Stress has been my favorite topic oflate. Why are we stressed, how do we get stressed, what can we do about it, are some of the questions that trouble me and most people these days.
Before I get to stress I thought I mention here about this lecture by Jayapathaka Swami Maharaja:
"Everybody wants pleasure, this whole world is pleasure seeking. But pleasure comes on different levels. There is physical pleasures, mental pleasures and spiritual pleasures.
If somebody is mentally pleased, they feel physically content also. If somebody is spiritually pleased, they feel mentally and physically.. things are open.
For instance, if somebody is not mentally pleased even if you give them a nice meal but they are very sad because a loved one is sick, they're not going to enjoy the meal. So the physical pleasure will not replace the mental agony they are felling because of worry for the well being of some relative.
So generally I go for a walk on the Durban beach front and there's a lot of people trying to sell pleasure. But the pleasure they're trying to provide is something for the tongue, something for the touch, something for the ear, something for the eye...superficial pleasure.
We are simultaneously trying to provide pleasure on all the levels. We also have food for the tongue, but it's also food for the soul. We also have certain cultural programs... dance, drama, music and more..
So these things are pleasing to see, at the same time they are spiritually gratifying because the topic is about KRISHNA! "
I will comment on this in a later post.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Does God Exist?
A new question revisited by every one of us atleast once in our lives I suppose. But it remains a fascination and mystery, which makes it even more interesting.
To start with I ask myself "What if God doesn't exist?". If God does not exist then several questions remain to be answered: Where did we come from? How has this Universe come into existence? How is the Universe being sustained, maintained? Why do we die? What happens after death? How are we born, what/where are we before birth?
Science seems to have an answer: God does not exist. There is no need for God to explain these questions. For the logically loaded scientific arguments, everything came from a "black hole" which was the reservoir of all energy. The Universe was created by a big bang from which came the planets and the comic energy. But, where did the "black hole" come from? How did it have that much energy stored, that has not exhausted for billions or years? How did life come from? Is life a mixture of chemicals and simple reaction of chemicals? If so, can we produce life? Can life come from non-life/Matter? Questions like these continue to trouble even the scientists.
So, even if everything came from the black hole, can we say that the source from which the black hole itself came into being is God? So, to start with, we could say that something existed before the black hole which should be inifintely more energetic than the energy stored in the black hole, because black hole had near infinite energy and this near infinite energy could not have come from a finite source. And, this infinite energy could have come only from an infinite (anantha)energy . As we trace back there should have existed an infinite aspect that ever existed, never creater (anadih adih). That which is the source of everything, from which everything must have come (sarva kaaraNa kaaraNam). Every aspect of the creation can then be traced back to that one source, which some prefer to call - God.
If that one aspect is God, then is that a person or just a ball of energy?
Scientists would be happy to call it a big ball of energy. But given the absolute wholeness and perfection of this system, the logical implausability of life coming from matter, this creation could not have been by accident but an "intelligent design". Nothing in this creation seems to happen by accident, there is always a cause and effect. What we see as effect is the creation and there must've been a cause behind it. Moreover, of all the planets only one planet has life of this form, Why? Could be yet another accident of sorts. Could be. A plausible argument from science is that the perfection that we see in the system is due to evolution and natural selection that has taken over a billion years to reach this state. So, at the beginning there was chaos which has evolved, corrected, and perfected itself into its current state :) Yes. But, where did everything start from? Hmmm A long pause pursues.
The other plausible argument then is the possibility of an super intelligent being (not a human being, ofcourse ;)) who a) created this wonderful system over a billion years back, or b) installed intelligence and order into the system so that it can carve itself into its current state. And everything came from that eternal being, who is full of knowledge.
So, I conclude that a) God exists, b) God is an infinite, eternal aspect, c) He is a highly intelligent being and not just a ball of energy.
To start with I ask myself "What if God doesn't exist?". If God does not exist then several questions remain to be answered: Where did we come from? How has this Universe come into existence? How is the Universe being sustained, maintained? Why do we die? What happens after death? How are we born, what/where are we before birth?
Science seems to have an answer: God does not exist. There is no need for God to explain these questions. For the logically loaded scientific arguments, everything came from a "black hole" which was the reservoir of all energy. The Universe was created by a big bang from which came the planets and the comic energy. But, where did the "black hole" come from? How did it have that much energy stored, that has not exhausted for billions or years? How did life come from? Is life a mixture of chemicals and simple reaction of chemicals? If so, can we produce life? Can life come from non-life/Matter? Questions like these continue to trouble even the scientists.
So, even if everything came from the black hole, can we say that the source from which the black hole itself came into being is God? So, to start with, we could say that something existed before the black hole which should be inifintely more energetic than the energy stored in the black hole, because black hole had near infinite energy and this near infinite energy could not have come from a finite source. And, this infinite energy could have come only from an infinite (anantha)energy . As we trace back there should have existed an infinite aspect that ever existed, never creater (anadih adih). That which is the source of everything, from which everything must have come (sarva kaaraNa kaaraNam). Every aspect of the creation can then be traced back to that one source, which some prefer to call - God.
If that one aspect is God, then is that a person or just a ball of energy?
Scientists would be happy to call it a big ball of energy. But given the absolute wholeness and perfection of this system, the logical implausability of life coming from matter, this creation could not have been by accident but an "intelligent design". Nothing in this creation seems to happen by accident, there is always a cause and effect. What we see as effect is the creation and there must've been a cause behind it. Moreover, of all the planets only one planet has life of this form, Why? Could be yet another accident of sorts. Could be. A plausible argument from science is that the perfection that we see in the system is due to evolution and natural selection that has taken over a billion years to reach this state. So, at the beginning there was chaos which has evolved, corrected, and perfected itself into its current state :) Yes. But, where did everything start from? Hmmm A long pause pursues.
The other plausible argument then is the possibility of an super intelligent being (not a human being, ofcourse ;)) who a) created this wonderful system over a billion years back, or b) installed intelligence and order into the system so that it can carve itself into its current state. And everything came from that eternal being, who is full of knowledge.
So, I conclude that a) God exists, b) God is an infinite, eternal aspect, c) He is a highly intelligent being and not just a ball of energy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
