NO MASTER! NO GOD! - Isms, Religion and Atheism

Atheism is in.

“They have purely and simply finished with God!” — Friedrich Engels.

More than an ism, it is the statement of modern age. Perhaps much more — now it’s almost a religion. And, as abominable as atheism holds religion to be, it too has started adorning itself with similar robes of a holier-than-thou insular-ism.

“After coming into contact with a religious man I always feel I must wash my hands”. — Friedrich Nietzsche, of “God is dead!”proclamation, like so many other deep thinkers like him before him as after, was compelled to utter such words with a good reason; in all fairness.

In recent times, atheism has mushroomed in the West; largely in Judeo-Christian areas. At the same time, religious fundamentalism has sky-rocketed in regions under Islamic influence. Both trends must alarm a tender heart.

“All thinking men are atheists,” said Ernest Hemingway.

In his ground-breaking book “A Brief History of Time”, Stephen Hawking wonders, “Why it is that we and the universe exist?” To his own query, he answers out aloud, “If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason, for then we would know the mind of God”.

Perhaps humorist Mark Twain pushed buttons a little further and farther, when he tongue-in-cheek remarked, “Nothing exists but you. And you are but a thought”. Ironically, he made bold a mystical assertion; which, since times immemorial, Eastern spiritualists, yogis and free mystics not only agree with but also hold as the eternal reality of existence.

“To sustain the belief that there is no God, atheism has to demonstrate infinite knowledge, which is tantamount to saying, “I have infinite knowledge that there is no being in existence with infinite knowledge,”says Ravi Zacharias.

Basically, atheism in the Judeo-Christian belt across the world has stemmed from excesses of the church, committed by its not-so-honorable men of robes. Shoving down unpalatable diktats of Bible in every unwilling throat, too gets many a thinking man’s goat. And, the extremities of Islam too have had far-reaching consequences; altering the consciousness of not only the classes but also a sizable bulk of masses, against religion as such; rebelling against a perceived unjust God as much.

It is the view of Isaac Asimov that “properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived”. Mark Twain too could not resist taking a pot-shot at his inherited ism, commenting — “The Bible has noble poetry in it… and some good morals and a wealth of obscenity, and upwards of a thousand lies”. In more recent times, Christopher Hitchens says, “As a convinced atheist, I ought to agree with Voltaire that Judaism is not just one more religion, but in its way the root of religious evil. Without the stern, joyless rabbis and their 613 dour prohibitions, we might have avoided the whole nightmare of the Old Testament, and the brutal, crude wrenching of that into prophecy-derived Christianity, and the later plagiarism and mutation of Judaism and Christianity into the various rival forms of Islam”.

The idea of an anthropomorphic, human-lookalike god, sitting up there in heaven, ruling this hellish earth with all its cruelties, without respite, churns the latent fires of intelligent minds. It compels them to question every presumed “godly’ intention; which, seems more and more like malfeasance than divine ordinance. Thus, a skeptical intellect would but agree with what Voltaire said; that “those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities”.

Dr. Anne Besant, who worked with the free thought and radical movements in England in her time and later projected Jidu Krishnamurti as the World Teacher, led Theosophical Society and spear-headed the freedom struggle of India against the British until her death in 1933 explained her position thus — “The position of the atheist is a clear and reasonable one. I know nothing about ‘God’ and therefore I do not believe in Him or in it; what you tell me about your God is self-contradictory, and therefore incredible. I do not deny ‘God,’ which is an unknown tongue to me; I do deny your God, who is an impossibility. I am without God”. A compatriot observed that she was “unable to make logic out of Christian traditions, she left the Church in 1872 and became a freethinker, thus ruining her social position through her passion for Truth.” However, “it was not the challenge of un-faith but rather of a highly spiritual nature that desired intensely not only to believe but also to understand.”

Einstein too confessed that “I came, though the child of entirely irreligious (Jewish) parents, to a deep religiousness, which, however, reached an abrupt end at the age of twelve. Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached the conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true. The consequence was a positively fanatic orgy of freethinking”. To him “the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously”. Most importantly, he led us to a secularist’s view of the world, with which many of today’s freethinkers could amicably identify; for the renowned scientist elaborated that “If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it”.

According to theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking, “My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all”. However, this is as much the ultimate aim and objective of every Yogi, Sufi and Free Mystic too. For, unlike Judeo-Christian-Islamic culture, wherein unquestioning acquiescence and obeisance is expected vis-a-vis nature of existence or its espoused creator, in free mystical tradition of the East, of India at least, a metaphysical seeker is first and foremost expected to ask — “Ko hum?” — Who am I?

A brief comparison between the knowledge of present day science — and the ancient, to this day free mysticism is called for here — about The Nature of Alpha and Omega: of The End Reality.

“We each exist for but a short time, and in that time explore but a small part of the whole universe“. This much Professor Hawking, perhaps one of the greatest minds of modern day and a prominent exponent of atheism, admits. On the other hand, a serious free mystic of the Indian tradition not only wants to know everything about The Ultimate Reality in this very life itself, but now! — In the present moment itself. And, metaphysical philosophy of India insists — one can, if so be one’s divine destiny — attain enlightenment in this short time available to us in our puny little life.

Science today estimates the universe to have emerged by itself, after a big bang approximately 14 billion years ago.

Indian mysticism tells us that the NATURE of EXISTENCE is a Forever Self-Creative Eternity. In it an uncountable, infinite big-bangs keep recurring naturally and endlessly. Creation and destruction continues — innumerable universes come and go — ad infinitum.

“An atheist is a man who believes himself an accident!” Thus jested Francis G. Thompson; no wonder.

Scientists see no Intelligent Cosmic Design in this Ever-Occurring Phenomena of Self-Creation of “That” Which Is — well, mystics do.

Yet, it must be conceded that seeing this imperfect world around us, it does seem as if no intelligent creator could be behind this heart-breaking, almost cruel creation.

“We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special,” says Stephen Hawking.

As per present understanding of physicists, everything is created at random, and just as meaninglessly we all die.Alternatively, ancient mystical texts of India inform us that a man evolves, and, interestingly, devolves too. Theory of Evolution of Charles Darwin tells us that we have come about from lower organisms. Spiritual knowledge of Indian free mystics concurs, but insists that not only evolution but devolution too occurs in life cycles. A man maybe a monkey tomorrow! Only on this technicality, today’s science and esoteric spirituality of India differ. But then, from the same core “stuff” that makes-up existence — like mud either becoming a tiny hut or a palatial building — similarly, in transcendental reality, could there be any impossibility that’s not possible?

Modern day science postulates no divine life to any of us. Thus, we are just an organic, chemical nothingness. Each is equal to the other; essentially, as lifeless and equally worthless as any inert matter. In this sense, a man, in make and manner, after creation or dissolution, is of as much worth as is a grain of sand. Thus, an atheist would gleefully proclaim a pope a poop.

Free mystics concur that each is not only equal to the other, but is very much the other. Whereas an atheist sees no worthiness in this equality, yogis witness in this a holiness; that all existence is but one immanent reality. Scientists have found DNA of a chimpanzee to be 98% identical to that of man. Mystics — in Self Realization — discover everything, sentient or insentient, 100% identical to each other; differing only in name or form.

So, what has most updated science discovered that an up to date, modern free-mystic or freethinker of the East, namely, of India, does not know from ancient times?

However, modern science, hence, its blind follower, today’s atheist, has yet not found out that an unseen wholesomeness, a fathomless oneness abounds in all existence, as its quintessence. This Divine-ness is “That” Wholeness which less knowledgeable isms try to usurp as their personal god; making it into a mythical man-like image — an anthropomorphic entity.

In reality, this God Particle or Root Principle of Existence — if it has to be named — then, as per free mystics, it is NOT this or that GOD but GODLINESS.

As in air, whirlwinds self form, then, unto own-self disseminate; so is all that here in present or in eternity, of Own Self born. But in illusion is so born, this Unborn. These seen and unseen worlds, galaxies, dark matter et all are An Unreal Reality of An Innate, Immanent WHOLE and Wholeness.

In India, this endless, recurring creativity of The Whole is referred to very aptly as “Leela” (Divine Play) and “Maya” (Surrealistic Illusion) of “That” Which Is. We must take it, this life, as that — a play. This is the wisdom of free mysticism.

One could play it hard and fast, but one must also let it go.

This is life. All die. Hence, we must live honestly, honorably and holistically. We do not. For, we comprehend this world-play falsely, therefore, misunderstand intensely. Hence, act in an imbecilic manner. To gain control over this chaos, isms come. Then, enter superstitions or fascistic absolutism. Superimposed with religions, life becomes hell. Against this monstrous barbarity, the oppressed and the intelligent ones protest. But unable to overcome it or bear it, people rebel. And, thereafter, as a natural consequence of events, in comes atheism.

“Civilization will not attain to its perfection until the last stone from the last church falls on the last priest,” exclaimed Emile Zola. No less than Sigmund Freud too held that “religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires”.Perhaps rightly, in a much similar but a less bitter zeal, Robert Ingersoll observed, “As more people become more intelligent they care less for preachers and more for teachers”.

However, John C Wright gives us something to ponder over when he says, “If atheism solved all human woe, then the Soviet Union would have been an empire of joy and dancing bunnies, instead of the land of corpses”. The poet, Coolidge, sagely emphasized that “No man realizes his full possibilities unless he has the deep conviction that life is eternally important, and that his work, well done, is a part of an unending plan”.

Unfortunately, despite making tangible advances in knowledge, science has just become scientism. And, atheism its legitimate but prodigal son.

Yet, were we to grasp the free mystic assertion that only One, Wholeness, as The Whole of What Is exists, then, it would lead us to a scientific certainty that The Primordial Cause (Creator) and its Transient Causation (Creation) are unto each other. As each other. And are one with each other. Are each other. For, there’s no “this” or “that”, but ONE INDIVISIBLE WHOLE.

What we witness as ourselves, themselves and this or that phenomenon is just a Divine Comic-Tragedy of Transience. Like waves self-playing, seemingly separate but never so, in reality. The Perennial Reality is Changeless Oneness: is Eternity and Infinity. Never born, never dying. THIS is OUR QUINTESSENCE. It is also The ETERNAL STRUCTURE and NATURE of WHAT IS. Simply, WE are “THAT” — as propound sages and saints of India.

It is up to us now. Either we become holy and Whole, or remain an unwholesome black h***.

“All men are Prophets or else God does not exist,” said Jean-Paul Sartre.