The Message

The Message-

We have all played Chinese whisper in our childhood. If you haven’t, try playing it now with your friends.

Times have changed. Hundreds of thousands of years have passed. It is not wrong to think that in the next hundred years the entire world population (that we have now) is most likely going to perish and be eaten by the soil, burnt on wood or incinerated in chambers or left in the oceans. The world as we see it will be run by new people altogether. Large corporations under great leaderships will be run by new leaders and all the employees who built it will be gone and replaced by new faces. Everyone we know now will DIE. This is not new, entire world populations have changed several times over and over and over again over centuries and millenniums.

     Some of you don’t know the names and characteristics and the life spent by you grandfather. It is not unnatural but understand that your grandchildren may not know you too. The hardships that you went through, the love of life that you found, the great things you achieved, the sad lonely feelings that you felt, the happiness that you really wanted to share, the things you did to take care of your children who would go ahead and father the next generation etc. none will be known, and in some cases a name will be remembered and in some others you will be well remembered-but at one point or the other your existence will be forgotten. You will, not even be mentioned-let alone remembered. You will disappear with every trace.

     We discuss ancestors today, we will be ancestors tomorrow. Some of us will be forgotten in the lapse of time while some will be remembered through pictures and words and stories. Unconsciously we all feel that this is all that there is of life, but the truth is far from what we think. Is this our purpose? A small segment of life which is barely significant to the overall system (current world) and almost insignificant as compared to the length of time. Is it really a "purpose" SO SMALL? Do you feel that about yourself? That you are here for just an insignificantly small span of time and this is all that you have and deserve?

     Or do you feel that there is something more to it. A story bigger than yourself.

If yes, read on.

     Ever since time can remember there has always been an importance given to Mankind. People have lived and people have tried to survive. Entire races have disappeared, entire kingdoms have disappeared and only a few can be witnessed from what remains of the monuments that they had built.

     Who lived in them ? Who had put that brick in the ancient wall ? What was he thinking at the time of his work ? What did he eat on that day if he ate at all, will never be known.

     But when we seek to understand why we are just a tiny little part of an infinite picture we must try to locate something that has not changed and remained core and intact for centuries. Even if people passed away into the next dimension- They have left behind something- A message. They have all received a Message. Every nation has received a message and a messenger, every kind of people have received a message and a messenger and the core message has remained intact until now. Right from the very beginning of time, until this very moment as your eyes slide across the this text.
     
     The most powerful, the most influential, spiritual and emotional connection that people have faced since their arrival is religion. People have united under religion, lived religion, fought to support and protect their belief, and lived their entire lives of sacrifice and love all for the sake of religion and religious beliefs.

     So, is it possible that the message in the religion has remained the same since the time began? Is it possible that these messages have originated form the same source? Is it possible that all the messages delivered in different “times/era/age”, hundreds and thousands of years apart carried the same core message implying that the source or sender of the message is same, single or one.

     Let’s find out if the source is single and unique and "One" source for all-

     The oldest religion to exist is Hinduism(it is the oldest is a general agreement). Hinduism is a modern term coined by the people to refer to people living south of river Indus. This was a trade related term. However, it can be used to refer to a certain sect. of people mostly present in the Indian sub-continent.

     The religious knowledge of this Dharma is immense. It is a deeply spiritual religion and the religion in itself is vast and filled with one of the largest and oldest religious literature available to mankind. Though it has a large number of persons under its flag very few even know the language (Sanskrit) of the religious books and very few negligible (in count) persons have even read and tried to gain knowledge about their own identity by which they are referred.
     
     The only knowledge people have is of Cultural Events, their own theories, methods of their parents, and methods of Pundits who can/claim to tell the future and set the financial and emotional future right through their predictions about various things such as marriage planning and financial decisions.

     People have forgotten the real “Rishis” of the past. The Rishis who claimed to possess divine knowledge and brought the message of God and sang the Vedas.
     
     No one bothers to read or even understand what God is himself trying to say to the people of the past through various messengers. These messages were recorded in the past and even altered to some extent by the powerful saints as per their interpretations of the message. Great stories were imagined and spoken and written down over the period of time.
     
     So, what is the core message? How does God describe himself in these scriptures?

"Those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires surrender unto demigods and follow the particular rules and regulations of worship according to their own natures."
[Bhagavad Gita 7:20]

People who are "Materialistic" worship demi-gods.

Example : A saint walks into your house and says that he has predicted the future and if the people keep a turtle in the left corner of the third sun-facing room they will benefit and become rich and gain success in future.

     And people follow the Saints/Panits/Babas and they gain success in future and soon start placing a picture of the saint and light fluorescent candle sticks and agarbattis and glorify and pray to this Saint and even the saint allows this to happen. How is this possible? Have the Babas rejected the Vedas ? Verily, they have.

     Rest assured- You have violated the very will of God himself and rejected the Gita. God does not like people who are materialistic and people who believe in a god or demi-God for worldly favors. It is the money these people believe in. If a frog jumped on the right number of lottery ticket this frog is sacred and believed to be an avatar of god or God himself. This is not the message of God, but rather a deep insult to his Greatness. These are false saints, false beliefs and a straight out clear cut announced opposition to the word of God as per Gita i.e "One must not seek God in those things which/who fulfill materialistic desires."

It also denies demi gods.

     The more authentic and core religion which the Pundits will hide(hidden through language barrier) from the normal people as the risk of losing money making business will crash are-

1) "Ekam evadvitiyam"
"He is One only without a second."
[Chandogya Upanishad 6:2:1]1

2) "Na casya kascij janita na cadhipah."
"Of Him there are neither parents nor lord."
[Svetasvatara Upanishad 6:9]2

3) "Na tasya pratima asti"
"There is no likeness of Him."
[Svetasvatara Upanishad 4:19]3

iv. "Na samdrse tisthati rupam asya, na caksusa pasyati kas canainam."

"His form is not to be seen; no one sees Him with the eye."
[Svetasvatara Upanishad 4:20]4

Yajurveda

The following verses from the Yajurveda echo a similar concept of God:

1) "na tasya pratima asti
"There is no image of Him."
[Yajurveda 32:3]5

2) "shudhama poapvidham"
"He is bodyless and pure."
[Yajurveda 40:8]6

3) "Andhatama pravishanti ye asambhuti mupaste"
"They enter darkness, those who worship the natural elements" (Air, Water, Fire, etc.). "They sink deeper in darkness, those who worship sambhuti."
[Yajurveda 40:9]7

Sambhuti means created things, for example table, chair, idol, etc.

4) The Yajurveda contains the following prayer:
"Lead us to the good path and remove the sin that makes us stray and wander."
[Yajurveda 40:16]8

5) "Ma cid anyad vi sansata sakhayo ma rishanyata"
"O friends, do not worship anybody but Him, the Divine One. Praise Him alone."
[Rigveda 8:1:1]10

     Hence, he is formless. He is not born to someone. He is One (not divided) and there is no other like him. He cannot be seen.

     God, in his most authentic form of Hinduism religion and scripts, the undisputed final source of true knowledge (Vedas) is asking his saints and Rishis to convey that God is not of any form, he is alone and there is no lord above him. He cannot be seen through the eyes.

     So, if you think a Hindu is to wake up and believe in that poster, to bow down to man-made idols and to divide and think every object is GOD. Then you are only being fooled by the ones who are capitalizing on this Great religion by emptying your pockets in the name of idols and Mandirs. They are fooling you to make themselves rich in exponential levels by destroying one of the oldest and most spiritually connected religion of the world.

     You really believe Hinduism is as small as a belief in an idol that sits in your home manufactured on an assembly line? You think GOD is something manufactured on a machine and and in a industrial plant that was created by some Chinese or American company to produce more efficiently. Do you think the die/mould used to manufacture idols does not exist ?  Is Hinduism so small that it is nothing but a poster that is printed on normal printers and framed in glass and aluminum frame?

     No, Hinduism is far from this. It is a spiritual journey in itself. A story of a world long forgotten and a message that would stay the same for thousands of years. Truth is, Hinduism is bigger than its people, because people have forgotten its roots, beliefs and even the language.
     
      We will now move to a set of people who are among us and are considered to be disappearing as time passes by.

Zoroastrians

The Parsi people have contributed a great to the world. The TATAs are originally Parsis and same goes for Godrej.

      The book of the Parsi where their message has been recorded is called as the AVESTA. The messenger of the Zoroastrains is Zoroasther.

Following points are courtesy of-link

God (Khoda) in the language of the older Zoroastrian scriptures is Ahura Mazda.

There are no Zoroastrian images or representations of God.

The Nature of God, Ahura Mazda

Based on Sad-o-Yak Nam-e-Khoda, the Hundred and One Names of God:

· God (Khoda) in the language of the older Zoroastrian scriptures is Ahura Mazda.

· There are no Zoroastrian images or representations of God.

· The Zoroastrian concept of God is that:

o Understanding the true nature of God is beyond human comprehension (an-aiyafah).

o God is not of human form (aekh-tan) i.e. non-anthropomorphic and without gender. God is a spiritual entity (mino-tum) and thereby formless (an-ainah) and invisible. God has no human frailties (a-bish) or emotions (rakhoh). God shows no anger and no favour (a-sato).

o God is without duality (a-dui).

o God is uncreated and without end (abadah), without cause (a-chem), the great cause (jamaga), the cause of all causes (chamana), and the root of all creation (bune-stih).

o Other texts state that while the eye cannot behold God, and while the mind cannot conceive God, God is nearer to us than our own corporeal selves [cf. Pursishniha in possession of Ervad Tahmuras Dinshaw Anklesaria, 1842-1903 CE (also called Tahmuras Fragments) 58, 59].

     This is strikingly interesting. In a distant Arab land of Iran are people who have their own messenger and message. The core message is not so different from the one in the Vedas-

i.e There is no image of God. He is without duality, i.e He is without a second. An eye cannot behold GOD !!

     Time has passed, geographies have changed, people have changed but the core message is remaining the same. Why ?

     As we read in my previous article- A 30 person hypothetical society we understood that as time passes by and generations change the next generation rejects the beliefs of the earlier as they feel that they are empowered with more "knowledge" and technological advancements and they can come up with a better system of governance than the old one.

     So, the same message was being delivered to people across the world through time and space but it would be rejected as time and generations passed by and distorted with time.

     The factor of time is not applicable to God, i.e only if we try and comprehend the idea that God is not born and hence, there is no start or end to God that we will be able to understand the first. In other scripts God mentions himself as The perfection i.e being the only one of his kind and perfect.

     This means both Hinduism and Zoroastrianism were from the same source. However, they were for a different time and different set of people.

Let us now come to another great message-

     The message is in the form of "Torah" which is the central message for the Jewish people or central book of Judaism and their messenger is Prophet Musa (A) or Moses.

     Moses is the prophet who would bring down the tyrant and evil ruler of Egypt. The builder of the pyramids and the great Firaun or Pharoh. The central message of Moses was or is-

13 Principles of Faith

The closest that anyone has ever come to creating a widely-accepted list of Jewish beliefs is Rambam's thirteen principles of faith. These principles, which Rambam thought were the minimum requirements of Jewish belief, are:

1. G-d exists

2. G-d is one and unique

3. G-d is incorporeal

4. G-d is eternal

5. Prayer is to be directed to G-d alone and to no other

6. The words of the prophets are true

7. Moses' prophecies are true, and Moses was the greatest of the prophets

8. The Written Torah (first 5 books of the Bible) and Oral Torah (teachings now contained in the Talmud and other writings) were given to Moses

9. There will be no other Torah

10. G-d knows the thoughts and deeds of men

11. G-d will reward the good and punish the wicked

12. The Messiah/Messenger will come

13. The dead will be resurrected

G-d is One

     One of the primary expressions of Jewish faith, recited twice daily in prayer, is the Shema, which begins "Hear, Israel: The L-rd is our G-d, The L-rd is one." This simple statement encompasses several different ideas:

1. There is only one G-d. No other being participated in the work of creation.

2. G-d is a unity. He is a single, whole, complete indivisible entity. He cannot be divided into parts or described by attributes. Any attempt to ascribe attributes to G-d is merely man's imperfect attempt to understand the infinite.

3. G-d is the only being to whom we should offer praise. The Shema can also be translated as "The L-rd is our G-d, The L-rd alone," meaning that no other is our G-d, and we should not pray to any other.

The same message again.

     This is different people, a different time/era/age and a different world altogether and yet the message is same. The message is more intense than it was in the earlier stages. It not only states that God has no image and there is no materialistic form of God, it goes on to express that God dislikes those who put their beliefs in the materialistic world and try to give God a materialistic form or image etc. This means that the same message was delivered again with more clarification that God not only is formless but he also dislikes those who give him a false form out of their imagination.

     The message is same as we read earlier that he is formless and he has no image and he is Alone, there is no second to him and he is perfection- Thus, only one.

     Let us now move on to the another message which is not very far in terms of our time.

CHRISTIANITY

     The message is called as the Bible or Angeel and was received in Hebrew language. The Messenger was Isa(AS) or Jesus. This message has an exact time of its delivery; about 2000 years ago the message was delivered.

     What is the core message about who is GOD?

Concept Of God in OldTestament:

1. God is One

The following verse from the book of Deuteronomy contains an exhortation from Moses (pbuh):

“Shama Israelu Adonai Ila Hayno Adna Ikhad”.

It is a Hebrew quotation which means:

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord”

[The Bible, Deuteronomy 6:4]

2. Unity of God in the Book of Isaiah

The following verses are from the Book of Isaiah:

(i) “I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour.”

[The Bible, Isaiah 43:11]

(ii) “I am Lord, and there is none else, there is no God besides me.”

[The Bible, Isaiah 45:5]

(iii) “I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me.”

[The Bible, Isaiah 46:9]

3. Old Testament condemns idol worship

(i) Old Testament condemns idol worship in the following verses:

“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:”

“Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God.”

[The Bible, Exodus 20:3-5]

(ii) A similar message is repeated in the book of Deuteronomy:

“Thou shalt have none other gods before me.”

“Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that in the earth beneath, or that is in the water beneath the earth.”

“Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God.”

[The Bible, Deuteronomy 5:7-9]

     Again the message is exactly the same but with more detailed commands and not just explanations. Here, God says through his message- He is one, there is no one like him. There is no image or shape of him and he is formless. If you explore further, the concepts are exactly the same in most parts in all of the above discussed messages. God is eternal is a name and property associated to God in all the descriptions of God through his messengers. He is formless and shapeless is always clearly said and God does not like materialistic people who make things as God, money as God, their own creations as God or try to give any materialistic form or image or shape to God or invent demi-gods in their various pursuits or worldly desires. A farmer who survives on selling milk makes the cow his God. A cow is a creation of God; no doubt it has to be respected. But it is not God itself. It is God’s. 

     Centuries and Rishis and messengers and books and time immemorial has been saying and delivering the same message about ONE God. The creator of everything, who has no form or shape or limitations or is not in some form or animal or thing walking around us. Of course, his creation is all around us and he tells us about it too-describing "Mankind" as the best of it.

Let us come to the most modern times and message-

Islam

The people of this message are called as Muslims, their messenger is called as Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and their message is directly God’s speech in the form of Quran.

In Quran, God is called as Allah. This message was delivered about 1450 years ago in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. A different time and place and era.

How does Allah describe himself in Quran ?

Lets see it-

Surah Al-Ikhlaas

Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem


Qul Huw-Allahu Ahad
Allah-us-Samad
Lam yalid wl lam yulad
Wa lam yakul lahu kufuwan ahad

In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.

Say: He is Allah, the One!
Allah, the eternally Besought of all!
He begetteth not nor was begotten.
And there is none comparable unto Him.

      The message starts with, he is one. [The Muslims also accept anyone as Muslim who testify or accept that God is one and believe in the messengers of God(If you think God is one and you believe in the message and messenger, you are a Muslim)]. Meaning one entity or alone or single.

     He is eternal, that means the time factor is absent for Allah. He was not born neither he gives birth(as most of the above earlier text mentioned) and there is no one comparable to him, that means he is none like the other.

This is the same message !

      The previous messengers before Mohammad (PBUH) talked about the final messenger. They always mentioned that there will be a final messenger and described him. Vedas and Bhavisya Puran go on to name the messenger and all his details directly within the religion and saying that the arrival of the final messenger is remaining and awaited and describe Mohammad as the final messenger. Read about the final messenger mentioned in the books here.

Is there a wrong feel about this?

     No, the core message is the same. The same entity, GOD is delivering the message in different times and for different people. When God delivered through Mohammad(PBUH) he asked him to tell the people that this message is not just for a time and a particular area or people. This is the last of all the messages. This is the final message and this is till the end of time and for all the people- unlike how it was before.

[There have been 1,24000 messengers since time.]

     Era has changed, world has changed, times have changed and entire populations have changed. Yet the core message is same.

THE MESSAGE- is the ultimate truth. It is all from the same source. Pick up Buddism and you will discover the same message. All the messages also talk about the final messenger. That can be studied in a different book and can be provided on request to readers. Pick up any major religious sacred scripture and you will discover the same message about one God and his formless being.

To sum it up-

     There is one God. He has no form or Image. There is no other like him. He is eternal. He is the lord of all that exists. We must not give shapes and forms to God. We must only worship that One God whose message has existed since time immemorial. While people and worlds have disappeared he has not- and he does not die. Our ancestors have died but he has stayed to send the message upon us.

     We are all people of the same GOD. Don’t give God an image or shape. Don’t divide God. Find out the Final message and follow it. Because learning from parents is good but not enough, learning from saints is good but not enough. We must Follow the creator and not the creation.

THE MESSAGE DELIVERED.

Author's note- I don't claim to know everything. I claim to seek knowledge and pass it around. I learn from sources and try to put it together. These are my words but my work. 

Parts of the article are God's words.

Life Minus Body

In the previous post we discussed a question- Can we escape religion?

We understood that irrespective of the belief of a person in one religion or the other or being an atheist, one cannot escape religion of some kind or the other.

Let us look into a simple thought that most of you have had at some point in your lives or will have at some point.

Let us consider a simple (fictitious) situation-

We have a body of a young 24 year old person who has died due to some unfortunate event. In this case due to a Sudden Cardiac Arrest. Sudden cardiac attacks or failures are on a rise. A person in a perfectly normal state with no noticeable symptoms or signs of any kind just drops dead at a very normal event such as walking, eating, sitting, talking, playing, driving etc.

In our case the person was sitting in the hospital visiting his friend who had a small surgery done on him. While he came to greet his friend with flowers, he suddenly felt uneasy and dropped. The hospital staff rushed to him and an effort was made to revive him, unfortunately he could not be revived and was declared dead.

What has really happened here?

About an hour ago the person was perfectly normal and walked into the hospital and talked and did normal things. Even now he can be seen on the hospital bed calmly appearing to be asleep.

It is the body pump which has died as per the reports. Can an artificial replacement of the pump(heart) be done now?

Will the reports of death which point out the cause allow us to fix the cause and bring the person back to life?

Should we just plug him into a pumping machine and see if he suddenly starts talking?

It does not happen that way.

Even if you have a human body which is perfectly normal in all other forms and only a heart needs to be changed, you still cannot bring the person back to life.

Why won’t the person become totally normal even after we have got all the gadgets right?

If a car’s fuel pump fails, a change of the fuel pump will make the car normal again. The car does not go DEAD! If the system is back in place it becomes as normal as new.

This means that there is something else besides just a perfectly laid out body. Let us call this “something else” as ”X”.

Mathematically, we can say-

Body+ X = Alive

Where “X” is the unknown additive that keeps a person alive or is a sum of factors or a single factor that keeps a person alive.

We can say,

Body –X=Death.

Also,

Body = Alive–X

There is an X factor; some have termed it as Soul.

At this moment you are not just a body, you are a body with the X element in you. The moment it leaves, you will not be able to even stay as it is without immediate aid. Ants will start consuming you; your body will start decomposing right away.

What is X made up of?.......discussed in coming soon section…..

Is some form of nourishment needed by ‘X’ also?

Like yogurt helps your intestinal aura, calcium rich food helps your bones, vitamin A helps your vision etc. Is there food needed by this X factor also? It is very clear that this element is separate from the body in terms of design; therefore its food if needed by it is also most likely not going to be like the one needed for the body. … Discussed in coming soon section…..

Layman’s term: A car needs fuel; its driver needs fuel too. And they both are incomplete without one another. But the food for car which is various oils and coolants etc. is not what the driver eats or consumes to keep on going. In the same way, a body is just a vehicle and soul is the driver. They both consume different forms of food.

So what does the Soul feed on? Discussed in coming soon section...

A 30 Person Hypothetical Society

Let us set up the environment of the Hypothetical situation.

Geography

The world is surrounded by water. There is an island and the Island has the following,

1) Cave

2) Trees with fruits

3) 30 persons, 15 women and 15 men. Not all are alike.

4) Wild animals

5) The people have basic intelligence of weapons and identification of basic food.

6) Wild animals and domestic animals (but not yet domesticated)

7) Fresh water pond

8) You as "Creator" are in full control and are currently letting the system work by itself. You will intervene only when you think the system is itself at stake.

9) Humans are unaware of where they came from.

10) They have a language and can communicate.

11) They have all lived and experienced the basic needs and threats and instincts. And they will now unite in one system.

The system begins.

15 persons (all men) meet each other outside the cave. They are all carrying a spear each. They meet each other and form opinions about one another in their minds. They enter the cave and find shelter. It is raining outside and hence, they must stay inside. They ask each other about who they are and where did they come from. Nobody knows. (Technically they should fight over the cave and kill each other, for argument sake we will let them continue)

One of them is creative and he suggests that he saw a deer giving birth to a smaller deer and hence we are born from something.

Another is intelligent so he adds that it is likely we are born from each other.

The third is intelligent and far sighted. He knows survival is not going to be easy and this question is constantly repeated about who we are. He says or rather lies for the greater benefit of the community that we are all coming from the Sun/lamp. Because it is only the sun that protects us and allows us to see, feel the warmth and stay safe. He also claims to know this for sure and he has talked to the sun and the sun has some rules for us. People agree to his logic but cannot understand how we were born from the sun.

That is when they hear voices. These voices don’t scare them. They are not scary like those of the animals. Rather soothing and comforting. There are women in the cave.

They meet their other similar kind and start talking and exploring mentally. There is immediate attraction.

The society is confused now.

The women were happy and exploring their own world. They had their own theory about where they came from. They felt that it was land that was where they came from as one of them had noticed that the land gave food to them and the animals. These animals become food to others and then all the animals disappeared into the land eventually. They would kiss the land every day to show their respect.

The men were already singing songs when the sun came up. They praised the sun.

So the sun met the earth.

The immediate attraction to women was the new thing for the men. The same was for the women.

However, one man was the most attractive of all and one women the most attractive of all.

But by nature of humans- Everyone wanted the best female.

So the fight begins. The strongest one takes the best female. The political one convinces three other less intelligent men to follow his command as he is the one who is close to the sun and gave the knowledge of the sun. He convinces them that the strong bully man who has taken the best women and few others for himself cannot be allowed to survive and must be returned to the sun. So the three attack the Bully and take him down. Just as they are about to smash his head open-

YOU INTERVENE (in their minds) as you cannot let a killing spree begin-

Beware! It is I who created you. I am your Master. I don’t die like you do and neither am born from something like you. You shall not kill your own kind and neither hurt the other.

One of them is a good man. Who is only involved in doing things like bringing water, calming people down and does not lie and does not think about hurting anyone. So you think he is worthy of a gift.

You, Oh ! Righteous one. You shall be my slave who will monitor these people and set things right. If no one follows my command I will make them do it.

Tell them, that I know the liar who said that the Sun is where you came from. He only made a story to use you. You have all witnessed him using the three to kill the bully.

Each man shall have one woman only and not touch or even enjoy the speech of the other man’s woman. So shall be the same for the woman.
No one should lie even if it benefits them. And I will punish those who do the same.

Was there another way to control the society and system?
Yes, but that was some other theory with some other rules.

The society must have rules.

Our society has its own in the real world. We have learned with time and created the constitution. Is the constitution fair to everyone? No. Constitution is more like a tool to neutralize the strong and empower the weak. To reduce the able, and push the disabled. But it does help to stabilize the society. Every time the society changes, the rules of constitution change.

The society cannot sustain without boundaries form the very beginning. The food will be fought over. The land will be fought for. The water will be fought for. The women will be fought for. People will be deceived, leaders will rise, massacre will happen. A simple experiment or hypothetical situation seems like an impossible situation as soon as it starts to form (A more imaginary version can be studied in the amazing book titled Lord of the flies-William Golding). There is no way people will cooperate in a society with scarce resources or abundant resources. The people will have to be bound by rules. Rules that will exist through the nature itself- such as the rule that you must eat, you must drink, you must sleep, you must protect yourself etc. everything that happens to you is a laid out set of rules for the nature itself. The pain you feel after a cut is a rule for the human body, it must happen. The fish must not come out of the water, you must have food to survive, you must breathe to live; are nothing but rules and they are of pinnacle importance as deviation from them is possible, but the effects of the deviation are disastrous.

But ‘free will’ is uncontrolled and yet driven entirely upon rules that exist around us. If ‘free will’ is given into the hands of the people without any rules-

The bully will want everything for himself.

The leader will make his followers take down others and keep everything for himself.

The intelligent will invent his own useful methods to take down the other and keep everything for himself. (Let’s not forget technology- Hiroshima and Nagasaki are two words enough to justify the thought)

There will be good men who would only want the best for everyone. But they will not be allowed to perform as their ideas will make everyone equals. In reality-The leader is no equal, the handsome is no equal, the white is no equal the black is no equal the tall is no equal the fast is no equal…everything and everyone is different and unique. And all of them aspire to be the best, and to get the best. Men are greedy by nature only because of the element of free will.

A person can think as much as he likes, but the ONLY possible solution to a society is rules.

Rules will exist in one way or the other. There is no escaping that. The rules will also be hard for one type of person and easy for another. Imagine a rule in the society that the strong shall not kill or hurt. This is going to destroy the one who is strong and make the weak’s chances of survival better. The rule would soon need to be modified to- No one shall kill the other.

Because the physically weak may be intellectually strong he may not need to fight the other at all and yet cause destruction of his enemies.

There is no possible way that a system can survive without rules. Otherwise it will be just a system which never develops and is propelled by pure instincts. It will be a system that is more like the behavior of animals. We are not animals. We can improvise.

The question really is- who will set out the rules for us.

It has to be someone from outside the system. Someone, who cannot benefit or take any loss from creating the rules, someone, who is Just and understands us completely. You know the society cannot function without rules.

So what is a religion?

A set of rules, some clearly benefitting and some seemingly odd.

Imagine our hypothetical 1:1 society. Because of the ratio of one is to one of male to female we had to implement the rule that one shall have only one woman. That is just the beginning as the immediate retaliation of the people would be- who will have which one. So you could come up with an idea to stabilize your society- let a coin toss decide or let them decide for themselves (disastrous) or let the parents decide or let the chief or most loyal man decide etc. Immediately, millions of doubts will arise. Who is the most loyal, how do we decide the most loyal. What if the parents are wrong, what if the parents are being selfish what if the parents make a match that is fighting each other, who will toss the coin..etc..WHO WIL DECIDE!!

It is impossible to manage people like this. There has to be a deeper set of rules. The eventual result of all these rules will form a religion.

The question is this- Whether we like it or not we will always need to have and follow a set of rules. Some of them, we may never understand and yet we should know that they are just a set of rules for the benefit of every individual as a whole. Not for just a type of people or a kind of people or for the benefit of one over the other. It is benefit for all. And those who reject it are only trying to come up with rules that will benefit them.

Is this happening?

Yes.

The Americans want to be the only ones to have nuclear technology.

A few countries (countries were created due to greed, before it was just rules) are calling themselves the 5 powerful countries whose decisions decide the fate of the world.

All nations have a trade policy to benefit for themselves FDI is just one example. Employment has rules about the category of people who will be employed. Many countries demand their kind of men should have compulsory openings. India has caste wise jobs; gulf has their own country employment programme.

All inventions are patented. Africa has AIDS but only few countries have the control mechanisms which are sold at unbelievable prices for benefits. The whole pharmaceutical industry is a set of patents. No one is thinking about the benefit of the whole world because once we modify the rules they are always bound to be biased. The rules MUST be from outside the system.

And these set of rules must be from a JUST source and a Perfect source. Who will decide this perfect source?

Each individual who will decide it from his free will and then follow the rules all together as a whole without really challenging them because, challenging them happens because you need something that benefits you or you don’t seem to understand their benefit. Looking for the benefit is again a selfish cause.

In our 30 person society we said one man for one woman. That may not make sense to the strong person. For him it is easy to handle all 15. But that would leave 14 other men sad, and women sad and loot the society of emotional and physical needs.

In our society, after you intervened and fixed the situation. Everything was all right. But as the society will grow old new generation will think and wonder why I can’t have two apples, two lands, more cattle etc. The rules will have to be reminded to them. They will require proof for the rules because it will not be benefitting them individually and they will also consider their ancestral knowledge as out dated and only useful for the ancestors and modify their rules as per the benefit to themselves.

The fact is- we cannot escape rules and hence we cannot escape religion.

You as Creator will have to intervene in every aspect of the society and tell them what is best for them. Otherwise, people will invent you and upon you they will invent rules. A butterfly is born pre-programmed to travel thousands of miles, birds are preprogrammed to duck when a predator appears in the sky and raise their heads when their parents appear for food, a baby deer runs at the sight of an animal that could harm it and sucks without being told the milk it needs for its thirst, birds of different generation manage to migrate to same places as their previous generations have even while they haven’t seen it before, a human baby cries for the food it badly needs and yet a grown up person doesn’t cry the moment they are hungry, humans try to follow something or the other in their lives because they are also built with the thirst to realize that there is something that they are looking for and it goes on forever. Nature has been preprogrammed. (By nature itself? That is a different chapter in the coming soon zone…)

What this very simple food for thought is trying to say is-

1. We need a set of rules from outside the system. Call it religion or call it the way of life or call it anything that you want. But that is necessary. If it doesn’t exist it will still be created anyway and that would be unfair unless it is from outside the system and from a source that does not benefit or lose from the rules and is Just. We see it in the world clearly millions die because of hunger yearly and one example is clear enough to tell us that our rules are selfish.



2. Mankind cannot escape rules.



3. A set of rules is religion and hence mankind cannot escape religion. Either they will accept it or reject it, a group of persons rejecting it are only forming their own rules or rather religion.

Hence, it is only natural to have a religion in once life.

If you say you are an atheist. You just have your own definition of rules. That is all.

A very detailed approach to the subject can be taken describing the conflicts and resolution on every single issue that would arise in a hypothetical society. However, the purpose was only to understand the simple idea that there is no way that one can escape rules and regulations in a society and hence it is impossible to escape religion. One can only be a part of a different school of thought but cannot escape the thought itself.

(The sole purpose of this article is to understand religion and NOT in any form compare anything or anyone with God)

We must re-learn to think !

Our thoughts have been constricted like constricting the horse with blinkers.

Our capacity to imagine is slowly changing into a limited capacity of following the Normal. Children are forced into thinking like the system. There is no problem with that, however, it is slowly killing imagination and taking down CREATIVITY with it.

We MUST think.

We MUST Reason.

We Must Conclude.

Think again.

Re-Reason.

Re-Conclude/Improvise.

Here, I would like to share a simple view of a simple arrangement from two different angles.

This will help us decide a location upon which we can create a space for THINKING.

Let us think about ‘thinking’

    “I think. Therefore, I am.”- Rene Descartes.

For many who have read this or heard this before, fail to see the beauty that Rene has captured in these words. For, he has completely simplified a question that has been left unanswered or unproven for many years. I understand that it sounds easy to some and vague to many, and its meaning is not as simple as you may think. You will have to go deeper to realise the gravity of his idea and it can be better understood if it is seen from another angle. Once you have done that, doubts and questions would start jumping in your head, i.e. if you are blessed with something that many think they lack in themselves- i.e. Common Sense.

So what is this other side?

“I don’t think, therefore I am not”..... What???

Firstly, it is impossible to think, that you don’t think. Because you are thinking anyway. So did I just make a fool out of myself? No, actually it is meant to be applied as a broader idea.
So what is this broader Idea?

Imagine a pen. Now a pen cannot think (which is only an assumption, it cannot be proved). So, it does not exist. But that is not the topic of my discussion as yet. How the pen does not exist is something for you to explore, I am only going to navigate your common sense into thinking more deeply about trivial things.

There is a methodology that we are going to use slightly in order to understand the ideas and thoughts more clearly. These are very essential.

1. The language used here will be made as easy as possible.

2. We will adopt a ‘systematic doubt approach’ strategy to arrive at our conclusions.

Systematic doubt approach is about cancelling all factors which put you in doubt, such that you are left with the best option.
Now, systematic doubt approach is not that easy to understand. But I will give you an example that would allow you to hang on it for a while.

Thomas Edison invented the Light bulb after trying two thousand times. When he was asked how he found out or when did he discover the idea that he could make a bulb ‘light’, he said
“I have found 1999 ways not to make a light bulb.”
(Story arranged to fit the situation. It is not exactly as it happened)

Now, Thomas was sticking to his idea and he found out all ways that would be unsuccessful in creating a light bulb and the result was his final idea which eventually worked. So if you try proving that the pen is not on the table you might eventually arrive at the decision that the pen is on the table, because it can’t be proved otherwise. However, here we don’t just talk about doubting in such simple scenarios alone. It is necessary that we doubt everything; our own self, our perception, our presence and even if anything else really existed.

So let me stimulate your senses by combining your knowledge and thoughts to think about THINKING.

My first approach is to give you an idea about how a person can look at things from different angles and not just by assuming the data that is installed in our heads. Our thinking process is usually limited to comparing what we perceive with existing data in our head and producing a logic that we understand.

For example, when we look at something that looks like a pen, our senses combine the data about what we are looking at. This data is passed on to our brain and we realise that this is a pen. We then confirm it by feeling it and writing with it. But if it doesn’t write, our thoughts quickly start calculating all the possibilities that this pen could be. You may say that it is a laser pen (used for pointing out things from a distance) or you may assume it to be a gun, or a gadget of some kind if it was found on 007’s table or batman’s breast pocket (batman doesn’t have a breast pocket, Bruce has the pocket). So our thinking is dependent on what our senses are conveying and then comparing the data with our existing recorded data. This means that everything that we actually understand is because we have something against it or about it already in our mind. But this idea is way too deep and requires much more understanding or research or thinking then that which you would have with a few pages of explanation.

Coming back to 'stimulating the common sense'.

Question1. Imagine a situation where we all are in a room. I am facing you as a speaker to the audience and I point out at a corner where a table is placed with a flower pot on it, and then I ask you- There is a table and on the table is a flower pot. Now, prove that the flower pot is on the table.

Start thinking. Don’t read the answers below until you have already exercised your mind into thinking as far as possible. Try to use the doubt approach.


Done?

Now, if I had been in this situation my answers would be these. Different people would have different answers to it. It is good if you have arrived at a logical conclusion with a proof.

So as the audience, I would answer with: -

Answer 1-You just said that there is a table with a flower pot on it. Hence, Proved.
Now, the above answer is smart and witty. It can get you applause. But take a look at the second answer.
Answer 2- There is no flower pot on the table. We are all trying to prove something that is not ON the table, and when the whole picture is seen, it is a different story. So the truth is that there is no pot on the table.

This is the kind of an answer that needs a proof.
So, how am I going to prove something that was crazy enough to be questioned in the first place? Simple, I am going to combine my knowledge and use my common sense to do it. Excited? So am I.

Proof –

If you look at the question, it is very incomplete in many senses. It does not bind you in any form to think further than required. The pot is on the table because we consider that anything is above (as in on top of) another, with respect to the ground or gravity. So in reality, the pot is on the table when you put your reference point as gravity or the ground or even the table.

Did anyone tell you in the question to assume the reference point to be the ground or gravity or the table? Then why are you still roaming in those ideas, step out.

I am going to prove something even crazier now. I am going to prove that the pot is not on the table but the table is on the pot. How? Read on. 

Imagine if you are looking at the pot on the table from space. You are so further away that you can see the whole spherical planet at a time and with high-tech stuff the table and the pot on the planet. You are not seeing any other obstacles for now. The imagination is expected to be something like this (look at Figure 1).

Figure 1

If you look fig 1 you will see that the table is on the earth and on it is the pot. The real question is this, what is the earth on?

Lost? The earth is not on anything as there is nothing here to relate the earth to. There is no point of reference at all. The table is on the earth and the pot on it because the earth is the selected reference point in this case. This is sufficient to prove my idea but I will go further to make it even more clear and amusing.
Now we are going to look at the whole idea again, but upside down.

Now look at Figure 2,

Figure 2

   Since, there is an absence of reference point we can change to this view. Now the complex part begins. On earth it may seem exactly like before. The pot is on the table. However, if our reference is north and south of the planet as per geographical or astronomical data we will see that when the table is placed on the south the whole situation changes. As you can see from the diagram, the table is on the pot and on the table is our planet earth.
Since, there are no real or physical reference points as North or South but only conventional, we can say that at any point it can be said that the table is on the pot and the earth on the table.

Hence, Proved.

This was just an example. This should be your approach towards thinking. If this article of mine has given you a feeling that you must explore life in a similar manner and if it has made you think about something in a different but logical way and if it has ignited in you any form of interest, then I have succeeded in inviting you to explore the world of lateral thinking.

You can now proceed to the next threads. Comments are welcome.

There are other levels of thought which we could have explored and discussed. we could have moved on to argue whether we ourselves exist or not before we question the pot and the table.

But the purpose of the article is only to show an option and create this ray of escape into the world of Imagination and Creativity. Great number of inventions and discoveries were a result of creativity followed by examination and experimentation.

IRSHAN AHMAD