Dr. M. C. Gupta's Journal

PANTHEISM: A REVIEWER’S COMMENT ANSWERED

PANTHEISM: A REVIEWER’S COMMENT ANSWERED





A reviewer sent me a query which is of general importance. Hence I am appending below the query and my response to it. Others' comments are welcome.








BACKGROUND--I wrote a poem “I AM ASHAMED”, " I AM ASHAMED"  to express my anguish about bombing of Iraq, killing a large number of civilians and robbing a country of its independence. I wrote that I am ashamed, as a fellow human being, of this vile action on the part of George Bush. I had earlier told the reviewer that I am a Hindu and that as per tenets of Hinuism, all living forms are a manifestation of god.





REVIEWER’S QUESTION





Now my question to you is how can you be ashamed of a behavior as a pantheist? After all, all men are an emanation of God, even murderers and theives as well as good and virtuous men. Typically, I didn't think pantheist saw evil in the world because everything around them was somehow God who is only and totally good. Isn't this true? Isn't this why panthesists need to believe all men including themselves are basically good? Personally I can't accept this basic tenet of pantheism that all is good because doesn't square with the facts of life.





MY RESPONSE





As per tenets of Hinduism, there is one Supreme Being that pervades all universe. Jesus, Mohammad, Ram, Krishna, Guru Nanak, Buddh, Mahavir etc. are all manifestations / incarnations / avtaar of the same god / supreme neing / supreme force / supreme energy that is variously known as Allah, Yehovah, Ishwar, Akal Purukh, God etc. and who may be generically referred to as God. Thus Hindus have no problem venerating and praying to Jesus or Allah because they find no difference between them and Ram, Krishna etc. The Hindu concept of God has been described in


FOUR QUESTIONS ABOUT GOD: "FOUR QUESTIONS ABOUT GOD--an article" .





Hindus also believe that all living things have a sparkle of the same godly energy of which the pure embodiment is god himself. This concept has been described in:


WHO AM I--SIX QUESTIONS –" WHO AM I?--SIX QUESTIONS" .





Hindus also believe that the ultimate fate of a human being is predetermined. But that does not mean that since fate is predetermined, man can do whatever he feels like, saying that he is not responsible for his actions, the actions having been preplanned by god. God is not there to determine each and every body movement and mental thought of man. Man cannot abdicate his responsibility. He has got to perform his role as he should. He cannot sit idle or cannot commit foul acts, pleading that whatever he does is the will of god. The concept of fate has been described in:


  WHAT IS FATE?— "WHAT IS FATE?" 





As regards your query: “Isn't this why panthesists need to believe all men including themselves are basically good?”, you are right. I do believe that everybody is basically good. As a matter of fact, this is akin to what theory Y of management says. You may look it up at


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_X_and_theory_Y





Even otherwise, great thinkers of all times have said the same thing. For example—





There’s so much good in the worst of us


And so much bad in the best of us,


It’s hard to know which of us


Ought to reform the rest of us.


--Ogden Nash,


http://www.globalchicago.net/wiki/wiki.cgi?OpenSpacePeaceQuotes





IN CONCLUSION, I think the confusion in your mind arises because of your interpretation that since each human has a godly element, whatever he does is done by god and is hence above reproach.  I don’t believe it is so. I believe every human being has free will and discretion. He cannot commit indiscretion and then shirk responsibility for the same, saying that it was an act of god.








--M C Gupta


23 December, 2008