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Kumar_Das
01 September 2010, 02:59 PM
I am always amazed by how the Gita has verses which can be expounded upon and used to refute contemporary theological statements.

Take Pascal's Wager for instance.
---> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal's_Wager

Pascal's wager starts out on the very instance, bringing in another realm of possibility; that God does not exist. So there is a dual game of chance involved here, a foundation for the belief in God based upon the "what ifs".

Let me respond to it by commenting upon Chapter 4 Verse 40 of the Bhagavad Gita.

4:40

"The ignorant fool, is the one without faith in the scriptures, and one inflicted by inner doubt and uncertainty is ruined and for one afflicted by doubt and uncertainty there is no happiness in this world or next"



Pascal whose role as a Christian Apologetic, is to make people "accept" God.

Yet his so-called "reasoning" here is a flawed one. There is a disbelief being involved here.

When we study an object, we dont assume anything about it and then pretend we know it.

We base our knowledge of it, by studying it, and accepting it on the premise of what we can affirm.

This is also the case with true Brahma-vidya. We may not be able to demonstrate through scientific processes, but our basis for whatever we hold to be true must be reliable not mere options due to doubts.

Pascal as a Christian apologetic, obviously would use the Bible as the "word of God". As such how can he recognize its authority and validity without being entirely sure of it?

We see here that scripture based faith can ONLY apply based upon validity and therefore also authority.

If multiple doubts continously persist then it renders the scriptures as a whole worthless therefore cannot be used to base one's spirituality.

4:40
"The ignorant fool, is the one without faith in the scriptures, and one inflicted by inner doubt and uncertainty is ruined and for one afflicted by doubt and uncertainty there is no happiness in this world or next"

We see that in this verse scriptures are addressed first, followed by a similar explanation being repeated without it.

So the end part of the verse taken says

"...for one afflicted by doubt and uncertainty there is no happiness in this world or next"

Krishna(/God referred to by His attribute, which is another name of His, All-Attractive or Most Adorable) is not insisting for us to "believe" in Him.

He is directly addressing both Atheists and Theists alike.

He is declaring that there is no room for "agnosticism" ultimately. For such a person there is no happiness. Because he lives in a constant state of having no position of being sure whether or not God is real.

Someone who is a theist MUST be sure of his theistic positions; what he regards to be true and what not.

Likewise an atheist MUST be sure of his atheism. So that he has no reservations in declaring himself as an atheist.

Theism or atheism is the most important thing in a person's life. Because it completely and directly affect's a person's very existence and worldview.

Second thoughts lingering in the subconscious mind results to internal conflicts.

Supreme Bliss is attained only through complete inner peace within the mind.



If you've noticed, the atheists on youtube, go through a phase where they have doubts. It is during the state when they were having doubts, that is; between from being thorough believers to eventually ex-believers that they felt emotional turbulence.

Most of them who for the first time come out or those who are apprehensive but later arent; have a sense of relief, satisfaction, confidence and new-found joy.

First of all a "belief", is something accepted as true without facts. So we cannot "believe" in God. We must simply know! God. And in this know-ing, there must be no doubts of anykind.

If there are doubts then there is no knowledge

Proper knowledge brings true enlightenment. If one argues in favour of God through a specific knowledge. The medium that contains the knowledge and the knowledge should not cause doubts. The moment there are doubts, then that medium of knowledge becomes defective and therefore cannot bring true enlightenment.

Krishna(/God) here is not insisting on accepting a message blindly. But rather what we must consider is that; multiple points given to refute a scripture that are raised has to be put to rest by counter arguements which would in turn only further support the scripture.

Having doubts or being skeptical is not wrong. They are part of learning process.

But satisfaction proceeds from the resolution of doubts. For then certainty is established.

The "belief" in God dramatically and drastically affects a person's life. If till death he is unable to either or not "believe" in God. Then his entire life has been spent in vain.




Om Namo Narayana