Devotion-less Gyan

[avyakt7]

There are individuals with different capacities. That is a matter of fact statement.
Many times some individuals whose reality is India will see the Murli as a source of devotional/knowledge. Bhakti is part of many Indian born make up. It also exists in "foreigners" but I haven't seen a country whose understanding of spirituality is so into devotional means and hierarchies. The "Guru" thing, the "I do whatever he says" is common in this mentality. As such to interpret the Murli as "face value" has become of paramount importance for some.

There are some aspects which are commonly forgotten:
1) The Murli was originally spoken to a group of individuals who did not possess the educational background that we can commonly see now.
2) The Murli was spoken for a certain group of people belonging to a certain background, with certain traditions and religious views.
3) The Murli is paradoxical in nature. Reality is not "black or white" and opposites complement each other to better explain a spiritual reality which lies beyond dualism. To reach a level of understanding beyond duality is a "fortune". Thus, many learn by seeing or by following others (hierarchy)
4) The Murli is 100% experiential. We can only understand a point if we have lived through it. Otherwise, it is following our understanding of whatever someone else said.
5) Bhakti, devotion is a beautiful way of showing love using known human traditions and relationships to relate with God. However, many times the understanding of God is placed in the "little box" of Bhakti, which does not allow a person to open their horizons to the unlimited and thus, obtain a deeper grasp of Gyan without the spices of devotion.

Below I will share a different understanding of Gyan put into "modern" terms without the devotional aspects. Anyone, regardless of origin should be able to understand it; however, some "education" (information) is required to follow some points.

I feel that the main aspect to see the beauty and truth of this knowledge resides in understanding the concept of time. Everything is contained in the cycle of time which could be easily grasped in a logical and reasonable way. However, we are "numberwise" and thus, different.

I will share something which I wrote sometime ago. If there are questions regarding this, I will be more than happy to answer them.

Warm regards.


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Raysha and Ananda were looking at the beautiful sunset near the beach. Ananda was enjoying it, but all of the sudden his face changed to a serious look and asked: «Raysha, my senses tell me that the sun is moving towards the horizon to meet the peaceful ocean. That is my experience. Is my experience true or false?» Raysha thought about it for 3 seconds and responded: «Even though your limited senses are giving you an experience, that experience is right for you. Whether the Sun moves or the Earth moves, what matters to you, the being; is the experience of peace and beauty. That is the truth for you». Raysha continued meditating on her answer and then added: «However, intellectual people will tell you that is the Earth moving around its axis in rotation the cause of the sunset. They are happy with words and explanations, but in reality, there is no «sunset» even though you see it. Only few bend their mind towards such thinking».
Ananda, was perplexed by that reply and added: «then what is the truth? It has to be something without change and completely reliable. Perhaps a mathematical equation, like 1+1=2… you know, numbers don’t lie…».
Raysha responded: «in real life, 1+1 could be 3 as well… it happens when the male form meets the female form. Only few people can see that. The truth is living, unchanged, pervasive, good to all, it brings happiness to all…Many are happy with labels or equations, but only few have the experience and can see that the truth, the only truth, is God. When you know Him, you know the truth. That experience goes beyond proofs and explanations».
In this writing I will attempt to expose a logical and reasonable philosophy of the following question: How everything started? From the answer of that question, many other popular philosophical questions could be easily answered as a consequence of direct application of my answer. Those questions could be: «Is there free will? What is the purpose of life? Where are we going? Are we bodies or something else? Is time linear? Are our historical «facts» accurate?, etc.
The starting point of this philosophical system is rooted in the well known laws of thermodynamics. Why? Because many times we are so used to quote «theories» and to obscure a straight forward answer with scientific mythology. A physical Law on the other hand, has passed different tests and stays as a paramount of reality beyond opinions. Thermodynamics are important because the whole universe is about movement and conversion of energies and the interrelation of matter and energy. When I apply the laws of thermodynamics in my philosophical system, I am using a real and concrete starting point to understand matter and energy, in other words; the Universe.
1st law of thermodynamics: «Matter cannot be created nor destroyed. It can only be transformed».
It is not possible to «create» matter as in «something» from nothing.. I cannot add things to what already exists. Whatever exists will transform in due time.
Once I understand this law, I can see that the «Theory of Creationism,» is illogical. A God creating stuff out of nothing is unreasonable. If nothing can be created nor destroyed; how everything came to exist? It was already there. It has been always there, but matter changes its form in time. This is logical. Do you want further proof?
Sure. Let us explore the concept of time. Time is an unavoidable property of matter. Whenever there is matter, there is time. Matter changes from form «x» to form «y» that transformation is lengthy, that is what we call «time». Whenever we think that time is linear, we make a «big» mistake. To start, there is nothing linear in the universe. The shortest path between 2 points is not a line as we were taught but a geodesic, a curve. We live in a sphere. There are no straight lines in a sphere.
Therefore, if matter changes with time, time cannot be linear but cyclical. Why? Because matter cannot be created, that means that there is neither «beginning» nor «end». If there is neither beginning nor end that means that matter is eternal, obviously because matter exists. This is called a logical reasoning from previous premises.
Eternity cannot be linear because by necessity; linear time conveys a beginning. The belief of linear time is the single most detrimental «theory» that is affecting our understanding of «how everything started».
Linear time fails logic and reason consistently. There are 3 aspects of time: past, present and future. If the «beginning» was the present, then what was the past of that present? It is non-existent. Also the principle of «cause and effect» fails in linear time.
The «Big bang» theory believes in a great explosion which created everything. OK; but, what was the cause of those agents that collided in an explosion? In other words, those atoms of hydrogen and helium needed to come from somewhere before they existed. Linear time means that there is a need of a beginning which could never be explained if we use the principle of cause and effect or the 3 aspects of time. See that? Therefore, in this brief explanation I have logically and reasonably demonstrated that Creationism and the «Big Bang» theory are illogical answers of the beginning of the Universe. Perhaps a scientist can come up with lots of proofs to defend their theories, or a holy priest can defend their dogma, but logic and reason tells me otherwise. Perhaps science and dogma are not reasonable after all. There is no need to be a rocket scientist to see this.
If linear time fails the test of logic, what is the «reasonable» answer? Time is a cycle. A circle. The rest of this writing will go into this.
2nd law of thermodynamics:
Entropy and the problem of the «arrow of time».
This unresolved problem in physics states that time seems to have an arrow or direction, in other words; it seems to go from present to future, in one temporal sequence. Scientists attempted to explain the direction of the arrow of time by using the second law of thermodynamics also known as the concept of entropy. Entropy loosely could be explained as the passage between 2 stages: from many to few, from «order» to «disorder» from new to old, etc. High entropy means «many ways or lots of something» and low entropy means «few or less of something». It is dualism manifested in the states of «ascending» and «descending». Entropy could be seen as «quality» of something diminishing as time progresses. Accordingly, physical systems tend to evolve towards states of higher entropy. However, Newton’s laws (classical physics) have no built in mechanism for temporal orientation, in other words; systems not only can evolve from high to low entropy but they can do it from low to high (going to the past). Thus, the same amount of entropy which exists in the future should exist in the past since the laws of physics are time reversal symmetric. This contradiction cannot be explained in a linear vision of time without having a «double headed» arrow of time (one pointing towards the past and the other towards the future).
This «double headed» approach is not consistent with our own experience. There is just «one arrow». Time goes in one direction.
The universe is alike a self existing machine endowed with perpetual motion». According to Lord Kelvin: «Although mechanical energy is indestructible, there is a universal tendency to its dissipation, which produces throughout the system a gradual augmentation and diffusion of heat, cessation of motion and exhaustion of the potential energy of the material Universe» (Lectures, vol. II, p. 356).
Lord Kelvin is referring here to entropy. Apparently a «self existing machine endowed with perpetual motion», such as the Universe, cannot persist in «linear time» but in «cyclical time» as entropy takes over; thus, entropy becomes the reason why a self existing machine with motion will continue forever. Low entropy gives rise to high entropy and high entropy to low. It is the «Yin and Yang» principle which can only be fully observed in motion in a cyclical view of time.
«The Fabric of the Cosmos, Space, Time and the Texture of Reality». by Brian Greene, PhD. in Physics, Columbia University; 2004, ISBN: 0-375-72720- 5, mentions in page 164 «You should never be surprised or feel the need to explain why any physical system is in a high-entropy state. Such states are the norm. On the contrary, what does need explaining is why any given physical system is in a state of order, a state of low entropy».
This statement by Greene is utterly convenient for his explanations. I think there is a need to explain why physical systems are in low entropy as well as high entropy. The belief of «linear time» has no chance of explaining low entropy. However, as expressed before, the cycle of time and the understanding of eternity, fully explain the need of low and high entropy as the means to construct this «self existing machine endowed with perpetual motion...».
Everything in the Universe is cyclical, why not time? Time is not separated from the material Universe after all.
This concept of cyclical time is not new. It has existed for many centuries before «linear time» appeared in the Western world. Cyclical time is easily observable in nature. Cyclical time is the view of time for Hindus, Buddhists, Jainism and perhaps other religions in the Indian sub continent. The same holds true in the Americas. The Mayan calendar as well as other Mesoamerican societies used a cyclical calendar which allowed them to foretell the future by means of astrology and divination rituals. The Aztecs made use of a calendar carved in a huge circular stone, the Sun stone, which nowadays is one of the main attractions of the Anthropological Museum in Mexico City. The knowledge of repetition of time, which is a natural consequence of the cyclical view of time; permits divination. Of course more specifically Christianity forbade divination in western societies, even though it shows that practice in an ambivalent manner throughout the Bible. (Exodus 28 is an example.) The Koran also forbids divination.
The ancient Greeks practiced divination by means of the oracles. Greeks believed in time being cyclical. One of the greatest lines (in my view) by Plato was «We don’t learn but we remember». This statement makes no sense in linear time. It only makes perfect sense in cyclical time.
In Scandinavian mythology the Ragnarok (Norse Mythology) relates a foretold great battle which results in the death of many gods, natural disasters and the subsequent submersion of the world in water. The idea of «seeing beyond the present and into the future» is held by many cultures throughout history. My claim is that when we view time as cyclical, it is possible to foresee the future. In a cyclical view of time, time repeats identically. Nietzsche (German philosopher) called it «Eternal recurrence».
QUESTIONS AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE CYCLE OF TIME
How do we explain «eternal recurrence» through the first and second law of thermodynamics? It is quite easy. Matter cannot be destroyed. It transforms. Therefore, «I» will exist forever in my current form. When the cycle moves, it is just a matter of time until my form appears again. Even though we observe that a person «dies» matter and energy transforms into something else and after «x» number of transformations it must go back to its current form. (Poincare expressed a similar concept) Because there is a second law of thermodynamics, my body in this birth will degenerate, it will «get old» as time goes by.
In Matter there are 3 processes that we can observe, there is «creation» in which the old transforms into something new. This is not «creation out of nothing,» which as we know is illogical. Once creation takes place, there is «maintenance» while entropy takes its toll and finally, there is «destruction».
I was born. That is creation. I wasn’t born out of nothing, but the union of my parent’s sperm and ovum formed my body. Then as I began to grow up, entropy made my body old until my body meets death. Those 3 processes apply to everything existing. However, after «destruction» there is «creation» again. It is a never-ending process; a cycle.
Someone who has the mental capacity to follow this so far, may be asking themselves: «When I die, I will be gone. This explanation is saying that there is creation again, so what happens with me, how is that possible?».
The body changes into a newborn again. Welcome to the concept of «reincarnation». However, the body is not the same; it is definitely a new body from the old one I used to have. The question is: Where is me? Definitely, you are not the body because you have a new body. That «you» is what is known by many «circles» as the «soul». The first and second law of thermodynamics applies to energy as well. The soul, «you» is energy. You will go into a new body.
But I don’t remember anything of my previous body? Of course, most will not be able to remember, due to entropy. However, your tendencies, character and learned behaviors will be with you the soul, but in a different body and under different circumstances and in a «lesser quality» manner due to entropy. Matter is eternal but changes. Because time is a cycle, a soul can only take a predetermined amount of births in that cycle of time, before repetition kicks in. Our intellectual ability, consciousness, thoughts and behavioral patterns are all contained in the soul. Thoughts are non-material. It is illogical to think that thoughts are material or caused by the body or the physical brain.
So far, I am logically proving (showing/presenting/highlighting) that time is cyclical. Scientifically there are problems when using «linear time». The most prevalent problems are the understanding of how systems start in low entropy and the problem of the arrow of time, and last but not least, the popular philosophical question, «who is first, the chicken or the egg?» cannot be answered in a logical, reasonable way by any western scientist defending time as being linear. I have written an article about that topic here: http://www.helium.com/items/487172-phil ... or-the-egg . This article has been consistently the number 1 article out of 70 articles for many weeks already. It is interesting to note that current western traditions are unwilling to accept something which is quite obvious. Scientists are paid to defend whatever the source of income for their research dictates. Their science many times is not for the sake of finding the truth but rather to defend a particular system. To accept cyclical time means to demolish traditional beliefs, even to challenge religious dogmas which are currently sustaining societies. That is a lot to ask a scientist to go against.
Many individuals will not bother about the significance of finding the logical answer of the «chicken and egg» problem; their minds are lost in earning an income and spending that in material goods. That is the «normal» individual, the majority, the mass, etc.
Most are unaware of the logical consequences of accepting cyclical time.
What are the logical consequences of accepting cyclical time?
1). There is predestination. Paradoxically, «free will» only exists while we are not aware of predestination. We have not chosen our parents, body, situation, etc. Our thoughts come and go, we ‘think’ that we make a choice out of our own volition when in reality it is depending on the circumstances which we have not chosen.
2). Everything that exists is eternal. There is recurrence. Things repeat exactly the same at a fixed time. Astrology and astronomy have a reason to exist in predicting the future, because it has been the past at one point in time.
3). Fortune telling is a reality. It is like «fast forwarding» a movie which has already been playing for eternity. Likewise it is possible to go to the past. (Regressions). The «arrow of time» is time reversal symmetric; it can go to the past as well as the future only in a cyclical view of time.
4). Human beings are eternal as well. We will come back again and again to represent the same acts, the same story for eternity. However, that which survives when the corporeal body transforms (i.e. death,) is what is commonly known as the soul.
5). There is no such a thing as dualism between soul/body. They are not opposites but complement each other. Existence in the physical world is possible because of the body; there is time at every step. However, for a soul time does not exist. Therefore, time is paradoxical. It is one of those «truths» which depend on our state of consciousness to be able to «see it».
6). Since things are predestined. We don’t learn anything. The soul has a particular story to express and experience. We remember at every step. Physical life is about expressing and experiencing. That is the «purpose of life» when time is cyclical.
7). Entropy makes possible what we know as «opposites». New and old are opposites, but at the same time they are complementary, because one cannot exist without the other. This is «Yin/Yang». Creation and destruction are complementary and opposites, entropy manifests in between. There is creation because destruction has happened. This dualism allows a human being to experience the two opposite spectrum of experience, «good and evil,» which in reality do not exist as separate, but are necessary for the «self propellant machine of the universe» to move towards higher entropy. This story of necessary occurrences is enacted by all human and living beings. Every action has a consequence. It is a world of cause and effect. There is no randomness, casualty, probability, chance, luck, etc. Everything is «cause and effect».
8). As explained, a complete picture of the «truth of life» cannot be painted just by going into the material world. Souls exist by necessity in this predestined model. There is no need to hope for the «after life,» when logically and reasonably I know that I will be that who I am right now. It is just a matter of time. The understanding of souls which is known as spirituality is well beyond the understanding of science, logic and reason. There is no human being who can teach that. There is a different quality that a person must possess to understand and experience spirituality. This topic is beyond the scope of this writing, however.
9). The cycle of time expresses that there cannot be destruction of the world; however entropy dictates that as time goes by, destruction must happen for «new» low entropy things to appear again.
10). A practical and useful example of entropy applied into our world is our population. Low entropy means lower population because resources are plentiful. As population increases, so entropy increases. Once a point of «saturation» is reached, a lower number of population will exist again and the cycle will repeat.
Reality depends on our consciousness. That consciousness is predestined according to the capacity of every soul. The term «equality» is non-existent, because no soul can ever experience exactly the same thing, because their consciousness is different. Reality cannot be explained by any human being. A fish cannot explain about the whole ocean unless the fish is out by the shore, experiencing the ocean, seeing it from a detached point of view. Here is where the concept of God is necessary to comprehend, as the source of «bona fide» knowledge for spiritual matters (soul,) but that is out of the scope of this writing.
Nothing expressed here is «new». These ideas have existed for many centuries in one way or another. I have not created this philosophy of cyclical time, but I have put the ideas together.

[arjun]

Dear avyakt7,
Welcome to the forum and thanks for sharing your views with us.
Regards,
Arjun

[avyakt7]

Thank you for your warm and welcoming message, Arjun. I am happy to see that this is an open place to share "my" views of Gyan.
Will be sharing as time permits.
All the best,

Avyakt7