog.
We could also argue that perhaps
religions arose in answer to mans
unconscious need for dependence. As
children, we have all depended on ourparents and elders, whom we then
considered as superior to us and hence
capable of meeting our wishes and needs.
And when we grew up to adulthood, we
still carried that unconscious need for hel
from someone far superior to us, which
belief then translated into a transcendent
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God. As James W. Fowler wrote in his
book Stages of Faith we look for
something that loves us; something to
value that gives us value, something tohonor and respect that the power to sustai
our being.
Perhaps, as some scientists and thinkershave speculated, unlike other life forms,
human brain is, of necessity, and maybe b
natural selection, wired for faiths and
beliefs in a God or gods to sustain him. Inhis book Timeless Healing Herbert
Benson, M.D. has expressed the following
houghts:
Perhaps, the tendency of humans to
worship and believe was rooted in our
physiology, written into our genes, and
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encoded in our very make-up. Perhaps it
s what distinguishes us from other life
forms, this innate desire to believe and to
practice our beliefs. Perhaps,nstinctively, human beings had always
known that worshipping a higher power
was good for them I speculated that
humans are, in a profound physical waywired for God.
Even when we acquire new information,
even when we conquer mysteries, we feelvaguely empty and unfulfilled. And faith i
he only long-term solace. In part that is
because faith in an Infinite Absolute is the
only adequate counterforce to the ultimate
facts of disease and death. But it is also
because faith permits an appreciation for
he unseen and unproved, generating a
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kind of hope inaccessible by reason.
as long as humans have roamed the
earth, we have entertained beliefs. Wehave always called upon God or gods to
sustain us. We have named and given
meaning to nearly everything, sometimes
simply in our own quiet contemplation ofife, sometimes on a larger scale to stir th
houghts of whole populations, as happens
n art, literature, and philosophy. We see
he world in the unique way oursocialization, life experiences and cultura
and religious upbringing permit us to see
t.
The saints, sages, and others in many
walks of life from all cultures have had
he awareness and experiences that they
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believe to be of God. Others have heard
from those they trust about such spiritual
experiences and whose lives were
affected in important positive ways.
This could be one of the reasons why
belief in God has continued to this day.
The characterization of God hashowever changed from time to time.
The history of Faith from early man to
modern times can be divided into fourphases.
1. The age of fear-born faith
2. The age of religious faith3. The Age of Reason
4. Age of Confusion
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The early mans faith borne of fear gave
way to religious faiths of groups, tribes
and communities. Then came the age of
reason when thinkers, philosophers andscientists began questioning the mythical
and mystical nature of our beliefs and
even the existence of God. They asserted
hat whatever cannot be proved orverified can have no existence in reality.
Again, to quote Herbert Benson from his
book Timeless Healing:
there is not a civilization known to us
hat did not have faith in God or gods. For
millennia, faith has enjoyed relevance to
all the worlds people, but when the West
began to divide the mind/body spheres,
sending faith and reason to opposite
corners, faith did not appear to fare as
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well as reason because it became a
private, personal matter, and reason
became a public promotable good. The
battles for terrain have often been bitter,as Martin Luther amply demonstrated,
saying Reason is the greatest enemy that
faith has; it never comes to the aid of
spiritual things, but more frequently thannot struggles against the divine Word,
reating with contempt all that emanates
from God
n his book, The Prehistory of the Mind
Steven Mithen explains thus:
Many of the behaviors (of early men)
such as anthropomorphic images in the
cave paintings and burial of people with
grave goods suggest that those Upper
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Paleolithic people were the first to have
beliefs in supernatural beings and
possibly an afterlife. We are indeed
seeing here the first appearance ofreligious ideologies.
while it is difficult to identify the
features universal to all religions, thereare nevertheless a series of recurrent
deas.. a belief in non-physical beings is
he most common feature of religion, it
may indeed be universal Three otherrecurrent features of religious ideologies
are.. first in many societies it is assumed
hat a non-physical component of a person
can survive after death and remains as a
being with beliefs and desires. Second, it
s very frequently assumed that certain
people within a society are especially
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ikely to receive direct inspiration or
messages from supernatural agencies, suc
as Gods or spirits. And third, it is also
very widely assumed that performingcertain rituals in an exact way can bring
about change in the natural world
The last few decades particularly havebeen a period of confusion for the human
mind. Replacement of old faiths by
reason has not given any solace to the
ever turbulent human nature; on the otherhand, the uncertainties and confusion
caused by the battle of science versus
spirituality, have created a new phase in
he society where even men of science and
philosophy are feeling the need to find a
synthesis between reason and faith to fill
he vacuum created by pure materialistic
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hinking and way of life. I have expressed
my own feelings on this subject in a poem
hat I am reproducing below:
Man at Crossroads
Standing atop the sand dune of Time,
We wonder whence we came, whither
destined
And if life we see is real or a shadow
Of a deeper reality beyond our finite
mind.
Mystics and scientists alike confound us
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With opposing visions of reality;
To one life is only an illusory drama,
As men of science seek proof of finality
And aver that Time exists only in our
mind,
That Space conceals more than it reveals
Is our Mind mere interplay of neurons,
Or, as mystics say, a disembodiedquality?
Is life playground for the ubiquitous DNA
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Or a body endowed with inner
spirituality?
Is God a photographer missing in our
Picture, standing away beyond our vision
Or have we all divinity in each of us
Which to seek, mystics say, is ourmission?
Standing at crossroads, ill at ease,
We seek newer paths to inner peace.
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The rapid progress of science and
echnology, and more particularly the
advent of computer and internet and the
resulting knowledge explosion and globalnstant communication during the last few
decades, changed forever the social fabric
and the way people thought and acted. We
could say that this was a 3-rung jump inhe ladder of personal and cultural
evolution. Every individual, particularly
he literate one, whether old or young, has
been affected by this technological leap,
affecting every facet of life. Naturally, ou
belief systems also changed. For the
better? Its too early to say.
The question that arises in common mans
mind today is: Where do we go from
here? There is now not only a fear of the
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present but also a fear of the future. Will
he earth produce unlivable conditions?
Look at the increasing incidents of
hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunami and othenatural calamities. And of course the
already felt extreme climatic changes due
o the global warming. Are these signs of
he kind of cyclical destruction the earthhad witnessed again and again in the past.
Anyway, the possibility of any total
breakdown is in the far distant future. So
et us make the present livable and for thi
no doubt we need some kind of faith to
hold on to. Each can choose his path. Fait
here is not only meant as faith in a God,but also in getting good rewards from
good Karmas and selfless actions. Or
else, there can only be chaos..
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One thing is certain. Our mind, like matter
seeks equilibrium. It yearns to get back to
order from disorder. When the mind goes
hrough periods of turmoil, it cannotremain long in that heightened state of
sensitivity. It wants to settle down to a
more normal state, which happens by
accepting the inevitable or the unexpectedFaith in some form aids this process.
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CHAPTER 2 - The core ideas
of main religions
What is meant by religion? How and
why different religions arose? It would benteresting to study mans journey from
simple faiths and beliefs of his pre-
historic era to a new kind of orderly faith
formulated by a few inspired men, whichcame to form the basis of a new religion
and which began to regulate all the
aspects of life among the groups that
became or were forced to becomeadherents of such a religion.
When we are talking of religious faiths,
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we must bear in mind that the earliest
religion or religious way of life is not
much older than 6000 to 7000 years,
which is a very short period compared tohe existence of man on this planet. Of the
earlier unrecorded history of human
beliefs and mystical practices, we can
only conjecture their nature through thearts and artifacts left behind by these pre-
historic men.
Religion and religious practices must havostensibly arisen after man began to live
ogether in groups, starting from the
earliest tribes. Religion gave a set of
beliefs and practices, both for worship of
a supernatural power and also certain
codes for personal living in a manner
which can ensure their reaching whatever
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spiritual goals are sought for. Religion
helped also in binding people into
communities with common values and
goals. Man being a social animal, thecraving to be part of a tribe or a
community is inborn; otherwise there is a
feeling of alienation and even a sense of
spiritual deprivation. Group forming isnatural to men and even to animals and
birds, mostly out of self-interest.
Historical evidence tells us that from
early times men have developed an
addiction to ethnic groups or tribes. Even
n modern times, we find group forming in
such diverse fields as sports, music etc.and there are plenty of fan clubs. In
southern part of India, (in Tamil Nadu)
masses are crazy about cinema stars and
form such strong fan clubs that they even
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nfluence local elections in a big way.
Even temples get erected for their favorite
stars! Naturally, religious affinities arose
out of this need for belonging to a group.
There is also in each of us a basic
uneasiness that never allows full or total
peace in this life. We all need to find ameaning to our life. This desire lies deep
within our souls, an unnamable craving to
belong to a larger reality and return to
someone or some place full of love, peaceand bliss. In our mundane existence, after
we meet our basic needs, this unnamed
desire will always linger. And at such
imes we speak through our inner voice to
a transcendent omnipotent God with the
hope of succor from Him or Her. Thus,
religion, which gives a voice to this
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desire, is a logical culmination of mans
nnate craving to get in touch with the
Originator.
Organized religion that came into
existence much later in human history trie
o preserve many of the tales and myths
forming the basic beliefs of earlier tribes.
The role of myth in mens search for
answers for the unknown is neatly
explained by Daniel C. Matt in his bookGod and the Big Bang: We have lost
our myth. A myth is a story, imagined or
rue, that helps us make our experience
comprehensible by offering a construction
of reality. It is a narrative that wrests
order from chaos. We are not content to
see events as unconnected, as
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nexplicable. We crave to understand the
underlying order in the world. A myth
ells us why things are the way they are
and where they came from. Such anaccount is not only comfortable, assuring
and socially useful; it is essential. Withou
a myth, there is no meaning or purpose to
ife. Myths do more than explain. Theyguide mental processes, conditioning how
we think, even how we perceive. Myths
come to life serving as models of human
behavior.
n the Indian context, one abiding example
s the story of Rama (from the Epic
Ramayana). He is considered the symbo
of Truth, parental care, obedience and
ustice. And his wife Sita is synonymous
with virtue and all lovable feminine
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qualities. They have been thus the models
of human behavior for all in India.
All the countries have differentmythological stories. In India (and Im
sure, in other countries too) we learn thes
stories and their morals and relevance to
our daily lives from mothers andgrandmothers. Thus they get passed on
from generation to generation.
The curiosity to understand the mysterioushas been also a factor leading to religious
faiths.
one other than the great Albert Einsteinbeautifully expresses this thought. He
says: The most beautiful experience we
can have is the mysterious. It is the
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fundamental emotion that stands at the
cradle of true art and true science.
Whoever does not know it and can no
onger wonder, no longer marvel, is asgood as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It
was the experience of mystery even if
mixed with fear that engendered
religion. A knowledge of the existence ofsomething we cannot penetrate, our
perceptions of the profoundest reason and
he most radiant beauty, which only in
heir most primitive forms are accessible
o our minds it is this knowledge and
his emotion that constitute true religiosity
n this sense, and in this alone, I am adeeply religious man.
Different religions have come to be
followed by different groups in separate
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geographical regions under varying social
and historical circumstances. But basic
human nature being same everywhere at
all times, it is no wonder that all thesereligions share common values and goals,
hough methodology, rituals, assumptions
and practices may differ to a greater or
esser degree with each other.
Let us look at the worlds main religions
and their basic features:
Some religions, such as Hinduism,
developed or were founded on the basis
of ancient myths about powerful Gods and
forces of creation and destruction. Some
other religions developed through
mportant leaders or prophets, such as the
Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad. Believers
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or followers of various religions tend to
follow their particular faiths moral codes
or commandments, and also rituals as
closely as possible.
Three major religions, Judaism,
Christianity and Islam are all monotheistic
religions, believing in a single supremeGod. Hinduism, though superficially
ooking polytheistic in that Hindus
worship hundreds of gods and goddesses,
hese are essentially considered as aspector manifestations of one Absolute force
known as Brahman.
While giving below some main features o
world religions, I wish to acknowledge
gratefully the very informative details
given in the book Illustrated Dictionary
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of Religions edited by Philip Wilkinson.
am trying to note down features of the
ndian religions, namely Hinduism,
Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, withwhich, as an Indian, I am reasonably
familiar. Also here I owe some clarifying
observations to the above book. Those
nterested to familiarize themselves withhe main features of other world religions
ike Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Japanes
religions such as Shinto and Zen
Buddhism, I would refer them to the abov
mentioned book The Illustrated
Dictionary of Religions.
Hinduism:
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Hinduism is one of the oldest of known
religions. In Hinduism, there is not a
single founder, unlike some other
religions, and no single set of beliefs.
Born as a Hindu myself, it will be easier
for me to narrate how my life as an
ordinary Hindu was affected by ourreligion. First of all, though this is oft-
repeated clich, it must be noted that
Hinduism is not a formal religion as some
of the other world religions are. It wouldbe more appropriate to call it a Hindu
way of life, continued and perpetuated
over many millennia, with certain basic
moral principles and guidelines for living
passed on from generation to generation. I
sustained itself through cumulative
raditions.
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The first thing that comes to my mind
about my childhood after I became mature
enough to understand what was going on
around me, is the fact that I never foundany member of my immediate family (I
was the eighth child of my parents) telling
an untruth or a lie, even when the truth
sometimes was sure to draw a rebuke orpunishment from our parents. (It is true
hat at times speaking truth may have
embarrassing consequences too if we are
not careful about the timing and place. I
was around 6 or 7 years old when such an
ncident happened. My parents had rented
one of the rooms in our house to a youngman and his father. One day, I chanced to
notice the old man quietly taking a pen
belonging to my brother and putting it in
his pocket and going out. Immediately,
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without further thought I shouted to my
mother that the old man has stolen
something. My mother asked me to keep
quiet but I continued to insist on the truthof my observation. Unfortunately, the old
mans son (who was a very decent
person) was standing a few feet away and
was hearing all the hubbub and I did notnotice him. Naturally, my parents were
furious at the embarrassment caused to
hem!
Of course, we were not an exceptional
family but were just typical of the familie
of the times I spent my childhood in. (As I
wrote in one of my poems: Truth then
was natural; now its optional!). Truth,
honesty, and not hurting others were
values that came so naturally to us,
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hrough both nature and nurture.
A few pictures of different gods and
goddesses at home became our temple fordaily worship. Even in childhood, though
we knew that while different people
worshipped different deities, all are
aspects of one supreme Absolute being.Tolerance of other religious beliefs came
naturally to us. Visit to temples were not
frequent (as this was not a routine ritual
for us) but whenever we went to anyemple, there was an atmosphere of
sanctity and an automatic feeling of piety.
Generally, during our childhood years,
from our mother and grandmothers, at
bedtime, we enjoyed listening to various
stories from Hindu mythologies, along
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with their moral lessons.
The Hindu ethos has been historically,
socially and philosophically, of annclusive nature and hence has been
generally more tolerant and peace loving.
Even other Indian faiths which branched
out or broke out from mainstream Hindufaith, like Buddhism and Jainism, reflect
his tolerant and peace loving nature, as
can be seen from the fact that there has
been no inter-religious conflicts betweenhese religious groups in India. When
religion becomes too formal and exclusiv
for a particular group (almost to the point
of considering those not belonging to their
group as not eligible for Gods grace),
hen this exclusiveness is bound to create
ntolerance and conflict between different
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religious groups. History is witness to
many such conflicts. Oh, how we hate
one another for the love of God, was an
anguished lament of Cardinal Newman.And the God everyone worships,
whichever religion one belongs to, is the
same transcendent Absolute, though with
different names.
t may be apt to quote here from A
Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy edited
by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan & Charles A.Moore:
there is an overall synthetic tradition
which is essential to the spirit and method
of Indian philosophy. This is as old as the
Rg. Veda, where the seers realized that
rue religion comprehends all religions, so
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hat God is one but men call him by many
names. Indian philosophy is clearly
characterized by the synthetic approach to
he various aspects of experience andreality. Religion and philosophy,
knowledge and conduct, intuition and
reason, man and nature, God and man,
noumenon and phenomena, are all broughtnto harmony by the synthesizing tendency
of the Indian mind. The Hindu is prone to
believe even that all the six systems (of
ndian philosophy) as well as their
varieties of subsystems are in harmony
with one another, in fact, that they
complement one another in the totalvision, which is one. As contrasted with
Western philosophy, with its analytic
approach to reality and experience, Indian
philosophy is fundamentally synthetic. Th
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basic texts of Indian philosophy treat not
only one phase of experience and reality,
but of the full content of the philosophic
sphere. Metaphysics, epistemology,ethics, religion, psychology, facts, and
value are not cut off one from the other,
but are treated in their natural unity as
aspects of one life and experience or of asingle comprehensive reality.
It is this synthetic vision of Indian
philosophy that has made possible thentellectual and religious tolerance which
has become so pronounced in Indian
hought and in the Indian mind throughout
he ages. Recent squabbles between
religious communities, bred of political
factionalism, are not outgrowths of the
ndian mind, but, instead, are antagonistic
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o its unique genius for adaptability and
olerance, which takes all groups and all
communities into its one truth and one
ife.
Hindus hold diverse beliefs, but all are
dedicated to the idea that our life on earth
s part of a continuing eternal cycle ofbirths, deaths and re-births. The re-births
are conditioned by our Karma in this
birth (or how well or badly we spend our
years of this life). Once we have workedout all our karmic debts, we are free from
he need to be borne again and can then
reach Gods realm of everlasting bliss, or
so the belief goes. Only by living well (or
doing good Karmas), can we be reborn
well and eventually after many good lives
achieve release from this cycle.
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Life as we see and experience through our
five senses, is considered in Hindu belief
as Maya or illusion. The real self is
within and is one with the transcendentAbsolute Reality. The Hindu scriptures
give an interesting story, explaining the
meaning of Maya. I have borrowed this
passage from the book Dialogue withDeath written by Eknath Easwaran.
Easwaran, hailing from Kerala in South
ndia, settled in U.S.A. and became a
popular spiritual teacher. He has narrated
his story in his own earthly, humorous
style. The story reads:
The Hindu scriptures illustrate maya
with a haunting story:
The main character is a sage named
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arada, who is said to live for thousands
of years and to wander freely through all
he regions of consciousness from heaven
o earth. Narada was on very intimateerms with the Lord, here in the form of
Krishna, so he could ask him all kinds of
questions. And while they were walking,
he asked the Lord, Sir, can you pleaseexplain to me the secret of this magic
called Maya?
Sri Krishna hesitated, because tounderstand maya is to understand the
whole of life. But Narada was utterly
devoted to him, so the Lord replies, Of
course. Lets sit down here in the shade
and I shall tell you everything. But first,
arada, its terribly hot; would you get m
a glass of cool water?
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Right away, Narada promised, and he
set out across the fields. The sun beat
down, and though he was a good walker,
he little line of thatched cottages on thehorizon that marked the nearest village
seemed no closer as he strode along. The
heat grew unbearable. Naradas throat
became parched too; he began to think hewould ask for two glasses of water, and
drink the second himself.
Finally, he reached the village and ran tohe nearest house. The door opened and
here stood the most beautiful girl he had
ever seen. She smiled up at Narada
hrough long, dark lashes, and something
happened to him that had never happened
before. All he could do was hem and haw
Finally, he blurted out, Will you marry
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me? That is the Indian way, you know;
you cannot just say, What are you doing
on Saturday night?
The couple settled down to a life of
connubial bliss. After a while, children
began to arrive. Naradas became a very
animated household. Somebody wasalways being bathed or dressed; there
were meals to get and people to be
provided for. And all these things filled
up their lives. Narada and his wifebecame engrossed in their private little
world, quietly building their dreams.
Years passed. The children grew up,
went to school, got married in time;
grandchildren arrived. Narada became the
patriarch of a great family, respected by
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he whole village; his lands stretched to
he horizon. He and his wife would look a
each other fondly and say, Dont you
hink being grandparents is the greatesthing on earth?
Then a great flood came. The village
fields became a raging river, and beforearadas helpless eyes, everything that he
oved and lived for his lands, his cattle,
his house, but especially his beloved wife
and all their children and grandchildren were swept away. Of all the village, only
he remained. Unable to watch the
destruction, Narada fell to his knee and
cried for help from the very depths of his
heart. Krishna, Krishna
At once the raging flood disappeared and
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here was Sri Krishna, standing casually
on the fields where they had walked what
seemed so many years before. Narada,
he Lord asked gently, where is my glassof water? There was no further need to
explain what Maya is.
Here is another equally interesting story
as narrated in the book Soul Stories by
Gary Zukov):
In the Hindu tradition, Indra is a god who
runs the Heavens. One day he decided to
visit the Earth. He didnt come back. Aftea while, the other gods got worried. They
sent messengers to look for him. At last
one of the messengers found him. Indra
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had assumed the form of a pig.
Indra, cried the messenger, you must
come back. The Heavens are comingapart.
Come back?, said Indra, amazed. I
cant come back! I have a she-pig and fivepiglets. Indra forgot who he was.
That is maya, mistaking the apparent for
he real and forgetting ones source. Whatappears outwardly as the real world, is an
llusion superimposed on the ego-self. (A
simple example is sunset and sunrise. It is
a fact known to everyone that the earth isgoing around the sun, but we still talk of
sun setting and rising an optical
llusion and mistaking the apparent for the
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real!)
t is only natural for us to feel that each of
us is a separate entity and separate fromeach other but also from the God above.
The Hindu rishis, sages and mystics have
known that this duality is only an illusion.
Ramani Maharshi of South India whorealized the highest truth taught his
disciples the non-dual nature of reality in
his own subtle way. Here is an anecdote
from a Puranic story which he liked toell, as quoted in a site anandamayi.org:
The sage Ribhu loved his disciple
idagha very much, although the latter had
some difficulty in understanding the non-
dual teaching of Vedanta. Finally, he wen
o the capital and married there. Many
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years later, he was watching the Kings
procession when a poor old peasant
approached him. Excuse me, this is my
first time ever in the capital. Could youkindly explain me whats going on?
This is the procession of our king with
his elephant. King, elephant whispered
he peasant in a thoughtful voice. Butwhere is the king, and where is the
elephant?
The king is above, the elephant belowanswered Nidagha in a slightly irritated
one. Excuse me, but this is still not very
clear to me; where is above, and where is
below? Exasperated by the stupidity of
he old man, the disciple told him to go on
four legs, rode on his back and said: I am
above, and you are below! Who is I and
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who is you? Startled by this uncommon
question, he saw flashing in his mind the
face of his guru, recognized him in the old
peasant and fell at his feet. From that dayon, the fire of non-dual knowledge was
gnited in him, this time for ever.
Einstein with his highly intuitive mindworked out the theory of relativity that,
after experiments and observations on
results predicted by him, has been found
o match with cosmic realities. As anotherscientist put it, more than any
philosopher or scientist before him,
Einstein demonstrated that our intuition
about the physical world based on sensor
experience can be fundamentally in error
Here is Maya explained in scientific
erms!
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Many Hindus are vegetarians because of
heir belief in reincarnation and their view
hat all living beings are part of the same
supreme spirit. They also believe that byiving a peaceful life, studying ancient
sacred texts of Hinduism and about Hindu
philosophy, praying and meditating, they
can eventually reach their spiritual goal ooneness with the Absolute; and also
receive help and the grace of God in this
ife (which is the immediate incentive for
eading such a moral life).
There is a saying in south of India which
iterally reads self half and God half
meaning that when we do our part of the
Karma by living well and in an ethical
way, God will help us with his grace,
which is the other half.
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The most sacred ancient texts of the
Hindus are the Puranas (mythological
stories), Vedas, Upanishads and the two
epics Ramayana and Mahabharatha.As part of the Mahabharatha, there is a
section where Lord Krishna, acting as a
charioteer, advises Arjuna about the
meaning of life and how to do ones dutyo protect dharma without looking at the
results. This section called the Bhagavad
Gita is by itself a highly revered and
quintessential part of the Hindu scriptures
The gist of Krishnas teaching is that we
should do our moral duty or Karma as
our conscience or inner voice dictates,without worrying about the results, which
will take care of themselves. Thats to
say, any action done in good faith and in
pursuance of dharma (righteousness) and
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truth, will give positive end results. But
any motivated action cannot bring
happiness and peace.
As the purpose of this book is not to give
an exhaustive dissertation on various
religions, nor am I a learned specialist on
world religions, I refrain from attemptingo write elaborately about the details of
religious beliefs and practices. My aim
here is only to give a brief overview.
When talking about the religions that
originated in India, we will also have a
brief review of Buddhism, Jainism and
Sikhism:
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Buddhism:
Born as Siddhartha Gautama in a princely
ndian family, the Buddha lived in the fifthor sixth century BCE. Siddhartha gave up
his riches and power to live a religious
ife, seeking enlightenment, in order to
free himself from the cycle of death andrebirth. After achieving enlightenment, he
came to known as the Buddha and he
aught others how to live so that they too
might attain enlightenment or nirvana.The Buddhist religion is based on his life
and teachings. Buddha after his own
enlightenment gathered the innermost
circle of his disciples and passed on to
hem his teachings (which became famous
as the Sermon at the Deer Park). He tol
hem: The world is full of sin and
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sorrow, because it is full of error. Men go
astray because they think that delusion is
better than truth. Rather than truth they
follow error, which is pleasant to look atn the beginning but causes anxiety,
ribulation, and misery.
Looking at Buddhist philosophy, theBuddha takes up some of the thoughts of
he Upanishads and gives to them a new
orientation. The Buddha is not so much
formulating a new scheme of metaphysicsand morals as rediscovering an old norm
and adapting it to the new conditions of
hought and life.
The Buddha was not considered a God by
his disciples, but as a spiritual guide. He
showed people how to free themselves
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favorable rebirth after death, or even to
reach enlightenment.
Buddha advised men to follow the middlepath in leading ones life, avoiding the
extremes of austerities, self-mortification
and penances on the hand and indulgence
n worldly pleasures on the other. He saidSatisfying the necessities of life is not
evil. To keep the body in good health is a
duty, for otherwise we shall not be able to
rim the lamp of wisdom and keep ourmind strong and clear. He gives the
example of the lotus: Water surrounds th
otus flower, but does not wet its petals.
Similarly, while meeting the needs of the
body on this earth, forget not the main
purpose of life which is to attain
Nirvana, or release from the cycle of
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death and rebirth.
Buddhist faith is strong in northern Asia
China, Tibet, and Japan) and in southernAsia (Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and
Thailand)
There are two main branches ofBuddhism. One is Theravada Buddhism,
which developed first and adheres strictly
o the Buddhas original teachings through
a defined set of scriptures. This branchfocuses on enlightenment for the
ndividual. The other branch is known as
Mahayana Buddhism developed later,
during the first century BCE. It is more
open to different ideas and approaches,
using a wider set of scriptures, and
emphasizes compassion and enlightenmen
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for the sake of others. Mahayana
Buddhism is more predominant in China,
Japan and Tibet.
Jainism:
n Jainism there is no supreme creator
God and the Jaina system does not accept
he authority of the Vedas. Jains take
guidance from a series of teachers (orinas). One of the most important teaching
n Jainism is nonviolence..
Jainism arose in India between the seventand fifth centuries BCE. Jains are
followers of a series of religious leaders
who have cast off all worldly concerns
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and achieved the highest level of
knowledge. They are also called
Tirthankaras. Right knowledge, faith and
conduct are known as the Three Jewels.Right conduct means abandoning violence
greed, and deceit, being chaste, and taking
a series of vows.
Mahavira was considered to be the 24th
Tirthankara of the current time cycle. He
was born during the sixth century BCE an
his teachings inspired the spread ofJainism in India.
Followers of Jainism are mostly spread
over the regions of northern India.
Jains believe that the universe goes
hrough many cosmic cycles, comprising
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periods of improvement and decline.
During times of decline, a great teacher or
eader called Tirthankara appears to
revive the religion and to show peoplehow to behave and achieve liberation.
Laypeople among the Jains try to follow
as closely as possible an austere lifestyleand avoid violence and to pursue a career
hat does not involve doing harm to life.
Regular daily worship is commonly found
among them. They also make regularpilgrimages to holy places of their
religion. They are always kind to and feed
animals and birds. They undertake
frequent fasts that they believe cleanse
heir mind and body.
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Sikhism:
Sikhism arose out of disillusionment abou
he divergent Hindu systems. The founderof Sikhism, Guru Nanak, while respecting
he Hindu and Islamic faiths then
prevailing in India, believed that their
rituals did not reveal the correct truthabout God. Sikhism was founded in
Punjab in northern India during the 16th
century BCE.
Sikhs believe in one God and their faith
stresses the individuals relationship with
God. Sikhs have a strong sense of
community and uphold the right to bear
arms to defend themselves and their
people. They also care for anyone, even
outside their community, who is in need o
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help. They are very enterprising and hard
working people too.
Sikhs believe in one God and follow theTen Gurus, from Guru Nanak to Guru
Gobind Singh, who revealed the truth
about the deity. They worship the Sikh
scripture called the Adi Granth or GuruGranth Sahib and they believe that service
o the community is a way of worship too
Sikhism aims to achieve a favorablerebirth or liberation following five
spiritual stages. These are called Dharam
Khand (living by Gods law), Saram
Khand (self-discipline) Karam Khand
grace), Gian Khand (knowledge) and
Sach Khand (truth).
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The way of life developed by Sikhs gave
hem a strong sense of identity, which
makes them stand out from other groups.
Sikhs are taught to help anyone who isneedy, whatever their faith, and serving
he community is seen as a way of getting
nearer to God.
Chinese Religions:
would like to add a few notes on
Chinese religions for 2 reasons: Firstly,
hey are so country-specific or region
specific, like Hinduism. Secondly,Buddhism spread from India which the
Chinese adapted and modified to suit thei
age-old traditional characteristics and the
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Chinese psyche. God was less important
for them than living the right way.
Most prominent religions of China areConfucianism founded by Confucius
during 5th/6th Century BCE ), Taoism and
hen Buddhism that spread from India to
China and which received royal patronagen the initial stages.
Confucius aimed to teach people to live
well according to the values of duty,wisdom, generosity and courtesy. He also
emphasized the need for children to
respect and honor their parents when they
are alive and also after they are dead.
Thus emerged the practice of ancestor
worship in China. The ideas of Confucius
gradually developed into a religious
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system.
Taoism laid emphasis on the spiritual
path. Tao is defined by ancient Chinesesages and thinkers as the source of all that
exist in the world and by pursuing the
Taoist path, they hope to achieve unity
with the forces of the natural world andhus achieve harmony in ones own life.
People who achieve these goals are said
o become immortal after physical death.
Confucius gave guidance for action as a
means to achieve success in life
essentially a social and moral philosophy
Taoism on the other hand explored the
nner world, i.e. the spiritual aspects of
ife.
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physical aspects of things are purely
relative, they are indistinguishable and
ndescribable. Water is life for a fish,
death for man. Moreover, the relativity isuch that all things exist only in reference
o their opposites. It is only because
everyone thinks that beauty exists that they
hink that ugliness exists Even existences a reflection of non-existence: a house is
a house only because of the holes that
comprise the doors and windows: a whee
s a wheel only because of the empty
space where the axle is fitted: a jug is
useful only because it contains an
emptiness, and that emptiness issignificant only because it can be filled.
All things that exist eventually pass into
nothingness, and out of this nothingness,
new things emerge. Thus all of nature,
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being and nothingness, is all mixed up
ogether. The universe is essentially a
single whole and is in reality indivisible.
This being so, it is humanlyncomprehensible. Since knowledge of the
universe is unattainable, reason is of no
use to anyone. Human knowledge is only
an illusion. Wisdom is the realization ofrealizing this illusion, accepting that one
cannot control nature, and learning to
become part of it. By refusing to struggle
against the natural course of things, one
gains power. By flowing along with
nature, rather than swimming against the
current, ones ends can be achievedwithout effort or action.
This idea of duality in nature seem to have
been identified by other cultures as well.
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Hinduism is one of them. Maybe Russian
houghts flow on similar lines. According
o an old Russian saying, but for the bad,
t would not be good!
Though the role of religion might have
changed in modern China, some of the
philosophical thoughts of ancient Chinamay still be surviving in some form or the
other. I must say that I have had no chance
o come in direct contact with the Chinese
culture.
Christianity and Islam are prominent
world religions having large number of
followers in many regions around the
globe. Though in the modern world, many
of us belonging to other religions may
have a superficial knowledge of these
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religions because of social interaction, fo
a detailed knowledge about their origin,
history and main features, I would refer
he readers to the aforementioned valuablbook The Illustrated Dictionary of
Religions.
believe it is good for all of us to knowhe basic details of other faiths. This
knowledge will give us a sense of
olerance and acceptance, since all faiths
are in the end looking to uplift the humanbeings spiritually and morally.
Once when I was traveling from U.S. to
ndia, a co-passenger sitting by my side
entered into conversation. He was a
Korean. He asked me, why is that in
ndia you have so many Gods and even
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animal-faced Gods. I told him that
historically according to Hindu tradition
God was worshipped in different forms in
different parts of the country. Buteverybody understood that according to
Hindu philosophy there is only One god
but worshipped as different
manifestations.
This is not peculiar to India. All over the
world, while people accept the One
Reality, speak of God in different ways ashat Reality is beyond words and thoughts
n his book God A Brief Hidsoty John
Bowker (a Religious Study Professor) has
ried to analyze this aspect of belief as
follows:
the knowledge people enter into of
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God is real, but the ways they speak of it
are incomplete. Their words and poems
and pictures, as well as their lives, try to
share something of the character of God aOne of whom they know much more than a
distant rumor of a far-off place; but their
characterizations of God are always
nadequate and are constantly beingchanged from one generation to another.
Some characterizations do of course
persist for example, God in thecharacter of Mother and God in the
character of Father. Even so, we know
hat God is not exactly like any human
parent.. All characterizations of God are
necessarily approximate, provisional,
corrigible, and mainly wrong. But they
point nevertheless, to the One who evokes
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hese words and pictures, but remains
beyond the verbal net in which we try to
catch our fish..
Something like that, however, is also tru
for scientists as they try to describe and
characterize the universe. Of course their
methods are entirely different, and theuniverse presents itself in ways very
unlike those through which God becomes
a living presence. Even so, when
scientists, playing their part in the humansearch for truth, describe and characterize
he universe, their words are approximate
provisional, corrigible, and often wrong
from the point of view of later
generations. But they achieve, all the same
great reliability the same is true in the
human search for God: it too has achieved
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with the continuing social and cultural
changes.
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CHAPTER 3 - The Ordinary
Man
Why do I wish to write a separate chapter
on ordinary man?
Mainly because everything in life is done
and practiced in the name of the ordinary
men, whether in politics, religion,philosophy, or in several branches of
science. From the hunter age to modern
imes, there have always been the leaders
and there have been the led (who inmodern parlance, came to be known as
ordinary men, or common men.) I have
ried to put down my thoughts as an
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retreating to some hermitage. My nephew
old him: First try to be a good ordinary
person and then attempt to become
extraordinary. That was an interesting buapt advice!
Again, an ordinary man is sometimes
portrayed as a simpleton, and a simpletons generally considered to be a good
person who at times can come up with
surprisingly simple answers to complex
ooking questions. In an old Englishmovie, Forrest Gump there are a few
nteresting exchanges between St. Peter
and the simpleton Forrest Gump at the gat
of Heaven, when the latter reaches there
when his physical body died. See how a
common mans simple mind responds to
difficult questions with plain and innocen
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childlike answers. Before entering
Heaven he had to answer three questions
put forth by St. Peter. The questions and
he simpletons answers run somewhatike this:
Question 1: How many seconds are there
n a year?
F.G. answers: Simple, the answer is 12.
ike January 2nd, February 2nd, March
2nd and so on till December 2nd.
St. Peter, though surprised at this
unexpected answer, accepted it and put th
next question to him.
Question 2: Tell me the number of days in
a week which starts with the letter T
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F.G. replied, Four without any
hesitation.
St. Peter: How did you arrive at it?
F.G.: Easy, they are Tuesday, Thursday,Today and Tomorrow.
Since St. Peter could not dispute the logic
he said OK and raised his 3rd land lastquestion.
Question 3: What is the name of God?
Pat came the reply from F.G. Andy.
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Amused and surprised at such an answer,
St. Peter asked him to explain.
F.G. replied: I learnt from the hymns wesing at Church: Andy (And He) walks
with me, Andy talks with me.
Looking at the innocence of the simpletonSt. Peter smilingly ushered him into the
Heaven.
From among the common folk, there aremany with practical wisdom and wit who
help others around in many ways and from
whom we can learn many lessons of life.
They pass on the values and morals ofgood living. My maternal uncle was one
such example. He was a very witty person
who never lost his composure in the face
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of the worst adversities. He extended his
helping hand to many and was highly
respected in his village. Once he narrated
a story that I still remember. I amsupposed to be the wittiest person in this
village, but another person outwitted me
oday. Since my mother had an eyesore, I
went to consult the local ayurvedic doctoro get some medicine. As soon as I entere
his consulting room, he said Hello Iyer
what brings you here? So I told him my
mothers problem. Okay he said, bring
your mother in and let me examine her. I
said I did not bring my mother with me.
Oh, he said, have you brought hereyes? I was for the first time caught on
he wrong foot by a wittier man.
His wife, my aunt, an uneducated lady
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those days, the girls were hardly sent to
school beyond 3rd or 4th standards and
hen married off in early childhood), was
again an exceptional woman. Their familyhad seen the highs of prosperity and lows
of penury. But in her love to all those
around, her cheerful hospitality, quiet
acceptance of the bad times, she wasunchanged. Whenever I chanced to visit
her house, I could feel her love and
warmth all the time.
t is common folks like these who make
he world a better place to live in and
renew our faith in human kindness.
There are again ordinary men and women
who get thrown into circumstances which
make them do extraordinary deeds. During
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a war, for instance, many ordinary
soldiers facing great dangers and even
death raise themselves to extraordinary
evels to save their fellow-soldiers ordefend a position. In peacetime too, there
are examples of successful people in
different fields who made it big by their
dogged determination and efforts. Allhave their turning points which can change
heir life altogether. Mahatma Gandhi and
Einstein are supreme examples of men
coming from very ordinary background
becoming legends. Even in our mythology
here are characters that seem to suddenly
change the direction of their life. Valmikiwas a bandit who waylaid travellers and
robbed them. But there was a sudden
change in him and he went on to become
he famous sage who wrote the great
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ndian epic Ramayana. Of course, this
doesnt happen frequently and not with
vast majority of the common folk. But it is
obvious that the potential is there in eachof us to reach for the sky.
Also faith in a cause (whether right or
wrong) raises men above ordinary leveland makes them capable of facing any
danger and make any sacrifice.
When I talk of my faith or beliefs, I amaware that there may be some who share
hese and many others, who have different
kinds of faiths and beliefs,
Many like me, among common folk, are
unknown travelers in the road of life,
rudging on and sometimes drifting along,
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not knowing where the destination lies or
how long the wait on this Earth is. Quite
often in my dreams, I travel to a known
destination but get lost on the way, leavinme confused and perturbed. Does this
dream reflect the reality of our life in
some way?
Let me touch upon some of the
characteristics found in the life of commo
men.
Faith or Fantasy?
Quite often, what we consider as faith
borders on fantasy and vice versa. When Iwas a young boy, I was bitten once by a
poisonous snake and I thought my life was
about to end. Immediately, I prayed to
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God and kept before Gods image a coin
hat I had with me. The normal belief is
hat by thus doing (the amount is
mmaterial), God gives protection. As iturned out, the snake at that particular time
did not inject venom into my body and I
had no ill-effect.. The village snake
specialist said that when a snake bitesmmediately after it has had its meal, the
venom does not come out and so I was
ucky to survive. Now, is my prayer based
on faith or just a fantasy borne out of
desperation and hope?
But does it matter? If the faith or fantasy
gives us comfort and peace and acts as a
placebo for the spirit, what is wrong with
hat? As Benjamin Franklin once
humorously said, God heals, and the
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doctor takes the fees. Philosophers and
scientists may eternally argue on the rights
and wrongs of faiths, but in individual life
t can be and has been from the beginningof mans evolution a great soothing
feature. Of course such faith has to be
borne of conviction to be effective. Blind
faith or totally irrational fantasies aremeaningless and at times may even be
dangerous as we so often see in real life.
may recall here memories of threencidents in my own life that has relevanc
here. First was the incidence of the snake
bite narrated above. The second incidence
occurred when I was around 35 years old
was returning from my work to the
Railway Station in Bombay (now
Mumbai) to travel back home. In the busy
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hours the Mumbai roads are crammed
with hurrying vehicles and the drivers
here care a hoot for the pedestrians. I wa
waiting at a signal and when the signalwas red I hurried with others to cross the
road. I was just about to put my foot
forward when I felt like a tug from behind
and stepped back and felt I was beingpulled back. From the other side a vehicle
came rushing even before the green signal
was on and if I had tried to cross, I am
sure I would have been grievously or eve
fatally injured. When I turned back, there
was none behind me an