Misconceptions
in History
Correct Knowledge and Interpretation of History is essential for correct understanding of souls, God and the world.
Knowledge of history is generally considered as essential for formulation of economic, political and sociological theories for example, Rousseau, Hegel and Karl Marx formed their social and economical theories on the basis of their understanding and interpretation of history. But has it ever been realised that life-style and outlook of every human being depends upon his understanding and interpretation of historical events and that, without correct knowledge of world history as a whole, one cannot have correct understanding of soul, God and universe. If one’s understanding of world history is faulty, one forms an erroneous world-view and adopts wrong attitudes and embarks on wrong course of action. We will give some examples to illustrate this point.
Examples: Recorded history of mankind does not extend to a period beyond 2500 or 3000 years. During this period, mankind has seen a lot of sufferings. There has been exploitation of man by man. There have been cases of abductions, elopements, adultery and vulgar attractions towards flesh. Emphasising upon all or any one of these aspects, historians, political thinkers, psychologists, founders-of-religions and philosophers have formulated their different theories. Most of these have not taken into consideration history of the period earlier than this because that history is unrecorded in the modern way. It will be seen that ignorance of the earliest period, or wrong emphasis on only one aspect, has resulted in grossly erroneous theories about the nature of the world, man and God.
For example, Buddha formed the view that this world is fully of sorrow and that it has always been suffering on account of disease, old age, death, etc. Since a blissful, compassionate, wise and benefactor God could not have created such a world as this, he therefore, either did not believe in a Creator-God or remained silent on this topic. He, therefore, thought that the main problem was how man can attain Nirvana or Release from sufferings. His philosophy, therefore, does not exhort man to make the world a happy place but to perform effort to get final escape from the sansara ie. the world. Accordingly, it is said about Buddha that, when one of his disciples asked him about the cause of sufferings, Buddha gave the example of a person, hit and pierced by an arrow, and said: "The issue before us now is, not who hit this man with the arrow and when---the real question is how to take this arrow out and give relief to the man from pain."
Had it been known to Buddha that there has been a preceding period of history, full of health, happiness and prosperity, he would have professed a different philosophy. In that case, he would not have totally condemned the world as a place where there always has been sorrow and misery. In the absence of the knowledge that, in the Golden Age and silver Age, that had gone before him, man was completely righteous, healthy, wealthy, and happy--Buddha did not discuss the question of God as the creator of Golden Age, but instead he painted the world in dark colours. Speaking of this, Dr. Radhakrishnan has said in his ‘Indian Philosophy’ : "In the whole history of thought, no one has painted the misery of human existence in blacker colour and with more feeling than Buddha. The melancholy, foreshadowed in the upanishads, occupies the central place here…". Radhakrishnan says again at another place: "There is a tendency in Buddhism to blacken what is dark and darken what is grey. The outlook is restricted to all that is bleak, bitter and painful in life…"
In a similar fashion, Shankaracharya, because of lack of conviction in satyuga (Golden Age) as an age of complete happiness, did not believe in God as creator but rather considered the world as an illusion and preached the philosophy of escapism. He also thought that the world had always been full of sufferings or that there never had been complete happiness and purity in the world and this world, therefore could not be the creation of God and, therefore, formulated an erroneous view of the world of the self and of God’s relationship with man. Shankaracharya and Buddha have therefore, given no explanation of when and how sufferings entered the world. Not only they but, in fact, almost all Founders-of-religions have described the world as ‘full of sorrow’-- None of them said: "there is suffering in the world now but there was an Age, called Golden Age, when these sufferings did not exist."
Faulty view of Freud: Now take the theories of psychologists, such as Sigmund Freud. They have given us an erroneous view of human nature. Freud has said that, since early childhood or infancy, man’s behaviour has an undercurrent of sex. Freud has tried to explain various mental ailments and man’s actions as related to inhibition or expression of sex-instinct. Freud was correct so far as understanding of the present-day mental state of man is concerned-- though here also Freud over-emphasised the Libido aspect of man’s psychological state. But, if it were known to Freud that man’s present mental state is the perverted state of his mind and that, in the Golden Age, man was not body-conscious as he is now and was, therefore free from Libido, his view about the nature of man would have been different.
Correct Interpretation of History is essential. Not only is the knowledge of history of the earliest periods, which are unrecorded, necessary but one requires correct interpretation of the forces at work in history. Is it man’s selfish and greedy nature or man’s sexual urge, or his religious bent of mind that have been the main goading factors of historical events? Identification of the underlying cause is very essential for understanding the nature of man and of the world.
Again one has to know whether history consists of an infinite series of events, each wholly devoid of any connection with those which happened before or will follow later, or history is an organised and coherent whole and there is connection between one event and another? Has history an over-all plan and purpose? Has it any intrinsic meaning and a goal? Have the events some discernable pattern and order or all events are without any underlying meaning? Are there some values peculiar to each Age or there are no special characteristics of any Age? Has world history a central plot, with by-plots, or it has no theme or story around which events are woven and interwoven? An investigation on these lines would give us deep and correct insights into the nature of the universe and soul and God. In fact, the correct nature of the world, soul and God cannot be known if there is mere philosophing without any support from events and facts of history. One would also like to know whether God has a role in human history? For example, if it is said that God is kind, merciful, loveful and compassionate, the truth in this statement can be under-stood only if it is explained at what point of time in world history God acted with kindness, compassion or love towards mankind. A definite answer to question is necessary, for there are some religious thinkers who avow that every event of world history is according to God’s predetermined plan whereas others proclaim that man has perfect freedom and all history is without any goading from God.
Without knowing the first epoch or origin of history, man will not be able to know the self or its original nature. It is because of lack of knowledge about the dawn of history that many such theories about the origin of man and the cosmos are prevalent as they give rise to more questions than they solve. One theory (Darwin’s theory of biological evolution) says that man, originally, evolved from amoeba in the primordial soup to be an anthropoid ape and then to be homonoid and, finally, the homo sapiens and the modern man. Another theory holds that man was created, in the image of God about six thousand years ago, in the garder of Eden. Yet another theory rejects all these theories as irrational and unsustainable. The question, therefore, needs to be settled as to whether the world was originally perfect and the civilisation and culture were at their zenith in the earliest period and there has been gradual deterioration ever since or was man originally a hunter and a gatherer and a cave-dweller and there has been a gradual but continous progress towards a higher civilisation? Has man a divine origin or was man's ancestor an ape? Is history an eternal drama of souls taking various physical forms as one takes different costumes to play various role in a Drama, or history is merely a collection of events without any spiritual significance?
Moral Advancement or Degeneration ? |
As the world moves on for centuries, there is more of moral fall, corruption, tyranny, cruelty and barbarity; there is more injustice and foul play; there is greater selfishness and man becomes more and more greedy; his wants and desire increase and he takes to new means of evil and they keep on increasing to such an extent, that there comes a time when they reach their climax and at such a time, God appears in the history of mankind and gives moral re-birth to man and redeems him from evil ways. The sacred Hindu scripture--Shrimad Bhagwad Gita says that God takes a re-incarnation at the time of extreme degeneration of religion and righteousness. Now this affirmation implies, even though indirectly, that world history moves towards gradual deterioration in moral standards of man. The historians have not made any serious effort to investigate into the affirmation that God re-incarnates when there is extreme unrighteousness. It shows that they have not assessed properly the importance of the above statement of Gita; they have summarily rejected it without making sincere and adequate efforts of ascertaining its truth--whether Re-incarnation of God on the World scene in such special circumstances, is a historical fact which can be corroborated. They have not paid adequate attention to this because, if re-incarnation of God in a human body is a fact, then history will have to be viewed not as a process of evolution but of moral degeneration. It would also mean that man has therefore, not risen from an ape but has descended from higher states of civilization in its true sense.
Thus, taking an overall view of things, one has to see whether there is a continuous process of degeneration or there is advancement in real terms---whether man has become more barbaric if we consider Hitler’s mass execution of jews, Israel’s inhuman atrocities in shatila in the lebanon, and Khoemini’s systematic elimination of belivers of Baha’is faith, etc. etc.--- or life on the whole has become more civilised? Have sympathy, kindness, consideration, generosity, spirit of co-operation really increased in degree in large number of people, or one finds selfishness, jealousy, rivalry, and ego-centric tendencies have increased? If the negative traits have spread more widely and are found in increasing intensity, then the law of moral degeneration rather than theory of Evolution, at least in its moral aspects, holds true. Then we have to see whether intervention of God in the affairs of man to check further moral rot is utmost necessary and highly probable. Of course it would have to be additionally ascertained as to how God re-incarnates and in what respects is his re-incarnation and his mode of working different from that of human beings. We need not take the allegorical tales in Indian myth, legend and epics as historical in strict sense of the word--but we must not reject the affirmation concerning God’s re-incarnation out right. For, if the acts of certain great personalities like Buddha, Christ or Karl Marx gave to history a direction or left their deep imprint on society, the acts of God, if he re-incarnates, must bring in their wake, much more forceful and wide-ranging changes. They must give life a new meaning-- to the society a new political, economic and cultural system-- to the people a new vision and to man, woman and their family a new abiding and affectionate relationship. He must have given history a complete turnaround and started a new Era, a new civilization or a new society, or laid the foundations of a new world.
It can thus be seen that right knowledge and correct interpretation of history is essential to have a correct world-view and attitude to world-events. Since every human being has some view of the world and also some knowledge of history, however paltry it be, his life-style, his behaviour, his actions, his vision of the future, etc. are determined by this knowledge-right or wrong. There cannot be any man who has absolutely no knowledge of the past, however fragmentary. It should, therefore be realised that historical knowledge conciously or unconsciously plays an important role in determining our character and our philosophy of life. It would, therefore, be in fitness of things to have the right knowledge of history and correct understanding of its underlying meaning, plan and purpose, for without that, man would take a wrong course of action and living. Supreme Soul God Shiva, has explained to us, in a nut-shell, the course of history, from beginning to end, and has given us its plan and goal and has also explained the principle of its recurrence. He has given the souls true Godly knowledge (recognised only by the third eye of intellect) to enable us to understand the correct religio-political and spiritual explanation of world history.----om shanti
The course of History--whether rectilinear or circular.
