Religion and blind faith


Some say religion insists on implicit faith and a blind faith at that...

Sorry I have some reservation about your statement that religion wants implicit faith, or in other word unquestioning blind faith.

All processes of reasoning need implicit faith and that includes science.

Religion as understood by a few may be requiring blind faith , just as some scientists who reach the pinnacle also want blind faith in what they say as the infallible theory, till proven wrong, by all others who have not reached the pinnacle of scientific achievement. How Newton suffered and hid quite an amount of his work till he reached a certain stature as well the history of others too indicate this.

It is a human arrogant attitude of "ahamkara". or in loose translation self-ego, which distorts both science and religion.

Now coming to religion, I understand our Upanishads emphasise questioning first and not believing blindly. Emphasis is on "jnana" , or translated loosely, knowledge.


Sri Madhwacharya my own sect Acharya, abhorred blind faith by disciples in what he says. He wanted questioning and reasoning to completely understand through thorough studies of scriptures in depth.


SImilalrly Sri Raghavendra swamy in the same lineage, declared apart from all the gurus in that line, that they hate blind unquestioning faith.

SO I find it difficult to accept a genaral statement that religion demands blind faith.

The curse of modern Indian born intellects is that we did not have 15 years of education in finer nuances of Sanskrit language and access to ancient scriptures in Sanskrit , to make a deep study.

English translations with western point of view, distorts our spirit contained in smritis. Simple Varna and jati differentiations are lumped together in to "caste", word and in very wise righteous manner quite a few keep condemning the manu smriti. Krishna clearly explains varna in different context... and this exists in all societies including Western ones. But with little knowledge, many rush to say disparaging words about what our ancients envisaged.

About atom, sub-atom Sri Madhwacharya recorded the distinctions more than 500 years ago as well as about the ulttra-voilet radiation in space too. Not the bue color of sky. But how many of us know?

The darkness we live vis-a vis the ancient knowledge base, makes many a sadhu and even more aggressive followers, drive some kind of distorted scheme of things to hide own lack of knowledge to answer queries. They insist on blind faith. It is convenient.

Fundamentally if some one says he knows about God, he is a first rate duper. No one can know God because by definition, what ever you know is not God.

The images we use for dhyana etc are more for convenience of meeting limitations of our imagination. The all pervading energy that is God, is difficult to visualise and again the viswam is ony a manifestation but not God per se.

To my little mind after hearing many a discourse of erudite scholars, who spent life time studying our ancient scriptures in original language, I understood very little that if the Force is present every where , then it is present in the statues we worship as well as in you and me too apart from every thing manifest and perceived by us as sound , light ,or earth plant, animal.. insect....

I was surprised that at the end of the day what religion tells us in a nutshell, ( as told by Bhishma to Yudhishtara, to a question)..hardly two words as to how a man should live. "Tyaga" & " Vinaya" loosely translated in to English, meaning, sacrifice( nishkama karma), and humility.

Prof Rao is one such individual I know personally. He is living rightly and is close to the divine calling of ideal. Humility charaterises him and he is self-less.

Though I did not want to write anymore about these issues, Prof Rao's joining the issue made me write.

I remain a seeker and honestly do not know the answers-- cannot accept science is complete in that sense nor our own level of knowledge of any subject in the world.

Regards to all...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Just another day of Brahma we collide with another galaxy !!

Image
  Just in another day of Brahma our Galaxy collides with Andromeda : Earth continues but sky views change and Sun orbit affected !!  Image From Atlantic : reproduced .  In Hindu philosophy, a **Brahma day** (also known as a **Kalpa**) is a vast cosmic period that represents one full day in the life of Brahma, the creator god. This period is equivalent to **4.32 billion years** in human terms⁴. A Brahma day consists of **1,000 Mahayugas** (great ages), and each Mahayuga is made up of four Yugas (ages): Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga, and Kali Yuga². After the completion of a Brahma day, there is an equally long Brahma night, during which the universe undergoes dissolution before the cycle of creation begins anew². This concept highlights the immense scale of time in Hindu cosmology and reflects the cycles of creation and dissolution that are central to the universe's rhythm. Is there a specific aspect of this concept you're curious about? Source: Conversat...
Read more

Are we experiencing life in a world already extinct millions of years ago?

Image
It’s not rare that my mind feels we are actually living in a world that might have been extinct millions of years ago!     As per Vishnu Sahasra Namam, part of Mahabharata authored by Sri Vedavyasa, Brahma praises his own father Sri Vishnu as Sahasra Yuga Dharane namaha . That if we take as life time for Brahama from his own birth before start of creation and own liberation annihilating the entire creation to join that realm which has no cycles of birth and death. —-ever present abode of Sri Narayana as per Brahmasutra and described in Sri Bhagavad Gita too. That is 1000x10^7x4.32 m or 4.32x 10^16 solar years.        The time scale of Sri Vishnu who is said to create and maintain this universe merely by a wish within less than a second of His time . This translates as the equivalent to 10^16 solar years is my submission. This is  followed by equal time period of yoga Nidra or entire universe transformed back in to suspended particles. So the process of...
Read more

For dummies like me, understanding Hilbert space and play of energy beams around my Atma ! : Using my Buddy Co-Pilot

Image
For dummies what is the Hilbert space and how does it help us? Hilbert space is a concept from mathematics and quantum mechanics that may sound complex, but let's break it down in a simple way: **Hilbert Space Basics:** - **Definition**: Think of it as an infinite-dimensional space, much like how we think of 3-dimensional space, but with potentially endless dimensions. - **Vectors**: In this space, you have vectors (like arrows) that can represent different states or points. - **Inner Product**: It has a special way to measure angles and distances between these vectors, called the inner product. This helps in defining concepts like orthogonality (perpendicularity) and length. **How it Helps Us:** - **Quantum Mechanics**: Hilbert spaces are fundamental in quantum mechanics. They provide the framework for describing quantum states and their evolution. - **Wave Functions**: Quantum states are represented as wave functions, which are essentially vectors in a Hilbert space. This helps i...
Read more