Like every morning is followed by a pitch black night…
The Good can never keep bad, out from the sight…........
Like the two faces of a coin, a head and a tail….............
Light and dark, the chiaroscuro will always prevail…...
"Dambho darpo ’bhimanas cha, krodhah parusyam eva cha
Ajnanam chabhijatasya, partha sampadam asurim"
As per Bhagwad Gita, Shree Krishna has said….
"Yada yada hi dharmasya, glanir bhavati bharata
Abhyutthanam adharmasya, tadatmanam srjamy aham”
“Praritranaya Sadhunam, Vinashaya Cha Dushkritam
Dharamasansthapnaya, Sambhavami Yuge-Yuge."
The Good can never keep bad, out from the sight…........
Like the two faces of a coin, a head and a tail….............
Light and dark, the chiaroscuro will always prevail…...
From ages we have heard about the balancing forces of nature… “Papa and Punya”(The bad deed and the good deed). The existence of evil along with good is not an imprecation because they are like the repulsive and attractive forces of nature that keep us stable, keep us together, without any one of them; there is no meaning of existence. Inside every human being also, there exists this light and darkness. The light being the good, the God inside us and the darkness being the bad, the Daemon inside us (Hey Vampire diaries fans!! Give it a rest). “Har har Mahadev” the concept that Shiva preached, the saying that tells that there is God inside each one of us, the simple term that explains to us that by eradicating the evil inside us, we can be Gods, is not a new finding. It is a kind of legacy that has been passed on to us through generations. My mom always says – “There is God inside every one of us.” She has inculcated this habit inside me to do “Pranam” if somehow by mistake my legs touch anyone else. Her reason for it was simple – “Don’t disrespect the ‘Vishnu’ in a person”. Then what I want to ask is – “ If there is God inside us, then what about the Daemon? Is it still inside us, dormant and passive, and ready to raise its ugly head, when the time comes?”
"Dambho darpo ’bhimanas cha, krodhah parusyam eva cha
Ajnanam chabhijatasya, partha sampadam asurim"
("Sri Krishna said: O Arjuna, Pride, arrogance, conceit, anger, harshness and ignorance—these qualities belong to those people who are of demoniac nature.")
If we take a pragmatic approach towards this quote from Gita, then we will find that the Daemon inside us has never been dormant. All the endless problems of the present world, this raging nuclear war to corruption, are all because of this daemon inside us. This evil inside us sometimes overpowers the good in us and wants us to be greedy for money, wants more power, wants to reign over the world, wants to be merciless and exercise pain. It finds joy in unleashing its wrath. It shows itself in the form of jealousy, hatred, but nobody is born good or evil. It depends on the path we choose, what we choose to believe. Our actions are dictated by our will-power which should be strong enough to overcome the evil and follow the path of goodness.
But again when I rethink, I again want to know why the evil inside us has started to overpower us? Why the power of “Good” inside us is diminishing? Somehow I feel the reason is, that instead of following the real God, the “God” inside us and every other human being, we are trying to find God inside temples and Gurudwaras and Churches. God never asked us to beeline in-front of a temple to offer him milk, food, oil or flower. He never asked us to build him gigantic structures and worship his idol inside. If you really want to offer your prayers to God, then offer the food and milk to a hungry and parched soul. How will God’s hunger be satisfied when there are millions of people on this planet who don’t have even a morsel of food to feed on? In our country there are millions of people who reside in slums, and there are thousands of helpless souls who don’t even have a roof over their head to protect themselves from the scorching heat of sun, the blazing heat that can burn your skin, they can’t protect themselves from the thunder and lightning or keep themselves dry from endless rains, nor can they keep themselves warm to evade the from the spine chilling cold weather. But instead of providing them a roof above their head, we spend riches constructing and ornating temples to give shelter to what, a lifeless form of God?
And I seriously can’t understand why instead of believing in “Karma” (our own deeds) we have started to believe in fate. Take for example if you don’t know Kirchoff’s Law….., then it simply means that you gotta read it and know what Kirchoff’s Law is. Running hundred rounds around a temple, turning insane and keeping a fast for a week won’t do it for you, coz no God will come and write the equations in your exam paper. God won’t check floods and famines. It’s you who has to make dams and preserve food and construct godowns to prevent them. Don’t try to blame God for your miseries, because our miseries are a result of our own deeds.
As per Bhagwad Gita, Shree Krishna has said….
"Yada yada hi dharmasya, glanir bhavati bharata
Abhyutthanam adharmasya, tadatmanam srjamy aham”
“Praritranaya Sadhunam, Vinashaya Cha Dushkritam
Dharamasansthapnaya, Sambhavami Yuge-Yuge."
("Whenever there is decay of righteousness O! Bharatha And a rise of unrighteousness then I manifest Myself!" "For the protection of the good, for the destruc¬tion of the wicked and for the establishment of righteousness, I am born in every age.")
But why should we wait for the evil to rise? Isn’t the level of evil that persists in this present world enough? How many more world wars do we have to face? Why should we believe that the pot of evil has to be filled till the brim to be broken? Why wait till this age of evil “Kaliyug” comes to an end? Why wait for the ultimate supreme power to manifest him to make the world free from all the sufferings? Because I believe the God in me, the God in you and the God in us is capable of making this world a better place to live in. Let’s try to tame our venal instincts, forestall the evil in us, before it engulf whatever good is left. Let us try to close the three gates which lead to hell – Lust, Anger and Greed. Once closed, they will enable us to think sane, act sane, be sane and the God in us will rise again.
P.S. I have thought a lot before posting it. I am not an apostate, nor do I dis-believe in God. I just believe that instead of relying on him to do good and bring in justice, we should take up this task on our shoulders. I would also like to thank Amish for writing “Shiva Trilogy”, which has re-instated my faith in the concept of “THE GOD IN US” and I can say without diffidence “There is God within me, there is Good within me and I vow to burgeon it.”
That was so spellbinding. If only every person starts believing in “Karma” that is ‘your good and bad deeds are balanced in your lifetime itself’, the world will be a better place.
@Shalini....... Right said dear.. But unfortunately most of the people don't do and ultimately it leads to chaos...
Awesome article ma'am, quite engaging till the end
IT is always good to read your article and i appreciate your thought but ur argument regarding why the evil inside us has started to overpower us is bit weak.
u r quite right that we should not spend money on temples and infact that money should be given to welfare but
i have a simple question for u
have u ever gone to tirupati u will definitely feel the importance of temple u will find poor people there and they too
are offering one or the other thing to god.and these money not only go to temple but to trust funds also,u cannot simply deny the importance of gurudwara and temple and worshiping of god .These are places where we feel immense god because it is very difficult
to imagine god in abstact and we worship god in temple because we
love him flowers are just the medium to show our tender love
but in no way i am trying to contradict ur point but i just wanna
say temples and gurudware visit are important i know part of god is
in us but we can manifest god within only with the grace of our loving father(god).
the evil was always there because each quality has originated from our father(god) only.In all yuga evil was there and whenever there was imbalance he himself came on the earth and guided us .
ur question is very important and it has been explained in gita
3rd chapter verse 43 and sixth chapter verse 35
@Anirban...... Thanks a lot... :)
@Dhanesh...... If u look back into the vedas which were written before Gita or Mahabharata was written.. then you will find the "Nirakar" form of God... This means God doesn't have any particular form, or place where he resides. So why do we need a particular place to go and find him. He is everywhere. Faith is something that we need to have in ourselves... this is what I feel.
@Niharika......does cold exist?????
@dhanesh chandra.....I appreciate your point that, to menifest God(Paramatma) within us is possible only by the mercy of the Lord Himself. We will discuss about it still further........ Now, if you allow me, i will ask you a simple question....
"Suppose there a criminal found guilty by Indian law and given a rigorous imprisonment and is not allowed many facilities during his imprisonment. And I being a very benevolent person go to him and say that 'my friend, i will provide you with your requirements although Govt has asked not to. Please don't worry'. Is it right? Will I be applauded by the jail officials for my benevolence?"
gr8 article keep writing.
@Above... thanks.. :)
@Bhaiya..... Cold is not a form of matter. Its just something that we feel when external temperature is lower than the themperature of our body. Isn't it?
@niharika......in broad sense, cold is nothing but absence of heat isn't it???? :)
Similarly darkness is nothing but absence of light....Even physics says that we can study light and heat but not darkness and cold......
Coming to the point, evil in our hearts is not some demon....it is a demoniac quality which is menifested in the absence of our LOVE FOR THE SUPREME LORD and when we forget our constitutional position as his eternal servitor......
Secondly, when you say that Vedas say that God is NIRAKAR, can you give me some reference of the same....
Yet again, please read this excerpt from Srimad Bhagavatam...." Sri Krishna is the possessor of the attributes cent per cent. And His personal expansions such as Swayam Prakash, Tadekatma up to the categories of the Avatars who are all Vishnu Tatwa possess up to ninety three percent of such transcendental attributes. Lord Shiva who is neither Avatara nor Avesh nor inbetween them possesses almost eighty four percent of the attributes. But the Jivas or the individual living beings in different status of life possesses up to the limit of seventy eight percent of the attributes. In the conditioned state of material existence the living being possesses all these 78 percent of the attributes in very minute quantity varying in terms of the pious life of the living being. The most perfect of the living being is Brahma the Supreme administrator of one universe. He possesses 78 percent of the attributes in full. All other demigods have the same attribute in less quantity while the human being possesses the attributes in very minute quantity. The standard of perfection for a human being is to develop the attributes up to 78 percent in full. The living being can never reach to the standard of possessing attributes like Shiva, Vishnu or Lord Krishna. A living being can become Godly by developing the 78 percent of transcendental attributes in fullness but he can never become a God like Shiva, Vishnu or Krishna. He can become a Brahma in due course. The Godly living being who are all residents of the planets in the spiritual sky are eternal associates of God in different spiritual planets called by the name of Haridhama and Maheshadhama. The abode of Lord Krishna on the top of all spiritual planets is called Krishna Loka or Golaka Vrindaban and the perfected living being by developing seventy eight percent of the above attributes in fullness can enter even in the planet of Krishnaloka after leaving the present material body.".... In toto, you can never become God.....Although Paramatma is there in every living entities so qualitatively we are equal with the Lord, but quantitatively the comparison is even wider than comparing "an atom with the Sun"
@Niharika...you are absolutely right god does not have any form we don't need to go to any place it reside in us but u cannot the importance of temple.
Temple is place where positive energy of faith is preserved for a long period of time,the energy of so many person faith resides,and the energy filled by chanting of mantras...
we cannot ignore such a beautiful place although it depends...
@ manas chandan mishra..
definitely you will not be applauded by official.
While the writing I do definitely admire, the entire concept of God raises bigger issues like who actually created god, which aren't best answered by "He is beyond creation and time, he is eternal".
The concept of duality is practically against the principles of reductionism and monism, of which I am an avid admirer, maybe just because I view the world mathematically.
My opinion is different, but that doesn't mean that I don't appreciate your article. It's certainly a thoughtfully designed one.
Cheers,
Anirban Chatterjee
Additionally, the entire philosophy that you mention here has been the main theme of Amish Tripathi's Shiva Trilogy series. While some of his ideas are really elegant, it's difficult to implement them fully within the existing model of life.
But still, every person can exercise his/her opinion. And as such, it's been a pleasant experience to view your article.
@Bhaiya.... I am not denying the existence of the supreme power. We can never be compared to the supreme power, the creator of this entire universe. But by increasing the "Good" in us, we can become noble, we can have Godly atrributes.
@Dhanesh... You are getting the post wrong. I am not asking you to ignore temples and other religious places. I am just telling you, that visiting such places and praying there won't be enough to dessicate the evil out of you.
@Anirban... Thank you for you views... :) Everyone is welcome to have his or her own opinion.. :)
@Dhanesh....in the same way, it is the past Karmas that decide the living condition of a living entity. when you go and give a beggar some money, you are like supporting the criminal against the LAWS OF NATURE.... if you really want to give someone food to eat, give him Maha Prasadam....so that his body and soul both be benefited and you also be an instrument in directing the Lord's mercy towards him.
@niharika...yes, i agree that we can develop Godly qualities....but about the "temple going and praying part", in Bhagawad Gita the Lord says,
teñäà satata-yuktänäà
bhajatäà préti-pürvakam
dadämi buddhi-yogaà taà
yena mäm upayänti te
"To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me."
So, even the belief and disbelief in God is also granted by the Lord Himself....
Again, He says,
bahünäà janmanäm ante
jïänavän mäà prapadyate
väsudevaù sarvam iti
sa mahätmä su-durlabhaù
"After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare."... So, when He has given us an opportunity to take birth in India, and as you yourself said you have got very nice cultural upbringing at home, capitalise that opportunity and don't waste your time trying out different philosophies concocted by mundane philosophers, scholars and literature experts.....
When Newton, a recognized scientist has found out Law of Gravitation and its constant value, it is in our own benefit to accept it as it is than to try finding it out ourselves...
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