Thursday, October 10, 2013

GOD and Dharma (Righteousness)


GOD and Dharma (Righteousness)

Debi Prasad Choudhary
Los Angeles, California
10/10/2013

I am a 1Vaishnava. My grand mother belonged to 2Goudiya Vaishnava Sampradaya, follower of 3Sri Chaitanya Mahaprahu who was believed to be an incarnation of Sri Krishna in 1486. I have been fascinated by the life and deeds of Sri Krishna from my childhood. So much so, that at one stage, when I was completing high school and got an opportunity to receive “initiation for spiritual practice” (4Mantra Dikhiya) from a renowned Guru Sri 5Swami Chidanandaji Maharaj, I decided to select Sri Ram as my “6Ista Devata” not Sri Krishna. Because the life of Sri Krishna was so complex, that at the age of 20, I was not so sure if all that was divine. Sri Ram looked to me more divine, so I thought it is safe to adopt him as my form of GOD. This week, I started thinking again about Sri Krishna, his complex personality and accomplishments. This gave me an opportunity to think about the “7Sambhabami Yuge Yuge” statement in 8Srimad Bhagahata Gita. In this blog, I am going to describe some of it.

Actually, I am a believer, I believe that GOD exists. But, I do not know, what he does, what role he plays in our lives, nor I know what he did in past. One guess I can make safely, that he might have decided all the laws of nature that we are trying to discover every day leading to Nobel Prizes. In my native language (Oriya) there is a poetry in which the poet 9Jaganath Das says ”God becomes satisfied by seeing the divine knowledge in human being”. I think divine knowledge is the laws of nature, which to me looks more definite that any other form of knowledge. So, if God created or decided these laws of nature, he would not like them to be violated.

In my childhood, I heard that not only GOD but also even GOD-man performed miracles. I was suspicious from the beginning. I actually, looked for miracles, did not find any until entered college. I was always worried, because I thought may be I am not doing the right thing to experience the divine. When I took physics honors in college, and combined with the reasonable teachings of my spiritual Guru, I started formulating the role of GOD for myself. The first thing, I had to decide that what the GOD does? Surely not miracles, just because, I have not experienced one and I have not met any body yet who has experienced one that I can conclusively categorize as such. My definition of miracle is simple. If you drop an object from a height, it must go down towards earth’s surface. That is normal physical law. If it can be made go away from earth’s surface without applying force, I might call it miracle. In short, the event must defy the physical laws. So, if that is my definition, I thought, why should some divine body who made these laws would ever like to do some thing that do not comply with them. It was a bit confusing to me. So, than what GOD does? In Srimad Bhagabat Gita, He said, “when ever there is a decline of Dharma and advancement of 10Adharma, I take birth to establish Dharma”. This sounded me as a perfect match to the activity of GOD.

The next problem was that how do I ascertain that Sri Ram or Sri Krishna was GOD or even Jesus Christ was son of GOD? They existed long-long ago and there is no way to check the facts that defined the miracle events accurately. The only way is to read some of the teachings that are attributed to them. In the contemporary time, we see that if some body is a powerful person in the society, it is not difficult to find a group of people who can glorify all qualities that the individual possesses and describe that person as a some body special. We also find many GOD-man often called as GODs. So, if that is possible today, why can that not happen earlier thousands of years earlier? For example, Sri Krishna was an extraordinary person of his time who possessed the fine skills to sense the “Dharma” the righteousness that functions the daily lives of every member of the society. That, which distinguish human from animal. And, through out life, he strived to uphold it with the tools he possessed. He was admired by the elders of his time, feared by some and loved by common man. Over time he was described as GOD, who can do things that no ordinary mortal can perform. As, I think more and more about him, I am actually convinced that he performed the role of GOD.

So, to be a GOD means the contemporary elders must accept the individual as such. The individual must possess guts to uphold the Dharma. This morning, when I was walking to my office, I asked myself, is there any thing like that in our contemporary world? The immediate thing came to my mind is the act of Rahul Gandhi, the vice president of Indian National Congress. The other day, he came out against the proposed ordinance that allowed the criminals contesting election. Soon after, he publically expressed his out burst in front of the press, where party elders were arguing in favor of it, several elder statesman of Congress party praised him and described how brave and righteous he is. I just wanted to think of it as an event in ancient time, when there is no press, no fast communication, no concept of democracy. In such a world, can we not call him as GOD? After all he is good looking, compared to many contemporary young leaders, elders praise and obey him, he has access to enormous wealth (money) and physical power. In this incident at least, he did uphold Dharma. Because, but for him, may be the president of India would have been forced to sign the ordinance, since 11Gyanis like 12Manmohan Singh, 13Chidambaram, 14Advani and others, who are equivalent of 15Bhisma, 16Dronacharya, 17Vidur actually did not oppose it or even favored it. Neither, younger leaders opposed it. So, I think, it is an act of GOD. But, can you call him GOD. In the modern time, it sounds awkward. But, such continued acts may elevate him to GOD-hood in the modern times as that will make lives of billions of people better by upholding Dharma.

1Vaishnava: The worshipers of Vishnu, Hindu GOD – the administrator of the creation.
2Goudiya Vaishnava Sampradaya: One group of Vaishnava that deeply likes Sri Krishna’s childhood. ISCON followers are examples.
3Sri Chaitanya Mahaprahu: Leader of Bhakti movement. It is believed that He was the embodiment of devotion aspect of Sri Krishna.
4Mantra Dikhiya: Some hindus go through this ritual to start their spiritual practice. At that time, they accept a sage as their GURU, who gives them a Mantra (a short form of GOD’s name) to recite.
5Swami Chidanandaji Maharaj: A modern sage who lived in large part of 20th century and early 21st century.
6Ista Devata: The favorite GOD.
7Sambhabami Yuge Yuge: This is taken from one sentence of Srimad Bhagabat Gita. This says”take birth in different times”.
8Srimad Bhagahata Gita: An important scripture of Hindus.
9Jaganath Das: A poet in Oriya language, who lived, was born in 1490 AD.
10Adharma: This word has many connotations, but I use it in sense of opposite of Righteousness
11Gyanis: Knowledgeable persons.
12Manmohan Singh: Prime Minister of India, who is a scholar and mostly honest person.
13Chidambaram: Finance Minister of India, who was educated in Harvard University.
14Advan: One of the most respected leaders in Indian politics with vast mass following.
15Bhisma: A powerful character in Mahabharata. Known for his courage and stand for righteousness.
16Dronacharya: Teacher of armory in Mahabharata.
17Vidur: A knowledgeable individual in Mahabharata who cared to rule of law.

6 comments:

  1. Nice article. Though GOD is strong word to describe contemporary example of Rahul Gandhi's act, I would portray him as a HERO instead. A HERO is also one who stands for righteousness and we need many HEROES in our society today.

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  2. I am just making comparison with others by removing miracle aspect. Up hold Dharma as you understand - that was SriKrishna.

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    1. I liked your article. Interestingly I am also a vaishanvite, but I liked Krishna better than Rama in my childhood! Rama lived as a human being with no magical powers, while Krishna's life was full of miracles!
      There are good people who uphold Dharma, but they cannot be termed "god'; there are many examples, but take the one in Ramayana. When Hanuman was captured by Ravana in Lanka, he ordered that Hanuman be killed. But Vibheeshana stooped him saying that it was not right to kill a doota(messenger). Such good acts are performed by many people, but they are certainly not gods, least of them, the person you referred to!
      Ramesh PRL

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    2. Thank you Ramesh. These days, I am trying to understand Sri Krishna, without miracles. I find him fascinating. One distinguished character he had was that he could influence the opinion of all elderly statesman of his time. He was not just in advisory role, but in the middle of influencing the decisions. He used them carefully to uphold Dharma as he understood it. In his time, there was Bhisma, who knew a lot and could also advise. But, I think he did not have sufficient power to influence the big decisions. Those, who has such tremendous power in the contemporary world and use them to uphold Dharma, I thing thy are GOD. Otherwise, I do not see the role of GOD after he made the physical laws!! Thank you for reading it.

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  3. Debiji,

    Interesting article on God as someone who upholds Dharma. However, I think your candidate for God, Rahul Gandhi, will find few takers here in India. I would have like to think like you, but the millions here have convinced me that this is too idealistic a position, and that what really happened was just bottom line cynical political calculation: The congress party initially wanted the ordinance passed because Lalu Yadav was going to receive his verdict very shortly (in fact, a week or so after the ordinance was mooted), and it was expected that he'd be found guilty. If so, without the ordinance, he would have been disqualified from Parliament, and his entire RJD party would then have walked out, and UPA would then be on the brink. But once they mooted the ordinance, there was humungous uproar in the population, so they had to backtrack. Who better to do this than the henchman Rahul Gandhi---he was made to sound very principled by attacking the ordinance, but in effect, he forced the cabinet to rethink the ordinance. In the process, Manmohan Singh (the Gandhi factoturm) was soundly embarrassed, in Washington DC, no less! So, RG is no God, I'm afraid. :( :(

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    1. Thank you Bharat ji. These are Fall mornings in the campus and ideal time to think while walking to office from parking lot!! I was wondering about the role of GOD, if any, after creating the stuff. The only logical thing seems to be upholding "Dharma". If that is so, I tried to understand the individuals in the past who might illustrate this view. I could find - how Krishna could influence the opinion of mighty thinkers and scholars of his time. And, I wanted some contemporary example, because GOD should not stop coming in modern times. So, I find this example perfectly fitting, without going to details, since we do not know the details of each decision that GODs of ancient time influenced. A single such act may not make somebody GOD, but these are GODly acts. More such things one does, future generation will treat those individuals as GOD. I think.

      Thank you very much for your comments, they are valuable.

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