Gods and Godmen of India by Khushwant Singh Read Free Book Online

accept the order in nature as a package of marvels that just happen to exist. Those like myself, who are intrigued to know where the laws of physics come from are impressed by a key fact. The laws do not have to be what they are; they could have been otherwise. Moreover the actual laws seem to be special in several respects. For example, not only do they permit the universe to originate spontaneously from nothing, they also permit it to self-organize and self-complexity to the point where life and consciousness emerge, including sentient beings who can understand the working of nature through science and reflect on its meaning.”
    Davies concludes: “The word God means so many different things to different people that I am loath to use it. When I do, it is in the sense of the rational ground that underpins physical reality. Used in this way, God is not a person, but a timeless abstract principle that implies something like meaning or purpose behind physical existence. It is my impression that many modern theologians have in mind something very similar.”
    Are we any closer to finding God? No. I take shelter behind the Urdu couplet:
Too dil mein to aataa hai
Samajh mein nahin aata
Bas jaa gayaa teyree pahchaan yahee hai.
(I have you in my heart
But do not comprehend you,
Maybe that is the best way of knowing you.)
    22/7/1995

Power of Prayer
    W e are told that more things are wrought by prayer than the world dreams of. Indeed, if it be so, why has its power never been explained? Osho Rajneesh has his own unique explanation (with which I concur).
    In a compilation of some of his sermons Walking in Zen, Sitting in Zen, he says: “It is such a stupid world! Mohammedans pray in Arabic, which they don’t understand; Hindus pray in Sanskrit, which they don’t understand; and now Buddhists pray in Pali, which they don’t understand – for the simple reason that priests have been very much insistent on keeping the dead language because those prayers are very poor if they are translated into the language which you understand. You will be at a loss – you will not be able to see what there is to pray in them; they will lose all the mystery. The mystery is because you don’t understand them. Hence Latin, Greek, Arabic, Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit – dead languages which nobody understands any more. Priests go on insisting that prayers should be in those dead languages.
    “You are saying something the meaning of which is not known to you. What kind of prayer is that? To whom are you addressing it? You don’t know anything about god. And what you are saying is not arising out of your heart, you are just being a gramophone record – His Master’s Voice.”
    2/2/2002

Mantric Power
    F rom reasons unknown, and results unverified, every religious scripture has passages which its followers endow with magic powers of healing or protection against harm. Such passages then gain importance in ritual, get inscribed on tablets, amulets and are recited in moments of crisis. We have a memorable example in a beautiful psalm: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”
    An equally beautiful and popular psalm invokes God as the protector: “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whom cometh thy help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved; he that keepeth thee will not slumber … The Lord will preserve thee from all evil; he shall preserve thy soul.”
    The Muslims have their own favourite passages from the Koran. Besides the opening surah, Al Fatihah; the two most frequently used are the Ayat-ul-qurse (the throne verse) and the Yaseen. They can be seen on tombstones and entrances of