09 Aug 2014
Shri Durga Prasad asked “One retired judge said that the Bhagavad Gita should be introduced into the syllabus of every student. Another retired judge contradicted this. What do You say about this?”
Swami replied: It is better to say that spiritual knowledge should be introduced into the syllabus. If you take the name of the Bhagavad Gita, other religions will misunderstand. Spiritual knowledge is like a person and religions are like his different shirts in different colours. Religion is related to culture, language and a specific set of traditions. The word ‘secular’ should mean the basic spiritual knowledge, which is common in all the religions. But, today, the word ‘secular’ is taken in wrong sense, which is to reject every religion. In such case, the spiritual knowledge is also rejected since you cannot have any person without any shirt. In the earlier days, there was conflict between religions because all the people were theists believing in God. Their quarrels were only superficial because the underlying spiritual knowledge was accepted by all. Today, the fantastic growth of science led people to disbelieve spiritual knowledge and God. Now, the conflict is not between religions. The conflict is between spiritual knowledge and non-belief of this spiritual knowledge. The fight is between theists and atheists. Hence, the basic spiritual knowledge of all the religions must be introduced, which can fight with the arguments of the atheists. In the present context, the differences between religions must be ignored and the underlying spiritual knowledge must be studied without reference to any religion. For example, we can introduce the word ‘God’ without introducing the equivalent terms of God like Parabrahman, Allah, Jehovah etc. Similarly, we can introduce ‘Human Incarnation’ without introducing the specific names of the human incarnations like Krishna, Mohammad, Jesus, Buddha etc. This will avoid the partiality towards a specific religion. After explaining the basic concepts like God, human incarnation etc., we can give the examples for these concepts from various religions to indicate our impartiality. You can give all the details of a person without any shirt on his body. Later on, you can show the person in different shirts. By this, you have not only given the details of the person but also showed that the same person exits in all the shirts. Similarly, you can give the knowledge of God without reference to any religion and then say the equivalent terms of God in all the religions. By this, you are not only speaking about God but also showing that the same God exists in all religions.
Science means the perfect unbiased analysis of all the items and concepts of the imaginable creation. We welcome science as far as the path of the analysis is concerned. At the end, the right conclusion should be drawn and some scientists draw the wrong conclusion, which is in the opposite direction to the right conclusion. Science is like the straight tusk of the tree and these two conclusions are like the two branches generating from the tip of the tusk in the opposite directions. We also travel along the tusk in line with the atheists. We differ from the atheist at the end of the analysis only. Atheists take the direction of the wrong conclusion and we take the direction of the right conclusion. Our right conclusion is that no item of this imaginary creation is God and no concept related to this creation can be the concept of God. The wrong conclusion of the atheists is that nothing exists beyond this imaginable creation and hence, God does not exist.
We use the analysis of science to negate every item of the creation to be God (Neti Neti- Veda). Science is the indirect knowledge of God by which we reject the entire creation to be God and conclude that God, the creator, is beyond the creation. The direct knowledge of God is that God is beyond this creation and more than this no information of God is possible. We can show you what is not God and we cannot show you what is God.
Space is the first item of the creation, which is not the absence of any imaginable item. Space is only very subtle invisible energy. Bending of space spoken in science proves this. There cannot be bending of nothing. God is the generator of this space or subtle energy. The Veda says that God is generator of space and in another place says that God is the generator of energy. Both these statements are one and the same since space is subtle energy. The generator of space cannot have space in it. This means that there is no space in God. This results in saying that God is beyond spatial dimensions. We can never imagine that, which has no spatial dimensions. Hence, God is unimaginable. The atheist may ask proof for the existence of unimaginable and say that unimaginable without proof does not exist. One proof is the existence of unimaginable events called miracles in this world. The atheist may discard this proof saying that the miracle is only magic. The magic looks like miracle but on deep observation and analysis can be disproved. But, there are certain unimaginable events, which cannot be disproved even on deepest observations and deepest analysis. The atheist says that the magic of yesterday, called as miracle, is proved today and hence, all the miracles will be proved as magic by tomorrow. But, this tomorrow never comes since the atheist is not stipulating the time gap for this tomorrow. Yesterday, you could not touch the roof of the house by your hand. Today, you touched the roof by practicing the high jump. Based on this, you are saying that you will continue the practice of high jump and touch the sky by tomorrow. We have experienced the today, which is present after the past yesterday, but this tomorrow is never experienced by us even though we waited up to the end of our life. Your promise of the time gap has utterly failed. The reason is that the sky can never be touched by you. But, the roof is touched by you because it is touchable after certain practice. Today, you can touch the upper horizontal log of the door even without practice. By this, you can conclude three categories: a) touchable today, b) touchable by tomorrow after certain efforts and c) untouchable on any day. The three corresponding items of the creation to the above three categories are: a) visible-imaginable, b) invisible-imaginable and c) invisible-unimaginable. The ordinary person belongs to the first item. The scientist belongs to the second item. The philosopher belongs to the third item.
If you are not willing to accept the genuine miracles, there is one outstanding miracle, which is beyond your understanding. You cannot deny this since it is referred by science as infinity. This creation or universe is infinite with unimaginable boundary. This is practically experienced through not only our eyes but also through your powerful telescopes. You have to accept the existence of unimaginable indicated by the word infinite. This universe is created by God, which is emerged from the God. When you touch the boundary of this imaginable universe, it means, you have touched the unimaginable God. There are only two items here. One is the unimaginable God and the other is the imaginable universe. The joint line between these two items cannot be a third item, which is different from the two items since only two items exist. Hence, the end of one item means the beginning of the other item. When you have reached the end of the ocean, you have touched the beginning of the land. Therefore, if you have reached the end of imaginable universe, you must touch the beginning of unimaginable God. Since unimaginable can never be touched by anybody, which is even beyond imagination, it means that you can never reach the end of the imaginable universe. This is a practical scientific example that has to be accepted by any human being as a proof for the existence of the unimaginable, which is called by the word ‘God’ by us.
Once the atheist accepts the unimaginable God, further extensions of this concept like human incarnation etc., can be easily introduced. When God has unimaginable nature or capability to do any unimaginable action, such unimaginable God enters a specific human form for a specific program like preaching the spiritual knowledge that gives right direction for the spiritual aspirants to become human incarnation. When the capability of the unimaginable God cannot be questioned, you cannot oppose the probability of the concept of human incarnation of God especially when there is a genuine need. Hence, the establishment of the concept of unimaginable God is the main effort and other concepts become easy. Hence, Shankara tried to establish the existence of God in the minds of the atheists. Further concepts of worship of God etc., were easily established by the followers like Ramanuja and Madhva.
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