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Re: A question on Geeta
In article <4it06n$6h6@babbage.ece.uc.edu>,
Jack Phelan <jackphel@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>In <4il6hr$8u0@babbage.ece.uc.edu> ranga@cs.umd.edu (M.Ranganathan)
>writes:
>Why should anyone sue you for being not receptive and not capable of
>understanding the holy Scriptures? It will take you a few hundred
>lifetimes to be able, even a little bit to comprehend the magnificent
>depth of such a great work as the Gita or the Upanishads.
My dear fellow - Jokes and sarcasm aside, what I am saying is just this :
A work as deep and as beautiful as the Gita may have been divinely
inspired but I has no doubt been written by a human. All works, divinely
inspired or otherwise that have been written by humans have a human
bias which is limited by our state of knowledge about the universe.
This is true of the Gita as well as other works such as the Bible
and Quoran etc.
I sincerely doubt that God came down, took a pen and wrote down the
Gita which was then passed down from generation to generation and
remains unchanged to this day. This is too literal a theory for
my liking. I doubt that any work was actually literally written by
God. Think a little. Who was watching Arjuna and Krishna and noting
down what they said? Did Krishna write down his words after the battle ?
No ofcourse not. Some human was inspired to write this work and therefore
it is limited in some ways by that persons understanding of the world.
Yes I have read the Gita and the Upanishads and I have nothing but awe
and admiration for their depth of thought.
>The absolutely only way to understand the Gita is to practice, as much
>as you can, its precepts. Intellectual speculation is totally
>worthless.
What is wrong with a little bit of intellectual analysis? It only increases
ones convictions. I for one will not be a lemming nor do I believe in
the "flock of sheep with a benevolent shepard God " model. If God gave
us brains, surely he meant for us to use it. The "This is Gods word
and you shall not doubt it" model puts you in the same boat as
Christian fundamentalists. A much better model is "Doubt everything
you see and convince yourself through your own reason." Then you will
be firm in your belief and nothing will shake your convictions.
Otherwise you will merely drift from one set of dogmas to another.
Until (as the bumper sticker read) "Your Karma overruns your Dogma"
and your drop down dead.
>
>"Fools disregard Me clad in human form." (Lord Krishna)
I do not disregard Sri Krishna. I regard the Gita as one of the most
inspiring works ever written.
Ranga.
