(In 2014, I wrote an essay in Malayalam, titled Science of Values and Geo-politics in a green-politics magazine. As a response to that, C.R. Parameshwaran, an intellectual, wrote an article entitled Nowhere to Go. The following essay – A God That Is Human, was my response to his writing. In this essay, I explore the idea of God, and the purposes it serves in our lives)
In CR’s article, there is a persistent pessimism about human life. In his view, human beings are basically selfish and therefore an overall transformation of humanity is impossible. CR’s belief is something many of us share. Philosophically viewed, his position leans towards determinism – the view that things are predetermined and hence not really changeable.
However, human life is not just about determinism or fate; it also contains free will. If selfishness is something that belongs to the realm of fate, wisdom and the choices it provides are representative of free will.
Nonetheless, I agree with CR on certain things. The world might not embrace all the values and ideals worth embodying. Even if the world takes them up at some point, it could be a passing phase; self-centeredness and narrowness may overcome us sooner or later. A lover of humanity must be realistic enough to accept and face such possibilities. Otherwise, they could end up in severe depression.
However, for those who have certitude about the value of life and the care it naturally deserves, such pessimistic views need not deter a life based on greater ideals. To explain why, let us first explore some universal conditions of human existence.
By nature, there is an element of necessity in human life – a body that needs to be fed at least once a day, for example. Things like accidents, diseases, mental struggles, dissonances in relationships and death will not leave our lives despite all the progress we may make in our societal life. Consider that a boy dies in an accident when he is just sixteen. What would his mother’s situation be? Can any material comforts or prevailing social justice, console her truly?
Suppose someone manages to live through all these challenges; would anyone remember them after three or four generations? That individual along with their name and form, will disappear into an unfathomable nothingness. Or say someone remembers them! Does it hold any significance for the dead? One is clueless about one’s life before birth and after death, and is equally uncertain about its significance in between. In all, we get to live a life that looks like a non-stop wrestling with nonsense.
If this is the destiny of an individual, the fate of humanity as a whole is not different.
It is quite reasonable to assume that we as a species would go extinct at some point in time, at least with the end of the Sun as we know it. Along with us everything that we cherish and detest will perish.
If this is our final destiny, what is the relevance of all the values we hold dear? What is the point of someone being devout to some ideals? Aren’t all these ideals mere social conventions, finally? In fact, dedicating one’s life to selfish hedonism makes a lot more sense. Frankly, how logical is Capitalism!
If that’s all there is to human life – a predestined nothingness – can there be a greater absurdity or tragedy?
It is from these unfathomable depths of fate and necessity that wisdom elevates us to boundless Freedom. To know how, we need to examine the idea of God or Goddess that has been with humanity from time immemorial.
What is God?
We get God when we add a drop of humanness to what can be philosophically called an all-inclusive principle. However, in spite of its humanness, God is completely free from all human necessities – it is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent; the one without a beginning or end. It also represents the final justice that compensates for all the struggles in human life.
Still, what is the meaning of that humanness of God?
It reveals the possibility of a human being to unshackle oneself from all the limiting aspects of life and to embody a perfection that knows no bounds. The humanness also implies that, that universal value is resonant to the human will. Viewed thus, practices like prayer and meditation are our ways or methods to attune and merge with such an absolute value. Wisdom maxims like I am the Absolute (Aham Brahmasmi) or I am the Way, the Truth and Life1 proclaimed by human beings across time-space are testimonies to this possibility. Take out this principle, all the meaning of life would vanish, and we would end up in the absurdity of the mundane. That is, this value is the foundation of all other values in life. If it is removed, everything will become incidental.
As the Source, it signifies the oneness of everything. Ideas like good, not good and better are also dependent on this first principle – that which helps us to realize oneness is good, otherwise, it is not. In short, the vision of an absolute value is as necessary as food in human life. That is why, in spite of all the efforts to get rid of God, it continues to be with us implicitly or otherwise.
However, if we conceive this value dualistically, as something that is separate from us, things will again turn absurd.
Consider those ‘believers’ who massacre ‘unbelievers’ in the name of the most merciful God, or those who staunchly believe in Karma, so that they will not move a finger to help someone in distress since that distress is God’s will. As these situations exemplify, God has been a tool for violence of all sorts. However, the solution is not to dismiss it with some half-baked (ideological) arguments, but to understand God non-dually – as an approach to Self-realization. We also need to understand the universal values and concerns inherent in all religions while keeping aside the historical and geographical specificities of them. As we comprehend them principally and axiomatically, the divisiveness among religions can wither away. God, the core of all religions, could then reveal the oneness of humanity irrespective of our contextual differences.
People differ in their capability to understand this absolute value principally. Or it is easier for us to identify with it, when it is in human form. The only solution to the limitations of conceiving the Absolute dualistically is to keep a non-dual philosophy alive and thriving for those who intend to dive deeper.
CR writes that those who fight for values either die in that battle or kill themselves (out of desperation), or by acting against capitalism, eventually get co-opted by the same. My only contention is that he appears over-zealous in his convictions.
A human being indeed overcomes the duality of I and the other proportionate to the depth of their devotion to that all-inclusive Value. As they embrace oneness, they experience the vastness of a liberative intimacy. That is why seers call God, love. And as that love matures, one realizes that the kingdom of God is not an event or situation in the future, but a reality that is here and now2.
It does not mean that once we realize all these, we will not get tired or sick anymore; in all likelihood we will. However, we would know them as bodily necessities and hence incidental. We would know that as there are necessities that cannot be wished away, there is a Freedom that is untouchable by any of these. In other words, it is not in the heights of transient material pleasures that we are going to find contentment but in wisdom alone. Contrarily, selfishness is an antithesis to all these possibilities of wisdom.
Since this essay started by mentioning human selfishness, let’s explore it a bit: a body is something that has an exclusive time-space. That is, a body occupies a time-space that cannot be occupied by another body at the same time. The counterpart of this exclusive body (a-sat) is the all-inclusive Existence (sat). The human mind, by nature, oscillates between these unique and universal aspects of Being. So, at one moment the mind moves to exclusivity and otherness (towards other unique bodies), and the next moment it turns to inclusivity and oneness. The exclusive sense of body is important in the context of self-preservation; when one suffers from stomach pain, there is no point in someone else taking medicine. The inclusivity is not a body-dissociated state either. The self, by anchoring in the unique body, connects to the universal, and together they hold the multitudes of Being. A true education helps us to comprehend these unique and the universal, non-dually; to understand, As is the microcosm, so is the macrocosm. The discretion that results from such a unitive understanding gives our lives an unambiguous sense of direction irrespective of the circumstances.
Seen in this light, selfishness is an insecure, superficial moment or state of self characterized by a disconnection from everything. Those who idealize that state and treats their fellow beings accordingly are the inhabitants of a limiting world. This (self-inflicted) regression itself is the punishment for them, not necessarily anything that happens in an afterlife, as religions tend to suggest. Likewise, an honest life, even such a single moment, is never in vain. The body necessitates action; let our actions be aligned with reality – our oneness. We don’t have to bother about results; they inevitably follow. We don’t have to wait for anyone else to embrace this path either; truth is not dependent on the number of people who approve or reject it.
As individuals deepen in contemplation, they become increasingly intimate with truth. Their lives and sharings will inspire their fellow beings and thus humanity will not go astray. Valuations such as a Buddha or a commoner are societal only; all that matters is whether one lives in harmony with the oneness and acts accordingly towards fellow beings3.
We all seek happiness that lasts, and in our shared lives, we all influence one another in liberating or limiting ways. That is why we need to contemplate certain normative values that can help us to be mutually supportive. If we can have an educative process and a culture based on such values, it would empower both individuals and communities to overcome all sorts of hurdles.
Still, in spite of all such explanations, what might be the purpose of this great, terrifying life? People have tried to explain life as the desire of the Universe to know itself. The human longing for meaning might be a reflection of that desire. And the final Self-realization might justify all these circuses!
This writer is aware of the possibility of many questions and concerns this essay may raise. A detailed look at all that would require a thorough exploration of the Science of the Self (Atma-vidya), which falls outside the scope of this essay4. All those who have realized the truth, without any exception, say that all such enquiries would cease once it is understood. What we can say for sure is that when we talk about God, we are indeed talking about ourselves.
- New Testament – John 14:6
↩︎ - The disciples asked Jesus, When will the kingdom come? Jesus said: It will not come by waiting for it. It will not be a matter of saying ‘here it is’ or ‘there it is.’ Rather, the kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it. – Gospel of Thomas, Verse – 113.
↩︎ - Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law?
Jesus answered, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. – Mark 12:28
↩︎ - Those who would like to explore more may refer: One Hundred Verses of Self-Instruction by Narayana Guru- Translation and commentary by Nataraja Guru, Pub:Narayana Gurukulam, Varkala. ↩︎
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