"Is Ignorance really bliss?" (Part 8): Essay on VII.15 of Bhagavath-gita

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(continued from Part 7)

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Type 4: "Asuram-bhAvam-AsritAh"

 

The fourth type of Ignorant Man the Gita describes as

"Asuram-bhAvam-AsritAh":

 

"na mAm dush-krutinO mUdAh: prapadyantE narAdhamAh:

mAyayA-apahruta-gnyAnA aasuram bhAvamAsritAh:"

(VII.15)

 

The phrase "Asuram-bhAvam-AsritAh" is pregnant with

deep meaning and fine nuance. In most translations of

the Gita, the word "Asura" is translated as either

"godless" or "atheist". Both terms are correct but too

mild and far too bare. It would be more appropriate to

say the English equivalent of "Asura" is "antagonist

of God" -- ("bhagavath-dvEshi") -- and this expression

has, as we shall soon see below, very many colourful

shades and deep layers of meaning.

 

***********

 

This term 'aasuram bhAvamAsritAh:' always makes me at

once recollect the late Sri E.V.Ramaswamy Naicker

(well known in South India as "periyAr", the

charismatic leader of the Rationalist Movement in

India and the founder of the atheistic political party

"Dravida Kazhagam" of Tamil Nadu).

 

In the holy town of Kanchipuram, South India, the

followers of "periyAr", after his death, built a small

statuette of their leader right in front of the

Sankara-Mutt -- and the mosque adjacent to it as well.

Across the street from the doorway of the Kanchi Mutt

or the mosque, one can see even today the little

stone-figure of the bearded 'periyAr' glaring

contemptuously and disapprovingly at all the poor

believers and worshippers going in and coming out the

place of God -- the God whom 'periyAr' vehemently

denied all his life. Just underneath the statuette

there is also a stone plaque on which are inscribed

the famous words 'periyAr' had given to his followers

-- an "upadEsa-mantra" of sorts in Tamil:

 

"There is no God.

He who believes in God is a fool".

 

The above words -- the clarion call of one of the

best-known rationalists and atheists of India -- those

mocking words stare even today at every visitor to the

Kanchi Sankara Mutt or the neighbouring 'masjid'.

 

************

 

Actually, for someone who swore by Rationality all his

life, the language in which "periyAr's" message is

couched does not sound logical at all. It is in fact

very self-contradictory.

 

Let's take the first statement, "There is no God". By

itself, this is a statement of subjective conviction

rather than objective truth. It says: "I have used my

rational powers to the best of my ability in order to

investigate if there is God, and Reason tells me there

is none". If 'periyAr' had confined himself to this

first statement, he would have been regarded by

posterity as a philosopher of Rationality -- a

philosopher of limited vision, perhaps, but a

philosopher nonetheless. (In the Western world there

were in fact many similar philosophers of the

Rationalist school who were eminent thinkers -- the

name of Bertrand Russel, for instance, comes to mind

instantly; he is the author of the famously atheistic

but nonetheless thought-provoking book, "Why I am not

a Christian").

 

Unfortunately for him, 'periyAr' also went on to make

the second statement "He who believes in God is a

fool", which was unbecoming of a philosopher. It was

this statement that sealed 'periyAr's' place in

history as more of a rabble-rousing social-activist of

his times than as serious thinker. Now, this second

statement is also what logicians would call a

"non-sequitor" -- an untenable conclusion drawn from

flimsy premises. It is this second statement that

exposes the profound Ignorance of 'periyAr's' stated

position on the subject of God. If his argument, as it

stands articulated in those famous words of his, were

to be reconstructed in strictly syllogistic terms, it

would read as absurdly as follows:

 

All men have Reason;

God cannot be known through Reason;

Some men say they know God;

Therefore, all such men have no Reason.

(And so they're all fools, Amen!)

 

The famous words of 'periyAr', and his illogical

argument above, reminds me of a great passage from the

Upanishad:

 

"asannEva sa bhavati

asad-brahmEti vEda chEth;

asti brahmEti chEdh vEda

santamEnam tathO viduriti..."

(Taittiriya Upanishad: "anandavalli")

 

"If a person takes Brahman for unreal,

Truly he becomes himself unreal;

If he understands Brahman is existent and real,

In consequence thereof, the truly wise ones

of this world

Consider him right and good..."

 

Sri PeriyAr, being the firm atheist he was until the

very end of his life, most certainly would never have

appreciated the profundity of the Upanishad 'vAkya'

above. "In denying God's existence", says the

Taittiriyam, "we must beware we will be denying our

own. If we are keen to cancel all that is divine

within us, and denounce every trace of spirituality

latent in us, then what will be left in us? Who shall

we then be? If divinity shall not reside within us

what shall we replace it with? Mere earthly dust?

Rotten flesh? If I am not to be of the same divine

nature as God, then what shall I aspire to be?"

 

The same lofty sentiments of the Upanishad were echoed

too by the mystical call of the great Tamil saint and

yogi, NammAzhwAr:

 

"uLarUm illai allaraay

uLaraay illai aagiyE

uLar em oruvar; avar vandu en

uLLatthULLey uraiginraar;"

("tiruvoimOzhi": 8.8.10)

 

"He is

for he cannot not be

for his men

 

for others he is

as if he is not

 

our lord

is here

he lives here in me..."

(translation: A.K.Ramanujan's "Hymns for the

Drowning")

 

To say that every man on earth who believes in God is

a fool presupposes that 'periyAr' himself was somehow

'all-knowing' or omniscient! Periyar, in effect, was

'playing God Almighty'! He knew everything going on

inside the minds of all God-believers of the world,

past, present and future! And out of such God-like

"omniscience" he concludes "all who believe in God are

fools".

 

What Sri.'periyAr' did not realize was that in going

about denying God's existence the way he did, he was

in a way acknowledging Him. He was being an atheist

aspiring to be God! Little did he realize that the

claim to 'omniscience' was essentially, in part, a

religious aspiration, for omniscience

("sarvagnyAtva"), everyone knows, is a God-like

quality pursued by God-seekers too.

 

Exactly as the Upanishad 'vAkya' in the Taitirriyam

implies, when man seeks to deny God, he often ends up

without knowing it even, and in some way or the other,

affirming Him ... Or, as NammAzhwAr put it: "uLarUm

illai allaraay, uLaraay illai aagiyE..".

 

***********

(to be continued)

 

Regards,

 

dAsan,

Sudarshan

 

 

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