 |
| Sunrise - A Chalk Pastels Painting by my Son Gopal |
“Wow, it a beautiful painting of a Sun setting” –I said,
looking at this painting of my 8 year old son. “No Daddy, it is a sunrise” my
son replied. “Oh, sorry it looked like the birds are coming back home” I replied.
“No, they are actually flying away for food” my son said.Ok, whatever it is, it’s
a nice painting - I quickly corrected myself. So, this is what it is. Every one
of us has their own perception of reality, what they see, how they see and how
they perceive things. Depending on one’s mood, perceptions and Psyche one interprets
things in a different way. I am sure, someone else looking at this might
wonder, where is the sun ?
One of the question or thought that I always get and many
philosophers wondered is that, does two people share same reality. Do they see
or the same object or hear the same sound at the same time. How do we know ? We
simply assume that because, this is so and so, I can hear, feel, touch it, the
other person also should be perceiving it in the same way. But, it is a well-documented,
researched and noticed fact that our
perceptions are greatly influenced by the amount of attentions that we pay to a
particular thing, by past experiences, motivations, context, faith and so many
other factors. In other words, our reality is built by ourselves or the experience
of reality is psychologically constructed.
An interesting verse from Srimad Bhagavatham explains that “Atmavan
Manyatae Jagat” - everyone looks at the world from their eyes, thinks of others
from their position. For example, when a person is hard of hearing, he thinks
others can’t hear. A man thinks others like himself. I have recently
experienced this thing.Something happened to my right ear and for about, two
days I could not hear anything. But, when I speak, my voice would amplify and I
would hear it myself and too loud. So, what I used do was, to speak too soft or
low to others and my friends would not understand what I am saying and they
were saying, what.? Thank God, it’s all over and I am back to normal.
There is a nice story of Frog who used to live in a small well.
One day, another Frog which visited a Ocean came to see him and was trying to
explain him how vast is the ocean. But, this frog which is accustomed to living
in a small three feet water and had no experience of seeing an ocean is trying to figure out how big is the ocean
compared to his well. He said, is it bigger by 10, 20, 100, 1000 times.? How
can there be any water reserve that’s bigger than that.? An Ocean is beyond the
limits and comprehension of that Frog in the well.
Similarly, people try to apply their logic and reasoning to
know, find out God. They try to define God by logic, reasoning, by experiments.
But, the Supreme God is beyond our material sense perception and material knowledge.
For example, think of Something like –
God Paradox or Omnipotence Paradox, which try to define God and his powers
through logic and reasoning. Man can go on arguing for centuries and millenniums
but, cannot come to a conclusion.
The omnipotence
paradox is a family of semantic paradoxes that
address two general issues and three specific issues:
Is
an omnipotent entity
logically possible?
What
do we mean by "omnipotence"?
What
do we mean by "power"?
What
do we mean by "logic"?
What
is the relation between power and logic?
The omnipotence paradox states that: If a
being can perform any action, then it should be able to create a task that it
is unable to perform. Hence, this being cannot perform all actions. On the
other hand, if this being cannot create a task that it is unable to perform,
then there is something it cannot do.
In
the Mahabharata it is mentioned that the Supreme God cannot be perceived by
logic and reasoning but, he is actually residing in the hearts of the great
Paramahamsa devotees and through their mercy one can learn about the God.
Here is a nice excerpt from one of Srila Prabhupad’s lecture
-
Lecture on SB 7.9.8 -- Hawaii, March 21, 1969: So our folly
is that we are trying to study Krsna, or God, by our own standard, frog standard.
We do not know how great Krsna is, how His potency is great, how He is
manufacturing, how He is... Because we think, "If we have to manufacture
something, I require some tools, I require some energy, I require some
ingredients. I have to collect it. Then I can make." Therefore we are
surprised, "How Krsna can make, or how God can create, this universe? Where is that
instrument? Where is that ingredient?" They cannot. They are thinking in
that way, that "I require instrument. Krsna requires the hammer and the
saw to manufacture this comic manifestation." I am thinking in that way.
Therefore I cannot believe it, how the cause of this cosmic manifestation can
be a person. They are thinking impersonal. Impersonal bigness, they think it is
very important. Actually, it has no value. Background is person. Krsna says in
the Bhagavad-gita that “brahmano hi pratisthaham” I am the basis of the
impersonal Brahman. That is the mistake of civilization. We think everything in
our own standard.
No comments:
Post a Comment