The ultimate desire

 The ultimate desire

By

Murali Murthy

Do seekers always have to take a philosophical path, spiritual path to find answers?

Is seeking itself a desire? Let's decrypt Desire - If desire is want of something, strong attraction towards an objective or a goal, then isn't the answers found in all Religious texts as ultimate truth - to reach God, to be one with God, to reach Heaven, a desire as well?

Desire is a Desire. One cannot say worldly desires are bad, but a desire to live better in Heaven/Next life is right.

All the spiritual, philosophical beings across all religions promote disconnecting from worldly desires and allures, and punish oneself by constant meditation, rituals, fasting to reach the ultimate perceived, imaginary pleasure of being with the God, or reach an imaginary heaven.

Even the good deeds, philanthropy people are engaged in, also have a motive that this will yield them good punya, and help in their next birth or in Heaven!

What do we do to find peace in this life? If the answer to every question is "God will keep a tally entry of every deed, and helps you or punishes you in next life or in Heaven".

What do we do to get him help us in this reality we live in, in the present life we are leading?

Even people in power, position doing bad deeds or causing hurt don't do it intentionally, most of them do it just because they can do it.

If we all believe in God and he being the creator of this world, why humiliate him by saying the world he created, and the life bestowed on you is to be denounced, and look for an imaginary, beyond comprehendable place called next life or Heaven!?

It is what it is. There is God. God created this world. We were put here. So, let's just live this life.

Every religion also hides behind their root scriptures, any question is countered "hey that's what texts say, and these texts are God's own message, not written by anyone".

Be it Vedas, Quran, Bible, all these are supposedly voices of God, written by some human who had access to God!!

Even in Buddhism, their scriptures were not dictated directly by the Buddha unfortunately. The messages and teachings of Buddha were passed on for generations for over 100 years (after Buddha's time) verbally, until someone finally decided to document, and it's anyone's guess they are not unadulterated.

So, as a seeker, where do I find answer? Learned scholars say one has to read scriptures, understand, do deep dive and learn for a lifetime and you would still not get answers!

I have a problem here, with every known religion being many centuries old, and many scholars under each school of thought dedicating their life studying scriptures, has no one found answers to give us straight answers?

Every religion points the right way to lead this life is to eventually, constantly keep impressing God. If he is pleased, he will help you elsewhere, not now, by the way!

Why is God so ego filled? I know it's all his creation, but if he is really "God", he should be egoless and stop expecting praises, prayers from every single being through out life, or face consequences!

Then why the exception to Animals? Or is God exclusive only to Humans?

The incomplete, imperfect beings that we are, had to find solace in a perfect, complete supreme power, to fulfil our desire and hope to reach the highest, beyond human character that we could ever imagine and comprehend, and we designed God.

Religious identity, spiritual bliss that we attain, morality, righteousness are all just individual convenience. The theory of relativity in the context of self-entitlement is to add "Convenient" as prefix - Convenient Consciousness, Convenient Morality, Convenient obedience, Convenient rules, Convenient Sympathy, Convenient Submission.

Everything is about individual convenience, what works for me, how can I make things work for me, including Nature, God, Resources.

Sometimes I wonder if God is really all this religious that we imagine him to be. What if he is just busy inventing, manufacturing people, places, lives and doesn't really care what we do? Why should we assume he is exactly how he is, how we perceive him to be?

With so much confusion, questions, tendency to be rebellious, once I finish this writing, I go back to my belief system, work within the framework of my religion, bow down to God, seek his help in everything that I do, not by force, but by conviction, which is again my convenience!

In quest of God

In quest of God

By Murali Murthy

Humanity has always been amazed, amused with the concept of God and we have eternally been running around finding answers.

I guess the best way to get answers, is to ask questions.

Every school of thought, especially those under Hinduism, found solace under Vedas to find answers.

Every school of thought came into being when their founders disagreed, as they were not convinced with the existing understanding, definitions, notions and started asking questions.

If the founders of their future School of Thought had to be accepted, they needed to have the courage, conviction and brave enough to start asking questions. And if their idea had to be even acknowledged, it was obvious that the arguments had to be intellectual.

Unlike the common notion that these great philosophers only propounded their definition of God, ways of Bhakti Rituals, Rules, be it Sri Shankara, Sri Ramanuja or Sri Madhwa, they were infact no less than scientists or researchers. They researched Brahma Sutras, Vedas, Shastras and came up with their interpretations, findings and put forth extremely intelligent explanations, arguments and had to prove (in the context and scope of vedantha) their ideas.

It was all about interpreting Vedas and coming up with justifiable explanations. Different schools of thought came into being because of the difference in interpretations. For Ex: the term Vedantha itself can be interpreted as Veda+Antha = End of Vedas, or The ultimate knowledge of Vedas...same word with contradictory meanings.

And this is exactly what happened between Shankara & Madhwa. While Shankara based on his intelligence, texts, tools available at that point of time, propounded his interpretations of Vedas in the 8th Century, while Madhwa in the 13th Century had more resources including all the works of Shankara, which he believed should be questioned.

Shankara and Madhwa both agreed Bhakti marga, Gnaana marga and Karma marga are the ways to understand God and spirituality.

Each of us take different paths to attain Spirituality...while my Mom is 100% into Bhakti (Devotion) where her way of understanding God is by expressing emotions and her inner bliss, and blindly following her faith and rituals without questioning.

On the other side, my Uncles (Subbanna, Narayana, JK) chose Gnaana marga, where they studied Madhwa Bhashya and understood the true essence of Tatvavada. It was their conviction to follow Madwa sidhantha, as Madhwa had access to all the knowledge, tools, comparative analysis with the other schools of thought, which made his study and explanations comprehensive.

As JK says, it's like a Buffet spread and each of us choose to go to the counter that suits us or that we are comfortable with. My mom will go to a different counter, my uncles might go to a different counter, while my other cousin (who is a true aethist) goes to another line. 

And the confused lot like me, who would stand in every single line end up with a plate with Anna Saaru and saaru running and joining Egg Curry and Panneer Butter Masala as well on my plate.

JK also says, even an aethist understands God and the aethist chooses not to believe in God.

Each of us are born in a family and belief system. My mom is a Madhwa by birth, but my Uncles are Madhwa by conviction, because they understand the message of Madhwa and their conviction on his findings and explanations.

I also see another core set who are hyper about rules, regulations, maDi, rituals, with extremely conservative approach.

Madhwa identified inconsistencies in Shankara Bhashya and the interpretations of the position of God and his supremacy.

The compromise established by Shankara that Brahman is the creator of an illusional world and that people should detach from this illusion.

This was unacceptable to Madhwa, who found consistency in all Shastras to say Brahman is supreme and is unquestionable, in which case his creation also cannot be falsified. His creation is also as True, as real as him.

When we humans experience this pain, this joy, this pleasure, this life in Real, our experience itself stands testimony to the reality of life and world. Ofcourse controlled by him!

I can imagine how Madhwa would have felt, when he was told his entire being, his life, are all just a farse, they are illusional and don't exist for real. He would have said "This can't be true...God is much more sensible and serious in his business, he wouldn't have said that...let me find out what Vedas say about this" and Tatvavada came into being!

The Matrix movie is a good illustration of Tatvavada, where we live inside a Matrix controlled by the creator, yet what's inside and outside the Matrix are all real.

With all this analysis of differences, friendly, intellectual fight between different schools of thought, what attracts me are these intellectual thought processes, deep analysis, research and countering the established practices and influential philosophies that Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhwa countered in their respective timelines.

Even centuries later, one would find answers to individual spiritual quest, in the messages and teachings of the Schools of thought we follow & practice.

The Seeker

The Seeker

By Murali Murthy.

"Is there light beyond the darkness?"

"Is God sitting on top of the peak of the Himalayas?"

"Is God watching us holding a whip in his hands to punish us, if we go against his Dos and Don'ts list?"

"Can we find a world of Gods as we go deeper in the Oceans or up above the Sky?"

"Can I find God in Kumbh Mela?"

I have always believed Spirituality is subjective, personalized and customized as per our convenience.

After a good explanation provided by a known philosopher, who said Spirituality is all about knowing God.

Knowing God has 4 stages.

1st Stage: Faith, Belief...we believe in God because we are just born into a belief system and we are used to seeing people around us believe.

2nd Stage: Enquire, Reason..People who are not happy just by belief. They want to explore more, ask questions, ask logic, proof & reasoning.

3rd Stage: Understand...People try to explore and find answers in the already established scriptures and teachings of their Schools of thought they follow.

4th Stage: Attachment, Dedication...People who have attained deeper knowledge, and the belief is converted to knowledge. They don't believe in God, they know God. They are attached to God and dedicate their life towards God and his message.

It is our choice and priority to either stay at the Stage we are in, or keep moving forward in the stages of Spirituality.

This question of What is Spirituality, What is Bhakti was bothering me with this sudden awakening by crores of Hindus who wanted to take a dip at the Kumbh.

My observation is, this race to salvation is of people who have stayed in the 1st stage for a very long time, and belief has become blind belief.

Ofcourse there are equal and more people at Kumbh (Sadhus, Saints and alikes) who are probably at 3rd or 4th stage know why they are there.

This race to wash sins, this madness to just be part of Kumbh at any cost, this rush of non seeking Hindus landing at Kumbh taking pictures and creating reels and posting "Kumbh vibes", "Kumbh vibrations", has left many puzzled if it's a sin not to get sins washed off!

The rat race to wash sins and seek salvation!!??

It's like any other Fad...like how every customer asks "Do you have AI in your system?".

Each of us see God the way we perceive him. In human form, in an abstract form, as a friend, as a lover, as a strict teacher holding a stick to punish, as a Guru.

Am I a Believer / Seeker / Rebel / Non believer / Explorer / Researcher / Confused / Knower?

The Maha Kumbh

 Maha Kumbh!

By Murali Murthy

An ensemble of believers of Sanathana dharma, seeking purification on this auspicious occasion with a rare celestial event of alignment of planets up above.

Saints and Sadhus are a prominent part of this ritual bath, with an intent and strong belief to attain Moksha by taking a dip in the holy confluence of Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati.

A spiritual confluence that has been practiced and followed for over 1000s of years.

The idea behind getting people from different sects of Hinduism is to share different ideas and to encourage dialog between different schools of thought.

Such events or similar power centers that attract millions of devotees, is another testimony that spirituality is personal. With some deriving energy, vibrations amidst chaos, while others attain similar spiritual contentment in a calmer, serene, intimate environment.

Unfortunately, such spiritual events are used by the politicians or politician's followers to push their agenda and take sheen away from such religious gatherings.

The visitors there must be empathetic towards localites and residents. I pity the residents who must be overwhelmed with such an inflow of people, and must be going through unimaginable inconveniences.

The traffic pileup there in and around Prayagraj is unfathomable, with constant influx of people. Yet, many good citizens recognize the obvious congestion due to pouring of people beyond the capacity of a City, and defending the Govt, that such congestion and traffic chokes are inevitable and devotees must live with it.

How I wish the incoming working class crowd into Bengaluru develops the same attitude, when what they get here is no less than what devotees get in Kumbh Mela - hope, survival, livelihood, income and a respectable lifestyle!

Instead of complaining, blaming the infamous traffic caused due to no.of people beyond it's capacity!

Who else can understand the pains of localites of Prayagraj, other than Bengalurians.

Our own local mela in Hebbal - Aeroshow! Apart from entertainment to people, and causing additional burden on our already disintegrating Traffic, what good is it serving the Indian aviation industry, is not visible to a common man.

The race to hit Kumbh Mela by the salvation seekers is unbelievable and indeed a mammoth event.

It's the belief system working at its best and it's foolish on anyone's part to question beliefs, as there is faith, trust and hope around the belief system. We are believers, and we strongly trust our beliefs.

In the end, the question is not about Ganga serving people's quest for soul purification and moksha, the question is will Ganga survive Kumbh Mela!?