God!

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"Ganesh Chaturdhi" is here.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak gave this a "community festival status" in Maharashtra to mobilize the 'masses' against the British Rule, rather successfully. Part of it seeped into Hyderabad. It is a big do for the whole of nine nights (Navaratri).

It also coincides this year with Holy Ramzan Id festival.

God seems to come in so many Police Unifroms today.

Like every student of Physics (from Einstein to Feynman via Dirac), I too always had a mild curiosity about Religion. From childhood I had an aversion to "Do-or-Die Commandments Religion". I felt it should be an a la carte @home private and personal affair. Now at a ripe age I am even more convinced.

But unfortunately it is becoming ever more intrusive all over the World.

I thought I better collect the words of some of my 'maverick favorites' on the subject, without adding my comments:

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1. Mark Twain on BIBLE

"It is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and some good morals; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies."

............. Mark Twain- Letters from the Earth

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2. Dirac & Pauli on Religion

Among other things, Dirac said:

I cannot understand why we idle discussing religion. If we are honest—and scientists have to be—we must admit that religion is a jumble of false assertions, with no basis in reality. The very idea of God is a product of the human imagination. It is quite understandable why primitive people, who were so much more exposed to the overpowering forces of nature than we are today, should have personified these forces in fear and trembling. But nowadays, when we understand so many natural processes, we have no need for such solutions. I can't for the life of me see how the postulate of an Almighty God helps us in any way. What I do see is that this assumption leads to such unproductive questions as why God allows so much misery and injustice, the exploitation of the poor by the rich and all the other horrors He might have prevented. If religion is still being taught, it is by no means because its ideas still convince us, but simply because some of us want to keep the lower classes quiet. Quiet people are much easier to govern than clamorous and dissatisfied ones. They are also much easier to exploit. Religion is a kind of opium that allows a nation to lull itself into wishful dreams and so forget the injustices that are being perpetrated against the people. Hence the close alliance between those two great political forces, the State and the Church. Both need the illusion that a kindly God rewards—in heaven if not on earth—all those who have not risen up against injustice, who have done their duty quietly and uncomplainingly. That is precisely why the honest assertion that God is a mere product of the human imagination is branded as the worst of all mortal sins.

Heisenberg's view was tolerant. Pauli, raised as a Catholic but soon to leave that church had kept silent after some initial remarks, but when finally he was asked for his opinion, jokingly he said: "Well, I'd say that also our friend Dirac has got a religion and the first commandment of this religion is 'There is no God and Paul Dirac is his prophet." Everybody burst into laughter, including Dirac.

.............................Wikipedia

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3. Edward Lear on Mount Athos Convent

"....But however wondrous and picturesque the exterior & interior of the monasteries, & however abundantly & exquisitely glorious and stupendous the scenery of the mountain, I would not go into the Athos for any money, so gloomy, so shockingly unnatural, so lonely, so lying, so unatonably odious seems to me all the atmosphere of such monkery. That half of our species which it is natural to every man to cherish & love best, ignored, prohibited and abhorred - all life spent in everlasting repetition of monotonous prayers, no sympathy with one's fellow-beans of any nation, class or age. The name of Christ on every garment and at every tongue's end, but his maxims turned upside down, maimed, & caricatured: - if this I say be Xtianity let Xtianity be rooted out as soon as possible......"

..............................from: "A Book of Bosh"

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4. Huston Smith on Primal Religions

"...Oren Lyons was the first Onondagan to enter college. When he returned to his reservation for his first vacation, his uncle proposed a fishing trip on a lake. Once he had his nephew in the middle of the lake where he wanted him, he began to interrogate him. "Well, Oren," he said, "you've been to college; you must be pretty smart now from all they've been teaching you. Let me ask you a question. Who are you?" Taken aback by the question, Oren fumbled for an answer. "What do you mean, who am I? Why, I'm your nephew, of course." His uncle rejected his answer and repeated the question. Successively, the nephew ventured that he was Oren Lyons, an Onondagan, a human being, a man, a young man, all to no avail. When his uncle had reduced him to silence and he asked to be informed as to who he was, his uncle said, "Do you see that bluff over there? Oren, you are that bluff. And that giant pine on the other shore, Oren, you are that pine. And this water that supports our boat? You are this water......"

.................................from: "The World's Religions"

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5. Lao Tzu: 76

"When a man is living, he is soft and supple.
When he is dead, he becomes hard and rigid.
When a plant is living, it is soft and tender.
When it is dead, it becomes withered and dry.

Hence, the hard and rigid belongs to the company of the dead:
the soft and supple belongs to the company of the living.

Therefore, a mighty army tends to fall by its own weight,
Just as dry wood is ready for the axe.

The mighty and great will be laid low;
The humble and weak will be exalted.

...............................from: "Tao Teh Ching"

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6. Ishopanishad: Verse 15

"Hiranmayena patrena satyasyaapihaitam mukham
Tat tvam pooshan apaavrinu satya dharmaaya drashtaye",

"The face of truth is covered with a golden disk. Unveil it, O Pooshan, so that I who love the truth may see it."

.................................from: "The Principal Upanishads"

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Acknowledgments:

1. Mark Twain from: http://twainquotes.com/Bible.html

2. Dirac & Pauli from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Dirac

3. Edward Lear from the Puffin Books I bought in1968

4. Hutton Smith book gifted by Edwin Taylor

5. Tao Teh Ching book gifted by Vivek Chhetri of the 1997 batch

6. S. Radhakrishnan's "The Principal Upanishads" I bought in 1985

Have a Nice Id & Ganesh Puja!

We celebrated our @home Puja just like in: "Bottom Line"

@ http://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2010/08/bottom-line_20.html




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