Rational Faith in God

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

"Shradhya Satyam apyate"- this is a small quote from Yajurveda (Mantra-19/30). It means that through faith, the Truth is realized. But to realize the Reality in the real sense, the faith needs to be backed by logic, reasoning, and transparent truth. Blind and assumptive faith leads no where. If the faith ignores, rationality, reasoning and truth, it is apt to fall into utter ignorance, fanaticism and superstition.

Rationality gives strength to faith. It is in this light this book " RATIONAL FAITH IN GOD" needs to be studied.

It needs to be clearly understood that the only true knowledge and faith supplement each other in the task of understanding the nature of reality and realization of God-who alone is all- existence, all knowing and all- bliss. He is infinite love, infinite joy, infinite knowledge and infinite power.

"Whoever knows the pervading thread (law) in which are interwoven the great objects of the entire universe and whoever knows the thread of that thread. i.e. the creator of universe, he knows the Great God".

Pt. BHADURMAL, among the very first batch of life members of DAV EDUCATION SOCIETY, LAHORE. G.L. Dutta and Vishwabandhu were among his class- fellows, contemporaries and remained best friends through out, dedicated disciples of MAHATMA HANSRAJ.

Joined as professor of Philosophy, had a short stint as Principal DAV College Multan and Srinagar. After partition in 1947, joined DAV College (Lahore) Ambala City: promoted as Principal in 1949 till his retirement in 1953.

He served VVRI, SADHU ASHRAM, HOSHIARPUR for twenty years till the death of ACHARYA VISHWABANDHU in 1973, His published books are as under

• The story of Indian Culture

• The Religion of the Buddha and its Relation to Upanisadic Thought

• Shri Krishna His Philosophy and His Spiritual Path

• DAYANAND A STUDY IN HINDUISM

……and many more

Available with SABHYA PRAKASHAN, through the good offices of VVRI, Book Agency, Sadhu Ashram, Hoshiarpur.

Finite beings as we are, we are surrounded by infinity on all sides. It may sound strange, but it is nevertheless true that man is an admixture of the finite and the infinite. His powers are finite, but, he has longings for the infinite. This world of limitations, in which he finds best for the time being, soon begins to grow wearisome and he pushes onward to find a resting place for his aching heart in some transcendental region where the puzzles o f life are solved and abiding satisfaction found.

Intellectual need - "Life is a mystery", such is the verdict of the wise men of all countries and of all ages. The wisdom of most men is confined to acknowledging the fact that life is a mystery; they do not think it worth while to penetrate through the hazy veil to reach the beautiful vision of truth and reality that lies enshrouded within. There are, however, in every age certain gifted individuals who make efforts to understand the world in which they live. The need which urges them on, is both intellectual and moral. The intellect of man is concerned with discovering systematic connections in otherwise disparate phenomena. -Man is a system making and order-seeking animal. All the natural sciences, that have made such a wonderful progress in modern time, are the direct outcome of the intellectual quest for order and harmony in the workings of nature.

The natural sciences however, are unable individually to cope with experience as a whole. Nature in its collective aspect, is too big to be tackled successfully by any particular science: Every science picks out for its purposes one aspect of the total experience leaving the other aspects to be studied by other sciences. The science of Botany studies plants only, and does not concern itself with celestial bodies, which are the subject matter of Astronomy, or with matter and force, which fall within the jurisdiction of the science of Physics. It is apparent that these sciences deal with particular groups of order and harmony and not with order as a whole. The subject matters of different sciences, however, are not disconnected. There are no hard and fast lines of cleavage between them. These smaller systems form part of a bigger system-a system which embraces reality as a whole. It is the work of philosophy to try, to obtain a systematic understanding of reality as a whole.

I have said above, that sciences have for their object the discovering of order and system in the mass of natural occurrences. They trace causal connections between facts. They have succeeded wonderfully in this task of theirs. They have demonstrated the presence of order and harmony in most obscure regions of nature. It is no wonder, they are in a mood of exultation, They deserve the glory and the triumph that hail them from all sides. They have proved with scientific precision that nature is not a mere haphazard collocation of atoms and molecules. In both organic and inorganic nature there is a wonderful adaptation of parts with one another. Let us not be hasty to conclude that the light of scientific knowledge has illumined every nook and corner of the Universe. Much has been done and most remains to be done. There are many obscurities, many dark regions that have yet to be explored; still the result obtained so far are extremely satisfactory and full of promise that those recalcitrant forces of nature which are still withholding their secrets will soon have to eat an humble pie before the triumphant march of science.

After all, science has done so much to establish the presence of order and harmony, is it altogether unscientific and irrational to go further and demand an explanation of the utilities and the harmonious workings of natural phenomena? I do not mean to suggest that this desire to know the why and wherefore has followed in the wake of scientific illumination. The desire is as old as world itself. From the very ancient times, men have been putting these questions, and I do not think there would ever come a time when these questions would lose their interest for the people of those times.

What is the origin of the universe and what is the end towards which it is moving? Is there any all knowing intelligence behind this system or is there any other way possible to account for harmony and design that are so abundantly manifest in the universe? What happens after death? These are some of the doubts that have assailed mankind in the past and will continue to flutter in the breasts of coming generations as well.

My point is that the development of science instead of dissolving these doubts or proving their superfluity has only whetted the appetite of the thinking portion of humanity. It has inspired them with zeal to redouble their efforts to get a satisfactory solution of the riddle of the universe.