A NOTE UNTO THE ONES WHO SEEM TO KNOW IT ALL

A NOTE UNTO THE ONES WHO SEEM TO KNOW IT ALL

We need millions of atheists in India who can rationally think and who do not subscribe like unthinking fools to every bit that does the rounds as profound philosophy, for every bit of it is not profound philosophy after all.

Conservative is the human mind and cannot ordinarily conceive any radical thinking which, though, was the cornerstone of our Vedic civilisation once upon a time.

Those that quote the Hindu scriptures are often not endowed with capacity enough to plumb its depths and wonder at the wide variety of often contradisposed conclusions that the sages reached. To straitjacket it all as one rigid system of thought goes against the grain of Hindu thinking and is more aligned to the Abrahamic religions than to the Sanatan Dharma. Few, alas, so very few apprehend the import of the classic treatises written on God, man, Nature, life et al by our men of seminal genius down the ages.

We need to liberalise thinking and secularise it even to be able to free ourselves of this rigid thought-fold so that we may soar like our ancestors in the high heavens of spiritual speculation. Speculation, I call it, to underscore the point that the universe is not quite comprehensible after all as it entails in its understanding the role of the interventionist mind.

Neither science nor philosophy nor poetry nor religion is every fool's pasture. Greater depth of self-culture is necessary before one may comprehend the deeper aspects of life and reality, truth and self. Hence, intellectual deliberation, not always in agreement with common sympathies, ought not to be heckled by scriptural stricture, for no such stricture exists in our tradition beyond the one that allows every bit of heresy, even into denying God His existence. If God does not object, why do you?

Written by Sugata Bose

Photo : The great Buddha who democratised radical spiritual thinking till it was lost upon his followers for good. The Hindus who gave birth to such Buddhas followed suit to forget their legacy of radical thinking.