walking through god's maze ebook - vishwanath krishnan

7/29/2019 Walking Through God's Maze eBook - Vishwanath Krishnan

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Author, 2012

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www.krimiga.com

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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

walking through god's maze ebook - vishwanath krishnan

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