What if the good book is actually a good myth?
I was raised a Christian yet I saw through it before I was even an adult. I then went on to spend ten years in a yoga ashram as a celibate monk (brahmachari) training in meditation and studying the ancient Sanskrit texts, like Bhagavad Gita and Bhagavat Purana. Yet after all these decades of study, meditation and practice, I must personally conclude that these religions are flawed and actually contradictory in such a way that their logic (if any) is easily defeatable.
Christianity, as anyone who has studied religion will know, is based on a book, one book, compiled of a few letters and essays. Yet that book tells a story which echoes an earlier story about a pagan deity or several recurring deities from different cultures who all tell the same story with different names and legends. And we know that the early church fathers edited and manipulated the doctrine and the texts to fit their desired political narrative to control the masses. That is what religion is basically – a tool of social control.
Now when I studied the Vedas and practiced its teachings for some decades, I realized that there too the Sanskrit texts were all open to huge interpretation, and that even throughout India and Hinduism, different traditions and geographical people would tell a very similar story about their god, but they would just change the name. Some say the god is called Shiva and some say the god is actually called Krishna. Both are Hindus and have texts to back up their version of religion.
And some Hindus say that god is male, Krishna, and some say that god is female, Durga/Kali/Saraswati/Lakshmi – so many names for this female form of the original god of all. Yet both the followers of Krishna the male, and Saraswati the female form of the one original god, both use the same religious fable to describe their god. Both say god is an eternal youth, playing in the fields with the other loved ones. So who is correct? I certainly don’t know.
To me they all sound a bit mythic, like fables or allegories of something more, perhaps something that our limited state of consciousness can’t fathom any other way than to hear it in fable and parable and mythic fantasy. And as we see, all tales get embelished over the centuries to make them appear more divine.
The god Ganesh with an elephant’s head; and the big god Narasimha with the lion’s head and the man’s body all in one. And the demigod Rahu who at every eclipse will swallow up the sun or moon and yet he is only a head, he doesn’t have a body because it was severed from the head when he tried to steal a sip of the nectar of immortality. Yet his immortal head will still eat the sun during every solar eclipse. That is for me the funniest thing in the world.
Yet this is what these ancient Sanskrit texts will tell us. And they are the divine holy book of the Hindu. The most perfect fallacy for me is not these mythic creatures, but the fact that the holy book is held up to be the reason for our faith. The Sanskrit wisdom is very good in describing the nature of the mind and the process of yoga to awaken consiousness, so it’s valuable in that particular way.
Yet still the logic fails me that one should accept whatever these texts say as gospel purely because it is in that text. It’s like saying that you must believe these fantastic tales because it’s in this book, and because it says in this book that this is what you must believe. It’s a circular argument that is actually empty of logic.
The priest will say in the Sanskrit tradition that our senses and mind are subject to basic fundamental defects, namely the tendency to be forgetful, to be mistaken, illusioned or to cheat. And because our mind and senses are subject to these obvious faults, then we cannot trust the mind and senses at all. Therefore we can only trust the Veda. We must only trust the holy books. That’s it.
Don’t worry about the fact that the books tell the most mythic tales of men with animal heads who are gods (sounding like Egypt) and heads without bodies eating the sun, or the moon being further way than the sun. Just trust the holy books because the holy books say you must, and because you are flawed. It’s like the Christian priests saying that we are sinners and must rely on blind faith in the word of god, despite the fact that there is clear evidence that this is not the word of a god but of a man, with flawed senses and memory.
This circular logic, without any proof of the words in the books upon which the religion is based, is useless. You don’t trust anything written just because it says you must trust it, especially when it speaks of imaginary constructs with no foundation in experience or reality. That is the mystique of religion and the tool of puffed up priests and brahmanas who are little wannabe gods with big egoes exploiting innocent and ignorant people.
Take for example that highly racist and immoral practice of the caste system in India, something demanded in the Sanskrit Veda. It’s basically legalized slavery and abuse based on birth. It is a crime in my opinion. Yet a billion Hindus still practice it today and have for millennia. It allowed those born in the family of a brahmana to behave like a feudal lord or royal descendant who thinks he is god’s gift to humanity and exploits those born of other bloodlines simply because of their parents, and it has no consideration for their merits and character. This is illegal, surely?
In this way the brahmana priests have been engaging in slavery and human torture for centuries, still today. And this is the so-called intellectual or priestly class. All justified by a misinterprestation of the sacred Sanskrit texts for their own pleasure. The actual proper use of this caste qualification is when it is practiced based not upon birth (janma) but upon merit (guna and karma). Bhagavad Gita says that, but the priesthood made their own interpretation centuries ago and allowed slavery in the name of Hinduism. Pure despotic feudalism and human rights abuses in the name of their god.
Judaism is the same. It is overt racism and human right abuse in the name of the holy books that tell them that anyone born to a jewish mother is better than anyone else on the planet – by birth, not by qualification. That is pure racism and is a crime in my opinion. So as you can see, these priests and their religions have been hijacked from the start, to breed immorality and elitism in the name of a tale of an invisible god, or in other words, a myth.
And Christianity and Islam are the same. When your priest tells you that you are better than the other humans because you believe their myth, and that you can then kill and enslave those who are not of your faith, then you know for sure that this priest is a politician and a criminal. That is my opinion. That imam and rabbi and priest and brahmana is a con artist, or what we call today, a politician. And curiously the career of priesthood and politician both seem to attract the personality type that I would call an egomaniac and narcissist, sometimes with sociopathic tendencies and delusions of grandeur. But then maybe I’m just projecting, hey?
The king used to think he was as good as god on earth. They called him Lord. The priest also today still thinks he is god on earth, the doorway or mouthpiece of god, and as we know, this word god is just a word, there is no such thing ever to be seen or heard from. We only hear our faulty and prejudiced minds. Prove me wrong.
Maybe there was a godlike person millennia ago who performed miracles, but what is to say that wasn’t just a more advanced race, from another part of the planet or another part of the milky way? These speculations are just as valid and any concept of a god that must be worshiped or else we go to hell. In other words, all we have is one person’s speculation over another, where one sounds just as possible as the other. In fact to me a race of aliens from another planet makes more sense, and the ancient Sanskrit Veda talk all about them (for whatever that is worth).
To conclude, I am eager for truth, for facts, to know what reality is. Yet so far all I have to go by is my mind and senses and some ancient tales from numerous different languages and places and times in history, all perhaps alluding to the same truth, yet perhaps not. If you can show me some irrefutable proof and some data, then I will accept your science, or your philosophy. But until then, myths of gods with heads of animals and of an eternal hell simply don’t resonate with me or my experience. If it sounds too irrational then it probanly is. Sure, maybe there is an almighty god person who created everything, but does that god really have a body of a human with a head of a lion attached to the neck? Please help me make sense of how that works anatomically.
Or please tell me how a man dying 2000 years ago by execution will be my contract into eternal paradise, and that he loves me but if I don’t buy his product then I must go to an eternal hell. This is so illogical and anti-philosophical and mythic, that I simply laugh at it. In other words, to me all the world’s religions are illusory and nothing more than allegories at best.
Besides that, scientists today, like Dr Joe Dispenza (educate yourself) are currently performing what we used to call healing miracles, yet he does not use any religion whatsoever. Only mindfulness and mentalism, for want of another way to label it. People are being cured of disease in a way that only can be described as miraculous. Jesus would be impressed. Yet it is done using tried and tested scientific means that are reproducable in those who have the faith in that science. No Jesus required. Faith alone can indeed do wonders. Faith on yourself, in your science, in past case history, even in your mentor or coach, but no need for blind faith in an abstract person as the only gatekeeper to your well-being or to anything. I don’t care who says it or what book has it written.
Are you going to allow yourself to be duped by loud and manic street preachers who convince you to believe something even if it is immoral and abusive to others, like your entitlement by faith or by birth, and your caste system, just because it gives you a sense of superiority over some others? You think you are gods gift to the world, that you can now go and kill or abuse those who are not of your faith, because your imaginary god says you are better than them. That is the way of the Christian according to history, and the way of the Jew, the Muslim and the way of the caste brahmana, and anyone who thinks that they can write off anyone to eternal hell because that person doesn’t buy your religion.
Well in my mind that is a crime against humanity, against life and against consciousness. We all are of no more or less importance to life than any other person. You may have more responsibility by vocation, but all of us are equal under the law and under the sun. That is what I see and experience. All the rest is politics.
image: source
I often wonder why old religious books offer no clues to future generations about the structure of the material world. Nor are there any clues in the books of mystics who were in contact with other dimensions. There are predictions about the future and past of specific individuals, but no clear predictions about future discoveries in cosmology.
I don't want to think that our material world is some kind of matrix and the real world is somewhere else. I don't want to think that we're just characters in some game.
The ancient Sanskrit Vedas go into a lot of detailed description of the creation and the structure of the material world, but much of it is also fantastical. They also go into the nature of the mind in quite an astute psychological way, so that can be helpful.
They also tell stories of the mystics who met the gods after long meditation, though those gods would be riding on winged eagles, or would send swan airplanes to fetch the mystics and take then to the next life. They also talk about wrathful or helpful angels who come to fetch the departing soul at death, depending on your karma. So there is plenty of info and some of it may be valid, yet no one can say for sure. And much of it sounds like fantasy, or may use cosmic time and distance that we cannot fathom, like millions of years.
There is also a future prediction in the Bhagavat Purana at the end, where one last avatar or incarnation of god will appear to wipe out the evil kings that control the earth, but they say he will only arrive in about half a million years from now, so don't hold your breath. From now until then it will keep getting worse on the planet, they say.
It does indeed seem rather sad to think that we are just the playthings of the gods who care very little about our suffering. But that's how it is portrayed in the Sanskrit texts. They say contradictory things too which can be difficult to reconcile, and hard to accept without a huge dose of magical thinking. They say that this material world is not false, but that it is temporary, while our real nature is eternal. Some others however, say it is all false, so it depends on which version of the Sanskrit Vedanta you choose to identify with. No clear and direct answers, only several different interpretations and philosophical conclusions, and according to which perspective of reality you choose to adopt, your actions are presumably affected accordingly, for better or worse.
You have made some strong points in this post. Others may disagree and they are free to do so. I tend to generally agree. I do see politicians using religion for their own benefit, and to control the people.
But I also see religion as a way to understand and honor some aspects of the culture and traditions of my parents and ancestors. I think if one does this in the context of making an educated decision to believe in certain parts of religious concepts that one understands may not be literally true, maybe one can find a middle ground where maybe there is the maximum benefit for the individual and society.
Maybe! Just a thought. :)
I very much resonate with this! It applies to crypto too. So much is hype designed to encourage faith in future projects and prices. Anyone in crypto for any length of time has found that the reality rarely matches the hype.
And finally,
I wonder if you would agree to any degree with this video that portends to explain Bertrand Russell's view of religion. I think it is fairly accurate although it has been some time since I have read anything from Russell. Maybe someone who prefers hearing a video rather than reading a post will get some value from this. If they do, maybe they will have something to voice in the comments.
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Wishing everyone all the best!
Thank you so much for your insightful response Kenny. Indeed we may not logically agree with what our religions tell us, but we can still agree that they provide value in some ways. They unite communities around a common story, and they also teach wisdom in parable and metaphor, guiding us toward good actions ideally.
Also, many people gain great value from the ritual and ceremony that some religions provide, as well as the initiation experiences they offer, like baptism, sacred thread ceremony or coming of age, marriage and funerals. having some kind of ritual assists us to move through these phases of life.
There is some good to be gained from religions and there cultural embellishments, and actually the loss of religion, with its ceremonies, teachings and rituals that provide structure and meaning, can sometimes cause difficulties for less mature psyches, who need that kind of support structure to help them in life.