Thinking out of the body!
Posted by Anantha | Posted in Life | Posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2008
These topics spur out occasionally while conversing with colleagues / friends. Though I dont wanna tag these discussions as purely philosophical, but they have small dosage of philosophy in it... beware!
One such discussion with my colleague dealt with the subject of sufferings the human beings undergo on earth. Suffering can be because of poverty, hunger, lack of basic needs, ill health or because of any external or internal factors which we believe will affect our lives. When I mean suffering, I mean a person being unhappy for what ever reason.
Our discussion went beyond blaming any country/Govt/System/life style for one's unhappiness.
Why should there be a gap between rich and poor? Why people in Ethiopia starve and rich people from big cities of world are obese..?
Why people in Kashmir get killed for none of their mistakes? Why kids are orphaned for no fault of theirs?
Why people fight with each other?
Why do people have to suffer from incurable diseases?
Why people are born physically or mentally challenged?
And now a very important question, How is the share of unhappiness and happiness credited in each person's account?
Haan.. there we are, we are discussing the very basic question, First of all why should living beings suffer or be unhappy? Though this question seems to project me like a selfish happiness monger, but that makes perfect sense because I am not begging for the happiness of only my family, I want the whole world to be a peaceful place and tenure on earth a life long vacation for every one who is born here.
My team mate who seems to be conversant on these topics, started justifying the concept of re-incarnations, human race being the best form of life, all people suffer on the basis of paapas they have committed in previous janmas. More the sins, severe the punishment on earth. He also enunciated the mention of earth as a prison for human beings in Garuda PuraaNa [or some thing, I dont exactly remember]. He also said the souls attain moksha after clearing all punishments for all their cumulative paapas of all janmas [pretty lengthy process eh... :-/].
Though I am not a firm believer of the concept of re-incarnations, I half heartedly agree with it till I have a better concept to believe in. Actually speaking my dissatisfaction is not towards this theory but on the whole system of it. Assume souls 'wear' different bodies in different incarnations; the memory is not a thing that gets transferred across different janmas. What I mean is nobody will ever have knowledge of the severity of the sentence s/he is going to serve in this prison. And when the punishment actually begins, all of us suffer without knowing the reason for suffering.
Isn't it like a child who gets beatings from his teacher without knowing the mistakes for which he is being punished..?
I am OK with the punishment as long as I am told the reason before I get spanked.
One such discussion with my colleague dealt with the subject of sufferings the human beings undergo on earth. Suffering can be because of poverty, hunger, lack of basic needs, ill health or because of any external or internal factors which we believe will affect our lives. When I mean suffering, I mean a person being unhappy for what ever reason.
Our discussion went beyond blaming any country/Govt/System/life style for one's unhappiness.
Why should there be a gap between rich and poor? Why people in Ethiopia starve and rich people from big cities of world are obese..?
Why people in Kashmir get killed for none of their mistakes? Why kids are orphaned for no fault of theirs?
Why people fight with each other?
Why do people have to suffer from incurable diseases?
Why people are born physically or mentally challenged?
And now a very important question, How is the share of unhappiness and happiness credited in each person's account?
Haan.. there we are, we are discussing the very basic question, First of all why should living beings suffer or be unhappy? Though this question seems to project me like a selfish happiness monger, but that makes perfect sense because I am not begging for the happiness of only my family, I want the whole world to be a peaceful place and tenure on earth a life long vacation for every one who is born here.
My team mate who seems to be conversant on these topics, started justifying the concept of re-incarnations, human race being the best form of life, all people suffer on the basis of paapas they have committed in previous janmas. More the sins, severe the punishment on earth. He also enunciated the mention of earth as a prison for human beings in Garuda PuraaNa [or some thing, I dont exactly remember]. He also said the souls attain moksha after clearing all punishments for all their cumulative paapas of all janmas [pretty lengthy process eh... :-/].
Though I am not a firm believer of the concept of re-incarnations, I half heartedly agree with it till I have a better concept to believe in. Actually speaking my dissatisfaction is not towards this theory but on the whole system of it. Assume souls 'wear' different bodies in different incarnations; the memory is not a thing that gets transferred across different janmas. What I mean is nobody will ever have knowledge of the severity of the sentence s/he is going to serve in this prison. And when the punishment actually begins, all of us suffer without knowing the reason for suffering.
Isn't it like a child who gets beatings from his teacher without knowing the mistakes for which he is being punished..?
I am OK with the punishment as long as I am told the reason before I get spanked.
i would just say this: Look at things happening around you either good or bad as just a coincidence. everything will be easy.
No dear.. all this is a part of some complex algorithm. How can you expect the happenings of a system involving billions of people be just a bundle of coincidences?
Hmmm.. may be ur view is just a false way to console ourselves.
Thinking simple helps some times huh..
Very true... i too get into such thoughts very often.... and there wont be any convincing answers to these questions..... But it sure is disturbing! Whay the hell should people suffer at all? Why dont we get punished in the same janma, atleast we'll know why we're suffering then! Why are ppl who are good in this janma being punished... etc etc.... hmmm... me too getting philosophical!
I feel its just a person's heart that keeps him happy or unhappy. It is an individual's decision to be happy. If he decides to be happy he can be happy, no matter what. Just a thought.
As far as your questions, I dont have an answer and I dont think so much these days. :)
[to Sum]:
yeah... these thoughts revisit me when ever some thing bad happens to the good people around me..
[to Saravanan]:
Ur rite.. not thinking much abt the questions which have no answers is a nice thing to do..
you've captured the dilemma quite well.. its too complex to be dismissed as coincidences. However with our limited intellect, we can't seem to find any convincing theories that fit all the facts.
Like you, I half heartedly believe the reincarnation bit, in the absence of anything else to explain things better. However it does seem to have gaping holes.
No easy answers, wish we could just turn off the "thinking" button on such things!
[to tess]:
I hope that switch is available to us in present janma ha ha
@Ananth anna,
A really thought provoking article. Its good that you bring up such things.
Like your conversant colleague, I too agree the happenings in our life are a part of some very complex algorithm. I firmly believe in the existence of a superpower(ie, God) who is the owner of this algorithm. There is a reason for everything that happens and explanation for all of it.
Coming to the memory erasing part of it, I guess it is to give you opportunity to learn new things and form your own opinions. For example, if 'xyz' was a terrorist in his previous janma, he would either use all his past-life memory to cause more destruction. Or, if he wanted to change, he would repent from the moment he was born and wait all his life for punishment to come in some form. In both ways, he would not have got an opportunity to start something fresh and out of the mind. Sometimes I feel it is like formatting all the drives of a virus affected computer and installing a new OS so that the virus does not affect the system again. We dont have the backup - the creator has it with him :)
"Isn't it like a child who gets beatings from his teacher without knowing the mistakes for which he is being punished..?"
The teacher feels that the child has commited a mistake and punishes it. The child will silently bear the punishment. But if it has the thinking button "on", it will slowly realise someday that the beatings were for its own good. If it does not think too much, it will always nurture hatred against the teacher for spanking it.
Similarly, the very fact that you have got this thought is that you have switched on the button. When you go through all the sufferings in life and think about each one of it very closely, you might realise that it was for your own good. That realisation would be the ultimate level of spirituality that you can achieve. Unfortunatley, no one goes till that place :(
Sorry for a mini-post in your comments page. I will post all this as an article soon.
[to Shashi]:
Ummm.. ur comment is quite convincing.
Points like
..When you go through all the sufferings in life and think about each one of it very closely, you might realise that it was for your own good. That realisation would be the ultimate level of spirituality that you can achieve
and
it will slowly realise someday that the beatings were for its own good.
are worth pondering over...
But I am some how not happy with this whole system of punishment at all.. I am afraid to say that aloud too, what if THE TEACHER thinks I am a naughty child who incessantly questions HIM and spanks me more :-/
think of all different human races as species.
1 thrives and survives and other gets extinct. Its just evolution maga.
It explains everything.