God and his Merit System

The idea of penning down this post occurred, when there was a casual discussion with my friends and colleagues about the interesting values behind Ramayana and Mahabharata.

In my observations, I noted that believers of God, had always sought or resorted to God, during their tough times. Generally believers of Hinduism, not only put the onus of their tough situations on God, but also on their own fate. So what is fate or destiny or karma?

Fate (leaving aside the bookish definitions) can be considered as a meritorious system of effects for the deeds done by a person – which we either construe as rewards or punishments; rewards for good deeds and punishments for bad deeds; which in Hinduism, not only relates to what one does in his current birth but also had carried forward from his/her previous births (what else can explain about a child being born to poor parents, while at the same time and almost at the same place, another child being born to rich parents).

The role of God is to serve as an administrator or that of an implementer of the fate or meritorious system. God may give solace, reduce the impact, or effect of a bad fate, and even may help you to completely pass you through the tough times, but then wise men say that, it is how the fate has been defined for you – that you will be blessed and be guided by God.

Therefore, God as an administrator (though very much could be the creator) of this system, reserves the right to add/increase/decrease/remove the effects, therefore bringing in the flexibility to the otherwise rigid system of cause (deeds) & effect. However it should be noted that whatever the deeds and effects may be, they once again gets added up to one’s list, and will be evaluated again as the cycle (of birth and death) continues.

P.S: May be this merit system can be thought of a well-balanced zero-sum game, another example highlighting the art of delicate balancing.

My two cents worth of view on Hinduism

Fortunately I had umpteen opportunities to discuss about Hinduism with many diverse people; people who were orthodox, who were moderate and liberal, who were atheists, and also people who were either orthodox or liberal followers of other religions.

Well, first the disclaimers. I am neither a Pundit, nor a orthodox follower (hence the title – two cents).  My views given below are my own, and that I had realized or evolved over long periods of time.

To start with, Hinduism is a label attributed (probably by the Britishers) to the people who followed a certain culture and were living around the current Indian geographical regions. Over the years,  it became branded as a religion, though it is not an organized religion unlike   many others. Also, as mentioned in my earlier posts, a religion is only a path to spirituality, and many texts, like Ramayan or Gita, that are attributed to Hinduism, reinforce the same – in other words, an orthodox following of Hinduism (or any religion for that matter) may not necessarily make a person spiritual! 

If I had to share one most important facet or fundamental trait of the religion of Hinduism, then this would be the one.

Every thing you do or believe will have an effect.

Though this may be sound too simplistic, this forms the basis for many other concepts or philosophies in this religion. The point to be noted is that even an intangible thing or even as abstract thought or belief will have a resultant effect. Also, even if you claim to do nothing, or even think of nothing (Meditation!), it will have its own result / effect.  Belief (a strong thought with conviction, as I would like to put it) is emphasized very much in numerous ways through out Hinduism.  If you have a strong and unshakable belief or faith, you will get the results of your belief.

The implications of this simple concept are phenomenal and in-numerous. Add to this, the resultant effects get carried forward to your next re-birth, and that’s Karma in the most simplistic sense. In Hinduism, this concept of Karma, leads to the cycle of birth and death and therefore reincarnation of our soul.  This leads to the concept of destiny or fate, which is determined by your actions not only in this current birth, but also from the actions of your previous births or incarnations! 

The concepts of karma, destiny or fate has the potential to answer any question that one may encounter or realize for oneself, generally during the toughest times or during their peaks in life. To give an example, How two children born at same date and same time, and probably even the same place and the same environment get their lives shaped up differently ?

Why new religions find it difficult to evolve?

I feel, this time, I have a more introspective topic to write about – about the evolution of new religions – continuing with my previous post on “Religions and Institutionalization“.

As usual it started with a ‘controversial’ discussion on religion and God, and as we sifted through topics like Scientology and Tom Cruise an interesting question emerged – why we do not have any new religions emerging recently? This is despite having a much smaller world – interconnected in many ways, including the Internet and its latest social networking platforms, when propagation of messages can go viral!

A quick survey on the Web did not reveal much, (though it revealed interesting religions as in this link) and an extensive search would be required considering this list. Though  many of them are referred as ‘religions’ and some were found as late as in 1980’s they do not seem to have any significant following. But at the same time, we cannot underestimate them, because today’s popular religions also would have started in the same way, but took atleast 3-4 centuries to spread and establish themselves across the world. So, we never know! despite the connected world we live in.

In my analysis, I believe that there are two strong characteristics that are exhibited by today’s popular religions, which will stop or delay the arise of any new religion – one is continuous propagation (and propagation through all new media) by identified leaders – and the other is the embedding of the sense of community among their members, which is done by regular and mandatory gathering of their members in a place for worship. The latter ideal ensures that people don’t get distanced too much from their current religious practice and instills a sense of ‘belonging’ and probably ‘pressure’ on who are not inclined.

Disclaimer: I don’t intend to start a new religion! and I am not an atheist!

Religions and Institutionalization

We had an interesting discussion on “Institutions” in one of my classes where I was explaining about the quality processes that has to be inculcated in an organization, and work towards insitutionalization of the same to reap the benefits. Well this blog is not about it, but about religions.

Religions serve as an excellent example of institutionalization – institutionalization of beliefs on God, and the processes represent the rituals and customs carried out by the followers of that religion.  Now the question: Does institutionalization really benefit here?  My answer: NO.

When we institutionalize the beliefs on god, and evolve them as religions, it becomes one more identity for a person. However the purpose of any religion is to lead its followers to the spiritual path, and largely that requires an individual’s own effort and will.

A religion can provide an identity, impose conditions of behavior, that might lead to the spiritual path, but can’t guarantee it. Also here we are dealing with abstractness and results or effects would not be tangible always to measure. A goodness of a person has to be judged over his/her lifetime giving appropriate weight to their environments and circumstances – well that’s what GOD  would supposedly do in one’s after life, according to many religions.

In quality processes, there is a scope for review and continuous improvement, which can lead to new and different processes over time. However today’s religions does not allow to redefine or re-orient or even re-look at the changing needs and hence constrain you to the same beliefs that were set long ago, often justified by saying that all of the processes (rituals, beliefs, and customs)  followed in a religion relate to “core values” and hence are sacrosanct and there’s only one choice – either you subscribe to it or get left out. 

Disclaimer: I am NOT an atheist.

BodhiDharma and Bogar

Lately, I have been conducting my Internet surfing research, about a great saint. Well, I got initiated into this due to the interest generated by the movie 7 aum arivu.

I watched the Chinese movie “Master of Zen” (Made in 1994) which depicts the complete history of Bodhi Dharma. Bodhi Dharma (before becoming) was a prince in the Pallava Dynasty, that was ruling Tamil Nadu, with Kanchipuram as their capital, during 5th-6th CE. Most of the literature available on the Web, concur that he was born in Kanchipuram, and after adopting Buddhism, and then becoming a Buddhist monk, he moves to China, as per the wishes of his Guru Prajnatara (Buddhist monk).

Bodhi Dharma first goes to Southern China (Obvious, if you are from India), and then after spending some time there moves to Northern China, and was known to use unorthodox methods of teaching. Primarily he wanted to convey that one needs to perform a self-realization to understand himself, nature and God. He also have taught about physical exercises or self defence (probably a form of varma) to Shaolin monks, to protect themselves. Some more information about Bodhi Dharma, especially the cave where he lived for 9 years, and his burial place could be found here and here.

It is said that Bodhi Dharma during his last days, wanted to travel back to India, but died in China, and buried in the Shaolin temple. But later after his death, some one cites him, and when asked where he was going, he supposed to have told, he was moving towards West (towards India).

Bogar or Bhogar: Bhogar was a Siddha, meaning a holy saint, who practiced meditation, and other techniques (Mantra, Tantra, Yantra) to attain liberation.They were primarily Saivaites who worshiped Shiva.  Bhogar was known to be a great alchemist. He installed the idol of Lord Muruga in Palani temple (known as Karthikeya, and brother of Lord Ganesha, and son of Lord Shiva) which is made of nine special herbs, and known to have medicinal effects, and stronger than Granite.  He also helped or advised in the construction of the Brihadeeswara temple in Tanjore, around 1000 CE.

Now the interesting part. Some accounts say that Bhogar travelled to China, as per the instructions of his Guru, and then to Srilanka, and lived for several centuries. He also have said to taught tantric techniques in China, and  was known as Lao-Tzu (known to be founder or influence of Taoism) (The theory Yang-Yin is correlated with the Shiva-Shakti). Then in the same accounts it is mentioned that he returns back to India. Incidentally his Guru was Kalanginathar, who was originally from China. The period of Bhogar also seems to be from 8th CE.  Bhogar did have a Chinese disciple Pulippani (renamed in Tamil), who was also a Siddha. Bhogar completes his life’s journey in the Palani Murugan temple.

Another interesting thing is about the dates. Bodhi Dharma, said to be from Pallava Dynasty, belongs to 5th -6th CE, and  said to have lived for 300+ years. The Pallava dynasty come to an end during 8th Century CE, and Cholas emerge as the stronger dynasty, starting from this period. Bhogar’s time period starts from 8th, and said to have lived several centuries. Both of them had some connections with China, and both were saints with extraordinary capabilities. Hope this is a enough material for a researcher to carry on further.

Update – October 2013:  As can be read from the comments section, though there have been references to texts that states Bhogar’s time period as starting from 3000 BC, there is a significant convergence in many of those accounts from 6th CE onwards and during that period Bhogar is said to have travelled to China (for the second time) with few of his Tamil disciples and supposed to have returned back few centuries later. So, that raises another question – If BodhiDharma and Bhogar were different people, then “Was BodhiDharma one of the disciples of Bhogar, who went to China along with the latter’s visit?”