Belief Disbelief

T N Dhar Kundan

In our school days the Math’s teacher would tell us that there are two ways to prove what we are required to prove in a math’s question. Either we first suppose it to be true and then prove with the help of certain steps that it is actually so or we proceed with the steps without presupposing it to be true and arrive at the result. I was recently reminded of this when I read in my daily paper that the philosopher saint Osho has said that we need not believe in God because that means we do not know but still we accept. So he says belief is as irreligious as disbelief is. What he means to say is that we should inquire first. We should not pretend and thereby be hypocrites. He goes on to say that belief means that we are carrying a prejudice that will become a barrier in our experiencing the truth. What he is advocating is that without presupposing the existence of God or giving Him a shape we should engage into spiritual exercise and experience the Divine and then believe in His existence. Even in the philosophical parlance there are two methodologies in vogue. The first is that ‘I believe and therefore I know’ and the other is that ‘I know and therefore I believe’. In either case the truth needs to be experienced not just talked about and discussed only. In the first case we believe and then proceed to know the truth. In the second case we explore the truth first and then believe in it.

Once the existence of God is established in either way, the question arises as to what is the relationship between Jeeva, the individual soul and Ishwara, the universal soul.

The research into this question over the millennia has given rise to various branches of Shastras and different schools of philosophy. The two prominent schools of philosophy are non-dualist, Advaita and dualist, dvaita.

The former believes that the two are one and the same and the latter sees these as different from one another. In the non-dualist ideology also a sort of dualistic situation prevails almost till the end.

The seeker proceeds on the premise that ‘I am He’ (Aham Brahma). He refers to ‘I’ and ‘He’, the two entities, unwittingly though. In Kashmir Shaiva philosophical parlance this situation is called Ahamta, Idanta’ or ‘I-ness and This-ness’ or ‘I’ and ‘This’. The great Shankaracharya says, 1Jeevo Brahmaiva naa parah - individual soul is God itself and none else’. Here also individual soul and God are talked about as two entities. Then we have the famous statement, ‘ Tat-tvam-asi - That you are’. Here again ‘that’ and ‘you’ are spoken of separately. I think that the word Tat- tvam-asi should actually be read as ‘ Tattvam-asi - Essence is’. This will indicate the perfect non­dualism where we perceive the essence, the reality in everything and proclaim, ‘Sarvam Khalu idam Brahma - Everything here verily is Brahma’.

Normally what we do is to give a shape of our choice to our beloved deity. We ascribe certain attributes and peculiarities to him. We perceive him in a particular dress and with some distinguishing features and then worship him in that form. Shiva is perceived with a trident in hand, a serpent round his neck, ashes smeared all over his body and a crescent on his forehead and the Ganges flowing from the tress of his hair. Narayana is conceived lying on the bed of a huge snake with a discus, a mace and a conch in his hands and Shri Brahma on a full blown lotus sprouting from his navel. Shri Rama is depicted always with bow and arrow, while Shri Krishna is with a flute in his hand. Similarly the goddesses are depicted in various forms, different attires and holding a variety of instruments, depending upon whether it is the goddess of learning, Saraswati with Veena, goddess of wealth, Laxmi with lotus, goddess of velour, Durga with a mace, goddess of eternal time, Kali with a skull or of any other attribute. Having thus given a shape and a form to our chosen deity we worship that form with those attributes. We give the deity a name and chant that. That is called ‘Naama smaranam’. We offer water and milk, flowers and fruits and smear the idol with sandal paste and wrap it with some colored cloth. We also chant Mantras. We light lamps and bum incense and then sing hymns. This is called Pooja-archana.

This is the way we take the first steps on the spiritual ladder. As we climb step by step we have different experiences and a variety of enlightenment dawns upon us. A time does come when we perceive the ultimate truth and then and then only we are in a position to find whether our initial suppositions were right and whether what we have experienced is exactly what we had believed in. It is, however, plausible that we see the Divine in the form and with the attributes that we had ourselves given to it before embarking on our spiritual journey.

Thus we have seen that there is no problem in having a belief in the existence of God. It is required of us not to stop at that belief alone. We must start our journey from that point and go ahead to realize Him in whatever way we can and we feel we will be successful. We can take the path of knowledge, Jnana marga. In that case we seek awareness and knowledge from the learned and from the books and the literature available on the subject. We can proceed on the path of action, Karma marga. Then we have to engage on the detached action. We have to undertake His deeds, on His behalf and make that an offering unto Him. We can meditate and contemplate on the Dhyana marga and try to perceive and attain Him. There is yet another path, a simpler one, that of devotion, Bhakti. We can relate to Him with love and surrender unto Him and feel His presence all the time. We can worship Him, adore Him and seek His blessings and thereby know Him in totality. Belief in that case becomes a boat that we have to abandon on reaching the shore of realization or it turns out to be a ladder, which again needs to be discarded in order to stand at the apex of attainment and realization.

Disbelief, on the other hand is a negative approach altogether. It is denying something which we have not made any attempt to know and figure out. After all we are not justified in refusing to believe in a view which we have neither tested nor examined to see whether it is true or false. We shall be perfectly justified if we express disbelief in something after we have evaluated it, tried to know the truth and come to the conclusion that it is not factually correct. We shall be fully justified in disbelieving any point after we have examined it fully and found it to be baseless. There are, no doubt, some situations where a thing appears to be a different thing and makes us draw a wrong conclusion. This is called ‘Aabhasa’ or illusion. A rope appearing to be a serpent in dim light from a distance or the mirage of water in a desert are the examples of such cases, but in these cases also we discard the initial assumptions only after due verification of the truth.

Belief is a positive approach. I believe in a view, explore it and then get convinced that my belief was well founded. Even in the case of the existence of God there are philosophers and thinkers like the French Blaise Pascal, who are of the opinion that believing in God is the most prudent choice. Prudent it is because in that case we believe and have faith and then try to perceive and experience the same. Even otherwise logic and reasoning carry us to a point beyond which our faith alone gives us a lead because faith begins where logic ends. So I do not disapprove of having a belief and then trying to verify its veracity. Even in our day-to-day affairs if we do not have faith and belief on the people we work with, on persons who we come across and on those who we have to deal with, our life itself will become difficult. Coming to think of it, even these days when people usually say that the times have changed for worse, majority is of good people. The problem is that these good people are taken for granted. A bad person, who may be an odd one, stands out and is observed and taken note of prominently and we feel that people at large are not worthy of having belief in. Bad acts, bad occurrences and bad deeds get highlighted and trumpeted vastly because of the excessive publicity in the media, both print and visual. Good deeds and good acts remain unnoticed and do not get the publicity that they deserve. That is why faith and belief are not favored and these have become a casualty.

If we remove faith and belief from our minds, life will not be worth living. Belief in the Divine gives us courage, inspires us to keep hope, enthuses us to work hard and develops a positive attitude in us. We are free from the regrets of the past and the anxieties of the future. We live in the present with full faith, determination and confidence. Otherwise we would turn to be doubting Thomas, disbelieving everything and thereby making our lives miserable. Our motto should always be, be positive, think positive and act positive. Belief is the foundation for this motto. So let us live a life of belief, belief in ourselves, in our efforts, in our aims and in our conviction. This will guarantee us a success in all our endeavours.

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Courtesy:- T.N. Dhar Kundan and 2015 October, Naad