ಬಹುಸತ್ಯವಾದ ಮತ್ತು ಏಕಸತ್ಯವಾದ

ಸತ್ಯ ಏನು? ಇದು ಮಾನವನ ಅತ್ಯಂತ ಮೂಲಭೂತ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆ. ಇದಕ್ಕೆ ಎರಡು ಮೂಲಭೂತ ಉತ್ತರಗಳಿವೆ:
1) ಅನೇಕ ಸತ್ಯಗಳು ಇವೆ
2) ಒಂದೇ ಸತ್ಯ ಇದೆ

ಈ ಎರಡು ಮೂಲಭೂತ ದೃಷ್ಟಿಗಳಿಂದ ಎರಡು ಮೂಲಭೂತ ಸಿದ್ಧಾಂತಗಳು ಮೂಡುತ್ತವೆ:
1) ಬಹುಸತ್ಯವಾದ
2) ಏಕಸತ್ಯವಾದ

ವಿಶ್ವದ ಎಲ್ಲ ಪ್ರಮುಖ ನಾಗರಿಕತೆಗಳು ಜನಿಸಿದ್ದು ಏಷ್ಯಾ ಖಂಡದಲ್ಲಿ. ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಮೂರು ಪ್ರಮುಖ ಭೂಭಾಗಗಳಿವೆ:
1. ಭಾರತ
2. ಪೂರ್ವ ಏಷ್ಯಾ
3. ಪಶ್ಚಿಮ ಏಷ್ಯಾ

ಭಾರತ ಮತ್ತು ಪೂರ್ವ ಏಷ್ಯಾದ ಮೂಲಭೂತ ಸಿದ್ಧಾಂತ ಬಹುಸತ್ಯವಾದ. ಪಶ್ಚಿಮ ಏಷ್ಯಾದ ಮೂಲಭೂತ ಸಿದ್ಧಾಂತ ಏಕಸತ್ಯವಾದ. ಭಾರತದ ಬಹುಸತ್ಯವಾದಿ ದೃಷ್ಟಿ ಒಂದು ಬಹುಸತ್ಯವಾದಿ ಜೀವನ ವಿಧಾನವನ್ನು ಸೃಷ್ಟಿಸಿತು. ಅದರ ಹೆಸರು 'ಹಿಂದು ಧರ್ಮ'.

ಈ ಮೂರು ಭೂಭಾಗಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಅನೇಕ ಮತಗಳು ಜನಿಸಿದವು:
1. ಭಾರತ: ಶೈವ, ವೈಷ್ಣವ, ಶಾಕ್ತ, ಬೌದ್ಧ, ಜೈನ, ಸಿಖ್
2. ಪೂರ್ವ ಏಷ್ಯಾ: ಕನ್ಫ್ಯೂಷಿಯನ್, ತಾವೋ, ಶಿಂತೋ
3. ಪಶ್ಚಿಮ ಏಷ್ಯಾ: ಯಹೂದಿ, ಕ್ರೈಸ್ತ, ಇಸ್ಲಾಂ

ಬಹುಸತ್ಯವಾದಿ ಮತಗಳ ಎರಡು ಮೂಲಭೂತ ಲಕ್ಷಣಗಳು:
1. ಅನೇಕ ದೇವರುಗಳನ್ನು ಪೂಜಿಸುವುದು
2. ಬೇರೆ ಮತಗಳನ್ನು ಸಹಿಸುವುದು
ಏಕಸತ್ಯವಾದಿ ಮತಗಳ ಎರಡು ಮೂಲಭೂತ ಲಕ್ಷಣಗಳು:
1. ಒಂದೇ ದೇವರನ್ನು ಪೂಜಿಸುವುದು
2. ಬೇರೆ ಮತಗಳನ್ನು ಸಹಿಸದಿರುವುದು

ಏಕಸತ್ಯವಾದಿ ಮತಗಳ ಮೂರು ಮೂಲಭೂತ ನಂಬಿಕೆಗಳಿವೆ:
1. ತಾನೊಂದೇ ಸತ್ಯ
2. ಬೇರೆ ಎಲ್ಲ ಮತಗಳು ಸುಳ್ಳು
3. ಆದ್ದರಿಂದ ತಾನು ಬೇರೆ ಎಲ್ಲ ಮತಗಳನ್ನು ಅಳಿಸಿಹಾಕಬೇಕು

ಈ ಮೂರು ನಂಬಿಕೆಗಳ ತಾರ್ಕಿಕ ಪರಿಣಾಮ ಸಾಮ್ರಾಜ್ಯವಾದ, ಅಂದರೆ:
1. ಬೇರೆ ಮತಗಳಿರುವ ದೇಶಗಳನ್ನು ಸೈನ್ಯದಿಂದ ಆಕ್ರಮಣ ಮಾಡಿ, ಗೆದ್ದು, ಆಳುವುದು
2. ಅಲ್ಲಿನ ಜನರನ್ನು ತನ್ನ ಮತಕ್ಕೆ ಮತಾಂತರ ಮಾಡುವುದು.

Universalism & Absolutism, Polytheism & Monotheism, Tolerance & Intolerance

Q: What is the truth?
There are two fundamental answers for this question:
A. There are many truths
B. There is only one truth

Accordingly, there are two fundamental philosophies:
A. Universalism
B. Absolutism

Asia is the cradle of all the world's major civilisations. It has three major regions:
1. India
2. East Asia
3. West Asia

Philosophically, India and East Asia were/are universalist and West Asia was/is absolutist. India's universalist philosophy gave birth to a universalist way of life: Hinduism.

Each region gave birth to several religions:
1. India: Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism
2. East Asia: Confucianism, Taoism, Shintoism
3. West Asia: Judaism, Christianity, Islam

Philosophy is the foundation of religion. Universalism expresses itself in religion as polytheism and tolerance. Absolutism expresses itself in religion as monotheism and intolerance.

Islam & Christianity: Absolutism and Imperialism

The central feature of the West Asian religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) is absolutism. That is, all the 3 religions say:
1. It alone is true
2. All other religions are false
3. So it must replace all other religions.

Absolutism logically leads to imperialism - which consists of:
1. Military conquest
2. Political control
3. Religious conversions.

Classification of World Religions

Classification of world religions:

A. Indian (Hindu/Aryan)
1. Shaivism
2. Vaishnavism
3. Shaktism
4. Buddhism
5. Jainism
6. Sikhism

B. East Asian (Sinic)
1. Confucianism
2. Taoism
3. Shintoism

C. West Asian (Semitic)
1. Judaism
2. Christianity
3. Islam

Samuel Huntington and Hindutva

Samuel Huntington, author of Clash of Civilisations (1996), is no more. Before reading his book I had been interested only in philosophy, and not in religion. Some snobbery was at work here: 'high-brow' philosophy vs 'low-brow' religion. But Clash of Civilisations powerfully brought home the importance of religion in today's world. I realised I had some catching up to do. I re-read the Bhagavad Gita and read the Quran. I also brought a Bible from home, but didn't make much progress with it.

Samuel Huntington's achievement was to remind people that our world is made up of civilisations – civilisations based on specific religions/cultures. His book was an important blow against secularists and multi-culturalists. He correctly identified India as a Hindu civilisation. Not that Hindutva needs an endorsement from a foreign scholar. But some Indians accept the truth about their country only when it is stated by a Westerner, especially an American.

PS: "Clash of Civilisations" has an interesting history. In 1989 – the year the Berlin Wall fell – Francis Fukuyama (a student of Huntington) wrote an article in the National Interest called "End of History". The article argued that history had ended with the triumph of free-market democracy. 3 years later he expanded his article into a book of the same name. The next year his teacher wrote an article in Foreign Affairs called "Clash of Civilisations". It argued that history was far from over, and that religion/culture would play a central role in the post-ideological world. The article provoked a lot of controversy and debate. 3 years later Huntington expanded his article into a book of the same name.

Science Meets Spirituality

David Brooks looks at how the latest research in neuroscience is validating ancient spiritual beliefs. Science is converging towards spirituality. He calls it "neural Buddhism". He rightly notes that this poses a serious threat to revealed religions (like Christianity and Islam).

Brooks says, "The self is not a fixed entity but a dynamic process of relationships". This line really struck me. Why? Because I have been coming around to the same conclusion of late. Just replace "relationships" with "experiences". Relationships are a subset of experiences.

Brooks helpfully gives a list of names for those interested in reading on the subject. Here's a closer look at who these guys are, and what they have written:

Andrew Newberg (associate professor of psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania)
1. The mystical mind: Probing the biology of religious experience
2. Why God won't go away: Brain science and the biology of belief
3. Why we believe what we believe: Uncovering our biological need for meaning, spirituality, and truth

Daniel Siegel (associate clinical professor of psychiatry, UCLA School of Medicine)
4. The developing mind: How relationships and the brain interact to shape who we are
5. The mindful brain: Reflection and attunement in the cultivation of well-being

Michael Gazzaniga (professor of psychology, University of California Santa Barbara)
6. The mind's past
7. The ethical brain
8. Human: The science behind what makes us unique

Jonathan Haidt (associate professor of psychology, University of Virginia)
9. The happiness hypothesis: Finding modern truth in ancient wisdom

Antonio Damasio (professor of neuroscience, University of Southern California)
10. Descartes' error: Emotion, reason, and the human brain
11. The feeling of what happens: Body and emotion in the making of consciousness
12. Looking for Spinoza: Joy, sorrow, and the feeling brain

Marc Hauser (professor of psychology, Harvard University)
13. Moral minds: How nature designed our universal sense of right and wrong

Just reading the names of the books is quite an education :-)

The Politics Of God

There was this brilliant article* on secularism, religion and politics. In it the author tries to understand Islamic extremism - its absolute refusal to separate religion and politics - by looking at Christianity's own history. He notes that separation of church and state in the West is itself a relatively recent phenomenon, and is still an experiment.

For more than a thousand years religion and politics went together in the Christian world too. Then the Reformation happened, dividing Europe into Protestant north and Catholic south. The next century and a half saw the two sects busy killing each other (the French Wars of Religion, the Thirty Years' War in Germany, the English Civil War, etc). Finally they realised this madness had to stop, otherwise there wouldn't be any Christian left alive. Thus was born "The Great Separation". And the man who led them on this path was Thomas Hobbes, with his 1651 work Leviathan.

[I had always thought that the father of Western secularism was Machiavelli - the first European thinker to offer an amoral (not immoral) view of politics. Hobbes I knew mainly in a negative light, for his advocacy of despotism and criticism of democracy. So this article was news to me.]

The article is written in a completely Western context, talking only about the three Semitic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. That is understandable - the author is a Westerner (and a Christian) and the hot issue facing the world today is radical Islam. However it would be interesting for us to ponder over what all this means in the context of Hinduism.

(*Unfortunately the article is no longer available for free at the original site. You can try accessing it here.)