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| Image courtesy: aaadelhi.org |
Whatever the extent of scientific accomplishment and discovery in astronomy and related sciences, I believe the night sky will remain a mystery till the end of humanity. The belief in some that somehow the origins of the universe can be discovered using better telescopes and inference techniques only amazes me. The more one learns about what lies beyond, the more one ought to realize that there will never be any significant body of knowledge on the origins of the universe, however much we progress. Science, at least astronomy, shall remain a string (no pun intended) of hypotheses and theories, perhaps each one better that the previous at explaining observed phenomena.
Still, my purpose is not to belittle those that dedicate their careers to extending our body of knowledge. It is important to continually explore and enlighten the rest of humanity. However, it is more important for man to realize his limitations and see the many things that point at the divine as the cause of the universe. If nothing else, the Mahabharata drives home this one point over and over again. Amid a galaxy of mighty and (many divine) warriors capable of conquering heaven and earth, Krishna gently shows not once, but at least twice in the vishwaroopa form, that He pervades all, that nothing moves without His grace, and that He transcends time and space.
We are awed by scale and grandeur of things like the night sky, the deep oceans, volcanoes, mighty animals, the mountains, the instincts in a mother, the wonders of the human body, and by the tininess of the microscopic world. How many of us has not felt the presence of something beyond man when admiring such grandeur?
Still, I believe that comprehending what might be the cause of all this scale and grandeur, requires a leaving behind of the endless investigation of the material world. Of the 564 Brahma Sutras, the first reads ' Om athaato brahma jignaasa Om'. Lengthy treatises have been written on the meaning of this and the other sutras, but one of the simpler meanings is that the most important jignaasa (investigation/study) one might do is on Brahman, the supreme being. This implies a study of the qualities of Brahman, not a fixation on His material creations (which are grand, no doubt) and the trivialities that abound for the lesser mortal to be fixated on. A man that does brahma jignaasa is of the highest order, and naturally one that focuses on the material is of lower order.
Kunti, in a request to Krishna during the Mahabharata, asks Him to keep her in sorrow. For, she tells him, that is the only time man tends to think about God. Sorrow might evoke anger in some, leading one to question the existence of God, but in the one doing brahma jignaasa, it provides experiences that takes them closer to comprehending the supreme being.
We are awed by scale and grandeur of things like the night sky, the deep oceans, volcanoes, mighty animals, the mountains, the instincts in a mother, the wonders of the human body, and by the tininess of the microscopic world. How many of us has not felt the presence of something beyond man when admiring such grandeur?
Still, I believe that comprehending what might be the cause of all this scale and grandeur, requires a leaving behind of the endless investigation of the material world. Of the 564 Brahma Sutras, the first reads ' Om athaato brahma jignaasa Om'. Lengthy treatises have been written on the meaning of this and the other sutras, but one of the simpler meanings is that the most important jignaasa (investigation/study) one might do is on Brahman, the supreme being. This implies a study of the qualities of Brahman, not a fixation on His material creations (which are grand, no doubt) and the trivialities that abound for the lesser mortal to be fixated on. A man that does brahma jignaasa is of the highest order, and naturally one that focuses on the material is of lower order.
Kunti, in a request to Krishna during the Mahabharata, asks Him to keep her in sorrow. For, she tells him, that is the only time man tends to think about God. Sorrow might evoke anger in some, leading one to question the existence of God, but in the one doing brahma jignaasa, it provides experiences that takes them closer to comprehending the supreme being.
