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Thread: Atheist reconsidering stance on religion.

  1. #1

    Atheist reconsidering stance on religion.

    Hey guys, my name is Rishab. I was born in Bangalore, India but as a child i grew up in Dubai and now I'm studying in States. As a kid , all my religious experiences involved visiting various temples and the various rituals I used to witness there. Perhaps the most profound of my religious experiences were the several pilgrimages I made to Tirupathi as a child and few when I was a little over ten. I still visit temples to this very day everytime I go to India to visit my grandparents there but perhaps the only reason I do go there is because I don't want to offend my family. When I turned ten, I radically changed my views on religion in few years I went from religious, to questioning god, to agnostic to atheist to strictly anti-religious. I'm 18 right now and I'm starting to reconsider my views on religion because I feel like I've lost my way in life or a better way to put it would be I'm trying to find my way in life. I just have a few questions I would like to be answered. I have little knowledge compared to most of you on Hinduism but is it true that god isn't a supernatural being watching us from the skies but our consciousness within us?
    Perhaps the biggest reason why I stopped believing in God is because I couldn't get around the idea that they're were supernatural beings in the sky watching over us. It just seemed pretty stupid to me. I believed atheists were so much smarter than everyone else but I also had a doubt in my head how some of the most intelligent people in history were religious and surely the thought must have crossed their mind too yet they still believed in God. What I want to know is, what is God? How do I connect with God? and is the Bhagvad Gita is abstract and symbolic and not true historical representation of an actual event?
    and I have also been experimenting with psychedelics like lsd and shrooms in order in have a deeper connection with my consciousness but so far no luck also I have been taking only small doses. Are psychedelics okay to use in order to achieve consciousness?

  2. #2
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    Re: Atheist reconsidering stance on religion.

    Hi Rishab,
    I'm not the best person to answer but since nobody else has, I thought I'd comment. Like you I rejected god outright after a religious search. I was about 18 at the time and in hindsight what I rejected was the "angry deity in the sky" of Christianity (I'm European background but from an un-religious family). But I was still aware that this rejection did not answer the fundamental questions which were still within me. I guess it was the start of a very honest quest.
    In my opinion the Gita is an amazing spiritual teaching of great profundity (it's historical accuracy is, for me at least, irrelevant). If you meditate, then the truth will manifest. If you take drugs, then any experiences you gain will be delusions and not something you can repeat or control. You will also gain no true insight via drugs. Do not pollute your temple - insight is your birthright. Seek it out.
    namaste

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    Re: Atheist reconsidering stance on religion.

    Rishab,

    You are young... please, please, please stay away from drugs... Who said drugs give you experience of inner bliss? If so, all those drug abusers and addicts must be another Ramakrishna or Ramana! Please stay away from all those drugs which have all those negative consequences including shortening of life span and a myriad of other problems. I chose to answer only to stress this point.

    BTW: It is not hard, if you want, to have spiritual experiences. Just stay focused on your chosen devata and do routine spiritual practice and prayers. In a short time, you will see your deity in your dreams! And this is the one and only way to know god. Just follow all those guidelines for being a good person and do enough prayers, in due course, your sadhana will bear fruit and take you closer to god.

    Wish you good luck!
    jai hanuman gyan gun sagar jai kapis tihu lok ujagar

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    Re: Atheist reconsidering stance on religion.

    Quote Originally Posted by Rishab View Post
    but is it true that god isn't a supernatural being watching us from the skies but our consciousness within us?
    Vannakkam Rishab: Welcome to these forums, and yes God is inside us. We Hindus are on a different operating system than westerners.

    Welcome to the forums.

    Aum Namasivaya

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    Re: Atheist reconsidering stance on religion.

    Namaste,

    Welcome to the forum Rishab.

    We are to be blamed for the disconnect in your life to God. We are not educated enough in the philosophical aspects of our religion to be able to guide our children. So, your rebellion is understandable. It was/is a manifestation of the frustration due to lack of any valid explanations provided to you. Hope you can forgive us and do your own search for the supreme.

    At an abstract level, God runs the universe, which consists of many planetary systems. He is not a supernatural force whose only job is to hide up in the sky and be a watchman and observe your every activity. You or I are not that important for Him to spend a major portion of the day watching us go through the motions of life. At least I don't flatter myself by entertaining such thoughts. And getting high is not a way to achieve anything at all. It is a downward spiral more than anything else. So, the sooner you quit drugs, the better off you will be in the long run and also in the short run.

    The Hindu holy book Bhagwad Gita is the pinnacle of Hindu wisdom. To the devout, Bhagwan Krishanji came down to earth to enlighten us about the philosophy of life through His narration of it to Arjun. You may take it any whichever way you want - just as a historical record or as an account of the actual visit by the Divine to our home, mother earth.

    Go ahead and read some of the threads that interest you, ask questions, start a regular regimen of some chanting and reading of scriptures. Before you know it, you will become the biggest expert in the forum. You owe it your children in the future to be more educated than we are/were and guide them properly in spiritual matters; else you would be a failure just the way we have been to you and to countless other offsprings of born Hindus. The choice is yours. You want to be better than us to your future family, or repeat the pattern and be stupid like us and be ill prepared to guide your future family?

    Pranam.

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    Re: Atheist reconsidering stance on religion.

    Namaste Rishab,

    Quote Originally Posted by Rishab View Post
    is it true that god isn't a supernatural being watching us from the skies but our consciousness within us?
    Maharishi Patanjali says that God is a supernatural being but He is described as given below in MAndukya Upanishad :

    a) God is one of the states of Brahman which is the sole Reality beyond time and space. God is not a separate entity apart from Its creation. The essence of Creation or the substratum of the whole Creation is Brahman.
    b) God is Mass of Consciousness and is non-dual with the Creation i.e. God is Mass of Consciousness and on that Mass of Consciousness this world appears as the waves appear on the bosom of an Ocean.
    c) God is a state of Ultimate bliss. He/She/It is the origin and end of all beings and all things in the universe.
    d) God and this world are due to powerful MAyA or Prakriti which is the power of Brahman. Prakriti has 8 parts : 5 MahabootAs i.e. Earth, Water, Fire, Sky and Air, and Mann (i.e. Observing Mind), Intellect and Ahamkaar or Ego by which one differentiates oneself from any other being or thing. God is the master of MAyA. MAyA or Prakriti has its own Laws within its relative plane of existence. MAyA or Prakriti has two main powers : It veils the Reality i.e. Brahman and projects this world.
    e) Whatever happens in this world is due to governing Laws of Prakriti but God has power to intervene.
    f) God is everywhere i.e. in all forms and even where there is no form. There is no place where God is not. So, it is quite OK to worship God in form or even without form. Moreover, He/She can be worshiped in any form chosen by the devotee.

    *******************

    Finally, Please STAY AWAY FROM DRUGS. The drugs will make you Tamsik in nature and will make you fall in darkness of lower realms.

    OM
    "Om Namo Bhagvate Vaasudevaye"

  7. #7

    Re: Atheist reconsidering stance on religion.

    Thanks for replying all of you!
    It really has helped me a lot and I will take your advice and stay away from drugs. I was told that it would open my mind and help me find my way in life and you guys are absolutely right. I stopped smoking a month ago because i felt I was really doing bad in school and other aspects of my life as well and now I feel better than ever but I do have a question though. If drugs are that bad, how come I've seen Sadhus smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol? I'm not trying to defend my past behavior but it is a genuine question I have.
    Can someone please tell me how I can start achieving consciousness? I just find meditation absolutely impossible. I'm bipolar and I suffer from ADHD, I constantly have thoughts in my head and I can't focus on one thing enough to meditate. I'm very grateful for all your replies.

    Namaste

  8. #8

    Re: Atheist reconsidering stance on religion.

    I'm afraid neither my parents or anyone else in my family for that matter understand the true meaning of our religion. I believe they blindly go to temples and perform rituals believing it will make them have a better life but they don't really understand why they're doing it and what it truly gives. Only recently after lots of research have I changed my views on Hinduism. I now understand that its truly the best guide on how to live your life with a complex and detailed understanding of the mind and the body that I never knew existed. But I still have a lot of questions which when answered will possibly turn me into a complete believer.

    Namaste.

  9. #9

    Re: Atheist reconsidering stance on religion.

    [QUOTE=devotee;124900]
    God is a state of Ultimate bliss.

    How do I achieve this state? What should the first step I take?

    Pranam.

  10. #10

    Re: Atheist reconsidering stance on religion.

    My experience this past year has taught me a very important lesson. TO STAY AWAY FROM DRUGS, like you said. Everything you have stated above is true and now I'm trying to spread the message to people around me who do use drugs.

    Does a chosen deity have a special significance?

    Pranam.

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