Grow up or die!

A little bit of Easter Sunday sacrilege. I saw Bill Maher's documentary- "Religulous" today. It was OK, not great, OK. I was surprised how blunt Maher is with a lot of religious wing-nut types. Fortunately no one pulled a gun on him but he did manage to get thrown out of the Mormon temple in Utah and the Vatican. I guess he was going around with the full crew and so could afford to go out on the limb a bit. What I liked the most was the closing monologue in the documentary. The transcript is below the fold. You can also watch it here.

"The irony of religion is that because of its power to divert man to destructive courses, the world could actually come to an end… Plain fact is, religion must die for mankind to live. The hour is getting very late to be able to indulge in having key decisions made by religious people. By irrationalists, by those who would steer the ship of state not by a compass, but by the equivalent of reading the entrails of a chicken.

George Bush prayed a lot about Iraq, but he didn’t learn a lot about it. Faith means making a virtue out of not thinking. It’s nothing to brag about. And those who preach faith and enable and elevate it are intellectual slaveholders keeping mankind in a bondage to fantasy and nonsense that has spawned and justified so much lunacy and destruction.

Religion is dangerous because it allows human beings who don’t have all the answers to think that they do. Most people would think it’s wonderful when someone says, “I’m willing, Lord! I’ll do whatever you want me to do!” Except that since there are no gods actually talking to us, that void is filled in by people with their own corruptions and limitations and agendas. And anyone who tells you they know, they just know what happens when you die, I promise you you don’t. How can I be so sure? Because I don’t know, and you do not possess mental powers that I do not.

The only appropriate attitude for man to have about the big questions is not the arrogant certitude that is the hallmark of religion, but doubt. Doubt is humble, and that’s what man needs, considering that human history is just a litany of getting shit dead wrong. This is why rational people, anti-religionists, must end their timidity and come out of the closet and assert themselves. And those who consider themselves only moderately religious really need to look in the mirror and realize that the solace and comfort that religion brings you comes at a horrible price.

If you belonged to a political party or a social club that was tied to as much bigotry, misogyny, homophobia, violence, and sheer ignorance as religion is, you’d resign in protest. To do otherwise is to be an enabler, a mafia wife, for the true devils of extremism that draw their legitimacy from the billions of their fellow travelers.

If the world does come to an end here, or wherever, or if it limps into the future, decimated by the effects of religion-inspired nuclear terrorism, let’s remember what the real problem was. We learned how to precipitate mass death before we got past the neurological disorder of wishing for it.

That’s it. Grow up or die."

Check It Out: The Science of Religion

In 2003 Richard Dawkins gave the Tanner Lectures at Harvard University. I spent most of the afternoon today listening to these lectures. Richard Dawkins is one of the many contemporary scientists I admire a lot. I have read many (if not all) of his books, including the most recent one - The God Delusion. I admire Dawkins primarily because of his knack of explaining complex ideas in a clear and logical fashion. I admire him even more for his polite yet forceful arguments against religious extremism, in fact religion itself and against irrational, non-scientific ideas like 'creation science' and 'intelligent design'.

In the first of the two lectures, Dawkins talks about the science of religion. The Darwinian framework of evolution through variation and natural selection is the most elaborate explanation we have to explain the evolution and diversity of life on earth. Any phenomena that have survived for millennia in human populations therefore beg an evolutionary explanation. Religious beliefs have appeared and continue to appear independently in human societies across ages in all parts of the world. The ubiquity of religious beliefs in human society makes it imperative to explore the evolutionary origins of such beliefs. Dawkins focuses exclusively on this topic in the first of the two lectures. Dawkins has devoted a full chapter of his latest book - The God Delusion - to this topic. I would urge anyone who is interested in this subject to listen to this lecture.

In my opinion this topic is of utmost importance today. Religious zealots are wrecking havoc in every part of the world. Islamic extremists in the middle east, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other parts of the world; fundamentalist evangelical Christians in the USA, fundamentalist Jews in Israel, fundamentalist Hindu groups in India all want to impose their particular religious world view and way of life upon the society at large. Many, if not all of them are using violence to terrorize people into submission. Only by understanding the evolutionary origins of religious beliefs can we begin to treat the virus of religious extremism and perhaps some day cure ourselves of all faith based propositions.

In the second lecture, Dawkins talks about the Religion of Science. A common retort of people of faith against science is that science itself is a form of religion. They point out that the core hypothesis of science, that the universe is governed by a set of laws which we can reveal through careful investigation, is a faith based proposition in itself. Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible." There is profound mystery, wonder and awe in the universe. There are befuddling questions such as why are the laws of that govern the universe the way they are? Why do the fundamental constants of physics have the peculiar values they have? Dawkins draws out the stark contrasts between the scientific, - evidence based - world view and the religious - faith based - world view. He concedes that there may be questions which science in principle cannot answer but he lands firmly against the proposition that the scientific world view IS in itself some sort of religious world view.

The whole series is available in mp3 format on Dawkins's website which is a worthwhile place to visit for anyone interested in evolution, reason, atheism etc. There is also a seminar with Dawkins, Steven Pinker and Keith DeRose as a follow up to the lectures.

Happy listening!

Hinduism: An Open Source religion

Hinduism stands apart from the three organized, monotheistic religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam and other major religions - Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism etc, as a weird sort of religion. All these other religions have a central defining entity. Judaism, Christianity and Islam have their prophets and their sacred books. Sikhism and Jainism have a line of sacred religious teachers but one or a few among them are considered most sacred. Buddhism has its founder - Gautama Buddha. Hinduism is a bit quirky. There are many books which can be considered sacred texts, the Vedas, Upanishads and the Bhagavad Geeta being the main ones. There are many Gods and Goddesses to worship. There are many schools of thought and traditions to follow. In fact, variety seems to be the single and most important defining quality of Hinduism. Hinduism is adaptable, versatile and most importantly it is an 'open source' religion. You can choose a flavor of Hinduism that suits your taste.

Let me just elaborate on the 'open source' bit. The Linux operating system is an open source operating system. The 'kernel' or the central component of the operating system is an open source component released under GNU-GPL for any developer to modify and re-distribute. Similarly the 'kernel' of the Hindu spiritual thought, the central idea of Hinduism, in my opinion, is a state of consciousness which can be experienced and freely interpreted by any human being. It is a spiritual experience. I am using the word spiritual a bit casually here. By spiritual, I do not mean to hint at something supernatural; although most traditional interpretations have a supernatural component. By spiritual I mean something relating to one's subjective consciousness, an experience that is available to oneself alone. This state of consciousness may correlate with a certain state or states of the human brain. This spiritual experience is termed variously as samadhi, awakening, enlightenment, nirvana etc. For brevity, I will here forth address this state as the 'samadhi'.

We know this for sure - in ancient India there were many people who followed a variety of contemplative traditions. Many people must have experienced samadhi in the course of the numerous mental and physical regimens they undertook as a part of their meditative practice and probably even under the influence of hallucinogenic substances (such as the mythical Soma) . Even though they experienced it, they were not in a position to know the neurological basis of it. All of the information we have about the nature of samadhi is from the descriptions of it, by people who at one time or another experienced it. Since samadhi is a state of consciousness accessible only to the individual experiencing it, we have no way of verifying that the experience indeed took place. But many, if not all, of the people claiming to experience samadhi seem like stand-up guys and gals. So we can safely say that some of them were indeed telling the truth. The numerous descriptions of samadhi have some common and recurring themes such as:

1. The experience of a complete dissolution of the 'ego' (an 'I' separate from the external world),
2. A perception of oneness with the external world
3. A sense of profound bliss.
   

Most people who claim to have experienced samadhi describe it as a life changing experience, something that arouses the feelings of love, empathy and compassion in them changing their world-view in a radical way. I believe that it's this unique state of consciousness that is the kernel - the central concept - of the religion that was later on termed as Hinduism.

Like Linux, there are many distributions built around this kernel. By different 'distributions', I mean the different interpretations by different people, applying a combination of logic and metaphysical conceptions, to explain the various aspects of the samadhi experience. I think there were two important reasons for the emergence of such a variety of interpretations. In ancient India there was no single religious authority or single dominant school of religious thought. Differing ideas and debate between different schools of thought was often welcomed and promoted by rulers and elite in the society. Secondly, samadhi is a purely subjective experience. Even today we can only image and record in some detail the state of the brain of a person who is undergoing a meditative experience. As of yet there is no way to externally induce such an experience reliably. So the people who experience samadhi lacked the tools for understanding the physical and neurological basis of the experience. That combined with intense and profound nature of the experience, as judged from the lofty descriptions, must have evoked the idea that there must be something mystical behind it. The Hindu interpretations are not the only one which try to explain samadhi. Both Jainism and Buddhism arose as a result of prolonged contemplative practice and the experience of samadhi by their teachers. The distributions which broadly fall under the label Hinduism interpret the samadhi state in one particular way.These 'distributions' form the various schools of thought in Hindu philosophy.

The people who composed the Vedas believed that there is a soul (the Atman) that animates our bodies and that survives the death of our bodies. They also believed that natural phenomena were imbibed with souls as well. Hence a plethora of naturalistic gods and goddesses such as Agni (the god of fire), Varuna (the god of rain), Usha (the goddess of dawn) etc. When some of the Vedic philosophers experienced samadhi, they interpreted it thus - they ascribed the feeling of oneness experienced in the samadhi to the merging of their personal soul with the soul that pervades all of nature. They termed this soul that pervades all of nature as the 'Brahman'. This metaphysical idea of a Brahman is an important part of the 'Vedantic' interpretation of samadhi.

Contemporary Hinduism is a giddy mixture of this particular interpretation of that unique state of consciousness, along with a bunch of other baggage such as:

• Other metaphysical hypotheses such as the laws of karma, rebirth of the soul etc.
• A number of creation myths.
• Belief in an amazingly large number of of gods and goddesses, each with their own rich and colorful mythology.
• An equally huge number of rituals, rites and superstitions.

The reason I call Hinduism an 'open source' religion is because its central idea, the interpretation of the samadhi, is not controlled by any central authority. One is free to re-interpret to one's own liking. One is free to promote one's own interpretation. One is free to label one's interpretation as the most authoritative, most logical, most perfect interpretation. The history of Hindu philosophy reveals a number of such individuals and groups who chose to interpret the samadhi state in their own peculiar way. They squabbled, they argued, they constructed complicated logical arguments to refute the interpretations of the 'other' groups and establish the authority of their own interpretation. The Samkhya, Dvait (dualist), Advait (non-dualist), Vishistha-Advait (qualified non-dualist)... all these different schools are nothing but elaborate logical and metaphysical expositions of the samadhi state. Adi Shankaracharya's treatise on the Brahmasutras for example provides refutation of many different schools of thought and promotes Shankaracharya's own interpretation of Samadhi, the nature of Brahman, Atman, etc. All the schools of thought that are broadly termed 'Hindu' agree on the point that samadhi is the 'joining' of the Atman with the Brahman. Their disagreements stem from their ideas about the nature of Brahman and Atman.

How, one may ask, can one achieve this state? How can one achieve samadhi? There are many ways of doing this as well. One may follow any one of the many paths towards experiencing the samadhi state. Since samadhi is the joining or the yoking of the Atman to the Brahman, the Sanskrit word 'yoga' which means yoking is used to describe the various paths. One may follow the path of devotion (Bhakti Yoga), the path of asceticism (Raj Yoga), the path of knowledge (Jnana Yoga), the path of action (Karma Yoga) - each with it's own prescription for achieving the supreme union of the Atman and the Brahman. There is never a dearth of mystics, sages, god-men and god-women in India, each claiming to have experienced the samadhi and giving their own for achieving it. New age paths like Siddha Samadhi Yoga, Art of Living etc. mostly comprise of traditional ideas repackaged and distributed through modern marketing mechanisms.

The choice of gods and goddesses to worship is my favorite aspect of Hinduism. If you are the nerdy type, you might like Ganesh - the elephant headed god of wisdom. If you are a gym loving health freak, you might want to worship Hanuman - the monkey god endowed with amazing strength and the ability to fly (like Superman but better because Hanuman is supposedly Chiranjeevi - one endowed with eternal life). Then there are a number of goddesses. Laxmi (the goddess of wealth) may be worshiped by one and all. Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge and Durga (or Shakti), the goddess of energy are equally venerable. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva... the trinity... the foundations of Hindu mythology are eternal favorites among devotees. So are the many incarnations of Vishnu, Krishna and Rama being the most preferred of them all. There are of course many rituals and rites you might choose to observe to please or placate your preferred god/goddess. You may choose to enjoy the beauty of many of the devotional songs (the Bhajans and Abhangas) or devotional dances. You may indulge in meditation and chanting. If you so prefer, you may also choose the almost sadomasochistic acts of worship like sleeping on a bed of nails or standing for days on one leg.

In many respects, Hinduism is like and operating system for your life. It is a way of life. You may choose your own favorite 'distro' of the Hindu operating system, your own favorite path, your own favorite deity and still call yourself a Hindu as long as you subscribe to the central idea - the concept of the supreme Brahman. The gods and goddesses are all manifestations of the Brahman. The various paths all lead to the union of the Atman with the Brahman. The Brahman itself is something beyond all concepts. According to the "Advait" school, everything after all IS the Brahman, including you.

Thou Art That!

FSM sighted

Blessed be!

His Noodliness - The Flying Spaghetti Monster - has been sighted blessing a Volvo in the parking lot in front of our building.

Since my first post about His Noodliness, the Church of the FSM has grown widely. The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has recently been published in book form - you know - like the Good Book. The followers of the church or "Pastafarians" believe that the world was created by the Flying Spaghetti Monster and that the increase in global average temperature in the recent decades is due to a decrease in the number of pirates.

If you are interested in seeing more photos of FSM sightings you can visit this Flickr group. There are some great pictures there. Here is one that I particularly liked taken by Yoshi...

You see something like this and you can't but help believe that the world truly must have been created by the super intelligent Flying Spaghetti Monster!

Technorati Tags: FSM, Flying Spaghetti Monster, Pastafarianism, Religion

Flying Spaghetti Monster is Coming!

It's amazing the crazy stuff you may find while browsing the wikipedia...


image credit: www.venganza.org

Pastafarians believe that the universe was created by the supremely intelligent Flying Spaghetti Monster. This is the oldest known depiction of the Flying Spaghetti Monster [FSM] creating the world as we know, starting with mountains, trees and midgits. Bobby Henderson, a Physics graduate from Oregon is the prophet of Pastafarianism and has taken it upon himself to spread the message of the Noodly Lord.

Henderson claims that there are 10 million believers of his faith. He also wants his version of creation to be introduced in school as an "alternative view" along with intelligent design. In an open letter sent to the Kansas School Board Henderson says:

If the Intelligent Design theory is not based on faith, but instead another scientific theory, as is claimed, then you must also allow our theory to be taught, as it is also based on science, not on faith.

Pirates hold a very important place in the history of Pastafarianism. Henderson shows that the rising global temperatures can be correlated directly with the dropping number of pirates. He demands that their beliefs be taught in "full Pirate regalia", citing that the Monster gets really angry if we won't.

Pastafarianism is slowly becoming quite popular. Pastafarians have sent letters to school boards of many other districts requesting them to include their creation theory in the curricula. Other elements of the faith are not yet very clear and would probably become clear soon, once the transmission for the Noodly Lord is received. Pastafarians strongly believe that the Monster continues to guide humanity with His Noodly Appendage. Prayers to the FSM are typically ended by a rousing "Ramen" instead of the traditional "Amen". True believers cite many reasons to join their ranks including these:

• Flimsy moral standards.
• Every Friday is a religious holiday. If your work/school objects to that, demand your religious beliefs be respected and threaten to call the ACLU.
• Our heaven is WAY better. We've got a Stripper Factory AND a Beer Volcano.

After I stumbled upon this stuff my first reaction was, "Who is this nuthead?" Actually Henderson has found a clever way to oppose the introduction of "intelligent design" in school curricula. His idea is, "If you can't beat 'em join 'em."

Do check out the website!

Ramen!


image credit:www.venganza.org
Technorati Tags: Flying Spaghetti Monster, Pastafarianism, FSM, Bobby Henderson, Intelligent Design

The Truth is ONE

I read an article about Dr. David Suzuki in the NYT today. Being a novice to a lot of things related to the environmental movement ("a tender green" if you will...), I had never come across his name or work. It's amazingly inspiring! Another accompanying article, [may require free registration to NYT] about 10 steps recommended by Dr. Suzuki for reducing our ecological footprint is also good. My curiosity was aroused enough to go and check out the website of ::David Suzuki Foundation. It is a nice website with a lot of information. One thing I found particularly interesting is "::The declaration of interdependence".

I read a lot of Zen philosophy in the last couple of months. I noticed that the declaration of interdependence has a lot of similarities with zen teachings, especially those of ::Thich Nhat Hanh. The ::5 mindfulness trainings of Thich Nhat Hanh summarize the zen ethics derived from the principle of interdependence or 'inter-being' as Nhat Hanh puts it.

The declaration is also very similar to the ethics of ::deep ecology. I am not sure if Dr. Suzuki based it on the ::principles of deep ecology, but deep ecology has very strong connections with the environmental movement. So there may be some relation there.

It also reminded me of the following quote attributed to Chief Seattle:

This we know: All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web he does to himself.

I came across this quote while reading the book "The Web of Life" by Fritjof Capra. This quote also talks about the same basic idea: the deep interdependence of all things living and non-living.

Isn't it wonderful how different people: a biologist, a Buddhist monk and a native American leader, all basically talking about the same idea, basically discovering the same "platonic truth". A Sanskrit hymn goes:

एकम् सत्।
विप्रा बहुदा वदन्ती॥

which translates roughly as, "The truth is one. The wise address it with different names". These different statements about "interdependence" are a glaring proof.

Technorati Tags: David Suzuki, Thich Nhat Hanh, Chief Seattle, Interdependence, Sustainability

Back to the roots

I am back from a trip to India. So there has been a huge gap in posting on my blog. My last post... made yesterday was in Marathi (my mothertongue). It seems that now I can post in Marathi... or devanagari script using unicode compatible fonts! I am thinking of starting another blog to post exlusively in Marathi.

Anyway...my trip to India was really amazing. We were there for 2 months. We went around a lot... ate a lot of mangoes... enjoyed(!) the scorching summer... enjoyed a little bit of the monsoon (we got back before it REALLY poured and caused all the flooding and damage in Mumbai and other areas). It was refreshing to meet family and friends after almost two and a half years.

My trip was more important because it gave me direction in a way!! I have posted my thoughts on how I want to get organized better and improve my productivity and efficiency and all that schmear. I realized during and after my trip that the best way to do that was to "go back to the roots". I realized that no amount of philosophy, techniques, seven habits (or more)... can work for me unless the philosophy, the techniques, the WAY comes from my roots... things with which I grew up... things which I can relate to... things which had an influence on me.

I grew up in a middleclass Marathi brahmin family in a small town - Kirloskarwadi. When I was in 3rd grade... I had my Upanayan Sanskar - a ritual which was originally intended to begin the student life with the Guru (teacher). After that my grandfather taught me the Sandhya-vandan (a prayer from the Rigveda). I used to perform the Sandhya-vandan pretty regularly till I was in 8th or 9th grade. I didn't know the meaning of the sanskrit prayer... but I used to do it faithfully.

My father is very active in the Swadhyaya movement started by Pandurang Shastri Athavale. (more about Swadhyaya sometime else...) When I went back this time I read a few inspiring books by Pandurang Shastri Athavale. I also went with my father to visit the small villages of Male and Disli is Mulshi Taluka in Pune. My father goes to these villages to visit the people, learn about their life, be a part of them and then give them the message of swadhyaya. I saw how people have been transformed by a simple message of selfhelp. All this had a fairly big impact on me. I decided to try it out for myself... starting with Trikaal Sandhya (or prayers three times a day).

So far I have found that it helps... it is helping me in many different ways. How? Why? I do not fully understand. But I feel that it definitely has got something to do with my roots. The things that I have learned as a child... not in the school... but informally... from my grandfather, from my mother... all of them have come from the Indian philosophy. Their origins were in the various philosophies, mythologies, stories and traditions that form the core of what is popularly known as Hindu religion (which in my opinion is not really a religion... its more like a way of life... but more about it later sometime). The problems I was facing needed self-help and the best inspiration for self-help 'for me' (and I qualify it this way because I don't think this is true for everyone) is my own roots... the philosophy of my ancestors.

Since then I have read a lot. Primarily I read books by Pandurang shastri Athavale. I always liked reading books by Swami Vivekananda. I read some more of his works. Most important of all... I read the complete Bhagwad Geeta. I have found a lot of help, inspiration and direction from these readings. The effect that these have had in such a small time have deepened my belief that the answer to my questions lies in my roots...

There is a lot that I still need to learn... but I feel that I have taken the right road... the road back to my roots.

Technorati Tags: Swadhyaya, Hindu Philosophy