July 15th, 2012
While Hinduism and other ‘pagan’ religions have thrived on uncertainty, the Abrahamic ones believe in a singular truth. We must re-assess the value of doubt, as pronounced in the Rig Veda.
The poet Akbar Ilahbaadee asserted the superiority of the East and mysticism when he said:
Kahaa Mansour neiyn Khudaa houn meiyn; Darwin boaley Boozanaa houn meiyn. “As Mansour proclaimed I am Truth (God Almighty!), Darwin responded; And I am a monkey!”
The human mind ranges from the magic of the mystic to the exactitude of the logical. There is scope for both Aristotle (A is A and not A) and the pagan Hindu (A may be A or perhaps it is Q) but the followers of Abrahamic religions insist on only one proposition being correct as acceptable.
Ever since Darwin published his Theory of Evolution, the followers of Abrahamic religions (Jews, Christians and Muslims) have been suffering from the need for reconciliation between belief and logic. Perhaps it is time to go further back in history and look at the theory of creation as propounded much earlier in the Rig Veda, which according to many scholars is the earliest text of mankind.
Rig Veda, translation by Ralph T.H. Griffith, (1896), at sacred-texts.com:
HYMN CXXIX. Creation.
‘Then’ was not non-existent nor existent: there was no realm of air, no sky beyond it. What covered in, and where? And what gave shelter? Was water there, unfathomed depth of water?
Death was not then, nor was there aught immortal: no sign was there, the day’s and night’s divider. That One Thing, breathless, breathed by its own nature: apart from it was nothing whatsoever.
Darkness there was: at first concealed in darkness this All was indiscriminated chaos. All that existed then was void and form less: by the great power of Warmth was born that Unit.
Thereafter, rose Desire in the beginning, Desire, the primal seed and germ of Spirit. Sages who searched with their heart’s thought discovered the existent’s kinship in the non-existent.
Transversely was their severing line extended: what was above it then, and what below it? There were begetters, there were mighty forces, free action here and energy up yonder
Who verily knows and who can here declare it, whence it was born and whence comes this creation? The Gods are later than this world’s production. Who knows then whence it first came into being?
He, the first origin of this creation, whether he formed it all or did not form it, Whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not.’
The Myth of Creation divides the Abrahamic religions from their pagan forbears. The Theory of Evolution has put a cat among the pigeons and the believers in Christianity are finding it difficult to accommodate this innovation. A conference of world religions needs to be called to settle this matter.
What is most attractive in this text is the ending ‘he verily knows it or perhaps he knows not’. This doubt and uncertainty is the opposite of the rigorous assertion in the Abrahamic myths.
Perhaps it is time to recognise the power of Myth. The Myth of Creation divides the Abrahamic religions from their pagan forbears. The Theory of Evolution has put a cat among the pigeons and the believers in Christianity are finding it difficult to accommodate this innovation. A conference of world religions needs to be called to settle this matter as it is of great importance to humanity and the mutual understanding necessary amongst religions.
Aksar ubb chup hee fraheiy heiyn, Youn hee kabhee munh khoaleiyn heiyn, Pehleiy ‘Firaaq’ koa deiykhaa hoataa, Ubb toa bahut kumm boaeiyn heiyn. Poetry helps us to understand and appreciate. In the verse quoted the change in the poet’s life is described as ‘These days he is mostly silent and his mouth opens to speech but rarely — if you had to see what he was like you should have come earlier—as these days he speaks but little’. The difference between understanding poetry and understanding prose lies in catching the subtle nuance conveyed in the lilt of the poem.
All religions had their texts in poetry and they spread by the power of verse as heard. Today, the emphasis is on writing and reading. This creates its own distortions and lacunae.