The War Within - Between Good and Evil by Bheemeswara Challa (e reader for manga .TXT) đ
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satanic plot,
or is it part of evolutionary dynamism gone astray? âBeing like Himâ, as the Bible
says, or, âFor is He not all but thouâ, as Tennyson says (The Higher Pantheism),
or, âAham brahmasmiâI am Godâ, as the Upanishads say, has always been manâs
spiritual aspiration. Or, in the words of Aldous Huxley, âAll is in allâthat All is
actually eachâ (The Doors of Perception, 1954). The theory of evolution, in saying
that we all came from the same original source, rose from molecule to man, is
saying the same. The fundamental difference between that âaspirationâ and what
science is aspiring to do, is that the first one was a âto beââa state, a condition,
something which continues unchanged through time, whereas the second is
âto becomeââan event, a transformation, a metanoia, a change of state. âBeing
like Himâ is like âbeingâ a tiger, which is very different from becoming a tiger. In
seeking divine status, it is really the perks that matter, not the position. What is
ironic is that those very people who deny divine existence or say that He is dated,
if not dead, are those who want to make man a god. Mystics, saints, rishis, and
shamans throughout our troubled history have named our struggle as humans
in different waysâbut they all pointed to the need for us to consciously grow
into our divine potential. As God within, it is, in reality He who is experiencing
through them what they experience in life, both pleasure and pain, good and
bad. What modern man is truly seeking is not the goodness of god, but His
divine powers and perks.
God or no god, the fact is that man has always felt shackled and humiliated
by his animal rootsâDescartes called animals âsoulless automataââand by his
innate impermanence and imperfections. âBeing a godâ is shorthand to become
free from these two limitations. Some, like the great Indian yogi Sri Aurobindo,
say that perfection and imperfection are the same truth seen from two sides.
Some say that we are, in a sense, a species with âperfection pendingâ, which
includes moral perfection. There could be a sinless man but not a perfect man,
save perhaps a full and direct divine incarnation. Even Jesus, as perfect a man
as could possibly be, before his crucifixion, said â⊠on the third day I shall
be perfectedâ.53 What we want is physical permanence and bodily perfection.
Many people, particularly the young, are suffering and dying under the thrall
The War WithinâBetween Good and Evil
48
and torture of the phantasmic self theyâre failing to become. Our obsession
with body-perfection is a travesty of the spiritual path. In fact, the Advaita
Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy says that there is no need to try to attain
anything, even perfection; each of us already is God. The famous Upanishadic
aphorisms, Aham brahmasmi (I am God) and Tat tvam asi (You are God), are
clear indications of how, at the highest level, we have viewed ourselves in our
earthly existence. The Bible too has several passages that humans can become like
gods. Some Christians (Latter-Day Saints) believe that our earthly experience is
to progress towards perfection and ultimately realize our divine destiny. Yoga, or
union or oneness with God, is in spirit the effect of attaining the loftiest layer of
consciousness. Hailed as the oldest scripture, the Rig Veda proclaims, Prajnanam
brahmaââconsciousness is Godâ. God himself, in Hinduism, has been called
Sat-chit-ananda, or âexistence-consciousness-blissâ. Each one of us, as souls, are
individualized Sat-chit-ananda, according to Paramahansa Yogananda. The word
chit is also interpreted as sentience, and Atman as sentient life energy.
Contrary to what Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said, men have not forgotten
God. On the other hand, in a weird way, God is all there is in the human mind.
For the devout, He is the only hope, the only one that stands between them
and despair and death, the only balm for their wounded hearts. For the secular
and scientific, their aspiration and ambition is to erase the boundary between
man and god. It is not only godly powers that we now covet; we have come
to conclude that only by becoming a god can we solve all our problems. In
fact, some say it is inevitable and irreversible and, even more, that it is the only
way the human can reach his full potential. In short, they say divinity is our
destiny, and fulfilling it is not defiance of nature but a service to its intent. But
divinity is in each of us. There is nothing wrong with man wanting to actualize,
or realize, God as Sat-chit-ananda, that is, âtruth-existence-consciousness-blissâ.
What is wrong is acquiring such powers without âbecoming the beingâ, without
consciousness-change, or some kind of a rebooting, if you will. What science is
tempting us with, some say, is what Satan told Adam and Eve: if they would just
follow the âpromiseâ that Satan offered they could be âlike gods.â
To be fair, we are not that âbadâ; we donât mean to sit on his heavenly
throne; âgodâ is really a nickname, or code-word for want of something more
accurate, for something we want to be. We donât want to be a god that appears and
The Beginning
49
disappears, makes lightning or triggers typhoons, answers prayers or gives boons.
We donât want to attain, much less maintain, a state of godly bliss, sanctity, and
purity. For we might say, and even believe that man is a spiritual being having
a human experience, but we cannot live without sin! For long we have had an
idiomatic expression for those who hold our fate in their hands, gods, and that
is now who we yearn to become. For instance, the ancient Hermetic discourse
called The Key says, âWe must dare to say that the human on earth is a mortal
god, but that god in heaven is an immortal humanâ. What we have set out to
do is to bend fate and mend man into an immortal earthly god. Not only that,
like the âheavenlyâ gods, we too donât want to be accountable for our actions and
misdeeds! But the âbeingâ we want to turn into, let us be clear, thank God, is not
God; not the all-pervasive, all-knowing Supreme Being, the Paramatman, as He
is called in Hinduism, or Allah in Islam or Jehovah in Judaism. But then, when
scriptures and saints and mystics strive towards dissolving into divinity or union
with God, they precisely mean that very Supreme Being. Furthermore, it is a
state of consciousness when one loses all sense of the personal self, when there
is no longer any aham or ego. It is the aham that leads to ahamkara (arrogance)
and to agraham (anger). That is why, it has been said by yogis that âGod equals
man minus egoâ. Vedanta says that ego is the main culprit responsible for endless
self-centered thoughts, and the root cause of pain and suffering.
Ego, or ego-consciousness, is that which drives our material life and
makes us opaque to each other. It is both a necessity for survival and a barrier to
moksha, liberation. It is the core of our identity. Spiritual sadhana, what Vedic
rishis of India and Christian mystics and Sufi saints have strived to, is to dissolve
the limiting human self into the infinite divine Self. True to our times, we have
both trivialized and technicized this spiritual process. What science is planning
to do is to replace the divine by blending man and machineâwhich some call a
satanical machine, and some others, a spiritual machineâto attain the attributes
of gods or angels. Essentially it means that having, as we falsely think, transcended
the natural world we now aim to transcend the biological world and become
a kind of transhuman-âgodâ, somewhat similar to what Dante experienced as
he entered into the sphere of the heaven, called âtranshuman-changeâ. Another
analogy that comes to mind is Goetheâs Faust, who feeling like a âwretched foolâ
and no âwiser than beforeâ tried to transcend human knowledge in order to gain
The War WithinâBetween Good and Evil
50
divine knowledge. Transhumanists expect that artificial intelligence, the advent
of cyborgs, and uploading peopleâs minds into software will converge to make
the transition. Then, what do we âbecomeâ and what will be our faith? The new
âreligionâ rooted in artificial intelligence is called the Way of the Future (WOTF),
whose aim is âthe realization, acceptance, and worship of a godhead based on
artificial intelligenceâ. And yet not cease to be man. Avaricious that we are, we
donât want to give up anything we have, including all that is distasteful about us.
We want to be âsmartâ but still, when we choose, we stay stupid; we want to be
super strong but still feel the prick. We donât mind becoming a âsilicon bodyâ, but
not hold back on sex.
The model that roughly resembles what we seek is that of the Greek gods,
or of the devas of Hinduism. What attracts us is that not only do they live forever
but also suffer from some of the same flaws and desires as humans, like anger,
avarice, favoritism, and jealousy, and are even able to have sex, licit and illicit.
âGodsâ, like us, regularly fight amongst each other and engage in petty bickering
and senseless quarrels. But it is not all that novel or inventive. In fact, in our
prehistoric times, the chasm between man and gods was narrow; they used to
routinely talk and walk with gods. Indeed we want to do better; to acquire their
traits, but with a twist. Gods are immortal; they, whether they like it or not,
cannot die. We want to keep death as a choice and be able to bring the âdeadâ back
to life, or perhaps become the âwalking deadâ. It is driven by greed, our penchant
to always âhave-it-allâ. We must remember that what we think we lack or view as
limitations are parts of the cosmic puzzle. Different species have different lengths
of life for reasons we may not know. If one species alters its life span artificially or
unilaterally, then the finely tuned balance in creation and natureâs design strategy
that optimizes life support while minimizing the expenditure of energy, will go
horribly wrong. Even imagine if dogs have the same life span as humans. Perhaps
the world would be a better place but that is not possible! So is it not possible
for man to literally âbecomeâ a god or any other species. What we should aim
to do is to be a âhumane-humanâ, not transhuman. We should strive to become
more whole, more holy. We must also bear in mind that every species, however
minuscule or mighty, has a niche in nature. That this is particularly true in regard
to biodiversity is brought home by the new finding that the worldâs lowly insects
are hurtling down the path of extinction which, in turn, âthreatens the collapse
The Beginning
51
of natureâ, and that to arrest it, we will need to change our ways of producing
food. Furthermore, even if science has its way and Homo sapiens does become
Homo Deus, it still does not mean that we will all, one fine morning, wake up as
gods or that everyone born hereafter, in the lab or from the womb, will be born
with the body of a god. Scientific godhood, like safaris in space, will benefit only
a fraction of humanity. We are poised at a critical moment when, once again,
science is unleashing its prodigious creativity without adequate engagement and
careful thought. And even if we become âgodsâ, many may still look up to the
only âGodâ they are accustomed to worshipping. In the human mind, there is no
contradiction between becoming a god and believing in God. As Albert Camus
said, âNothing can discourage the appetite for divinity in the heart of manâ. But
it is also good to remember that, as Emanuel Swedenborg reminded us, âa life
of kindness is the primary meaning of divine worshipâ (New Jerusalem and Its
Heavenly Doctrine, 1758). In other words, we can become âgodâ by being good
to fellow-humans. This is what is implied in the Hindu aphorism âMaanava seve
madhava sevaâ, meaning service to man is service to God. It means, âyou will use
your life in service; you will be in service to lifeâ.
In the Melting Pot of Life and Death
Science is trying to hijack God, render Him redundant by taking control of
the two things He had absolute hold over and we had none: birth and death.
It has been, from the very beginning, that âgiving birthâ is tantamount to being
âgiven to deathâ. That is what modern man is intent on changing. We might, we
are told, soon be able to make life from scratch, even dispense with the male
to make a baby, and eventually even bring the dead back to life, at the least,
keep death
or is it part of evolutionary dynamism gone astray? âBeing like Himâ, as the Bible
says, or, âFor is He not all but thouâ, as Tennyson says (The Higher Pantheism),
or, âAham brahmasmiâI am Godâ, as the Upanishads say, has always been manâs
spiritual aspiration. Or, in the words of Aldous Huxley, âAll is in allâthat All is
actually eachâ (The Doors of Perception, 1954). The theory of evolution, in saying
that we all came from the same original source, rose from molecule to man, is
saying the same. The fundamental difference between that âaspirationâ and what
science is aspiring to do, is that the first one was a âto beââa state, a condition,
something which continues unchanged through time, whereas the second is
âto becomeââan event, a transformation, a metanoia, a change of state. âBeing
like Himâ is like âbeingâ a tiger, which is very different from becoming a tiger. In
seeking divine status, it is really the perks that matter, not the position. What is
ironic is that those very people who deny divine existence or say that He is dated,
if not dead, are those who want to make man a god. Mystics, saints, rishis, and
shamans throughout our troubled history have named our struggle as humans
in different waysâbut they all pointed to the need for us to consciously grow
into our divine potential. As God within, it is, in reality He who is experiencing
through them what they experience in life, both pleasure and pain, good and
bad. What modern man is truly seeking is not the goodness of god, but His
divine powers and perks.
God or no god, the fact is that man has always felt shackled and humiliated
by his animal rootsâDescartes called animals âsoulless automataââand by his
innate impermanence and imperfections. âBeing a godâ is shorthand to become
free from these two limitations. Some, like the great Indian yogi Sri Aurobindo,
say that perfection and imperfection are the same truth seen from two sides.
Some say that we are, in a sense, a species with âperfection pendingâ, which
includes moral perfection. There could be a sinless man but not a perfect man,
save perhaps a full and direct divine incarnation. Even Jesus, as perfect a man
as could possibly be, before his crucifixion, said â⊠on the third day I shall
be perfectedâ.53 What we want is physical permanence and bodily perfection.
Many people, particularly the young, are suffering and dying under the thrall
The War WithinâBetween Good and Evil
48
and torture of the phantasmic self theyâre failing to become. Our obsession
with body-perfection is a travesty of the spiritual path. In fact, the Advaita
Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy says that there is no need to try to attain
anything, even perfection; each of us already is God. The famous Upanishadic
aphorisms, Aham brahmasmi (I am God) and Tat tvam asi (You are God), are
clear indications of how, at the highest level, we have viewed ourselves in our
earthly existence. The Bible too has several passages that humans can become like
gods. Some Christians (Latter-Day Saints) believe that our earthly experience is
to progress towards perfection and ultimately realize our divine destiny. Yoga, or
union or oneness with God, is in spirit the effect of attaining the loftiest layer of
consciousness. Hailed as the oldest scripture, the Rig Veda proclaims, Prajnanam
brahmaââconsciousness is Godâ. God himself, in Hinduism, has been called
Sat-chit-ananda, or âexistence-consciousness-blissâ. Each one of us, as souls, are
individualized Sat-chit-ananda, according to Paramahansa Yogananda. The word
chit is also interpreted as sentience, and Atman as sentient life energy.
Contrary to what Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said, men have not forgotten
God. On the other hand, in a weird way, God is all there is in the human mind.
For the devout, He is the only hope, the only one that stands between them
and despair and death, the only balm for their wounded hearts. For the secular
and scientific, their aspiration and ambition is to erase the boundary between
man and god. It is not only godly powers that we now covet; we have come
to conclude that only by becoming a god can we solve all our problems. In
fact, some say it is inevitable and irreversible and, even more, that it is the only
way the human can reach his full potential. In short, they say divinity is our
destiny, and fulfilling it is not defiance of nature but a service to its intent. But
divinity is in each of us. There is nothing wrong with man wanting to actualize,
or realize, God as Sat-chit-ananda, that is, âtruth-existence-consciousness-blissâ.
What is wrong is acquiring such powers without âbecoming the beingâ, without
consciousness-change, or some kind of a rebooting, if you will. What science is
tempting us with, some say, is what Satan told Adam and Eve: if they would just
follow the âpromiseâ that Satan offered they could be âlike gods.â
To be fair, we are not that âbadâ; we donât mean to sit on his heavenly
throne; âgodâ is really a nickname, or code-word for want of something more
accurate, for something we want to be. We donât want to be a god that appears and
The Beginning
49
disappears, makes lightning or triggers typhoons, answers prayers or gives boons.
We donât want to attain, much less maintain, a state of godly bliss, sanctity, and
purity. For we might say, and even believe that man is a spiritual being having
a human experience, but we cannot live without sin! For long we have had an
idiomatic expression for those who hold our fate in their hands, gods, and that
is now who we yearn to become. For instance, the ancient Hermetic discourse
called The Key says, âWe must dare to say that the human on earth is a mortal
god, but that god in heaven is an immortal humanâ. What we have set out to
do is to bend fate and mend man into an immortal earthly god. Not only that,
like the âheavenlyâ gods, we too donât want to be accountable for our actions and
misdeeds! But the âbeingâ we want to turn into, let us be clear, thank God, is not
God; not the all-pervasive, all-knowing Supreme Being, the Paramatman, as He
is called in Hinduism, or Allah in Islam or Jehovah in Judaism. But then, when
scriptures and saints and mystics strive towards dissolving into divinity or union
with God, they precisely mean that very Supreme Being. Furthermore, it is a
state of consciousness when one loses all sense of the personal self, when there
is no longer any aham or ego. It is the aham that leads to ahamkara (arrogance)
and to agraham (anger). That is why, it has been said by yogis that âGod equals
man minus egoâ. Vedanta says that ego is the main culprit responsible for endless
self-centered thoughts, and the root cause of pain and suffering.
Ego, or ego-consciousness, is that which drives our material life and
makes us opaque to each other. It is both a necessity for survival and a barrier to
moksha, liberation. It is the core of our identity. Spiritual sadhana, what Vedic
rishis of India and Christian mystics and Sufi saints have strived to, is to dissolve
the limiting human self into the infinite divine Self. True to our times, we have
both trivialized and technicized this spiritual process. What science is planning
to do is to replace the divine by blending man and machineâwhich some call a
satanical machine, and some others, a spiritual machineâto attain the attributes
of gods or angels. Essentially it means that having, as we falsely think, transcended
the natural world we now aim to transcend the biological world and become
a kind of transhuman-âgodâ, somewhat similar to what Dante experienced as
he entered into the sphere of the heaven, called âtranshuman-changeâ. Another
analogy that comes to mind is Goetheâs Faust, who feeling like a âwretched foolâ
and no âwiser than beforeâ tried to transcend human knowledge in order to gain
The War WithinâBetween Good and Evil
50
divine knowledge. Transhumanists expect that artificial intelligence, the advent
of cyborgs, and uploading peopleâs minds into software will converge to make
the transition. Then, what do we âbecomeâ and what will be our faith? The new
âreligionâ rooted in artificial intelligence is called the Way of the Future (WOTF),
whose aim is âthe realization, acceptance, and worship of a godhead based on
artificial intelligenceâ. And yet not cease to be man. Avaricious that we are, we
donât want to give up anything we have, including all that is distasteful about us.
We want to be âsmartâ but still, when we choose, we stay stupid; we want to be
super strong but still feel the prick. We donât mind becoming a âsilicon bodyâ, but
not hold back on sex.
The model that roughly resembles what we seek is that of the Greek gods,
or of the devas of Hinduism. What attracts us is that not only do they live forever
but also suffer from some of the same flaws and desires as humans, like anger,
avarice, favoritism, and jealousy, and are even able to have sex, licit and illicit.
âGodsâ, like us, regularly fight amongst each other and engage in petty bickering
and senseless quarrels. But it is not all that novel or inventive. In fact, in our
prehistoric times, the chasm between man and gods was narrow; they used to
routinely talk and walk with gods. Indeed we want to do better; to acquire their
traits, but with a twist. Gods are immortal; they, whether they like it or not,
cannot die. We want to keep death as a choice and be able to bring the âdeadâ back
to life, or perhaps become the âwalking deadâ. It is driven by greed, our penchant
to always âhave-it-allâ. We must remember that what we think we lack or view as
limitations are parts of the cosmic puzzle. Different species have different lengths
of life for reasons we may not know. If one species alters its life span artificially or
unilaterally, then the finely tuned balance in creation and natureâs design strategy
that optimizes life support while minimizing the expenditure of energy, will go
horribly wrong. Even imagine if dogs have the same life span as humans. Perhaps
the world would be a better place but that is not possible! So is it not possible
for man to literally âbecomeâ a god or any other species. What we should aim
to do is to be a âhumane-humanâ, not transhuman. We should strive to become
more whole, more holy. We must also bear in mind that every species, however
minuscule or mighty, has a niche in nature. That this is particularly true in regard
to biodiversity is brought home by the new finding that the worldâs lowly insects
are hurtling down the path of extinction which, in turn, âthreatens the collapse
The Beginning
51
of natureâ, and that to arrest it, we will need to change our ways of producing
food. Furthermore, even if science has its way and Homo sapiens does become
Homo Deus, it still does not mean that we will all, one fine morning, wake up as
gods or that everyone born hereafter, in the lab or from the womb, will be born
with the body of a god. Scientific godhood, like safaris in space, will benefit only
a fraction of humanity. We are poised at a critical moment when, once again,
science is unleashing its prodigious creativity without adequate engagement and
careful thought. And even if we become âgodsâ, many may still look up to the
only âGodâ they are accustomed to worshipping. In the human mind, there is no
contradiction between becoming a god and believing in God. As Albert Camus
said, âNothing can discourage the appetite for divinity in the heart of manâ. But
it is also good to remember that, as Emanuel Swedenborg reminded us, âa life
of kindness is the primary meaning of divine worshipâ (New Jerusalem and Its
Heavenly Doctrine, 1758). In other words, we can become âgodâ by being good
to fellow-humans. This is what is implied in the Hindu aphorism âMaanava seve
madhava sevaâ, meaning service to man is service to God. It means, âyou will use
your life in service; you will be in service to lifeâ.
In the Melting Pot of Life and Death
Science is trying to hijack God, render Him redundant by taking control of
the two things He had absolute hold over and we had none: birth and death.
It has been, from the very beginning, that âgiving birthâ is tantamount to being
âgiven to deathâ. That is what modern man is intent on changing. We might, we
are told, soon be able to make life from scratch, even dispense with the male
to make a baby, and eventually even bring the dead back to life, at the least,
keep death
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