Abhijit Naskar's Blog - Posts Tagged "science-and-religion"
Biology of Religion
What is Religion?
This question torments a lot of young minds of modern society, especially those who are keen to study science. It is something that makes every single person on earth ponder in amazement.
Religion is simply a natural phenomenon of the human mind. It is something that is deep rooted into the neural network of the human brain. Or in short, it is a neurological phenomenon. And that natural feature of neurobiology manifests in vividly different ways in different people. For example, to me exploring and investigating the fascinating realm of the human mind, is my religion. To an evolutionary biologist, the theory of evolution itself can be his or her religion. However, to the majority of the human population the term religion refers to a specific book. And there lies the most devastating perceptual error of the modern human society.
Religion is not a book. The Bible is not religion, nor are the Vedas. The Torah is not religion, nor is the Quran, or any other scripture on earth. Scriptures are born out of a basic human urge to sustain the sensation of spirituality in an organized structure.
All the religious conflicts in the human society rise from the perception that when we talk about religion, we are actually referring to a specific book. And there's the biggest perceptual mistake of the human civilization.
All human creations including the scriptures are the product of billions of neurons firing together in proper harmony. And anything that a human creates can never be free from flaws. So cannot be the religious books of this planet. And chaos starts to invade the society when people perceive every single word from the scriptures to be literally true. Thus the mistakes of our Bronze Age ancestors become the cause of devastation in our modern society.
Biologically, the true essence of religion, lies within the human mind, not in any book, no matter how old they are. Religion is not a book. It is a natural feature of the human mind that created all the scriptures in the world, not the other way around.
Religion is the mind’s urge to become better in the spiritual domain. All those books only depict that urge. They only show what a handful of individuals in the history of mankind
experienced when their brain made them transcend from an ordinary wakeful state of consciousness into an ultimate state of divinity and bliss. It is what we call an altered state of consciousness. And you don't have to be a prophet or a messiah to experience this. The most natural way to experience a transcendental state of consciousness is through meditation. It has nothing to do with God. But it has a lot to do with exploring one's inner self and getting familiar with one's deepest desires, the inner divinity.
Thus all divinity, spirituality and religiosity exist within your very brain. I take immense pleasure in realizing that our perception of the whole universe emerges from the activity of the little specks of jelly inside our skull. From the complex and fascinating neural activity emerges our very human consciousness, which happens to be the most advanced among all species on planet earth. So, bring that 3 pounds lump of jelly into use. Human brain holds all the answers to you questions. You just need to ask the right question at the right moment. It is not about what the books permit you to do, or not to do. It is about what you as a precious member of mankind permit yourself to do. It is about finding the kingdom of conscience. In that kingdom of conscience you shall discover that all religions are biologically true and equal. They evolved in the human mind to ease the sufferings of daily survival.
And the ancient sensation that binds all religions together is spirituality. It is the basis of all religions on this planet, yet it is not tied to any specific religion. In fact, this neurological element of spirituality led to the birth of modern religions.
At the core of all religions, the rudimentary element of spirituality functions as a cognitive mechanism within the brain to inspire a human being in all walks of life. And all the vivid and varied religious rituals and regulations are manmade paths that lead towards that spiritual awakening. Mother Nature embedded the seeds of spirituality within our genetic blueprint because this fascinating mental quality proved its mettle in easing human anxiety and sufferings throughout our existence as a species.
Humans are the most interesting as well as confusing creature on this planet. We can be tough as iron, and quite amazingly in times of distress we can become real weak and vulnerable. So, Mother Nature thought, “Hey, I cannot let my children suffer like that. I need to do something about it.”
Naturally, she put selective pressure on the human brain and through millions of years in the pursuit of building various mechanisms in our complex neural network. These mechanisms are the pinnacle of biological revolution. They are the reason we can act as
an advanced species. They provide us amazing human qualities of love, passion, compassion, kindness, empathy, curiosity, and spirituality.
And this element of spirituality in our neural network constructs our rich and vivid religious sentiments. As I have said in my book Autobiography of God: Biopsy of A Cognitive Reality, “your spiritual goals can be as numerous as there are stars in the sky, and so can be your religions. But in all your vivid and diverse paths of practicing religion, here is one common element that knows no bounds. That element is the eternal bliss that enables you to attain unimaginable feats of excellence.”
That divine element constructed all the philosophical teachings of the scriptures. However, some of the verses of those books which inadvertently advocate and promote hatred or violence, are simply the product of the dark side of the human mind. All those scriptures are like philosophical literature. Some parts of them are beneficial to the society and some others are quite harmful. Thus, taking every single word of those books to be literally true, only leads to chaos. This is what we call fundamentalism, and it is dangerous. It not only harms the society, but leads the entire human civilization back to the Stone Age.
Hence, to avoid such catastrophic scenario, every scripture, no matter how ancient, must go through rigorous human scrutiny. A rational mind should not accept a single word from the scriptures without properly examining it. A modern human being must be brave and upright, and embrace the goodness from all the scriptures and throw away the poisonous particles.
Religion itself is not harmful for the society. In fact it is quite the opposite. It is what gives a person hope to keep walking even in the darkest times. And we have proven this with countless neuroscientific studies. We the neuroscientists have proven that religion is healthy for the human species as a whole. It is an incontrovertible fact of science, just like evolution or gravity. In fact, religion is a crucial part of evolution.
But, on the other hand, the greatest threat to mankind is fundamentalism. It is the fuel for terrorism. And the moment, fundamentalism disappears from the face of earth, society would finally get rid of religious terrorism.
The point is, every person on this planet has been endowed with an inexplicable human conscience. Through various neurochemical processes, that conscience can solve quintessential problems of life. That conscience can tell you, whether something is right or wrong. And that very conscience can show you, that all religions serve a single purpose in human life. It serves as an infinite domain of hope. And we live in a society, where hope has become scarce. So, we need more of it. And if a person takes comfort in his or her faith upon divinity in times of utter distress, who the hell am I to say, “that person is delusion”. Only a blind idiot would call the faith upon divinity, a delusion.
My conscience doesn't allow me to be such ruthless. I am a human, who happens to be a scientist. And my scientific exploration of the biological roots of divinity has taught me Universal Tolerance.
Whatever may be the position of science, whatever may be the position of philosophy, as long as there is such a thing as death in the world, as long as there is such a thing as weakness in the human heart, as long as the human heart sheds a drop of tear in weakness, there shall be a faith in God and divinity. And the beauty of Mother Nature is that, every time a person tries to inflict harm to that graceful element of faith, it reinforces itself in the human mind.
My goal is simple. It is to take the human civilization with me on the path of sweet general harmony. The beauty is in assimilating the appealing elements from all religions. The world has ample place for everybody. And once all the humans of this planet learn to embrace the goodness of each other, this tiny blue world of ours, shall become the happiest planet in the universe.
The point is, based upon one's needs, his or her brain develops various fascinating beliefs - religious, non-religious or purely spiritual. When a seed is put in the ground, and soil, air and water are placed around it, does the seed become the soil, or the air or the water? No, it becomes a plant. It develops according to its own law of growth, assimilates the air, the water and the soil, converts them into plant substance and grows into a plant.
Similar is a human mind. And similar is a belief system. The Christian is not to become a Muslim or a Hindu, nor a Muslim or a Jew is to become a Christian or a Hindu. In the name of general harmony, each must assimilate the spirit of the others, yet preserve his or her individuality and grow according to his or her own law of growth.
Any idea of separation is a bondage. True liberation of the mind is in non-differentiation. And that liberation can only be attained though love and compassion. So, in the name of general harmony, let's break the barriers down and embrace each other. Let's build a world beyond chaos and religious conflicts. Let's construct a world better than this one, where ones individuality finds new meaning in accepting the goodness of others. Where love and compassion shall run in the veins of every single human being.
This question torments a lot of young minds of modern society, especially those who are keen to study science. It is something that makes every single person on earth ponder in amazement.
Religion is simply a natural phenomenon of the human mind. It is something that is deep rooted into the neural network of the human brain. Or in short, it is a neurological phenomenon. And that natural feature of neurobiology manifests in vividly different ways in different people. For example, to me exploring and investigating the fascinating realm of the human mind, is my religion. To an evolutionary biologist, the theory of evolution itself can be his or her religion. However, to the majority of the human population the term religion refers to a specific book. And there lies the most devastating perceptual error of the modern human society.
Religion is not a book. The Bible is not religion, nor are the Vedas. The Torah is not religion, nor is the Quran, or any other scripture on earth. Scriptures are born out of a basic human urge to sustain the sensation of spirituality in an organized structure.
All the religious conflicts in the human society rise from the perception that when we talk about religion, we are actually referring to a specific book. And there's the biggest perceptual mistake of the human civilization.
All human creations including the scriptures are the product of billions of neurons firing together in proper harmony. And anything that a human creates can never be free from flaws. So cannot be the religious books of this planet. And chaos starts to invade the society when people perceive every single word from the scriptures to be literally true. Thus the mistakes of our Bronze Age ancestors become the cause of devastation in our modern society.
Biologically, the true essence of religion, lies within the human mind, not in any book, no matter how old they are. Religion is not a book. It is a natural feature of the human mind that created all the scriptures in the world, not the other way around.
Religion is the mind’s urge to become better in the spiritual domain. All those books only depict that urge. They only show what a handful of individuals in the history of mankind
experienced when their brain made them transcend from an ordinary wakeful state of consciousness into an ultimate state of divinity and bliss. It is what we call an altered state of consciousness. And you don't have to be a prophet or a messiah to experience this. The most natural way to experience a transcendental state of consciousness is through meditation. It has nothing to do with God. But it has a lot to do with exploring one's inner self and getting familiar with one's deepest desires, the inner divinity.
Thus all divinity, spirituality and religiosity exist within your very brain. I take immense pleasure in realizing that our perception of the whole universe emerges from the activity of the little specks of jelly inside our skull. From the complex and fascinating neural activity emerges our very human consciousness, which happens to be the most advanced among all species on planet earth. So, bring that 3 pounds lump of jelly into use. Human brain holds all the answers to you questions. You just need to ask the right question at the right moment. It is not about what the books permit you to do, or not to do. It is about what you as a precious member of mankind permit yourself to do. It is about finding the kingdom of conscience. In that kingdom of conscience you shall discover that all religions are biologically true and equal. They evolved in the human mind to ease the sufferings of daily survival.
And the ancient sensation that binds all religions together is spirituality. It is the basis of all religions on this planet, yet it is not tied to any specific religion. In fact, this neurological element of spirituality led to the birth of modern religions.
At the core of all religions, the rudimentary element of spirituality functions as a cognitive mechanism within the brain to inspire a human being in all walks of life. And all the vivid and varied religious rituals and regulations are manmade paths that lead towards that spiritual awakening. Mother Nature embedded the seeds of spirituality within our genetic blueprint because this fascinating mental quality proved its mettle in easing human anxiety and sufferings throughout our existence as a species.
Humans are the most interesting as well as confusing creature on this planet. We can be tough as iron, and quite amazingly in times of distress we can become real weak and vulnerable. So, Mother Nature thought, “Hey, I cannot let my children suffer like that. I need to do something about it.”
Naturally, she put selective pressure on the human brain and through millions of years in the pursuit of building various mechanisms in our complex neural network. These mechanisms are the pinnacle of biological revolution. They are the reason we can act as
an advanced species. They provide us amazing human qualities of love, passion, compassion, kindness, empathy, curiosity, and spirituality.
And this element of spirituality in our neural network constructs our rich and vivid religious sentiments. As I have said in my book Autobiography of God: Biopsy of A Cognitive Reality, “your spiritual goals can be as numerous as there are stars in the sky, and so can be your religions. But in all your vivid and diverse paths of practicing religion, here is one common element that knows no bounds. That element is the eternal bliss that enables you to attain unimaginable feats of excellence.”
That divine element constructed all the philosophical teachings of the scriptures. However, some of the verses of those books which inadvertently advocate and promote hatred or violence, are simply the product of the dark side of the human mind. All those scriptures are like philosophical literature. Some parts of them are beneficial to the society and some others are quite harmful. Thus, taking every single word of those books to be literally true, only leads to chaos. This is what we call fundamentalism, and it is dangerous. It not only harms the society, but leads the entire human civilization back to the Stone Age.
Hence, to avoid such catastrophic scenario, every scripture, no matter how ancient, must go through rigorous human scrutiny. A rational mind should not accept a single word from the scriptures without properly examining it. A modern human being must be brave and upright, and embrace the goodness from all the scriptures and throw away the poisonous particles.
Religion itself is not harmful for the society. In fact it is quite the opposite. It is what gives a person hope to keep walking even in the darkest times. And we have proven this with countless neuroscientific studies. We the neuroscientists have proven that religion is healthy for the human species as a whole. It is an incontrovertible fact of science, just like evolution or gravity. In fact, religion is a crucial part of evolution.
But, on the other hand, the greatest threat to mankind is fundamentalism. It is the fuel for terrorism. And the moment, fundamentalism disappears from the face of earth, society would finally get rid of religious terrorism.
The point is, every person on this planet has been endowed with an inexplicable human conscience. Through various neurochemical processes, that conscience can solve quintessential problems of life. That conscience can tell you, whether something is right or wrong. And that very conscience can show you, that all religions serve a single purpose in human life. It serves as an infinite domain of hope. And we live in a society, where hope has become scarce. So, we need more of it. And if a person takes comfort in his or her faith upon divinity in times of utter distress, who the hell am I to say, “that person is delusion”. Only a blind idiot would call the faith upon divinity, a delusion.
My conscience doesn't allow me to be such ruthless. I am a human, who happens to be a scientist. And my scientific exploration of the biological roots of divinity has taught me Universal Tolerance.
Whatever may be the position of science, whatever may be the position of philosophy, as long as there is such a thing as death in the world, as long as there is such a thing as weakness in the human heart, as long as the human heart sheds a drop of tear in weakness, there shall be a faith in God and divinity. And the beauty of Mother Nature is that, every time a person tries to inflict harm to that graceful element of faith, it reinforces itself in the human mind.
My goal is simple. It is to take the human civilization with me on the path of sweet general harmony. The beauty is in assimilating the appealing elements from all religions. The world has ample place for everybody. And once all the humans of this planet learn to embrace the goodness of each other, this tiny blue world of ours, shall become the happiest planet in the universe.
The point is, based upon one's needs, his or her brain develops various fascinating beliefs - religious, non-religious or purely spiritual. When a seed is put in the ground, and soil, air and water are placed around it, does the seed become the soil, or the air or the water? No, it becomes a plant. It develops according to its own law of growth, assimilates the air, the water and the soil, converts them into plant substance and grows into a plant.
Similar is a human mind. And similar is a belief system. The Christian is not to become a Muslim or a Hindu, nor a Muslim or a Jew is to become a Christian or a Hindu. In the name of general harmony, each must assimilate the spirit of the others, yet preserve his or her individuality and grow according to his or her own law of growth.
Any idea of separation is a bondage. True liberation of the mind is in non-differentiation. And that liberation can only be attained though love and compassion. So, in the name of general harmony, let's break the barriers down and embrace each other. Let's build a world beyond chaos and religious conflicts. Let's construct a world better than this one, where ones individuality finds new meaning in accepting the goodness of others. Where love and compassion shall run in the veins of every single human being.
Religions, Prophets and Politics
"The Church has carried out some of the most inhuman and above all un-Christian acts of human history, yet, it is still gloriously hailed by the majority of human population as to be synonymous with Jesus Christ." - Neurons of Jesus
You have heard countless times from me, that Religion is not a book, it is not an institution, and it is not even a person. Religion is realization of the self.
The Bible, the Quran, the Vedas and all the scriptures in the world are mere inventions of man (not woman) in the pursuit of understanding the self, and to some extent, in the pursuit of authoritarianism. Scriptures from the past have nothing to do with the neurologically created and experienced sensation of divinity and religion. However, all the books which humanity so gloriously worships as sacred, attempt to codify the divinity that is born with the human body and dies with it. This divinity or simply religion is born with the self created by the brain and ceases to exist when the self dies upon the death of the brain.
Religions began as realization of the self, but ended up being retaliation against each other. A handful of individuals in human history, empowered by their own neurons of divinity, experienced something quite extraordinary. They experienced something beyond this mortal world. They experienced being one with an Omnipotent Entity or Abstract Source of Energy. Despite the fact that, these experiences were all taking place exclusively within their own brain, they manifested as extraterrestrial encounters. Hence, the pre-conceived notion of Supreme Entity somewhere up in the sky, got more deep-rooted into the psyche of the ignorant masses.
When a person lacks understanding of the physical universe, and its phenomena, the primordial nature of the mind is to fill in the gaps with all kinds of gibberish concepts that originally come from our primitive days in the wild. And one of these concepts is that, there is a superhuman entity somewhere out there, who keeps an eye on us. That is the most natural knack of the primitive part of the mind. Because here, by believing so, we are psychologically entrusting an imaginary father figure (or mother figure in some religious beliefs, such as the Hindus) with our security and peace of mind. It does act as a placebo effect, but unlike the placebo pills used in our clinical trials, this placebo effect of a father figure or a personal God, has immense biological impact upon all aspects of human life, through the neurobiological substrates of the mind.
In simple terms, when a person believes that a God is truly concerned about the well-being of life on earth, and especially of human life, the belief adorns that person with various positive psychological elements such as emotional stability, in times of distress and a highly functional moral compass. Here this belief has nothing to do with reality whatsoever, rather it serves the evolutionary purpose of self-preservation.
However, if history has shown anything, it is that where there is a God, there is an institution trying to lock up that God in its lifeless structure of orthodoxy, in order to have authority over people and sell tickets to the Kingdom of that God. Thus emerged all the pompous lies about the extraterrestrial Kingdom of God or Heaven.
"By infusing Jesus the man with the divine magic – by making him capable of earthly miracles as well as his own resurrection, the early church turned him into a god within the human world. Thus, the church reinforced the monopoly on the so-called route to heaven, i.e. salvation only through Jesus Christ. And during those days, whoever kept the keys to heaven would rule the world. " - Neurons of Jesus
This way, religion became politics. It became everything but realization of the self. It became a matter of doctrines, books, hierarchy and superiority of institutions. Hence, today the majority of the human population, perceives religion to be synonymous with certain books. And that is why there are so many conflicts in the name of religion and God in this so-called modern world.
A Christian would ask you to believe in the Bible, to believe that the Bible contains divine irrefutable commands from God. A Muslim would ask you to believe in the Quran, to believe that the Quran contains glorious messages from God or Allah. A Hindu would ask you to believe in the Bhagavad Gita, to believe that the Gita contains answers to all your problems given by God or Brahman. Thus, a religion becomes merely a matter of blind faith upon texts of the dead people. Hence, no religion can maintain a healthy relationship with another for a long time.
To quote from my book In Search of Divinity
"It is not much use to talk about religion, until one has felt what the founding fathers felt. Why is there so much disturbance, so much fighting and quarreling in the name of God? There has been more bloodshed in the name of God than for any other cause. And it is all because people never attempt to reach the fountain-head. They are content only to comply with the customs of their forefathers, and want others to do the same."
The point is, what the individuals, whom humanity venerates as prophets, experienced was something beyond the laws of their contemporary religious dogma, and as such, all of these individuals were hailed by the religious institutions of their time and society, as heretics. However, their ideas did indeed succeed to influence a bunch of people stuck in obscurity. So these people embraced these individuals as their own personal Gods, and in the mind of those ignorant people, every God must be worshipped with utter obedience. And their way of showing obedience was to concoct laws and rituals to ascertain the divine significance of their personal God in the spiritual patriarchy of religious prophets. Thus, obedience for one divine Teacher, turned into obedience for a God. And in time, it turned into obedience for a set of laws. And quite unexpectedly, one person's battle against religious orthodoxy or fundamentalism, led to the birth of yet another orthodox circle. This happened at various corners of the world in various circumstances.
In Asia, Buddha, a Hindu, stood up against the orthodox Hindu society, and ended up constructing yet another religion called Buddhism. And on the other side of the world, Jesus, a Jew, stood up against the orthodox Jewish society, and ended up being the personal God of yet another religion called Christianity.
You have heard countless times from me, that Religion is not a book, it is not an institution, and it is not even a person. Religion is realization of the self.
The Bible, the Quran, the Vedas and all the scriptures in the world are mere inventions of man (not woman) in the pursuit of understanding the self, and to some extent, in the pursuit of authoritarianism. Scriptures from the past have nothing to do with the neurologically created and experienced sensation of divinity and religion. However, all the books which humanity so gloriously worships as sacred, attempt to codify the divinity that is born with the human body and dies with it. This divinity or simply religion is born with the self created by the brain and ceases to exist when the self dies upon the death of the brain.
Religions began as realization of the self, but ended up being retaliation against each other. A handful of individuals in human history, empowered by their own neurons of divinity, experienced something quite extraordinary. They experienced something beyond this mortal world. They experienced being one with an Omnipotent Entity or Abstract Source of Energy. Despite the fact that, these experiences were all taking place exclusively within their own brain, they manifested as extraterrestrial encounters. Hence, the pre-conceived notion of Supreme Entity somewhere up in the sky, got more deep-rooted into the psyche of the ignorant masses.
When a person lacks understanding of the physical universe, and its phenomena, the primordial nature of the mind is to fill in the gaps with all kinds of gibberish concepts that originally come from our primitive days in the wild. And one of these concepts is that, there is a superhuman entity somewhere out there, who keeps an eye on us. That is the most natural knack of the primitive part of the mind. Because here, by believing so, we are psychologically entrusting an imaginary father figure (or mother figure in some religious beliefs, such as the Hindus) with our security and peace of mind. It does act as a placebo effect, but unlike the placebo pills used in our clinical trials, this placebo effect of a father figure or a personal God, has immense biological impact upon all aspects of human life, through the neurobiological substrates of the mind.
In simple terms, when a person believes that a God is truly concerned about the well-being of life on earth, and especially of human life, the belief adorns that person with various positive psychological elements such as emotional stability, in times of distress and a highly functional moral compass. Here this belief has nothing to do with reality whatsoever, rather it serves the evolutionary purpose of self-preservation.
However, if history has shown anything, it is that where there is a God, there is an institution trying to lock up that God in its lifeless structure of orthodoxy, in order to have authority over people and sell tickets to the Kingdom of that God. Thus emerged all the pompous lies about the extraterrestrial Kingdom of God or Heaven.
"By infusing Jesus the man with the divine magic – by making him capable of earthly miracles as well as his own resurrection, the early church turned him into a god within the human world. Thus, the church reinforced the monopoly on the so-called route to heaven, i.e. salvation only through Jesus Christ. And during those days, whoever kept the keys to heaven would rule the world. " - Neurons of Jesus
This way, religion became politics. It became everything but realization of the self. It became a matter of doctrines, books, hierarchy and superiority of institutions. Hence, today the majority of the human population, perceives religion to be synonymous with certain books. And that is why there are so many conflicts in the name of religion and God in this so-called modern world.
A Christian would ask you to believe in the Bible, to believe that the Bible contains divine irrefutable commands from God. A Muslim would ask you to believe in the Quran, to believe that the Quran contains glorious messages from God or Allah. A Hindu would ask you to believe in the Bhagavad Gita, to believe that the Gita contains answers to all your problems given by God or Brahman. Thus, a religion becomes merely a matter of blind faith upon texts of the dead people. Hence, no religion can maintain a healthy relationship with another for a long time.
To quote from my book In Search of Divinity
"It is not much use to talk about religion, until one has felt what the founding fathers felt. Why is there so much disturbance, so much fighting and quarreling in the name of God? There has been more bloodshed in the name of God than for any other cause. And it is all because people never attempt to reach the fountain-head. They are content only to comply with the customs of their forefathers, and want others to do the same."
The point is, what the individuals, whom humanity venerates as prophets, experienced was something beyond the laws of their contemporary religious dogma, and as such, all of these individuals were hailed by the religious institutions of their time and society, as heretics. However, their ideas did indeed succeed to influence a bunch of people stuck in obscurity. So these people embraced these individuals as their own personal Gods, and in the mind of those ignorant people, every God must be worshipped with utter obedience. And their way of showing obedience was to concoct laws and rituals to ascertain the divine significance of their personal God in the spiritual patriarchy of religious prophets. Thus, obedience for one divine Teacher, turned into obedience for a God. And in time, it turned into obedience for a set of laws. And quite unexpectedly, one person's battle against religious orthodoxy or fundamentalism, led to the birth of yet another orthodox circle. This happened at various corners of the world in various circumstances.
In Asia, Buddha, a Hindu, stood up against the orthodox Hindu society, and ended up constructing yet another religion called Buddhism. And on the other side of the world, Jesus, a Jew, stood up against the orthodox Jewish society, and ended up being the personal God of yet another religion called Christianity.
The Invention of Vedas and Ayurveda
No knowledge comes from the outside world or an imaginary supernatural paradise. No knowledge comes from some sort of divine entity, regardless of how effective they are. All knowledge, scientific or philosophical, ancient or modern, rises from the human mind. These minds are by all means just as human any other person on earth. But rigorous training on the self puts them at a higher level of intellect than the general population. However, this height of excellence has its own peculiar purpose. At this level, we thinkers hail ourselves to be the servant of humanity. And this trend of servitude goes back not decades or even centuries, rather a few thousand years. In every age, there are these individuals upon the shoulders of whom the entire human civilization progresses.
But like any other person, we the scientists and philosophers, are ordinary human beings. Today you have Ramachandran, Dawkins, Hawking, myself and many others - and all of them are humans, not gods. And all the work we do - all the scientific and philosophical literature we create, we do so by the use of our very natural human faculties, which have evolved in us, that is all the humanity, through the natural process of evolution. All the knowledge and wisdom that we give to the species are constructed by the biological circuits of our brain, and not by some sort of God. And the same goes to the knowledge that the ancient thinkers of India and some other civilizations came up with. All their knowledge that later constructed the organized textual scriptures of early humanity, were their creation, and not God's.
However, think about this. If I say that my insight of the human mind came not from my own brain through rigorous nourishment and utilization of my intellectual faculties, rather from the Lord Almighty - say Brahma, it is more likely for the vulnerable masses with no scientific awareness whatsoever to embrace my knowledge as divine will. They would embrace the texts created by me as irrefutable gospel. They would submit to every single word at an innate emotional level and hail those words as eternal knowledge, even if I intentionally put some negative elements in those texts to serve my own personal interest and not the interest of the society or the pursuit of truth. And this is exactly what happened to the ancient texts of the Vedas. They say the Vedas are eternal - the knowledge within it came not from the mind of man, but from Brahma himself.
Now imagine the ancient society of India, and in fact all over the world a few thousand years ago. In those days, rational thinking was quite scarce. Ignorance was the default mode of thinking. Only a handful of individuals were capable of higher intellectual thinking. Among them were Vyasa, Susruta, Charaka, Aryabhatta, Vatsayana, Patanjali, Brahmagupta and a few others. These people were the real scientists and philosophers of the ancient Indian society. They were neither gods, nor angels, or any sort of divine beings. They were just ordinary flesh and blood human beings, who happened to be exceptionally intelligent for people of their time.
These great minds despite being born in a superstitious society, were able to break free from their own shackles of prejudices and ignorance. Unfortunately, over time, their scientific contribution started to get hugely overlooked by their own people. Later generations of their motherland began to hail them as some sort of divine beings with supernatural powers, and thus emerged the term “sage” or “rishi”. Even though the term technically means a profoundly wise man, today people abuse it in the worst manner possible.
Sages or Rishis are present in all times. The term itself refers to any ordinary human being who possesses extraordinary expertise in his or her field of work. There is no supernatural element involved in it. In the ancient times, India was full with such brilliant human minds. And in the hands of some of those individuals, we received the most effective and glorious natural means to maintain a healthy anatomy - we received the Knowledge about Healthy Life - the Veda of Ayu - the Ayurveda.
The term "Veda" means knowledge, and even though the innate, primordial, superstitious part of the human mind that has a knack for paranormal stuff, would very much like to believe that what we call the Vedas, came from the mouth of Brahma - that, they are "Apauruseya" (meaning 'not of man' or 'authorless') - in reality, they came from the mind of some ancient Indians, just like "Republic" came from Plato, "The Art of War" came for Sun Tzu, "On the Origin of Species" came from Charles Darwin, "A Brief History of Time” came from Stephen Hawking, "The Selfish Gene" came from Richard Dawkins, "What is Mind?" came from Naskar, "Capital" came from Karl Marx, "Sapiens" came from Yuval Noah Harari and so on. Greed of hierarchically higher people always drives them to incorporate imaginary divine intervention into human creations, so that through these creations, they can have authority over the people in their national society as well as the global society. Hence from the primordial urge for authority rises the need to attach the term "Apauruseya" to the Vedas.
The Vedic Hymns were skillfully crafted by the sages of ancient India through rigorous mental exercise. The sanskrit word Veda is derived from the root "Vid" which means "to know". The Vedic literature was among the earliest written texts in human history, and indeed they are of great scientific and philosophical significance. The Vedas are divided into four folds, namely - Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda. Of these, the first three were the principal original division, also called "trayi vidya", that is, "the triple science" of reciting hymns (Rigveda), performing sacrifices (Yajurveda), and chanting songs (Samaveda). The Rigveda is the oldest of all the Vedic texts, which is approximately from the period of 1900 to 1100 BC.
And what you today know as Ayurveda is a sub-section of the fourth Veda - the Atharva Veda. Like it happens to all the ancient scriptures, the Atharva Veda is an amazing mixture of wonderful scientific truth and mystical and prejudicial non-sense such as metaphorical magic spells. The scientific part of this text is what we call Ayurveda, which deals with various physical and mental ailments. And when we talk about Ayurveda, the three most important minds that you need to get acquainted with are Charaka, Susruta and Vaghbata. All the knowledge of Ayurveda rise from the scientific compositions of the first two of these scientists and detailed elaboration of the third one.
Charaka (1st century A.D.) wrote Charaka Samhita (samhita- meaning collection of verses written in Sanskrit). Susruta (4th century A.D.) wrote his Samhita i.e Susruta Samhita. Vaghbata (5th century A.D.) compiled the third set of major texts called Ashtanga Hridaya and Ashtanga Sangraha. Charaka’s School of Physicians and Susruta’s School of Surgeons became the basis of Ayurveda and helped organize and systematically classify into branches of medicine and surgery.
In the ensuing years sixteen major supplementary texts or Nighantus were composed by a few other brilliant minds, such as Dhanvantari Bahavaprakasha, Raja and Shaligrama to name a few – that helped refine the practice of Ayurveda. New drugs were added and ineffective ones were discarded. Expansion of application, identification of new illnesses and finding substitute treatments seemed to have been an evolving process. Close to 2000 plants that were used in healing diseases and abating symptoms were identified in these supplements. Dridhabala in the 4th century revised the Charaka Samhita. The texts of Susruta Samhita were revised and supplemented by Nagarjuna in the 6th century.
Thus, several scientific minds of a society which was at large mostly ignorant, gave rise to a fantastically effective natural system of maintaining health, comprising eight major branches, that later became known as Ayurveda. The eight branches of this system were:
1. Kaya-chikitsa (Internal Medicine)
2. Shalakya Tantra (surgery and treatment of head and neck, Ophthalmology and ear, nose, throat)
3. Shalya Tantra (Surgery)
4. Agada Tantra (Toxicology)
5. Bhuta Vidya (Psychiatry)
6. Kaumara bhritya (Pediatrics)
7. Rasayana (science of rejuvenation or anti-ageing)
8. Vajikarana (the science of fertility and aphrodisiac)
All the advancement in Ayurveda was based upon the core scientific compositions of Charaka, Susruta and Vaghbata – mainly the compositions of Charaka and Susruta. Charaka, a 1st century man of medicine is perceived as the father of ancient Indian medicine. He was the Raj Vaidya (royal doctor) in the court of Kanishka. He is most celebrated for his scientific work known as Charak Samhita. It is a remarkable book on medicine. It has the description of a large number of diseases and gives methods of identifying their causes as well as the method of treating them. He was one of the early scientists in the world to talk about digestion, metabolism and immunity as important for health and so for medicinal sciences.
Susruta on the other hand was a brilliant surgeon who lived around 1500 years ago. His work Susruta Samhita is literally the earliest scientific work on the methodology of surgery. Let me bring up an excerpt from my book Prescription: Treating India's Soul in this context:
"He (Susruta) considered surgery as “the highest division of the healing arts and least liable to fallacy”. He studied human anatomy with the help of a dead body. In Susruta Samhita, over 1100 diseases are mentioned including fevers of twenty-six kinds, jaundice of eight kinds and urinary complaints of twenty kinds. Over 760 plants are described. All roots, bark, juice, resin, flowers etc. are mentioned as useful in health purposes. Cinnamon, sesame, peppers, cardamom, ginger are household remedies even today.
In Susruta Samhita, the method of selecting and preserving a dead body for the purpose of its detailed study has also been described. The dead body of an old man or a person who died of a severe disease was generally not considered for studies. The body needed to be perfectly cleaned and then preserved in the bark of a tree. It was then kept in a cage and hidden carefully in a spot in the river. There the current of the river softened it. After seven days it was removed from the river. It was then cleaned with a brush made of grass roots, hair and bamboo. When this was done, every inner or outer part of the body could be seen clearly.
Susruta’s greatest contribution was in the fields of Rhinoplasty (plastic surgery) and Ophthalmic surgery (removal of cataracts). In those days, cutting of nose and ears was a common punishment. Restoration of these, or limbs lost in wars was a great blessing. In Susruta Samhita, there is a very accurate step-by-step description of these operation procedures. Surprisingly, the steps followed by Susruta are strikingly similar to those followed by modern surgeons while doing plastic surgery. Susruta Samhita also gives a description of 101 instruments used in surgery. Some serious operations performed by him included taking foetus out of the womb, repairing the damaged rectum, removing stone from the bladder, etc."
Another important name behind Ayurveda was Vaghbata. Even though his work was not as original as the two major founders of Ayurveda - Charaka and Susruta, he made the works of these two scientists more lucid. Vaghbata in the 5th century compiled two sets of texts called Ashtanga Sangraha and Ashtanga Hridaya. In his work, he shed light on the Internal Medicine of Charaka Samhita and the various surgical procedures of Susruta Samhita.
Now the most important feature of these scientific works is that in all of them, their composers emphasized on the physiological aspects of human life, unlike the contemporary abundance of spiritual perspective in the society. They talked about science and rationality in a society, where everyone else was talking about demons, gods, ghosts and witches. Even when they were surrounded by ignorance, going quite against their society, they nourished their intellect and made it so strong and pure that it gave rise to some of the most glorious works in human history.
Today, the Ayurveda that they created, falls under the category of Alternative Medicine with all its natural remedies. As I have said in Prescription - "Ayurvedic remedies actually introduce active natural ingredients to the body. Ayurveda places great emphasis on prevention of illness and promotion of wellness. And that’s precisely what many of the Ayurvedic remedies do. Ingredients like ginger, honey, turmeric, cinnamon, clove, garlic etc. have in fact proven to have significant influence in promoting health and preventing illness."
However, you must remember that Ayurveda is no substitute for modern medicine. Modern Medicine has evolved through rigorous efforts of thousands of scientists through centuries. And I must admit that Modern Medicine as it is today, is predicated on the core principle of treating ailments, while the ancient system of Ayurveda is mostly predicated on the prevention of ailments. Therefore, utilizing various natural substances recorded in the Ayurvedic literature, in your daily life can help you maintain a healthy body as well as deal with minor bodily issues, and can greatly prevent major ailments, but if a major disease does rise, remember that Modern Medicine is the most effective tool that you can have, not any ancient system, be it Ayurveda or anything else. Hence, use Ayurveda - it will keep you healthy, but sometimes the body needs more advance treatment than Ayurveda can provide, and that need can only be met by Modern Medicine can provide.
Nevertheless, quite similar to us modern day scientists, all those scientists of ancient India were ordinary humans with excellent minds. There was nothing supernatural about their intelligence. So, start seeing them the way they actually were. Stop the paranormal fanaticism right now if you want your society to grow. Grow a brilliant and rational mind within yourself just as the scientists of ancient India did. Use your ability of reasoning to distinguish the genuine scientific works from the hodge-podge of fantasies.
Ayurveda if embraced properly can become a great promoter of heath in your life. In fact, all the Vedic texts can become a great tool in the path of humanity's progress, if their adjacent primordial fanaticism, such as they being written by a mystical figure called "Ganesha", is torn apart. Today you know that “Rahu” and “Ketu” were imaginations of the ignorant mind in an unqualified attempt to explain the phenomenon of eclipse - you know how positions of the sun, earth and moon occasionally give rise to solar and lunar eclipses. Likewise, one after another you need to get to rid of all the prejudicial concepts in your society and only then the good and beneficial ideas of the ancient texts shall rise to aid humanity. It is only through rational investigation of the ancient texts that they can become a true help to human life.
But like any other person, we the scientists and philosophers, are ordinary human beings. Today you have Ramachandran, Dawkins, Hawking, myself and many others - and all of them are humans, not gods. And all the work we do - all the scientific and philosophical literature we create, we do so by the use of our very natural human faculties, which have evolved in us, that is all the humanity, through the natural process of evolution. All the knowledge and wisdom that we give to the species are constructed by the biological circuits of our brain, and not by some sort of God. And the same goes to the knowledge that the ancient thinkers of India and some other civilizations came up with. All their knowledge that later constructed the organized textual scriptures of early humanity, were their creation, and not God's.
However, think about this. If I say that my insight of the human mind came not from my own brain through rigorous nourishment and utilization of my intellectual faculties, rather from the Lord Almighty - say Brahma, it is more likely for the vulnerable masses with no scientific awareness whatsoever to embrace my knowledge as divine will. They would embrace the texts created by me as irrefutable gospel. They would submit to every single word at an innate emotional level and hail those words as eternal knowledge, even if I intentionally put some negative elements in those texts to serve my own personal interest and not the interest of the society or the pursuit of truth. And this is exactly what happened to the ancient texts of the Vedas. They say the Vedas are eternal - the knowledge within it came not from the mind of man, but from Brahma himself.
Now imagine the ancient society of India, and in fact all over the world a few thousand years ago. In those days, rational thinking was quite scarce. Ignorance was the default mode of thinking. Only a handful of individuals were capable of higher intellectual thinking. Among them were Vyasa, Susruta, Charaka, Aryabhatta, Vatsayana, Patanjali, Brahmagupta and a few others. These people were the real scientists and philosophers of the ancient Indian society. They were neither gods, nor angels, or any sort of divine beings. They were just ordinary flesh and blood human beings, who happened to be exceptionally intelligent for people of their time.
These great minds despite being born in a superstitious society, were able to break free from their own shackles of prejudices and ignorance. Unfortunately, over time, their scientific contribution started to get hugely overlooked by their own people. Later generations of their motherland began to hail them as some sort of divine beings with supernatural powers, and thus emerged the term “sage” or “rishi”. Even though the term technically means a profoundly wise man, today people abuse it in the worst manner possible.
Sages or Rishis are present in all times. The term itself refers to any ordinary human being who possesses extraordinary expertise in his or her field of work. There is no supernatural element involved in it. In the ancient times, India was full with such brilliant human minds. And in the hands of some of those individuals, we received the most effective and glorious natural means to maintain a healthy anatomy - we received the Knowledge about Healthy Life - the Veda of Ayu - the Ayurveda.
The term "Veda" means knowledge, and even though the innate, primordial, superstitious part of the human mind that has a knack for paranormal stuff, would very much like to believe that what we call the Vedas, came from the mouth of Brahma - that, they are "Apauruseya" (meaning 'not of man' or 'authorless') - in reality, they came from the mind of some ancient Indians, just like "Republic" came from Plato, "The Art of War" came for Sun Tzu, "On the Origin of Species" came from Charles Darwin, "A Brief History of Time” came from Stephen Hawking, "The Selfish Gene" came from Richard Dawkins, "What is Mind?" came from Naskar, "Capital" came from Karl Marx, "Sapiens" came from Yuval Noah Harari and so on. Greed of hierarchically higher people always drives them to incorporate imaginary divine intervention into human creations, so that through these creations, they can have authority over the people in their national society as well as the global society. Hence from the primordial urge for authority rises the need to attach the term "Apauruseya" to the Vedas.
The Vedic Hymns were skillfully crafted by the sages of ancient India through rigorous mental exercise. The sanskrit word Veda is derived from the root "Vid" which means "to know". The Vedic literature was among the earliest written texts in human history, and indeed they are of great scientific and philosophical significance. The Vedas are divided into four folds, namely - Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda. Of these, the first three were the principal original division, also called "trayi vidya", that is, "the triple science" of reciting hymns (Rigveda), performing sacrifices (Yajurveda), and chanting songs (Samaveda). The Rigveda is the oldest of all the Vedic texts, which is approximately from the period of 1900 to 1100 BC.
And what you today know as Ayurveda is a sub-section of the fourth Veda - the Atharva Veda. Like it happens to all the ancient scriptures, the Atharva Veda is an amazing mixture of wonderful scientific truth and mystical and prejudicial non-sense such as metaphorical magic spells. The scientific part of this text is what we call Ayurveda, which deals with various physical and mental ailments. And when we talk about Ayurveda, the three most important minds that you need to get acquainted with are Charaka, Susruta and Vaghbata. All the knowledge of Ayurveda rise from the scientific compositions of the first two of these scientists and detailed elaboration of the third one.
Charaka (1st century A.D.) wrote Charaka Samhita (samhita- meaning collection of verses written in Sanskrit). Susruta (4th century A.D.) wrote his Samhita i.e Susruta Samhita. Vaghbata (5th century A.D.) compiled the third set of major texts called Ashtanga Hridaya and Ashtanga Sangraha. Charaka’s School of Physicians and Susruta’s School of Surgeons became the basis of Ayurveda and helped organize and systematically classify into branches of medicine and surgery.
In the ensuing years sixteen major supplementary texts or Nighantus were composed by a few other brilliant minds, such as Dhanvantari Bahavaprakasha, Raja and Shaligrama to name a few – that helped refine the practice of Ayurveda. New drugs were added and ineffective ones were discarded. Expansion of application, identification of new illnesses and finding substitute treatments seemed to have been an evolving process. Close to 2000 plants that were used in healing diseases and abating symptoms were identified in these supplements. Dridhabala in the 4th century revised the Charaka Samhita. The texts of Susruta Samhita were revised and supplemented by Nagarjuna in the 6th century.
Thus, several scientific minds of a society which was at large mostly ignorant, gave rise to a fantastically effective natural system of maintaining health, comprising eight major branches, that later became known as Ayurveda. The eight branches of this system were:
1. Kaya-chikitsa (Internal Medicine)
2. Shalakya Tantra (surgery and treatment of head and neck, Ophthalmology and ear, nose, throat)
3. Shalya Tantra (Surgery)
4. Agada Tantra (Toxicology)
5. Bhuta Vidya (Psychiatry)
6. Kaumara bhritya (Pediatrics)
7. Rasayana (science of rejuvenation or anti-ageing)
8. Vajikarana (the science of fertility and aphrodisiac)
All the advancement in Ayurveda was based upon the core scientific compositions of Charaka, Susruta and Vaghbata – mainly the compositions of Charaka and Susruta. Charaka, a 1st century man of medicine is perceived as the father of ancient Indian medicine. He was the Raj Vaidya (royal doctor) in the court of Kanishka. He is most celebrated for his scientific work known as Charak Samhita. It is a remarkable book on medicine. It has the description of a large number of diseases and gives methods of identifying their causes as well as the method of treating them. He was one of the early scientists in the world to talk about digestion, metabolism and immunity as important for health and so for medicinal sciences.
Susruta on the other hand was a brilliant surgeon who lived around 1500 years ago. His work Susruta Samhita is literally the earliest scientific work on the methodology of surgery. Let me bring up an excerpt from my book Prescription: Treating India's Soul in this context:
"He (Susruta) considered surgery as “the highest division of the healing arts and least liable to fallacy”. He studied human anatomy with the help of a dead body. In Susruta Samhita, over 1100 diseases are mentioned including fevers of twenty-six kinds, jaundice of eight kinds and urinary complaints of twenty kinds. Over 760 plants are described. All roots, bark, juice, resin, flowers etc. are mentioned as useful in health purposes. Cinnamon, sesame, peppers, cardamom, ginger are household remedies even today.
In Susruta Samhita, the method of selecting and preserving a dead body for the purpose of its detailed study has also been described. The dead body of an old man or a person who died of a severe disease was generally not considered for studies. The body needed to be perfectly cleaned and then preserved in the bark of a tree. It was then kept in a cage and hidden carefully in a spot in the river. There the current of the river softened it. After seven days it was removed from the river. It was then cleaned with a brush made of grass roots, hair and bamboo. When this was done, every inner or outer part of the body could be seen clearly.
Susruta’s greatest contribution was in the fields of Rhinoplasty (plastic surgery) and Ophthalmic surgery (removal of cataracts). In those days, cutting of nose and ears was a common punishment. Restoration of these, or limbs lost in wars was a great blessing. In Susruta Samhita, there is a very accurate step-by-step description of these operation procedures. Surprisingly, the steps followed by Susruta are strikingly similar to those followed by modern surgeons while doing plastic surgery. Susruta Samhita also gives a description of 101 instruments used in surgery. Some serious operations performed by him included taking foetus out of the womb, repairing the damaged rectum, removing stone from the bladder, etc."
Another important name behind Ayurveda was Vaghbata. Even though his work was not as original as the two major founders of Ayurveda - Charaka and Susruta, he made the works of these two scientists more lucid. Vaghbata in the 5th century compiled two sets of texts called Ashtanga Sangraha and Ashtanga Hridaya. In his work, he shed light on the Internal Medicine of Charaka Samhita and the various surgical procedures of Susruta Samhita.
Now the most important feature of these scientific works is that in all of them, their composers emphasized on the physiological aspects of human life, unlike the contemporary abundance of spiritual perspective in the society. They talked about science and rationality in a society, where everyone else was talking about demons, gods, ghosts and witches. Even when they were surrounded by ignorance, going quite against their society, they nourished their intellect and made it so strong and pure that it gave rise to some of the most glorious works in human history.
Today, the Ayurveda that they created, falls under the category of Alternative Medicine with all its natural remedies. As I have said in Prescription - "Ayurvedic remedies actually introduce active natural ingredients to the body. Ayurveda places great emphasis on prevention of illness and promotion of wellness. And that’s precisely what many of the Ayurvedic remedies do. Ingredients like ginger, honey, turmeric, cinnamon, clove, garlic etc. have in fact proven to have significant influence in promoting health and preventing illness."
However, you must remember that Ayurveda is no substitute for modern medicine. Modern Medicine has evolved through rigorous efforts of thousands of scientists through centuries. And I must admit that Modern Medicine as it is today, is predicated on the core principle of treating ailments, while the ancient system of Ayurveda is mostly predicated on the prevention of ailments. Therefore, utilizing various natural substances recorded in the Ayurvedic literature, in your daily life can help you maintain a healthy body as well as deal with minor bodily issues, and can greatly prevent major ailments, but if a major disease does rise, remember that Modern Medicine is the most effective tool that you can have, not any ancient system, be it Ayurveda or anything else. Hence, use Ayurveda - it will keep you healthy, but sometimes the body needs more advance treatment than Ayurveda can provide, and that need can only be met by Modern Medicine can provide.
Nevertheless, quite similar to us modern day scientists, all those scientists of ancient India were ordinary humans with excellent minds. There was nothing supernatural about their intelligence. So, start seeing them the way they actually were. Stop the paranormal fanaticism right now if you want your society to grow. Grow a brilliant and rational mind within yourself just as the scientists of ancient India did. Use your ability of reasoning to distinguish the genuine scientific works from the hodge-podge of fantasies.
Ayurveda if embraced properly can become a great promoter of heath in your life. In fact, all the Vedic texts can become a great tool in the path of humanity's progress, if their adjacent primordial fanaticism, such as they being written by a mystical figure called "Ganesha", is torn apart. Today you know that “Rahu” and “Ketu” were imaginations of the ignorant mind in an unqualified attempt to explain the phenomenon of eclipse - you know how positions of the sun, earth and moon occasionally give rise to solar and lunar eclipses. Likewise, one after another you need to get to rid of all the prejudicial concepts in your society and only then the good and beneficial ideas of the ancient texts shall rise to aid humanity. It is only through rational investigation of the ancient texts that they can become a true help to human life.
Science & Religion - Why the conflicts remain?
Science and Religion – why are there so many conflicts between these two? Why do these two distinct feats of the human mind has not yet been able to join hands in the name of harmony? The answer is simple. The conflicts between science and religion still remain in this day and age, because though most people understand what science means, they do not have a clue what religion means – and they do not even have a clue that they do not have a clue.
I do not expect anything from those in the side of religion, or to be specific, from those who hail themselves as “fundamentalists”, because they are incapable of bringing the faculty of reasoning into action when it comes to the authenticity of their doctrines. In simple terms, the fundamentalists are mentally ill people. So when you encounter such individual, wear a smile on your face and simply say to them – “get well soon.” This would probably not turn them instantly into some sort of sentient humans, but at least you would know that you did your part in the name of sweet harmony.
Now let’s turn to the other side – the side that I think you are on. Those on the side of science, i.e. on the side of rational thinking, are the ones I have the most expectations from. They can think for themselves, unlike the fundamentalist patients on the other side. You do not even know my friend, even you are on the side of true religion. Rational thinkers simply are not aware of this fact, because of the definition of religion that has been imposed on all of us by our deluded society. Even the atheists would start to see religion as a positive element of the human society once they recognize what true religion really means. So, let me give you the simplest definition of religion which I proposed in my treatise on religious fundamentalism entitled “Illusion of Religion”.
“Religion is the process of internal growth, not a lifeless bag of foolish words.”
So, far from what we all have been taught by our ancestors, that when you follow your cultural scripture, you are being religious, real religion has never really been attempted to understand by most of the human population. You are religious when you care about your fellow humans influenced by your own conscience, not due to obedience to your scripture. That’s why, the atheists and agnostics are the greatest religious people on earth. Remember this my friend, true religion has to do with humans, not with books. And that’s the religion I advocate, and indeed that’s the religion which most of the prophets of human history tried to spread. But due to the human craving for a messiah and secure doctrines, those prophets became divine figures and their teachings combined with later incorporation, ended up being divine irrefutable gospel.
So, you see, religion has nothing to do with scriptures. Religion is what your conscience constructs as your baseline behavior in your society. As I have said in “Illusion of Religion” –
“Whether you call yourself a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, a Hindu or an Atheist, if you have kindness in your heart and compassion in your act, you are on the right path of religion.”
So my dear humans, the true reformation of religion lies in your hands. You are the most capable people to do so, because the fundamentalists on the other side, are too deluded to think anything productive and healthy, that concerns all humanity. Their illness makes them concerned only of the exclusive survival of their dearest scripture. Hence, the fate of humanity lies in the hands of civilized, conscientious and compassionate humans.
Further Reading
Illusion of Religion: A Treatise on Religious Fundamentalism
[book; Principia Humanitas]
I do not expect anything from those in the side of religion, or to be specific, from those who hail themselves as “fundamentalists”, because they are incapable of bringing the faculty of reasoning into action when it comes to the authenticity of their doctrines. In simple terms, the fundamentalists are mentally ill people. So when you encounter such individual, wear a smile on your face and simply say to them – “get well soon.” This would probably not turn them instantly into some sort of sentient humans, but at least you would know that you did your part in the name of sweet harmony.
Now let’s turn to the other side – the side that I think you are on. Those on the side of science, i.e. on the side of rational thinking, are the ones I have the most expectations from. They can think for themselves, unlike the fundamentalist patients on the other side. You do not even know my friend, even you are on the side of true religion. Rational thinkers simply are not aware of this fact, because of the definition of religion that has been imposed on all of us by our deluded society. Even the atheists would start to see religion as a positive element of the human society once they recognize what true religion really means. So, let me give you the simplest definition of religion which I proposed in my treatise on religious fundamentalism entitled “Illusion of Religion”.
“Religion is the process of internal growth, not a lifeless bag of foolish words.”
So, far from what we all have been taught by our ancestors, that when you follow your cultural scripture, you are being religious, real religion has never really been attempted to understand by most of the human population. You are religious when you care about your fellow humans influenced by your own conscience, not due to obedience to your scripture. That’s why, the atheists and agnostics are the greatest religious people on earth. Remember this my friend, true religion has to do with humans, not with books. And that’s the religion I advocate, and indeed that’s the religion which most of the prophets of human history tried to spread. But due to the human craving for a messiah and secure doctrines, those prophets became divine figures and their teachings combined with later incorporation, ended up being divine irrefutable gospel.
So, you see, religion has nothing to do with scriptures. Religion is what your conscience constructs as your baseline behavior in your society. As I have said in “Illusion of Religion” –
“Whether you call yourself a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, a Hindu or an Atheist, if you have kindness in your heart and compassion in your act, you are on the right path of religion.”
So my dear humans, the true reformation of religion lies in your hands. You are the most capable people to do so, because the fundamentalists on the other side, are too deluded to think anything productive and healthy, that concerns all humanity. Their illness makes them concerned only of the exclusive survival of their dearest scripture. Hence, the fate of humanity lies in the hands of civilized, conscientious and compassionate humans.
Further Reading
Illusion of Religion: A Treatise on Religious Fundamentalism
[book; Principia Humanitas]
Why I am not Atheist
I say things – things that would most gloriously make me appear as an atheist to people, such as – “God is a human creation” – “scriptures come from humans” – “forget the gods and pay attention to humans”. However I never hail myself as atheist, and you never hear me saying out loud that I am an atheist. And it is because one simple reason, I hate discrimination, I hate bigotry and I hate creating walls. I don’t wanna create an wall between me and all the peace loving people in the world who are just happy with their religiousness and they are not trying to impose on anybody’s else’s beliefs. Now, these are the people are I work for, just like I work for all other humans who want progress, who want the world to be a better place, if not for us, at least for our children. That’s why I don’t call myself an atheist.
Because when you put a label on yourself, that label comes along with a log of psychological baggage. And in most cases you may not be aware of these correlated psychological elements, but those who listen to you may do. So in their brain they would draw an image of your personality. And they will give that image qualities based on their subjective understanding of the label that you imposed on yourself. Like when you say you are an atheist, usually the religious population of the planet would very easily deem you to be against all of their religiousness – religiousness that is a part of their identity. And you cannot take away that identity – if you try, then there would be no difference between you and the religious fundamentalism.
And though I am not anti-religion, I am anti-fundamentalism. Fundamentalists do not make up the whole religious population on earth. As a scientist, as an educator, of course I am against indoctrinating children, I am against teaching them biblical stories as factual truth, I am against prayer given more attention than actual human contribution in the society. Still I am not against religion, because of those people who identify themselves as religious but do not take their scriptures literally and have the brain capacity to think which part of those books are good and which are not. And this process of taking the good things from the scriptures and ignoring the primitive ones, happens in most of the religious psyches of the world quite unconsciously.
I am not an atheist, because of these peace-loving religious people who are simply good people and they accept people from different religious orientation as equal. And no, not all religious people go around their neighborhood screaming the exclusive superiority of their religion and God over all others. They love their religion, but they don’t make a fuss over it, like the fundamentalists do. Religion is simply a part of their cultural identity, nothing more – it is fostered as a supremacist ideology only in the head of the fundamentalists. The fundamentalists are the enemy because they are driven by the elementary primitive notion of their religion being superior to all others, and hence other people are lesser humans. Fundamentalism is the enemy, not religion. In fact, fundamentalism is an enemy of religion itself, because in a progressive civilized society religion means realization of your inner divinity, not meek obedience to books of the dead people.
I am a scientist, and as such one of my core purposes is to understand the truth behind various phenomena of the universe with as much accuracy as possible And one of those phenomena is religion. And in order to understand it with as less subjective biases as possible, I must refrain from being called either “religious” or “atheist”. Now that’s the scientific reason for me to not hail myself as either atheist or religious. And as for the humane reason, which is more appealing to me as a human being, it is that the only label I go with is “human” – because that’s the label I received from Mother Nature. And that’s the label that makes me a part of human lives in human society, regardless of religion, regardless of race, regardless of gender and regardless of sexual orientation. The label of human is beyond race, beyond religion, beyond gender and beyond sexual orientation.
Further Reading
Principia Humanitas
Illusion of Religion: A Treatise on Religious Fundamentalism
Because when you put a label on yourself, that label comes along with a log of psychological baggage. And in most cases you may not be aware of these correlated psychological elements, but those who listen to you may do. So in their brain they would draw an image of your personality. And they will give that image qualities based on their subjective understanding of the label that you imposed on yourself. Like when you say you are an atheist, usually the religious population of the planet would very easily deem you to be against all of their religiousness – religiousness that is a part of their identity. And you cannot take away that identity – if you try, then there would be no difference between you and the religious fundamentalism.
And though I am not anti-religion, I am anti-fundamentalism. Fundamentalists do not make up the whole religious population on earth. As a scientist, as an educator, of course I am against indoctrinating children, I am against teaching them biblical stories as factual truth, I am against prayer given more attention than actual human contribution in the society. Still I am not against religion, because of those people who identify themselves as religious but do not take their scriptures literally and have the brain capacity to think which part of those books are good and which are not. And this process of taking the good things from the scriptures and ignoring the primitive ones, happens in most of the religious psyches of the world quite unconsciously.
I am not an atheist, because of these peace-loving religious people who are simply good people and they accept people from different religious orientation as equal. And no, not all religious people go around their neighborhood screaming the exclusive superiority of their religion and God over all others. They love their religion, but they don’t make a fuss over it, like the fundamentalists do. Religion is simply a part of their cultural identity, nothing more – it is fostered as a supremacist ideology only in the head of the fundamentalists. The fundamentalists are the enemy because they are driven by the elementary primitive notion of their religion being superior to all others, and hence other people are lesser humans. Fundamentalism is the enemy, not religion. In fact, fundamentalism is an enemy of religion itself, because in a progressive civilized society religion means realization of your inner divinity, not meek obedience to books of the dead people.
I am a scientist, and as such one of my core purposes is to understand the truth behind various phenomena of the universe with as much accuracy as possible And one of those phenomena is religion. And in order to understand it with as less subjective biases as possible, I must refrain from being called either “religious” or “atheist”. Now that’s the scientific reason for me to not hail myself as either atheist or religious. And as for the humane reason, which is more appealing to me as a human being, it is that the only label I go with is “human” – because that’s the label I received from Mother Nature. And that’s the label that makes me a part of human lives in human society, regardless of religion, regardless of race, regardless of gender and regardless of sexual orientation. The label of human is beyond race, beyond religion, beyond gender and beyond sexual orientation.
Further Reading
Principia Humanitas
Illusion of Religion: A Treatise on Religious Fundamentalism
The Real Karma
The Sanskrit term “Karma” simply refers to “duty”, that is, your everyday duty as a human being. And this duty has no mystical intervention in it – it has no divine law that can determine a certain reward in return. It’s plain ordinary everyday human action. However, the nonsense of Hindu orthodoxy and the gullibility of people have turned the simple idea of karma or human action into a form of divine law – where one receives reward for doing good and punishment for doing bad. This primordial and uncivilized form of Karma is nothing but an ignorant fantasy of ignorant people. It gives them a kind of comfort that if a person does good, he or she would for sure receive a reward in return by the force of this karmic law. And this is nothing but the product of psychological insecurity of the human mind. So, the so-called law of karma is all superstitious nonsense, quite similar to the afterlife nonsense.
Real humans with a beating heart and active conscience would do good in the world, not because of some mumbo-jumbo law, but because that’s what being human means. That act of goodness and kindness does not determine the reward you’ll get for your action. In fact, real karma or real human duty is the act that is carried out with the genuine hope of bringing a change outside of us – in the world, not in anticipation of reward. And that very act of pure conscience is karma, morality, religion, godliness, spirituality all together. These are all varied terms for the one and the same thing, that is being a conscientious human being. In short, to be a conscientious human is real karma – it is real spirituality – it is real religion.
Real humans with a beating heart and active conscience would do good in the world, not because of some mumbo-jumbo law, but because that’s what being human means. That act of goodness and kindness does not determine the reward you’ll get for your action. In fact, real karma or real human duty is the act that is carried out with the genuine hope of bringing a change outside of us – in the world, not in anticipation of reward. And that very act of pure conscience is karma, morality, religion, godliness, spirituality all together. These are all varied terms for the one and the same thing, that is being a conscientious human being. In short, to be a conscientious human is real karma – it is real spirituality – it is real religion.
Science and Religion (The Sonnet)
Science and Religion have no feud,
Both are expressions of naturalism.
The real feud has been between,
Intellectualism and fundamentalism.
Facts help us take the world forward,
Reason helps us treat primitiveness.
But facts and reason alone won't do,
Without warmth all matter is lifeless.
Of course there are flaws in religion,
In science too there's greed and bigotry.
If in religion we have extremist nuts,
We also have plenty of scientific bully.
Instead of picking on each other's mistake,
Let us be human across intellect and faith.
Both are expressions of naturalism.
The real feud has been between,
Intellectualism and fundamentalism.
Facts help us take the world forward,
Reason helps us treat primitiveness.
But facts and reason alone won't do,
Without warmth all matter is lifeless.
Of course there are flaws in religion,
In science too there's greed and bigotry.
If in religion we have extremist nuts,
We also have plenty of scientific bully.
Instead of picking on each other's mistake,
Let us be human across intellect and faith.
Language of God (The Sonnet) | Dervish Advaitam
A Jew may say, Hebrew is the language of god.
A Christian may say, Aramaic is the language of god.
A Muslim will say, Arabic is the language of god.
A Hindu will say, Sanskrit is the language of god.
A biologist may say, DNA is the language of god.
Mathematicians say, math is the language of god.
A psychiatrist may say, libido is the language of god.
Physicists say, Quantum Mechanics is language of god.
A politician may say, control is the language of god.
A capitalist may say, currency is the language of god.
A cop may say, law and order are the language of god.
A philosopher may say, wisdom is the language of god.
I don't know all that, I'm a being most ordinary 'n simple.
I only know that kindness is the language of a human.
A Christian may say, Aramaic is the language of god.
A Muslim will say, Arabic is the language of god.
A Hindu will say, Sanskrit is the language of god.
A biologist may say, DNA is the language of god.
Mathematicians say, math is the language of god.
A psychiatrist may say, libido is the language of god.
Physicists say, Quantum Mechanics is language of god.
A politician may say, control is the language of god.
A capitalist may say, currency is the language of god.
A cop may say, law and order are the language of god.
A philosopher may say, wisdom is the language of god.
I don't know all that, I'm a being most ordinary 'n simple.
I only know that kindness is the language of a human.
Honor He Wrote Sonnet 62
Belief sustains a person,
But behavior sustains a society.
Belief has nothing to do with truth,
It is just a matter of mental necessity.
Often our belief defies all reason,
That's absolutely okay to a great extent.
What's not okay is to impose it on others,
To sentence others to our imprisonment.
I believe, that my teacher watches over me,
Even though he walks the earth no more.
This belief has nothing to do with your life,
But it helps me walk past my crippling woe.
All beliefs are good beliefs with or without reason,
If they help you in life to become a better person.
But behavior sustains a society.
Belief has nothing to do with truth,
It is just a matter of mental necessity.
Often our belief defies all reason,
That's absolutely okay to a great extent.
What's not okay is to impose it on others,
To sentence others to our imprisonment.
I believe, that my teacher watches over me,
Even though he walks the earth no more.
This belief has nothing to do with your life,
But it helps me walk past my crippling woe.
All beliefs are good beliefs with or without reason,
If they help you in life to become a better person.
Undoctrination Sonnet | High Voltage Habib
If we teach kids history,
They say we’re indoctrinating them.
If we immunize them against disease,
They say we’re microchipping them.
If we teach kids science,
They say we’re practicing blasphemy.
If we teach kids biology,
They say we’re messing with their identity.
With such mentality of a caveman,
How on earth did you manage to conceive!
I guess, to raise a human takes common sense,
But to make a baby takes only genital breach.
Hence it is more reason for reason to persevere.
There is no way we can let stone age reappear.
They say we’re indoctrinating them.
If we immunize them against disease,
They say we’re microchipping them.
If we teach kids science,
They say we’re practicing blasphemy.
If we teach kids biology,
They say we’re messing with their identity.
With such mentality of a caveman,
How on earth did you manage to conceive!
I guess, to raise a human takes common sense,
But to make a baby takes only genital breach.
Hence it is more reason for reason to persevere.
There is no way we can let stone age reappear.
