You might want to read this as well: My Curiosity |Life Experiences |1| Money is not everything. – Logic Searcher
I haven’t done many great things, but from my side I am trying to make sense of world around me. I follow Hinduism, aka Sanatan Dharma (Eternal Religion), all my life there are stories experiences that guided me to remain on this spiritual journey and use the lens provided by Sanatan Dharma. Given the fact that Sanatan Dharma is not bound to any single book, any single philosophy (Which is actually wrong, and Sanatan Dharma does have one liner philosophy), there is no single messiah, or figure to follow actually made my life tough several times. Although now when I try to join dots from my past, I see that the gradual seeker attitude that Sanatan Dharma provides to everyone, ability to question even most iron clad, sacrosanct rules of the world has helped me making sense of most of the things that surrounds me. I haven’t become perfect, in fact now I have learnt to realize my imperfection and has made a peace with it. I want to talk little bit about this journey only, what it is, how it is and why I think what I think.?
To begin with, I born and brought up in a Hindu family, with a Hindu name and in a household where nothing fancy has ever happened. We have village, we have a house in Delhi, belongs to a typical middle-class family, that is partly conservative and partly liberal when it comes to following customs and traditions.
The first dilemma: Why So Many Gods/Deities in Sanatan Dharma?
I didn’t struggle with this fact in childhood, but as I grew-up I tried to look for answers for the same. Why we have so many gods, so many deities? Why for education, I need to worship one God (Goddess Saraswati), for money another (Goddess Laxmi)? Why Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh holy trinity exist, who has greater power? For most of the part I tried to focus on Lord Shiva, but the greatest number of festivals that I celebrated and still celebrates is due to Lord Vishnu. I don’t know, but as a child, a God figure with maximum power attracted me, just like I am big fan of Superman (Leave one Krypton aside please!). I asked about this, raised question, read in some books. What I came to know that there exists in God in everything, and just like us, God has distributed some responsibilities to its peculiar kind, hence different god/goddess for different skills/power/needs. Sometimes these figures with four arms, two legs, sometimes with Lion head, made me think as well, how come it’s true?
When I became a little bit older, I became student of science, I also got my Masters in Biochemistry, and while I was enrolled into Ph.D. after clearing National Level Junior Research Fellow test, it seems apart from studies I also had time to think about these things. Then there came one day, when I talked to one of my seniors, he was in IISc at that time doing his PhD. Under his influence I tried to follow Atheism, citing reasons why there will be God, when there is so much suffering, so much injustice in world. He also showed one very wrong thing about my God Rama (Whom I loved at that time and hence it was big shocker), that in Uttara Kand of Valmiki Ramayana, he killed Shambukh because he was doing Tapasya, and Lord Rama thought that being a Shudra (From lower varna), Shambuk did wrong by doing holy prayer and because of that God like Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh got angry and hence in Ram’s kingdom one of the Brahmin kid died early in his age, even when his father was alive. Hence Ram’s on finding Shambuk (A lower Varna Guy) doing holy prayer, he killed him with his sword. If I remember correctly, I even cried at that time. My lord Rama cannot do such thing, but it was written in Ramayana, how it could be incorrect. I totally engulfed in Atheism drive, so much so, that I even started writing poems on atheism, which was quite nicely circulated even in IISc (Indian Institute of Science). It didn’t take me long though to find the emptiness of this. After few days of this, my reasonable scientific temper prevailed, and I questioned this incident of Ramayana. Then I did my own research which I want to share as well.
There are various versions of Ramayana, as Ramayana is something which is revered across not only Indian subcontinent but also across the globe. In India itself Ramayana was written in hundreds of languages with respective state wise little changes and versions of the same story, but few things were common among all of them, and why I can say they are common, because based upon that, many of the popular temples in India still exists. For example, if Lord Rama was so much against the lower varna like going to an extent of killing Sambuk just because he was worshipping, why he and Nishad raj, his longtime friend, who also studied and lived with him in same gurukul (Gurukul’s were old traditional school school system in India, which still exists in India but to a very less extent). Why did lord Rama eat half-eaten fruits of Sabri Maata (another lower varna, and ardent follower of Lord Rama). Why he made nexus with Vanara’s in South? Later I came to know that Uttara Kand was added later on, and like many other Hindu scriptures, not saved from manipulation during 1000 of years of foreign rule, and hence you see in-coherence of Ramayana version between what popularly get played during 9 days of Dussehra Festival and what is actually being written off. After that I read Ramcharitmanas as well but didn’t find mention of same/similar tales in it. Anyway, after this discovery I returned back to my roots and my belief got stronger.
Sorry about going away from the topic here, but the point I wanted to convey here is Hindu (Sanatan Dharma) scriptures are so old, that practically it is impossible to find out what is truth, whether these gods actually had 4 arms or lion head or not. The things are using Ramayana scripture, which has mentioned time and places in order and entire Indian subcontinent geography get discussed, hence we believe since so many things being correlated, they can’t be totally wrong.
I started reading scriptures and then I realize that belief and gods described in those have few interesting stories connected with each other. For example, Hanuman, since he was the one who took care of a lot of Lord Ram’s work, also powerful and intelligent at the same time was worshipped by many for same skills that he possessed or said to be possessed as per scriptures. I tried to make a correlation from today’s world. People like me who are working in technology sector see Elon musk as a great ideal to follow, people who are in business or finance observe Warren buffet with same respect, people who are in politics or fighting for injustice put Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King’s pic in their house. We all follow somebody for the specific qualities that we ourselves wish for. So, what’s wrong in understanding that thousands of years ago, each one of these whom we worshipped as God or form of God today were the actually one’s who spent their entire life honing one specific power, for which they get worshipped today. This makes sense to me. Another thing is related to perception and metaphor. Sometimes we often hear people saying about some person, that he has 10 heads or 10 hands, since he/she is very efficient, can think in diverse directions, can handle multiple work at the same time. So, it could be the same when it comes to representing Hindu Gods and Goddess with many hands holding somethings that represents their mastery/ability to provide you with those attributes.
Just to conclude on my dilemma and others as well, why so many Gods/Goddesses in Sanatan Dharma/Hinduism belief? Because we align specific skills to one particular deity. Our belief gets stronger when we see Goddess Saraswati (Goddess of Art and Knowledge) holding musical instrument in one hand, scriptures in other hand etc. This belief with visualization of idol of Goddess makes achieving concentration and focus very fast.
The Second Dilemma: Then who is the superior among them, who is that ONE
Short answer: No One among them.
Now once you understood that part now the next dilemma for seekers of truth coming from other belief systems, One God/Goddess master of specific set of skills, but who is greater one and ideally a God should be master/source of all skills and power. Sanatan Dharma scriptures talks a lot about how one deity came into existence, why other deity worshipped for specific trait but at the same time it also says if you are seeking materialistic things then only these deities’ worship will get you there. It’s like saying that if you want only wealth and prosperity in life than worshipping Goddess Laxmi is enough. Or for very focused money oriented, you can focus on God Kubera also. Now is it the end of your thirst? I want to worship a more powerful God/Goddess who has more power and more control on living beings, then your search will land you onto the holy trinity, Lord Vishnu, Lord Shiv and Lord Brahma.
Lord Brahma: The creator of life
Lord Shiva: The Destroyer of Life
Lord Vishnu: The one who is doing all management so that everything goes smooth in the universe.
One more thing Hindu scriptures explain, what quality one should target in themselves to become an ardent follower of the that specific deity. At the starting level, the deities who provide you materialistic things, like money, food, prosperity, health, knowledge, their worship is different, and it’s been expected that you follow certain ritual in order to please those specific deities. Now as you move up in hierarchy, to holy trinity the rules/rituals/customs to follow start becoming difficult. So difficult, that follower of Lord Vishnu, can hardly take a breath of relaxation, as Lord Vishnu is most strict among them all. You need to follow certain non-violent diet, certain color clothes, restrain yourself in many activities which are described by scriptures as unholy. Lord Shiva on the other hand considered most lenient among them all. He only sees your intention, and not that much of your karma. Lord Vishnu decides whether you are even qualifying enough to be rewarded with some boon, whereas Lord Shiva will just see your intention, and worship. Lord Shiva will give you boon, even when you are coming with bad intentions to harm someone. You will read many such mythological stories in Hindu scriptures, where boon given by Lord Shiva became headache of rest of the Gods.
Now having knowledge of holy trinity is the place, where I observed that seeker attitude to go higher-up in search of almighty ends for common Hindu man-woman. Reason being, I observe that we don’t want to read our scriptures, and also, we feel that combination of holy trinity along with specific attribute rewarding God-goddesses are enough for our common life. So, in most household discussion and knowledge ends with holy trinity (Lord Vishnu, Lord Brahma, Lord Shiva) and Goddess Laxmi (Wealth and Prosperity), Goddess Saraswati (Knowledge and Arts), God Indra (The one who rule the heaven and rain), Lord Agni (God of fire), Lord Varuna (God of Air) etc. We Hindus most of the time don’t go beyond them, but there are few things we are doing unknowingly to a certain extent. We also worship Lord Rama and Lord Krishna, now who are they? Those who have read my article till now, might have started thinking no wonder why Hindus are senseless when it comes to following faith. They can’t decide whom to worship first. In a way it’s funny, but I have noticed that gradual evolution, of knowing and believing quite rational to me. You cannot explain rocket science to a student, who doesn’t even know how to read letters.
Lord Krishna and Lord Rama, often termed as avatar of Lord Vishnu, which actually go beyond that. Last year I read two scriptures, Brahmvaivrat Puran, Bhagwad Geeta and Ramcharitmanas, all three pointed out the fact that both Lord Rama and Lord Krishna are the one’s who took form for otherwise formless almighty. From these scriptures I came to know that Lord Shiva, Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma are the one’s who originated directly from almighty. So, in scriptures it is mentioned that some came from direct ansha (part) from almighty like holy trinity. Some other form of Gods we worship came from ansha of ansha (part of that part), like Rudra’s came from Lord Shiva. Also almighty described in these scriptures in a totally different manner, there are two parts of almighty (Chitta and Shakti), means pure consciousness and power. The consciousness form of that almighty represented by male forms of Gods, (Lord Ram, Lord Krishna, Lord Vishnu, Lord Shiva, Lord Brahma etc.), whereas power form of that almighty represented from female forms like Goddess Sita, Goddess Radha, Goddess Laxmi. I am yet to read more these scriptures but now I have started getting hang of it. The almighty in Hinduism is also formless, if you just want to take letter it is there in form of letter Om (also considered sacred in Sikhism, Jainism etc.), if you want to focus on form then there is Lord Ram, and Lord Krishna. Moreover, I realized one thing also, only those subjects are complex which are very old, and as well which allow everyone to interpret in their own ways. What Sanatan Dharma says that God is one, but the paths to reach that one is countless, on top of that no one path is ultimate. In Bhagwad Geeta it was explained by showing different ways of Yoga (Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga etc).
At the end though I was able to derive one holy philosophy of Sanatan Dharma, which made me understand it. At the crux of it, it claims only one thing, you need to realize one thing only in order to be with God. Leave the feeling of DVAITA (means there is anything other than God exists) and follow the principle of (Advait) Oneness. Whatever we are seeing, believing, experiencing, everything is nothing else, but that one almighty. Why I can say that, because in our scriptures it’s been repeatedly said that this world is Maya (something that was created to trap you in doing something again and again). The day you start seeing through this, you will start seeing God.
As per Sanatan Dharma, considering any person, animal, any living thing or non-living matter different from you is a kind of violence, and you should not do it, if you want to achieve peace and oneness with god. The more I thought about this concept, the more I loved this. Think in this manner, when you don’t consider any difference between you and any other living being, you stop seeing boundaries, you stop alienating yourself with others, you stop doing violence, you stop showing greed. This world, this universe will start appearing one and one only.
I will keep on expanding on this article, if you want you can ask questions on this.
Links to books mentioned in this article: Sanhipt Brahmvaivrat Purana: https://amzn.to/3SH5VdD
Shri Ramcharitmanas: https://amzn.to/3TcEr1f
