Behold..
Why did one that transcends form, bring forth the form ? Why did one that encompasses reason devise reason ? Why did one that is beyond conscious beget conscious ?What made the perfect one dream of imperfection?
Was it to love ? For companionship ? To scorn ? Or may be just to mock ? Or even for irony ?
Update: Uttar mil gaya ! SSSS, (meaning Shri Shri Sharan Sharmaji) answered, "For Fun. Really. I asked". Gurudev ki jai ho!
12 comments:
If you are serious, since you haven't written "thinking logically" etc. : I don't think questions such as "why" apply to that which is beyond not only form, but also reason and consciousness. And I don't think that which is beyond form "begat" that which has form etc. - that which is beyond form is a sort of substratum, and in some sense inseparable, from that which has form. Similar to milk and its whiteness or so, I think ( loosely based on stuff I have read, haven't known any of these from experience ).
But then svAmi vivEkAnanda here seems to say that the hindu reply is "I don't know".
Frog,
my first wager
Gaurav,
Isn't that ad hoc, something built in to sustain and invigorate civilization, rather than the result of a quest for truth?
Frog,
No I am not saying that truth should not be explored, I am saying that any assumption while exploring must also sustain life or conscious, any assumption which ends up destroying life or conscious is nihilism.
In order to arrive at some answer you always make assumptions. This is not ad hoc this is reasoning :-)
I agree. But I am not sure one has to necessarily make an assumption that such-and-such is the reason for human existence; we can well leave that open.
Frog,
But you see conscious seeks answer to its existence that is the whole premise :-)
If you have faith in vEdAnta you can practise what it suggests - with faith that at the end of your sAdhana things will be revealed to you! This certainly involves assumptions, but not the assumption that such-and-such is the reason for human existence.
Frog,
But why have faith in vedanta, why not Quran or even Jedi Knights.
The basis behind vedanta or even religion is inquiry for existence of self aware conscious, so isn't better to make only those assumption which are necessary, occam razor and what not.
Lastly faith without skepiticism can turn into superstition, we must be aware of that.
vEdAnta asks us to cultivate mental purity - six virtues such as shama, dama etc., a desire for liberation and the like. Quran and the like just ask you to believe, not to verify your beliefs by practice. It seems to me to be a very reasonable assumption that once one cultivates mental purity one will be in a better position to find the truth as vEdAnta says. Without purity, each second we are thinking about how to accumulate pleasures or how to get rid of discomforts or how to boost our ego etc. - we live mechanically and do not even think sincerely about finding the truth - it is very difficult and nontrivial to dedicate sincere thought.
I think this is different from saying "Just believe all through your life, and rewards are yours after death".
And I think this is also more truthful than saying that the reason behind human existence has to be something which works best for society ( though each individual cultivating mental purity works very well for society : see this very beautiful article on the societal benefit of individuals following dharma )
Frog,
Ultimately what vedanta says are also assumptions.
Sorry, Gauravji, had some work on hand so was not able to actively participate in these great posts...hpefully will catch up on the weekend...
for some reason i deleted my earlier comment...but can see you've put it back there :)...the "for fun" may be substantiated by some portions of the Veda (though not in the same way)and utterances from great saints like Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa...will ry and dig out some references if i get the time...
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