Bertrand Russell 462 words, 35K views, 18 comments
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On Dec 23, 2010sanjeev Verma wrote :
Somik, thanks for a your thoughtful and detailed reply.
I guess that we have to sometime sit together and discuss the issues in detail. Sometimes, it is not that easy to discuss spiritual issues over the message board. In addition, I am not good at writing long emails. Anyway, let me summarize my thoughts and we could take our discussions further when we next meet in person.
I am against organized religion because it is relatively a new concept--may be few thousand years old. There is no mention of word "Hindu" in anyone of the so called Hindu scriptures-Vedas, Gita, Ramayan etc. Gita and Vedas talk about Manav Dharma and do not address a particular sect or community. We limit the scope of a book on spirituality to a section of society once we start using word "Holy" before that. This does not happen in the world of physical sciences and this has lead to the tremendous progress in the realm of physical sciences. Like Physical science, spiritual science is also for the benefit of humanity and should be shared and should not be associated with an organized religion or sect.
I believe that Physical science has its limitations--even characteristics of sub-atomic particles are known through inference and one needs the help of spiritual science to look at the world subtler than sub-atomic particles. We can go into that world through practice of meditation and Yogic sciences.
I think that there is a bit of confusion when we talk of "Mysticism". Respected Haricharn Das ji made a very interesting observation--no one would believe him if he could travel on a space ship to Galaxies come back to the earth and tell people about his experiences--I agree with him on that--there are still some people who do not believe that man ever went to moon. If a master or enlightened person comes to me and says that enlightenment is like seeing million suns at the same time then I would believe him. I believe in this kind of "Mysticism"--I believe that Yogic science teaches us how to reach there and there are people, who have reached there. It is not easy but possible--it is about going in a world subtler than sub-atomic particles.
However, I would not believe in miracles seen through naked eyes. I think that Physical science can explain everything that we see from our eyes. For instance, our mythology says that Prahalad was thrown in to the fire and nothing happened to him--this kind of things are unbelievable and I refuse to believe them--the Dharma of Fire is to burn and it will burn irrespective of whether the body thrown into Fire is that of a godly person or sinner. Physical science can not explain things that are subtler than sub-atomic particles--you have to go to spiritual scientist for that. However, it can explain most of the things that we through naked eyes. I agree that there can be some unknown things and God will let us know about those things through in course of time through some scientist in future.
On Dec 23, 2010 sanjeev Verma wrote :
Somik, thanks for a your thoughtful and detailed reply.
I guess that we have to sometime sit together and discuss the issues in detail. Sometimes, it is not that easy to discuss spiritual issues over the message board. In addition, I am not good at writing long emails. Anyway, let me summarize my thoughts and we could take our discussions further when we next meet in person.
I am against organized religion because it is relatively a new concept--may be few thousand years old. There is no mention of word "Hindu" in anyone of the so called Hindu scriptures-Vedas, Gita, Ramayan etc. Gita and Vedas talk about Manav Dharma and do not address a particular sect or community. We limit the scope of a book on spirituality to a section of society once we start using word "Holy" before that. This does not happen in the world of physical sciences and this has lead to the tremendous progress in the realm of physical sciences. Like Physical science, spiritual science is also for the benefit of humanity and should be shared and should not be associated with an organized religion or sect.
I believe that Physical science has its limitations--even characteristics of sub-atomic particles are known through inference and one needs the help of spiritual science to look at the world subtler than sub-atomic particles. We can go into that world through practice of meditation and Yogic sciences.
I think that there is a bit of confusion when we talk of "Mysticism". Respected Haricharn Das ji made a very interesting observation--no one would believe him if he could travel on a space ship to Galaxies come back to the earth and tell people about his experiences--I agree with him on that--there are still some people who do not believe that man ever went to moon. If a master or enlightened person comes to me and says that enlightenment is like seeing million suns at the same time then I would believe him. I believe in this kind of "Mysticism"--I believe that Yogic science teaches us how to reach there and there are people, who have reached there. It is not easy but possible--it is about going in a world subtler than sub-atomic particles.
However, I would not believe in miracles seen through naked eyes. I think that Physical science can explain everything that we see from our eyes. For instance, our mythology says that Prahalad was thrown in to the fire and nothing happened to him--this kind of things are unbelievable and I refuse to believe them--the Dharma of Fire is to burn and it will burn irrespective of whether the body thrown into Fire is that of a godly person or sinner. Physical science can not explain things that are subtler than sub-atomic particles--you have to go to spiritual scientist for that. However, it can explain most of the things that we through naked eyes. I agree that there can be some unknown things and God will let us know about those things through in course of time through some scientist in future.