Towards A Mathematical Theory Of Spirituality- Questions from Benjamin

[Guest guest]

The two questions raised by Benjamin are: ) are not nature's laws also

determined by Ishwara and 2) if Ishwara is the one controlling the course of

evolution, why is there suffering. Both are questions only to be anticipated and

I am sure these have been debated before in this forum.

 

The view that nature's laws are also as per Ishwara's Will is certainly

admissible- even science these days talks about alternate universes running on a

different set of physical laws than our own. In other words, the laws prevalent

in our universe do not have a logical imperative making them the only ones

admissible. The point however is that, as long as nature's laws for a given

universe have the appearance of being inviolable, our model must acknowledge

that.

 

Uncertainty provides a way out even in a universe with invariant laws. Ishwara

has the freedom to choose whatever He wills from among the many possibilities

Nature allows Him. One can now ask another question: if the Ishwara must make

the choice consistent with the probabilities assigned by Nature, does it not

also

constrain Him?

 

This question is anticipated with a response pointed out in the paper (page 43,

footnote 37). Probability laws, it is argued, pose essentially no constraint

in the short term in making individual choices. True, in the long term they are

expected to follow the probability curve. Even this is only an expectation!

Ishwara has thus ample room to display His sense of compassion and justice in

individual instances and, yes, there is also room for Him to "perform

miracles" (i.e. choosing possibilities whose associated a priori probabilities

are extremenly small.)

 

An answer often given to the question regarding "suffering" is that there is,

truly speaking, no suffering but that it is only a notion of the ignorant jeeva

due attachment to O-E-T. This is a true, even if incomplete, answer. Once

must also

add that the world (with all its pleasures and pain) is seen in the scriptures

as a sport. Pages 45 and 46 of the paper elaborate on this point, showing

 

a) certainty and uncertainty together make this world a spectator sport

like none other, and

 

b) the world is indeed an enjoyable sport for God and God-realized people

(who remain as mere spectators even as their B-M-I is getting beaten up in the

field). For the rest of us, the world is a classroom filled with pain and

pleasure where we will surely learn the way to god-realization and stop asking

this question.

 

I also thank Hersh-ji for presenting the excerpt from Prof.V.K's commentaries.

I, like others, enjoy reading his series and hope they will be compiled into a

book in the future.

 

Hari Om!

 

- Raju Chidambaram