Did God create Man or Man created God?
Let me start with the ironical statement that "God did create Man... but indeed Man created GOD". Means, no one (atleast whoever exists now) knew who is god, how God looked or what was his objective. All we know is that there is some Almighty Power and this was told to us by our ancestors through each of their Religion. So it was Man who gave a name to that Almighty power as "GOD".
Religion - how would it have been formed ?
I feel that group of people would have joined together to set rules what is life, how to live and so. People who had contradiction for those would have started another group. Apart from that, people from another part of the world would have also had their own principles and rules. (Those days, people from different parts of the world wouldnt have interacted). Guess this is how the religion would have formed. Whichever be the religion Hindu, Muslim or Christian, what they all believed in is the almighty divine power. And to spread their rules or believes people would have started writing it or passing it to the next generation through teachings. Thats how Bible, Kuran and the Geethai would have been written. Probably it would have taken many versions as generations passed. Not really sure as to if all the existing ones are the actual ones too.
Ethics - did they really happen ?
Human beings have both good and bad attitudes or thoughts. Some of the elders who have felt that it is necessary to teach the good and bad to the younger generation, could have used the idea of narrating imaginative stories. Kings could have asked the poets to create such stories. And i feel that is how the epics like Ramayana, Mahabharata would have also come into action. Does any of us have a proof that all these historic epics occured for real ?
Justification of Mahabharata
Kanya's View : "I disagree. I see the entire war in "Mahabharatha" as a cause of unjustifiable pride, ego, greed, sarcasm, disrespect and more unsatisfied humanly desires. Just becoz there was a symbolization of god (Krishna) taking the pandavas side, doesn't mean that pandavas were the "GOOD" and the kauravas were "BAD"!! Was god even neutral here? Not to mention the tricks he played on Karna and Thuriyodana to make them most vulnerable to death!!! No matter what the cause was, is it "dharma" to kill ur own family to win a war??"
My Reply : First of all I see Mahabharata as a story. Before going to the detail of Mahabharata.. a small explanation. Though a Star plays a "Anti-hero" role in a movie, he is the main subject of it and so his character would have been justified. As in, even he does kill people (villain) or does some tricky things.. but the director smartly shows a reason as to why he does that. Probably the villain would have either killed the hero's father or would have destroyed his family for money, wealth n so. Obviously he is done a mistake, killing is not the revenge for it and if so.. next the villain's son would take revenge and it would go endless. Though if it continous for generation, one question here is who started it all ? That way, alteast our hero is justigfied.
Similar to the above, Mahabharata starts of with 2 big teams, Pandavas and the Kauravas. The story itself shows that Pandavas are with good ATTITUDE while the Kauravas are kind of greedy. Everyone is human and everyone is capable of doing mistakes. But one who accepts it or learns from the mistakes is forgiven. This is one of the message that is told through this epic. The main message being "Dharmathin vaithanai soothu kavvum, aanal iruthiyal dharmame vellum". In the last it is Dharmam that wins... If you take the current world, this happens in many families. Fights between relatives, brothers & sisters.. either for the property or money or for some misunderstandings. Can you disagree that ? We do find many relatives with ego, jelous, greedy. Inspite of all these messages in the epics... do you think they try to change ?
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Kanya's View : "Let us examine this part of the whole mahabharath a lil more explicitly. What was the reason behind pandavas accepting a lavish gift like the mayamahal? what gave panjali the right to humiliate a man for a reason as silly as tripping over an illusion!! what gave her that much of pride and sarcasm? what made pandava irresitable to a game of gambling? what made dharmar bid his wife on the game? what made the rest of the pandavas resist questioning dharmar then? why did that respect for elders fail when they faced their previous generation on the battle field??"
My Reply : Again this is a story and the creator as his choice to make it however he wants. He gives an example of such situation where Pandavas are forced to take the gambling (which could have been a custom in those early days). It was the author who had given rights to Panjali for humiliating a man for tripping her dress. I dont understand why you ask that way. Any girl even now for that matter, if someone tries to trip her off in front of a crowd, will get humiliated.. wont you ? Ofcourse even i dint like the way of gambling with your wife, but again thats the author's choice of creating a situation. Rest of the pandavas do get angry ofcourse. There are different versions of mahabharata itself. From one of them which i studied in my school days there is a stanza where Bheema says bring the firewood, lets burn our brother's hand. "Erithalal kondu vaaa, Anan kaithanai erithiduvom". In the Mahabharata serial (which they used to telecast in TV), they show how Arjun feels bad to fight against his guru Dhronacharya in the war. Krishna explains Arjuna, no option other than fighting.. if someone supports a guy, and if the guy is bad, then obviously he is encouraging bad things. is it not ?? Though Karna is also a gem of a man, he supports Duryodhana (who has been depicted bad character) and so even if he was the elder brother of pandavas, Krishna says that he has to be killed.
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Kanya's View : "If everything that pandavas did were humanly mistakes, is a man seeking revenue for the humiliation and all the isolation he went through from his youth make him vulnerable to similar mistakes as well. Why is that pandavars mistakes forgiven and kauravars not!! who gave krishna the right to choose sides? Wasn't he suppose to be neutral!!??"
My Reply : Again like i said earlier, Kauravas are depicted as bad people. They are shown as greedy, egoistic people. Provided they are equally strong and powerful. They do have magical powers that can be challenging more to the Pandavas. For the same reason Krishna helps Pandavas. Nayagan Stlye le sollanum naa... "Naal peru nalla irukanum na enna venum naalu pannalam". Antha mistakes ellathukkum mannippu kedaichidum (na sollale.. mahabharatam solluthu ;))
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Kanya's View : "If killing ur own kith and kin on a ego clash that started with a mayamahal is dharma, then we would have to accept one of us killing one of their distance brother for their grandparent's property as dharma too. Is shooting Vaali from back is ethical then I will have to accept my kid throwing stone at his senior from his back as ethical too. If destroying an entire city of Madurai, unjustice was done to kanaki, then when our youth destroy public property b'coz their professors did not correct their papers properly should be looked upon as seeking justice!!!"
My Reply : One question to you... If your own brother joins a terrorist gang and involves in bombing common people or if he rapes girls what would you do ? If i were you in this situation i would definetly kill him. (if not atleast try to put him in jail by complaining). As per the story Vaali kidnaps his brother Sukreevan's wife. Do you justify what vaali did is right ? (this happens even in real life... ) Provided Vaali has a boon that whoever comes in front of him, he will acquire 50% of that person's power (as per story). In that case what will you do to get rid him off ? I would have definetly done the same thing what Ram did. Professor paper seriya correct pannalane paravale. But nalla padikure payano poonnayo kare vechu fail panna ? (Do you know that there are many professor who takes things egoistically and spoil kids future .. instead of teaching them what mistake they did. I have read in papers such incidents where one of the boy or girl have sucided). Avangula ellam summa ve vidurathu ? Anniyan Padathule vara maari "Anju paise thirudinaa thappa ? -- Periya thappilinge, Anju kodi peru anju paise thirudina thappa ? -- Thappu maarithange theriyuthu, Anju kodi peru anju kodi thadave anju anju paise thirudina thappa ? - Periye thappunge ------------ Athanda inge nadunthukittu iruku "
By all these im not concluding that Mahabharata was a great epic nor im not saying that it is a bad example. Its up to us to take it... either we can see the half empty glass or we can see the half filled glass.
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Is God - the Almighty ??
Kanya's View : "I am not a god-hater.. but when I look behind in my life, there were people who came in my life for a very short period of time, made an impact on me - as if their whole purpose of life is to come into my life at the right moment and help me, and then they vanished leaving a deep hurt!! I sometimes truely belived that god sent these people in my life only b'coz he had to help me at that point of time and he choose to do it through them.
But what gave him the right to take these people away from my life once his purpose was done? Is he making choices for me? what gives him the right to do so? when he created human beings as a bundle of complex emotions ... did he not have a FAQ and technical support document prepared?? Did he not know it was going to hurt me worst when he is going to take away something from me?? or is he going to blame that on Satan and say even I have a satan on my back!!??
That brings us to my starting question... Is god really an almighty.. does he always make the right choices for all of us. It is not just about my or your emotions but as a bigger picture too. Why are there soo much negativity in the world.. no matter how positive we want to think, we still see bad in the world. I can understand certain things like volcano or earth quake... why is there rape, child abuse, killing, hunger and disease? why din't god make good choices for these criminals?"
My Reply : Ok here is were we both are in sync. Good that you are not a god-hater and so am I. Ofcourse I do have the same question as to "Why this whole world was created, why was I born ? People are born, people live and they die.. what is the objective ? where did these all start from and where is it going to end ?" No one has the perfect or satisfactory answer to these questions. When I tried to verify with some of the Swamiji's all the answer I get is "It is not your right to ask questions, you are born to live and you are given a job.. just do that" Makes me feel like a slave of god. If only he comes in front of me, that would be the end of him (he he!!!). All I need is answers to these questions.
World - A Game of Gamble between GOD & Satan
Kanya's View : "That brings us to my starting question... Is god really an almighty.. does he always make the right choices for all of us. It is not just about my or your emotions but as a bigger picture too. Why are there soo much negativity in the world.. no matter how positive we want to think, we still see bad in the world. I can understand certain things like volcano or earth quake... why is there rape, child abuse, killing, hunger and disease? why din't god make good choices for these criminals?
Is it true that all these are called "BAD KARMA"... but every thing freezes at the starting point. Why did god not make a choice to protect adam and eve from eating the filthy apple!!! "
To an extent a satisfactory answer that I have known is :- Initially it was only one power that was existing and it was GOD (As we have named). He did have both good and bad thoughts. GOD then created his better half and gave equal power to him. I guess the better half had more of bad thoughts. He was called by us as SATAN, and he started opposing GOD and wanted to show that he had more power. The basic thing in the Universe is TWO :- Male-Female, Good-Bad, Plus-Minus, Positive-Negative, On-Off, True-False, Yes-No. Probably to show his power God created Adam and Eve and told Satan, "Hey look, what I have created, 2 creatures called Human Being and the beauty is that they can Think!!!". Satan plays a game saying that "I will turn them against you" and tries to get the negative thoughts into them. (Ivange podure sandaile naamba maatikittu mulikirom huh!!!). The rest you know ..... and today You and Me are having a small discussion (is it small ??) about this...