Immersion in the External Nature: the Roots of Atheism and Agnosticism

1
00:00:02,360 --> 00:00:06,440
Many people profess to believe
in the existence of God based on

2
00:00:06,440 --> 00:00:10,640
the teachings of their religion.
Because the belief is based

3
00:00:10,640 --> 00:00:14,280
solely on a teaching rather than
actual experience that would

4
00:00:14,280 --> 00:00:19,640
support this belief, they may in
many cases not take their faith

5
00:00:19,640 --> 00:00:23,600
in God seriously enough to
actually abide by the rules,

6
00:00:23,880 --> 00:00:29,040
laws, and commandments set forth
for regulating their behavior in

7
00:00:29,040 --> 00:00:32,680
their lifetime.
The judeo-christian belief in

8
00:00:32,680 --> 00:00:35,560
God and the 10 commandments is a
case in point.

9
00:00:36,400 --> 00:00:41,280
Many professed believers still
commit adultery, steal, or kill.

10
00:00:42,240 --> 00:00:45,600
Many Christians do not follow
the prescription set forth by

11
00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:50,240
Jesus to turn the other cheek,
beat your swords into

12
00:00:50,240 --> 00:00:53,880
plowshares, or to feed the
hungry, et cetera.

13
00:00:55,280 --> 00:00:58,600
There are, of course, those who
take the belief seriously and

14
00:00:58,600 --> 00:01:01,720
try to abide by the tenets of
their religious teaching.

15
00:01:02,560 --> 00:01:06,480
As long as the belief is based
on a teaching and not actual

16
00:01:06,480 --> 00:01:11,320
experience, it can lead to this
type of anomalous result.

17
00:01:12,920 --> 00:01:16,080
As long as we remain fixed and
embedded in the external

18
00:01:16,080 --> 00:01:19,920
consciousness, we are surrounded
by the action of nature,

19
00:01:19,920 --> 00:01:25,000
procrity, and have no evidence
of the existence of God in the

20
00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:29,080
workings of nature.
Thus we see various people

21
00:01:29,080 --> 00:01:33,160
conclude that there is no
evidence for God, and they

22
00:01:33,160 --> 00:01:37,720
become either agnostic or even
atheistic.

23
00:01:38,600 --> 00:01:42,600
Some conclude, again without
evidence, that there was a God,

24
00:01:42,600 --> 00:01:44,560
the Creator, but he must be
dead.

25
00:01:45,200 --> 00:01:48,600
In today's world, we see a
proliferation of ideas about

26
00:01:48,600 --> 00:01:53,840
existence created by random
chance, chemical reactions that

27
00:01:53,840 --> 00:01:58,280
create life automatically, or
that we actually exist within

28
00:01:58,280 --> 00:02:01,400
some kind of computer simulation
or hologram.

29
00:02:02,440 --> 00:02:06,160
These are expressions of the
agnostic or atheistic attempt to

30
00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:11,800
justify our very existence in
the absence of a Creator God.

31
00:02:12,760 --> 00:02:16,120
All of this is based on
conclusions that are drawn from

32
00:02:16,120 --> 00:02:20,680
being bound and limited within
the frame of the external

33
00:02:20,680 --> 00:02:25,920
existence.
It is rational and realistic for

34
00:02:25,920 --> 00:02:29,440
someone without this experience
to try to base his understanding

35
00:02:29,440 --> 00:02:33,920
of the world on logic, inference
and reason founded in the

36
00:02:33,920 --> 00:02:38,880
perception of his senses.
Thus it is a healthy response of

37
00:02:38,880 --> 00:02:43,040
such an individual to suggest
either that he does not know

38
00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:48,320
that God exists, agnosticism, or
even to deny the existence of

39
00:02:48,320 --> 00:02:52,760
God atheism.
This is perhaps a better

40
00:02:52,760 --> 00:02:56,960
starting point for a spiritual
opening than someone who bases

41
00:02:56,960 --> 00:03:01,200
his beliefs solely on a fixed
teaching and is not receptive to

42
00:03:01,200 --> 00:03:06,200
opening himself to the actual
shift of consciousness and the

43
00:03:06,200 --> 00:03:12,080
experience that comes with it.
Once an individual experiences a

44
00:03:12,080 --> 00:03:15,160
shift of consciousness out of
the external framework of

45
00:03:15,160 --> 00:03:20,240
procrity, the existence of God
or the Divine under whatever

46
00:03:20,240 --> 00:03:24,280
name or conception one has based
on the background of the

47
00:03:24,280 --> 00:03:29,280
individual and his view of
things becomes a self-evident

48
00:03:29,280 --> 00:03:33,920
fact, not subject to argument or
philosophy.

49
00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:38,960
Just as an individual has never
seen the ocean, can speculate

50
00:03:38,960 --> 00:03:43,120
about whether it exists, may
question the amazing things he

51
00:03:43,120 --> 00:03:47,600
hears about it from those who
have that experience, and may

52
00:03:47,600 --> 00:03:51,440
try to find an alternative
explanation for things that the

53
00:03:51,440 --> 00:03:56,440
ocean is the basis of.
So also a person who has never

54
00:03:56,440 --> 00:04:01,080
experienced the extraordinary
force of the divine reality may

55
00:04:01,080 --> 00:04:05,440
question its existence.
This is in fact recounted in the

56
00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:10,520
Bible with the conversion of
Saul based on his experience on

57
00:04:10,520 --> 00:04:15,080
the road to Damascus.
It should be noted that a number

58
00:04:15,080 --> 00:04:18,240
of advanced scientists have
eventually come to conclude,

59
00:04:18,920 --> 00:04:22,800
based on their pushing of the
boundaries of space, matter,

60
00:04:23,120 --> 00:04:27,640
energy, and time, that there is
a divine existence which

61
00:04:27,640 --> 00:04:35,240
creates, contains, permeates,
infuses, and is the basis of all

62
00:04:35,240 --> 00:04:39,160
existence as we know it.
They begin to see that the

63
00:04:39,160 --> 00:04:44,080
mathematical precision, the
principles of matter, life and

64
00:04:44,080 --> 00:04:50,680
mind, require a further
principle of existence, the seer

65
00:04:50,680 --> 00:04:53,600
of the Isha Upanishad declares,
quote.

66
00:04:54,560 --> 00:04:59,480
But he who sees everywhere the
Self in all existences, and all

67
00:04:59,480 --> 00:05:04,200
existences in the Self shrinks
not thereafter from aught.

68
00:05:05,640 --> 00:05:09,520
He in whom it is the Self Being
that has become all existences,

69
00:05:09,520 --> 00:05:13,320
that are becomings for he has
the perfect knowledge.

70
00:05:14,200 --> 00:05:19,440
How shall he be deluded?
When shall he have grief, who

71
00:05:19,440 --> 00:05:24,280
sees everywhere oneness?
It is He that has gone abroad,

72
00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:30,480
that which is bright, bodyless,
without scar, of imperfection,

73
00:05:31,080 --> 00:05:35,760
without sinews, pure, unpierced
by evil.

74
00:05:36,640 --> 00:05:42,880
The seer, the thinker, the one
who becomes everywhere the self

75
00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:47,720
existent, has ordered objects
perfectly according to their

76
00:05:47,720 --> 00:05:54,000
nature from years.
Sempiternal End Quote Reference

77
00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:59,800
Isha Upanishad verses 6 to 8
translated by Sriorobindo in the

78
00:05:59,800 --> 00:06:04,880
Upanishads.
Sriorobindo Notes quote This

79
00:06:04,880 --> 00:06:09,040
apparently self acting mechanism
of nature conceals an imminent

80
00:06:09,120 --> 00:06:13,080
divine will that compels and
guides it and shapes its

81
00:06:13,080 --> 00:06:17,080
purposes.
But you cannot feel or know that

82
00:06:17,080 --> 00:06:21,560
will while you are shut up in
your narrow cell of personality,

83
00:06:22,160 --> 00:06:25,520
blinded and chained to your
viewpoint of the ego and its

84
00:06:25,520 --> 00:06:29,240
desires.
For you can wholly respond to it

85
00:06:29,320 --> 00:06:34,800
Only when you are impersonalized
by Knowledge and widened to see

86
00:06:34,800 --> 00:06:40,400
all things in the self and in
God and the self and God in all

87
00:06:40,400 --> 00:06:44,720
things, all becomes here by the
power of the Spirit.

88
00:06:45,560 --> 00:06:49,320
All do their works by the
imminence of God in things and

89
00:06:49,320 --> 00:06:53,080
His presence in the heart of
every creature.

90
00:06:54,080 --> 00:06:59,800
End Quote Reference Sri
Aurobindo and the Mother, The

91
00:06:59,800 --> 00:07:04,040
Hidden Forces of Life, Chapter
One, Life Through the Eyes of

92
00:07:04,040 --> 00:07:05,840
the Yogin, page 23.