The world's holy books are deep with insight and wisdom for those who have the understanding to properly interpret what they are conveying to us. Yet they can also be inconsistent and contradictory. They sometimes present a logic which is faulty and a philosophy which, in my opinion cancels itself out or nullifies itself. Therefore they say so much, yet end up leaving more questions.
Take the philosophy of karma, actually described as the law of karma. It is presented as a law of nature. Action produces an equal and opposite reaction, or as you sow, you will also reap. Fair enough. We are responsible for our actions and will get the results, the rewards and punishments, just like we do under the human laws of the country in which we live.
This kind of doctrine makes sense because it keeps us in line and prevents wanton abuse and criminality. It protects us from each other and cultivates a so-called civilized society.
However, the ancient Sanskrit Vedas say that you may get the results of your actions and whatever you do, but at the same time you are not actually the doer. The Bhagavad Gita itself says in ch3:27
“The bewildered soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself the doer of activities that are in actuality carried out by nature”
The Sanskrit word for material nature is “prakriti”. And this “prakriti” is one of the expanded energies of the one source, the original god, called “purusha”. We the living entities are also another expanded energy or “prakriti” of the oringinal one source or god. So in actuality it’s all god, simply in different expended forms. The human expansion is totally under the influence of the other material energy expansion, or nature.
Indeed it does seem like we are all under the influence of and driven by nature, our human nature, or the elements of nature around us. So the Sanskrit Gita says that we are not the doer of any acts that we do. Only the one god is the original doer, or indirectly the god’s external energy – nature – is the doer, on behalf of the original god who is above and beyond contact with his or her expanded material energies.
Being out of touch or not directly in contact with his or her expanded material energies, namely us, he or she does not have any prejudice either way about us. The god is indifferent to us. God doesn’t care about us, in the same way that, although the sun is responsible for the opening and closing of the flower that brings the bee joy when its open and sorrow when its closed, still, the sun is not directly involved with the bee’s happiness and also does not care whether the bee is happy or distressed. The sun simply does its thing and is indifferent to the bee.
Also for the god, there is no distress, as he or she is always happy, regardless of how much we, the expanded energies, or children, may suffer. Yet he or she creates happines as well as distress for us.
So god is the doer, the creator of happiness and distress, is the controller, we are all literally under the influence of god’s external material energy. Everything is being done to us, we do nothing of our own accord, yet at the same time we must get the karma, the reaction for whatever we are driven to do by nature, indirectly by god. How is this logical? It is totally contradictory and makes no sense. It says one thing and then says the opposite.
It says karma is your problem. You act in one way and you get what you deserve. Yet if you are not the doer, then why should you get the karma for doing anything? Answer this question anyone because I have studied the Veads for almost 40 years and I am still confused. It leaves me feeling senseless and illogical and contradictory and therefore providing more questions than answers. I have no idea what is truth and what is the right or wrong way to perceive reality. And as you know, we live our lives and do everything based upon our perception of reality and our place in it.
Let me see if I have this corrctly – the god creates this mud puddle called the material world, then creates us and throws us into the mud puddle, and them punishes us for getting dirty in the mud. What in hell is that all about? It sounds like a FBI entrapment strategy.
Also, according to this philosophy we have no free will. There is no free will. We are being done to, we are not the doer. It is fated by the gods, as the pagans might say, or the Christians who know that it is all god’s will, not ours. They say so directly. Either I am the doer or god is the doer, either I am responsible or god is responsible, or is it both?
The Vedas try to qualify their statement, or at least the pundits try to explain what the texts actually meant when it says that god is the ultimate doer but we must still suffer for what we choose to do, even though we are not the doer and have no free will. The gurus and pudits try to rationalize this inconsistency, yet they fail, because you can’t reconcile to opposing and contradictory statements like this. Or I can’t, maybe you can.
God is the ultimate doer, but he or she is not responsible for what is done, for our happiness or distress. The sun shines and the flower opens and closes, bringing joy and sorrow to the bee, but the sun does not care about the joy or sorrow it indirectly brings to the bee. Fair enough, that makes sense. But the sun did not create the bee, like the god apparently created all of us as well as all the material energy by which we are influenced in every way.
It sounds like god creates the game, and the players and the laws of nature, and then let is run freely, allowing the creations to get the results of their actions according to the laws that the god wrote into the original code. And he doesn’t care either way what happens because in the long game, he or she designed it to go through entropy and eventually explode into nothing anyway. That is the long game and anything in between is just part of the game, a big bit of fun for the god who laughs at it all while we his creations must suffer and be tormented in all the ways that we are here on earth. That is a bit sick and twisted, if you ask me. What kind of god is this? A sadist perhaps. The god has all the power and set it all in motion but he or she can’t be bothered if we suffer because that’s our fault, we palyed the game like that so we deserve our reactions. The god knows we are going to fall victim to the material energy he or she or it put us in, and we will indeed suffer, but that’s fine by him, or her or it or them. They don’t care.
That is exactly what the ancient Sanskrit Veda as well as Bhagavad Gita and Bhagavat Purana tell us, repeatedly, in different verses. That is their philosophy. A strangely sadistic and uncaring god made us and all this so that we would suffer the torment of life on earth, which includes our experience of extermination at the end of each round in the game, and no recollection of the past round when we are thrown back in to the next round. So we have to figure it out all over again, if we are lucky, or if the god arranges it because remember, we are not the cause or the doer only the one being done in.
Perhaps I’m too much of a joker, or naive or stupid to make sense of this logic. How am I supposed to love a god like this? Stockholm syndrome is when the victim of kidnapping falls in love with their kidnapper. Yet perhaps in this story we were not kidnappeed but chose to sneak out and try to enjoy the material energy in secret, independently, and ended up stuck in the mud. So here we are folks, welcome to the madhouse run by the ultimate despot god and his or her agents the jailer named Durga devi, who continues to prod us with her trident lifetime after lifetime, where you can’t just die because you have to come back after each death for more torture, as designed by the original despot themself.
Some say that it is only actually a dream, so it’s not real, this life we live. Well, to me it is more like a horrible nightmanre, and even a nightmare is still shocking and traumatising, especially if you live it every single night for what feels like eternity even though it is only a few million lifetimes, so not that long.
Others however, like the Vishnu and Kashmir Shiva schools of Vedanta philosophy, say no, it is not a dream, it is real, yet it is temporary, because we die each time, and ultimately the world ends, in about another half a million years, only to be recreated again for a few million more, eternally. And that is supposed to make it feel better?
Either way, we suffer like slaves and the lowest of animals under the piercing trident of the prison warden Durga devi who runs this prison called life. Don’t try to ask the god for help because the Vedas clearly tell us the he or she does not care about you or your suffering. The god is too busy enjoying themself, while also aware that we – another part of itself – is in torment. It’s enough to drive me mad. No wonder the enlightened run around naked like madmen with psychosis and no shampoo. You can’t truly comprehend or realize all this, and still be expected to stay sane, according to human description of sanity.
Bhagavad Gita ch3:27
“The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities, which are in actuality carried out by nature.”
And this nature mentioned here is an expanded energy of the original one god. The Gita also says that we are like children who will be punished by a parent because we do bad things in ignorance, and this prevents us from doing bad things again. But it also says that we are not the one doing anything because we are not the doer, we are not the controller of the material energy and are powerless against it.
For example, just try to go against the sex drive or the hunger drive. Actually, according to the ancient Sanskrit texts, that’s what we are meant to do. Go against nature, stop sex (the Veda says that is the way to god), tightly regulate eating (the Vedas recommend it to get to god). The Vedas say that life is meant for tapasya – voluntary austerity.
We are given the material body and then told to over-ride the material body and human nature in order to get out of its imprisonment. That sounds like a hunger strike in a jail. The Gita says this is the solution and the way to attract the child-god who made this game for his or her pleasure. Go against your human nature and transmute yourself and in that way you will attract the god’s attention and he or she will let you out of the prison once more.
What a sadist this god is, you might think. It’s like throwing an baby in the deep end to teach it to swim. Sometimes it will learn and sometimes it will die trying, and that’s alright. God doesn’t care either way. It’s all a game, with unlimited lives. Get over your silly attachment to this life. That’s basically what the wisest and oldest books in the world tell us.
To me this kind of philosophy can – if you’re not careful - result in breeding a type of nihilism which could be very unhealthy or dangerous. Yet that is what we are given as the philosophy of life and the rules of the game. It could lead to the most egregious crimes and anarchy because it deprives us of real meaning. It makes life appear meaningless at best and torturous and worst, with a sadistic god who made it for us to suffer like this and cares nothing for us.
Or if there is no god and it is all just us in one lifetime, then is also appears nihilist and without meaning or consequences, since we all die in the end anyway. Why bother being a good person when it all ends in extermination in a few years or less, when I die? Why not just do a wild Hitler move or a Stalin or Genghis Khan while you are around and go down in flames, having a bit of fun in the game? If you’re an atheist and it all ends soon for good anyway, then there is no need to really confine yourself to the rules and laws. Just become a pirate and do what thou wilt, as the whole of the law, to quote Aleister Crowley. No consequences if you can get away with it.
So do we adhere to the law of karma, that there is an afterlife where we suffer or enjoy? Or is there only one life and if you get it wrong or don’t get the memo, then you are off to eternal hell because your god who created you is happier if you suffer in eternal torment due to not understanding the rules that one time, or not being in a town where the postman delivered the instruction manual?
Only more questions, when these religions are supposed to be giving us answers. And I personally really want to know the answers, so I have spent a lifetime searching, trying to find the rules of the game so that I can play it well and win in the end, so that I can justify all this suffering which goes on non stop for as long as history has recorded it. So that I can find meaning in all this suffering.
But no luck. I’m only more confused, the more I try to learn. The contradictions and illogical statements just confuse me. All I can say for sure is what I experience while living this life. All the rest about a god and creation and our place in the cosmos and the meaning of life, is hearsay and rumor, full of inconsistencies which are beyond my intellect to comprehend. I can’t honestly claim to know the truth or present to anyone a cohesive philosophy of life that makes sense.
Perhaps the Taoists are correct in saying that the Way which can described in words is not the Way. Perhaps the Way cannot be comprehended only alluded to via metaphor and allegory and walked with each daily step. As a result I have abandoned any identification with one or other religion (which is what is recommended at the end of Bhagavad Gita) and now I am aiming to simply surrender to the source of the force, because even if the source can’t be with you, the force always is.
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