THE METAPHYSICS OF MODERNITY: THE SUPER FATE
Jernail S Aanand
This article was intended for presentation at THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY meet at Varanasi Jan 2020, but I came to know that they have already finalised their Speakers. So here it goes for the wide world. I feel close to the ideals of theosophists. Though I am not one as such. For I dont like branding. I believe in evolution of mind. And growth of the human being. If there is no difference between our yesterday and today, and if our tomorrow will be just like our today, the message is clear. We dont believe in evolution. And those who do not grow, and absorb the shocks of time, perish. - Jernail S. Aanand
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THE METAPHYSICS OF MODERNITY: THE SUPER FATE Dr. JERNAIL S. ANAND
“Prophets come, prophets go: leaving the darkness denser below”
This article is a compelling invitation to the life of the mind and the soul, and the most divine constituent of human life, the body. I have inverted the order, because generally, all philosophers and spiritualists are prone to start with the body, the most mundane aspect of human existence, move to mind, which is partially divine, and then, to the soul which is translucent and ethereal stuff.
PROPHETS COME PROPHETS GO Let me assert in the very beginning that each prophet looked at the same reality through a different prism, and worked it out in details, which differ from other faiths. Essentially, there is not much to debate about, but we can go to the length of mayhem when it comes to details, that too very puny, like the colour of the clothes one wears, the language he speaks, and the gods he invokes. Clothes, symbols, and even prayers in different languages, do not go beyond the empirical reality, which is most of the times, rigged and hijacked by the powerful. Because, religion as a social force, has always sided with the powerful. And, it is also a fact that it depended on the political power for its spread. If Christianity spread to major part of the world, or Islam, of course it was the dream of the prophets to spread the idea of love and humanism everywhere. But the way it was carried out, Christ or even Hazrat Muhammad had no inkling of it. I find a difference here between Christ and Christianity, and Islam and Hazrat Muhammad. And for that matter, Guru Nanak, and Sikhism. These great men gave birth to ideas, which changed the world for the better, but their followers gave bricks to the ideas, clothes to the philosophies, and symbols to their faith. So, organized religion came into being when the great gurus, the great men, the great philosophers challenged the systems that prevailed, and, out of their rebellion, their incorrigible insistence not to accept the prevailing order, a new idea, a new philosophy, a new faith was born.
If today, we are told to just abide by what they had said, and not to examine their teachings, it is going against the very philosophy of the concerned faith. If we accept only those ideas that are relevant, it is no sacrilege. No profanity. Followers must not be blind. If instead of horses and swords, now all the religions have accepted revolvers and cars, why not accept change in the mindset too, according to the changing times. Religions which foist 12th century on 21st century, are doing grave injustice to their followers, and putting roadblocks in their evolution which is necessitated by the changing times. Where was written in religions which came into being in 12th or 16th century that, now their followers should use mobile phones, data/wireless connectivity, etc.? If other things are so sacrosanct, how come this change? I believe that society needs a positive approach to spiritual faith. There has to be no coercion. At least in the matters of faith, one should be left to his better judgment. Indian philosophy lays emphasis, neither on birth, nor on caste, nor on creed, but human action, which finally decides the merits or demerits of man, according to which he experiences joys and pains. If we accept this philosophy of the Gita, I wonder if there is anything which cannot be explained. I wonder if there is any mystery left to be unveiled. God is a great patriarch who only loves his children, like a worldly father you and I are apt to see next door. But, he is helpless when his sons and daughters do not obey his commands, he tries to intervene by symbols and signals, which they do not heed, and it all leads to disobedience, for which there is punishment. If you have done a wrong, even if God wants to help you, and exempt you, he is helpless, because you are controlled by your fate, and what is fate? It is no outside agency, God has nothing called fate to set after man to take revenge, although He is said to have furies which were set after the Greek heroes like Oedipus, to bring them to realization of their crimes. I have great faith in the wisdom of the Gita. God is there. Heaven is there. Hell is there. Both these illusionary states are here. But it is your choice which lands you in either of them. In the modern world, we do not accept water tight divisions of good and bad, and, in our fiction and films, we create characters which are evil, as devolved from being good; and if good and evil both are co-existent in characters, which part of a man can be consigned to hell, and which part to heaven because, we are good and bad at the same time? In Om, Ooooooo is the cosmic voice, and m is a sign of me, man, being, and Om acquires a worldly entity when cosmic voice enters a human being). He is God. It is another thing, it takes him a substantial part of his lifetime and even more, to realize this rudimentary reality. A fish that lives in waters cannot be described as something distinct from water. It has no existence outside water. In the same way, can we think of living in a place where there is no water, no air, no sunshine? No doubt, in our rooms we do cut ourselves off from direct sources of light and water, but can human life exist if we break off completely? If not, we are compelled to think that whatever we may do, the hands that act, and the mind that thinks, are run by a motive force, which is again powered by something invisible.
A DIFFEENT TRANSCENDENCE Yes, we can create human beings in labs and make them immortal too. They are more than human in their powers, though not divine, because their powers have no divine origin. The new type of robotic men, with great powers of computed minds, will replace human beings. It is a transcendence of a different kind. We have got over all over debilities, and incapabilities, but it has not made us the ultimate power. We are still servile to the electric current. All the magic is fled, once the current goes dead. Their faces resemble human faces, but are essentially incomparable with humanity, because humanity is governed by fate, and they have nothing to speak of anything resembling fate. Unless we are connected with the endlessness of time through a series of actions, we are just an atom, isolated, alienated from the mass, having no ancestry, and hence, no posterity too. What a sense of happiness we experience? Is it really worthwhile to celebrate the end of human species? The end of Love? The end of Hatred? And step into a zone of silent war? Arms? Killings? The wars in the past used to be rich in human content, inversely because they claimed lives of men, women and cattle. Now, in a war what shall be at stake? We shall never see human blood, and feel no horror at all. And, why should then we curse war? War is bad only because it leads to massacre. Massacre of computerized effigies is hardly that horrible. It is just like breaking machines which belch fire. Nothing beyond it. Man must return to his centre. His movement away from his human centre is a symbol of his power over time, but it is pushing the human race into a zone of timelessness, which will strip us of our humanity. The most characterizing moment of human life is decline and death. Making him deathless or immortal is tentamount to turning into vampires. Man needs to transform himself so that he lives a life charged with meaningfulness. For this, looking back at religions may be good and ameliorating, but the most essential lesson to be learnt is: to think for themselves, and re-create themselves, and tune yourself in to the changing styles, and circumstances. Singing old tunes in rocking halls can be a fatal incongruity.
THE SUPER FATE To conclude, it can be said we need to revert to our essential emotional and spiritual powers to preserve and protect humanity. The human race may take pride in the scientific, technological and material advancements, but it is essentially our attunement with the cosmos and our equilibrium that make us the most superior among all races. It is here that we need to embrace the essence of religion , not in the narrow sense of the word, highlighting Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam, Christianity etc, but in a more liberal sense, that can take away the darkness of ignorance from our modern world to lead us to illumination and a super fate.
