It may not be so !

There is a story about Budha that I heard a while ago. It left an impression on me. Let me paraphrase it here. 

The story goes that once Budha was giving a sermon in a village. There was a large congregation of villagers and his disciples, absorbing what this “all knowing” radiant figure shared with them. People were asking questions and he was answering. But behind the congregation, away from everyone’s eyes lurked a shadow. There was a man hiding in the trees, not wanting to be seen. He waited patiently for the lectures to get over and till everyone had left, except Budha and a few key disciples were ready to retire. He approached Budha with some hesitation and trepidation. But Budha’s warm smile and comforting aura gave hime some courage and he opened up. He said that he was a well known head priest of a big temple and from as long as he remembered he had been and ardent devotee. He know all the Shastras and Vedic Rituals and had worshipped God wholeheartedly. However, now as he was approaching his mature years, he had an inkling of a doubt. He wasn’t as sure as he had always been as to whether God existed or not. He had a teeny tiny doubt about it and he did not know where to go with it except to ask Budha. Please tell me the truth he beseeched Budha. Is there God or not? 

Budha replied without hesitation that of course there was No God. He was stunned, as was everyone around him. But he heard and heard it loud and clear from Budha himself. So slowly he slinked back in the shadows where he had appeared from. 

Budha retired for the night without saying anything more and that was that. 

Next day however a similar thing happened, except that the case was exact opposite. A Nastik, a non believer came to ask a similar question. He said he had spent all his life believing and convincing others that there was no God. Yet now in his older years an ever so slight doubt had crept up. Was he right? was there No God indeed or was there. Only the radiant all knowing Budha could relieve him of this dilemma. Budha replied without hesitation that there God existed. Who could ever doubt that there was God. The person and all the disciples heard the answer from Budha and there was no confusion whether he meant it. The answer was full of conviction. 

The man stepped back, thanks Budha and went away where he came from. However the disciples are were so confused. Budha retired for the night but the news about there being a God spread across the village just as there being No God had the previous night. So next day, at the congregation, the first question that was asked was about these conflicting answers. God or No God?

Budha replied that it does not matter whether there is or isn’t. All that matters is whether you continue to seek or not. Whichever answer you conclude stops your seeking. 

Ok, I said to myself. The parable makes sense, to some extent, but does it really? What do we do when we have an answer? Should we not stop still searching for the same answer? A religious man would surely find this parable funny. When I know that I know that I know that who made this world or that who was the savior or messenger or what have you, why should I keep banging my head at the same question. Am I not better off now doing his will? Living religiously? 

A Dharmic man(which is the opposite end of spectrum from religion, see footnote) would ask the same thing. What is the point of seeking for the sake of seeking. My tradition tells me about Ram and Krishna and Gita and Brahma, Vishnu Mahesh and how to live a life of Duty and Riteousness), based on my quest for Moksh. So what is the point of banging my head against the same question when I know the answer. Haven’t thousands of Rishis extolled the virtues of Rama and that he was the divine incarnation of Vishnu, who maintains the Universe. What is wrong with that, they will ask. This is exactly where my mind was, until… 

Herein comes a French philosopher, Simone Weil, who spent her brief life of 35 years (I knew I would totally impress you by tQuoting a French philosopher. Sounds so erudite, doesn’t it. I could be talking crap now but you will still listen)

Anyway, I think she articulated the ancient wisdom that Budha was pointing to, in a different, more contemporary way. From what I know, she was not seeking knowledge of ultimate truths in the realm of Dharma/Religion. She spent her time thinking about what is the right order for men to co-exist. . 

So unlike the some of the best minds of that time and after, she believed in not looking for answers. She only wanted to spend her life being aware, hyper aware of the present, of the information that she could receive from books and people and mostly by observing and thinking. But she sought no answers for life’s complex questions, she said. In her mind, and I paraphrase, that “once you have an answer, you spend the rest of your life defending that answer, while your answer may be completely wrong.”  Instead she just sought to know more, understand more and live in extreme awareness of the life that was being presented to her. 

In my mind Budha’s tale fell in place a little more. I could also see the religious people, fanatic or not, or even Dharmic people who had devolved into Religious people digging their heels into “It is so”, while totally missing the bus on “it may not be so”.

I see today’s scientific community living this way. They moved on from Newtonian mechanics to Einstien’s view of the world to Quantum Mechanics and still continue to seek the right model of the world. They do have the abeyance to the earlier discoveries of how the physical world is organized, but as soon as better information becomes available, , through intense and ongoing process of proofs and peer reviews, through thinking and meditations of thousands of the most brilliant minds, they toke cognizance of those and accepted them as further markers on the road. The quest still continues. The seeking still continues. Not unlike what Budha suggested. 

So the point of this whole narrative is, “it may not be so”, in the physical world, in the spiritual world, in our relationships, with our children, with our work. So we need to be present, listening, observing, understand.. and live in hyper awareness, rather than switching off our most potent faculties and merely subscribing to some potentially incorrect, potentially even damaging straightjackets of thought that either the world or we ourselves have put on us and spend our lives defending them.

This however does not mean that we are living in doubt all the time. Whether our child is safe at school or our significant others love us or the job will still be around tomorrow. That would drive anyone crazy. All it means that these are what our lives are presenting to us. They are not absolute truths forever and stand to change, as many have realized that they do. In addition the answers to the the larger more complex questions such as how does humanity organize itself for most equitable distribution of labor and reward; or what is life’s purpose or what happens after death, need to be be looked at with even more circumspection. 

Also living in awareness is the most natural and relaxed atate of being. Living in future may cause anxiety and in the past may cause one to be depressed, say the psychologists. Not so about living in the present moment. Fully present. 

What an open and honest way to live.

“It may not be so”

Footnote : About Religion and Dharma:

Religion is a doctrine. A statement of assertions that you accept as truth to be accepted in that given order. For a muslim it is that God made the world and Mohammad was the last Prophet and that Quran is the word of God. You cannot be accepted in the order of Islam without accepting these assertions as truths. Similar in Christianity and Judaism. Acceptance of their assertions, gets to acceptance in those orders or Religions. 

Hindu Dharma, Sanatan Dharma, are the opposite end of the spectrum as far as the rigidity of the doctrine one’s acceptance to it is concerned. Sanatan means ever moving, also ever present. So there are no assertions to be used as gatekeepers. Sanatan Dharma(the real name of Hindu Dharma) is the story of man’s evolution of thought and understanding of the truths of life. The word Dharma has multiple different dimensions to it. Hence there is no direct translation into English. For example a mother nurturing her child is living her Dharma as is a bee stinging anything that attacks its hive. Mostly is it living dutifully, riteously as aligned with the natural order of things. 

So seeking is a Dharmic tradition. it’s part of our state to know more, and in that come meditations etc. 

Dharma is fluid and evolving. Before Ram and Krishna were born, also Sanatan Dharma existed. When Man worshipped trees and water and Sun that provided sustenance, also Sanatan Dharma existed. Before Vedas were put together orally or in written form also Sanatan Dharma existed. Hence there a multiple hundreds and thousands of streams of history, tradition, mythology all flowing into it. 

This construct has been absolutely baffling to people who have been raised in the construct of Religion. 

However as one understands the pursuit of knowledge, whether scientific or or spiritual, followers or Sanatan Dharma see it as a democratic open ended unlimited path to understanding the Spiritual world and even Man’s place in the Universe.