God and Science

Lizard Tale

2007-09-11T02:45:00.000-07:00

This is a true story that happened in Japan.

In order to renovate the house, someone in Japan tears open the wall.

Japanese houses normally have a hollow space between the wooden walls. When tearing down the walls, he found that there was a lizard stuck there because a nail from outside hammered into one of its feet. He sees this, feels pity, and at the same time curious, as when he checked the nail, it was nailed 10 years ago when the house was first built.

What happened?

The lizard has survived in such position for 10 years! In a dark wall partition for 10 years without moving, it is impossible and mind boggling. Then he wondered how this lizard survived for 10 years without moving a single step-since its foot was nailed! So he stopped his work and observed the lizard, what it has been doing, and what and how it has been eating. Later, not knowing from where it came, appears another lizard, with food in its mouth.

He was stunned. For the lizard that was stuck by nail, another lizard has been feeding it for the past 10 years...

Such love happened even with this tiny creature ... Imagine? it has been doing that untiringly for 10 long years, without giving up hope on its partner.

What can we understand from the story above?

I. Love is there even amongst animals.
This feeling of care or protection towards once partner or children is even present in animals. Even we can see in every species of animals, the mother feeding food to its children, or the love between the partners.

So how different is a human being from an animal? If we analyse closely we can observe:

a) Animals also eat, humans also eat.
b) Animals also sleep, humans also sleep.
c) Animals mate and so do humans.
d) Animals defend themselves and so do humans.
e) Animals show the feelings of love, care and protection and so do humans.

So what is it that differentiates humans from animals? It is ‘athato brahm jignasa”, i.e to enquire about the self and Supreme. To enquire about ones real position. Who am I? Why I have to undergo birth and death? Why so many miseries are there in life? What is the cycle of birth and death? What is karma and karmic reactions? This is the real enquiry. A dog cannot enquire these things. It can only bark and search where is food, where is sleep etc… but it cannot enquire why it is a dog. It will by default accept its real position as a dog. If a human being also engages his rare human birth in eating, sleeping, mating and defending business (ahaar, nidra, bhaya, maithun), then he is as good as an animal.

Therefore everyone must make this important enquiry and try to understand the real aim of life. The real aim of life is to surrender one to the Supreme Lord, and get rid of the cycle of repeated birth and death. And this can be achieved only in human form of life. No other form has that developed consciousness except the human form. But the human birth is very rare. Hence one must make best use of this rare opportunity.

II. Everyone has to suffer for his karmic reactions.
In this case, the lizard got stuck for 10 years at the same place, bearing the pain caused by the nail. But this question keeps coming as to why this happened to the lizard? For example, when people die in bomb blasts or other such incidents, then the usual feeling is , ‘oh, he was such a nice person. He never harmed anyone. Why he had to meet this terrible end’ ..etc.

Well, if a person is well behaved in this life does not mean he was well behaved in his earlier lives as well. We keep committing lot of sins forgetting that we will have to bear the reactions of our own activities. A human being, based on his karma, may be promoted to a higher life or demoted to animal life in his next birth. In both the lives, he bears the reactions of his activities. In higher life, he enjoys the fruits of his good deeds and in lower\animal life he suffers the reactions of his bad deeds. If a person dies prematuredly, one should understand that he was the cause of someone’s premature death in his past birth. The cycle of birth and death cannot be denied.

Just like the soul traverses from the body of a small child to yourth to old age, similarly the soul passes on to another body at the time of death. The soul keeps changing the bodies just like we change clothes. When our clothes become old we reject them and accept new ones. Sometimes our new clothes get torn apart and we reject them and accept new clothes again. Similarly when a body no more remains suitable for a soul to stay, it leaves this body and enters another body. This transition is death and re-birth.

So whatever karmic activities one performs in this birth, he must suffer the reactions either in this birth, or the next birth or next-to-next birth and so on.

In Mahabharata, when Bhishma was pierced with arrows, he enquired from Lord Krishna as to why he had to suffer so much of pain of these pierced arrows. At that time Lord informed Bhishma that in his 71st birth, Bhishma had thrown a snake on a cactus and the snake died a painful death after being pierced with the thorns of the cactus. Hence Bhishma was bound to suffer the reactions of this activity and hence he was also pierced with arrows in the same way.

Hence, we should be very careful in our dealings. Those who are killing the innocent animals for their sense gratification, i.e for satisfying the taste buds of their tongue, are sure to suffer in the same manner in their coming births, the way these animals are suffering whom they are eating. In Manu Samhita, it is described, "...He who gives permission, he who kills the animal, he who sells the slaughtered animal, he who cooks the animal, he who administers the distribution of the flesh, and at last he who eats the flesh are all murderers and all of them are punishable under the law of karma." Hence one should be merciful to all his fellow living entities, and try to remain always engaged in the service of the Supreme Lord, by whose mercy one can easily cross beyond this cycle of repeated birth and death.

Who am I ?

2007-09-11T02:37:00.000-07:00

In the last blog, we discussed the basic generic problems of life which cannot be escaped. But we left the question unanswered as to why and how the solution of thsese generic problems, and the need to understand God are interrelated.

Well, first of all I ask you a question. Who are you? To this question, I may get several answers, like I am a software engineer, I am an Indian, I am an American, I am a Hindu, I am a Muslim, I am Mr. XYZ, I am a politician, I am boy, I am a girl, I am a human being etc... Hence, to this single question, I may get n number of different replies. But none of the above descriptions depict our true nature.

The real intelligence of a human being is, when he starts enquiring 'Who am I'? This is called 'athata brahmna jignyasa', i.e. to enquire about self. If one does not enquire 'who am i', 'why am i here', 'why i have to undergo birth and death', 'what is there after death', 'what is karma and karmic activities and reactions', 'what is my relationship with God', 'am I this body' etc... then he is as good as an animal.

An animal also eats, sleeps and mates and the humans also do the same. But an animal cannot enquire about self. So if a human being is also wasting his life in simply maintaining his body through the means of eating, sleeping, mating and defending, then he is as good as an animal
pretending to be a human being.

Our Vedic scriptures propound the supreme gem on knowledge, i.e the science of soul. In Bhagvad Gita, Lord Krishna explains the real identity of all the living entities.

dehino asmin yatha dehe, kaumaram yauvanam jara
tatha dehantaram praptih dhirastatra na muhyati (BG 2.13)

As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes to another body at death.

Hence, the soul is eternal and never dies. It is only the body that dies and the soul takes up another body at the time of death. We are not this body but our real identity is that we are part and parcels of the Supreme Lord. We are souls and He is the Supersoul. As the sloka above describes 'embodied soul'. This means that the true nature of the soul is pure, but in material condition it is embodied in some form of body.

There are innumerable souls acquiring different kinds of bodies. It is not sure for us also, that we may get a human birth in our next life. There are 84,00,000 differnt species of life and based on one's karma in this birth, he gets a body in his next birth. For example, if someone is too much inclined towards eating meat, he gets a body of a carnivorous animal, based on his desire to eat meat so much. Hence, we may become a beast, an insect, a plant, a mammal, a reptile or a human in our next life. This is decided by our karmic activities in this life. Hence, based on our karma and its reactions, we keep undergoing the cycle of birth and death. This is an endless journey.

We have already seen in our previous blog (Need to Understand God -II), how miserable this journey is. Hence we must find out as to how to put an end to this journey of continuous birth and death and migration to 84,00,000 different species of life. We must enquire, if I am eternal
then why I have to undergo death?

Yes, eternity is our right, for we are the part and parcel of the Supreme personification of all knowledge-eternity-bliss. We are the part and parcel of the Supreme Lord. Lord says in Bhagvad Gita "sarva yonishu kaunteya... aham bija pradah pita" i.e .. I am the seed giving father of
all the living entities. This Supreme Lord is sac-cid-ananda, i.e He is adi purush, eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss. Since we are His part and parcels, we are also eternal and blissful. Just like the Sun and the sunrays are qualitatively same, similarly we are the small sunrays of that Supreme Sun. Because of falling into this material world, we have forgotten our eternal relationship with our Supreme Lord and hence we are suffering in the hands of birth and death.

Hence, our endeavour should be to re-establish the lost relationship between us and the Supreme Lord, and go back to Him, by transcending this birth and death cycle. Actually, the relationship is eternal, hence it is already there. But it has become dormant and forgotten under the influence of this material world. Hence we have to revive that dormant relationship. This is the real aim of human life. Because in none other form of life, can this be achived. Only human birth has the developed consciousness to understand God and our relationship with Him.

The coming blog (Lizard Tale) depicts the true nature of human birth and karmic activities.

Need to understand God - II

2007-08-22T22:15:00.000-07:00

As discussed in the previous blog, there are some generic problems which everyone of us has to face and that it is not possible for us to avoid these problems. The problems are described in our Vedic scriptures as "janma, mrtyu, jarah, vyadhi kali dukha darshanam.." i.e.
1. Birth
2. Death
3. Old Age
4. Disease

If we put these sequentially we can say that birth, old age, disease and death are the natural problems everybody faces. Now how these four are problems? Lets see..

1. BIRTH
Imagine yourself in a small room with the door locked and no-one inside. How long can you stay in that room? Certainly, you will be bored off in few hours and feel irritated to get out of the room. Not just this, imagine you are hanged upside down in that position alone in that room. Also somebody has left some lizards, cockroaches and spiders in the room... but this is not the end. There is also some stinking sewage and garbage in the room which is smelling badly. Well now, how long can you stay in such a room? A minute... or few seconds...?

Well, each of us has stayed for full 7 months in such a room !!
How?
According to our shastras, (which is also proven by medical science), the soul develops consciousness in the second month inside the mother's womb. In such a conscious position it remains in the womb for full 7 months. He is surrounded by worms, stool etc in the womb and in this position he tries to move (remember the carrying ladies describing how they can feel the movements of their babies?), but he still cant get rid of this horrible position, till he finishes his term of 7 months !

2. OLD AGE
Many of us may not understand the seriousness of this problem, because we have not yet reached that age, but we can clearly see it on the faces of those staying in old age homes. What is it the old people go through:
> Loneliness
> Knowing that few days are only left, for death to arrive
> Diseases

Maximum group of old people die of falling prey to certain disease. The body becomes weak. It is difficult to walk properly, or even eat. The strength and immunition of body starts fading, and hence the diseases catch easily. Not just that, constant devil of loneliness and wait for death keeps haunting the people who have grown old.

3. DISEASE
Still don’t believe this really is a problem? Well.. just visit a nearby hospital. There are cases where people have died of tumours, cancers, heart failure, lung diseases, kidney failures. And now most importantly, AIDS. We cannot understand the trauma of a person who was having a nice time with his friends and family and one day he comes to know he has AIDS.

Is there a single person who has never fallen ill? Everyone of us face either cold or fever or something else now or then. Well its a good argument, that the medical science is coming up with proper medication for these diseases and so nothing to worry. But it is to be noted that if medical science invents a medication for Disease1 today, a new Disease2 will come up tomorrow.

Few decades back, they made a breakthrough by coming up with medication for leprosy, TB, chicken pox etc. But then we got cancers. Once they came up with medication against cancer, we got AIDS. Now they are struggling to counteract AIDS, and by the time they succeed, we will be facing a new fatal disease.

4. DEATH
The most scaring one? Well.. for all the brave ones there who dont care for death, and who have "live every moment of your life" attitude, death is sure to come anyway. The intelligence is not to ignore the problem, but actually find out the solution of the problem. Ignoring the problem may seem to be a brave step, but it is at the same time un-intelligent.

According to our shastras, the pain of the biting of 40,000 scorpions at the same time is NOTHING compared to the pain of death.We are very much attached to our possessions. If we own a car which gets damaged in an accident, we will become upset. If our new shirt gets torn accidently, we feel very sad. And what to speak of the pain we feel, if someone close to us dies?

We are very attached to our possessions. Then we cannot even measure how much we are attached to our own body. Death means "I will snatch everything from you", which means, your knowledge, education, friends, family, property and above all.. your own body. Hence this pain of everything being snatched is beyond any explanation. It is gruesome. Death is not a painful experience just for one who dies, but also for those closely related to him.

If a mother loses her son or a wife loses her husband, this pain remains in their heart and haunts them all their life. Nowadays, daily in the news we can see so many accidents, bomb blasts, crime etc... people are losing their lives. Their loved ones have got a wound which will not heal till the end of their lives.

So these four basic problems are sure to come.. unavoidably.Apart from these four basic problems, there are three ways we get these problems:
1. Adhyatmik
2. Adhibhautik
3. Adhidaivik

1. Adhyatmik:
The problem due to our own mind, e.g. stress, tension, sadness, depression etc. People even commit suicide due to these type of problems.

2. Adhibhautik:
Problem due to other entities. e.g the boss in office, bomb blasts done by someone to kill others, criminals and robbers, your neighbour :) , mosquitoes, snakes, wild animals etc.

3. Adhidaivik:
Problems posed by nature e.g, earth quakes, floods, tsunami etc.

Hence this is the consolidated list of generic problems. But now the million dollar question is, "how the solution of these problems related to the need of understanding God?"

The answer to this question will appear in the coming blogs.

Need to understand God - I

2007-08-22T00:02:00.000-07:00

What is the need to understand God??

After reading the first two blogs (Does God Exist and I have not seen God), one may come up with a question.. fine God exists and also there is a certain process to meet God, but why are you telling me all this?? What will I get by knowing all this?I am happy in my life. I have a nice job, handsome salary, I am enjoying my life with my wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend ..
I go for movies, parties every weekend, living a comfortable life and I am happy. Why should I put my mind in all these things ? I admit God is there and daily I offer my pranams to Him and I think that is sufficient. I dont think we are getting anything by knowing any further about God.

This is a very natural enquiry. Why should we take God so seriously in our life?
Actually, everyone is living a life such that he faces one or the other problem now or then. Nobody in this world can claim that he never had a problem. If I ask, what problems you have faced recently, definitely you will have some to count:
=> Searching a nice apartment
=> Owning a house, applying for loan etc.
=> Traffic jams while going to office
=> Meeting deadlines and tight work schedules
=> Mental stress
=> Mobile phone bills
=> Electricity power cuts
=> Maid servant didnt come today, will have to do all household work myself
=> Salary falling short to meet expenses
etc..etc.. etc...

These are some of the daily life problems we see around us. Daily we will be in anxiety for some or the other small problem. like, missed the bus to office, sitting late nights in office to meet deadlines, gas cylinder got over what to cook now.. etc...

One may say, "So what? These are very small problems. And unless we dont face problems at their face, it means we are not strong. We have to be bold and face the life as it comes. Its better to face the problem rather than running away from it. And apart from these small issues listed above, I am quite happy in my life."

Thats all right. These are really small and insignificant problems. But there are some generic problems in life which have these special qualities:
1.Everyone has to face them !
2.Nobody wants them !
3.Nobody can avoid them !

Keep thinking on such problems. We will discuss them in our next blog...

I have not seen God

2007-05-18T03:57:00.000-07:00

I have not seen God !

Usually, despite seeing many wonderful things around, people are not ready to believe that God exists.
Reason: I havnt seen God or met Him. How can I believe that He exists?If something exists, I must be able to see it .

TO SEE ULTRA VIOLET/INFRA RED RAYS:
Can we see ultra violet or infra red rays with our bare eyes?
Ans. No.
Does that mean Infra Red and Ultra Violet rays do not exist.!?
But by following a certain process (using correct equipments), we can see the UV and IR rays.
Conclusion: We can see the rays but by following a process, and not by our bare eyes.We cannot see so many things with our bare eyes, e.g individual structure of an atom, oxygen gas, ozone layer etc. But by following recommended process by scientists, we can see these things.

TO MEET THE PRESIDENT OF USA:
If one wants to meet or see the USA president, he has to follow a particular process.
1. Apply for the passport
2. Undergo security checks
3. Visa Stamping (may get rejected sometimes)
4. Book the tickets
5. Emmigration check
6. Board the flight
7. Land in USA
8. Immigration check
9. Book an appointment to see the President
10. Meet the president (if you get the appointment).

If one is not willing to follow the above process, but still desires to meet the President of USA, he cannot meet because the President is not the order supplier of everyone. The person will say I dont believe President of USA exists because I havnt seen him, and suddenly the President will come in front of the person and say .. Oh! look here I am. No, this is not possible. Moreover, if the person breaks any of the above steps or rules and tries to meet the President directly, he will land up in jail.

If there is a process to see a simple ultra violet ray, or to meet a simple human being just because he is on a high post in this world, what to speak of the process required to meet that Supreme Being, from whose toe nail, millions and trillions of such worlds emanate. God is not our order supplier. If we want to meet Him, we have to make ourselves qualified. We have to follow a certain process recommended by higher authorities. The process will be discussed eventually in the coming blogs. But now the question that arises is.. "okay fine I have to follow certain process to meet God. But WHAT IS THE NEED TO SEE/ UNDERSTAND/ MEET GOD? I am happy the way I am. I dont need to do all this."

The answer to above question will be taken up in the coming blogs.

Does God Exist??

2007-05-03T06:37:00.000-07:00

The human society is divided into two classes:
1. Those who believe that God is there.
2. Those who believe that no such personality as God exists.
This blog is to present few facts and figures and understand on a scientific basis, whether God exists or not.

I. Traffic Controller.
1. Two Dimensional Traffic:
If we have ever got a chance to get stuck on a traffic signal, we would find that the traffic police controller is governing the smooth flow of traffic. Under his supervision, the vehicles, both small and big, are moving in a proper direction at a proper time. If he disappears even for 5 mins, the cross road will turn out to be a big chaos. The vehicles will move haphazardly and will collapse with each other.
Conclusion: A controller is needed to govern two dimensional traffic.
Qualification/Degree: 12th pass, graduate.

2. Three Dimensional Traffic:
The airplanes and helicopters flying in the air are controlled by the air traffic controllers and the pilots. If the pilot does not know about proper latitude, longitude or orbits, or if the engineers at the airport workstation do not provide correct information to the pilot about the other airplanes flying in surrounding area, there will be air collisions and accidents.
Conclusion: A controller is needed to govern three dimensional traffic.
Qualification/Degree: Engineer, Scientist, Post Graduate.

3. 'n' Dimensional Traffic:
There are several planets, satellites, galaxies floating in the universe. Consider the solar system. Each planet is maintaining a specific distance from sun, and rotating on its own orbit and revolves round the sun in a proper direction for a fixed number of days. This results in rising and setting of sun at proper time. The gravitational force causes each planet to remain in its orbit and function accurately.Consider an atom. The neutron is at the center and the protons surrounding it, the electrons revolving around the neutron in all directions at a fixed orbit without colliding with each other.
Conclusion: Traffic controllers are needed for two and three dimensional traffic control but no controller needed for 'n' dimensional traffic control ???
Qualification/Degree: Can any human qualification like Ph.D achieve this 'n' dimensional traffic control...???

II. Vitamin-B12 molecule
It took 11 years for 99 scientists (all Nobel Laureats), from 19 different countries, to create ONE molecule of Vitamin B12. One can understand the level of hard work, intelligence and design contributed by the scientists to create the complex molecular structure.
Mango Fruit: Millions of Vitamin B12 molecules are found in a single Mango fruit. Trillions of mangoes found all over the world.
Conclusion: A single molecule creation took 11 years for 99 scientists, but so many millions of molecules got created accidently on their own?? No intelligence/design/scientist needed for creating them???

III. Seasonal Fruits
Fruits found in summer: Water melon, musk melon, coconut water, mango, lichi, palm fruit, cucumber, sugarcane juice etc.When there is scarcity of water all around during summer season, all the watery fruits as described above are available. When the modern science is digging the land (borewells) to find water 1000 feet below ground level, somebody is providing us water 10 feet above the ground level by means of these fruits.
Fruits found in winter: Orange, grapes.When we are suffering from cold during winters, someone is providing fruits rich in Vitamin C, to cure our cough.
Intelligence needed???Design needed???

IV. Properties of Water
The water is at highest density at 4degree celcius. At this temperature, it becomes ice and starts floating on water. Not only this, it also releases heat so that the water below it, remains warm.This is how the aquatic life sustains. If it wasnt for this phenomenon of water, all the aquatic life would have finished long back, due to total freezing of water into ice.
Conclusion: To even create a small needle, which is nothing but a stick with a hole, a designer is needed. But for above complex phenomenon and properties of water no designer is needed???

V. TOKYO CITY
I went to the Tokyo city last month. There I met the head of the Tokyo Municipality Corporation. I told him "Your city is really beautiful and very well organised. Overlapping fly-overs, sky scrapper buildings, Proper electricity supply, proper water supply... everything is quite systematic. Definitely last night this city came out of nothing on its own".The officer started laughing. He said,"are you mad? We have worked day and night for so many years to make this city. We have prime minister, a government working under him, below which is municipal corporation. By the order and instructions of the PM, the govt works and by its orders, we work and thus with great hard work and intelligence and design we have created this city. How can you say the city got created on its own?".
A small city like Tokyo cannot be created by itself, but such a big universe, where so many overlapping planets and satellites are there, so many big sky scrapper galaxies, natural electricity supply (sun), natural water supply (rains) is there, life is there (earth), so many n- dimensional factors like dynamotions, speed, time factor, centripetal force, centrifugal force etc are to be calculated, got created on its own without any design!! ? Is there no PM, no govt, no municipal corporation needed for this creation?

VI. Cow's milk
Input: Grass, water, roughage.
Output: Liquid containing all kinds of vitamins, proteins, minerals, carbohydrates, fats etc.
Use: boiled milk,cream, curd, cheese, paneer, butter, buttermilk, ghee, icecreams, choclates, cakes, sweets etc..
Can any scientist create a machine, whose input will be grass and water, and output will be a liquid with above properties and use???

Likewise, innumerable examples can be given. Structure of an eye, DNA molecule, so many flowers, each with a different color and fragrance, our brain, Photosynthesis etc. Have all these things got created by a mere coincidence and explosion? If so, why doesnt a needle, a wheel, a cart, a pot, a spoon , or a chapati for that matter get created by coincidence???

It is like, a person working day and night to write his thesis and give his presentation. But when he produces excellent results, his boss says "you havnt done anything. All your thesis and presentations came on its own. You did not write it." The person will surely get hurt. Similarly we are hurting God by marking His beautiful creation as a mere coincidence, and defying His design and unsurmountable intelligence.