God consciousness, science and essence of astrology

The term GOD in my opinion is an acronym for Generation (Creation), Operation (Preservation) and Dissolution (Destruction) phases of all manifestations in the universe as a result of Big Bang. This is perfectly captured by the Sanathana Dharma philosophy of Trimurthi. The Brahma force is responsible for all the creation of new things in the universe, the Vishnu force is responsible for the preservation of all created things in the universe and Shiva force is responsible for the dissolution and transformation of all created things in the universe. The above terminology applies to all manifestations of the universe including human beings. Even a tiny cell in the human body undergoes this change. First it is created, then it sustains and is alive as long as oxygen is supplied to it. Later it goes through a phase of dissolution when it exits the system to make way for new growth. This cycle thus repeats itself millions of times until the human being is alive.

God was invented by man to represent nature or had a semantic reason behind it. Even an astronomical one in many cases, avatars of Maha Vishnu which is in syn with Darwin’s theory of Evolution is a great example. There are 33 million Gods in Hinduism. When a person from a different culture hears that number for the first time, they chuckle. But when I mention that number is just a representation of the ginormous aspect of the universe, they are awestruck! The universe/nature/god/divine light (you may address it however you prefer) is in everything and anything!

A simple everyday prayer recited and taught to 3-year-old school children in India will illustrate this vastness and scientific approach of Sanathana Dharma philosophy.

Let us bring our attention to the current scenario and approach the topic of Man vs nature or Purusha vs Prakrithi in another style and take into account the worshiping of all these Gods and then pollute, contaminate the rivers and care less of the environment/nature. Which god will forgive us of the hypocrisy we indulge ourselves in?? Scientists are looking for life elsewhere and want to colonize Mars in the future which sounds fantastic and great like in star trek movies. But man in his ignorance and arrogance can’t take care of one amazing planet at hand, his beautiful home and is looking for home elsewhere. What does it make of us?? Isn’t it just a paradox and irony of life? We by our very character are never satisfied and never happy with what we have and seek something better which is never satisfying as greed leads to disappointment and sets off a despair cycle of it’s own. Being a researcher, I hope I am not conveying a wrong message. I’m not saying we should not seek something better or not look for life on Mars but before we do that we have to be content with ourselves, what we have at the moment and take good care of it. Therefore the sanathana dharma philosophy gives utmost importance to respecting the other species in the wild and protecting nature. To represent the wilderness and its manifestation in the world, the ancients in every part of the world developed the concept of GOD. Even though the methods or practices were different, one of the essential message in every culture still remains the same that is – protect and respect nature as she is the mother that nourishes and provides. She is the GOD that also has the potential to destroy everything when angered. Therefore one of the things GOD indicates or represents is Nature. Princess Mononoke, a movie by Hayao Miyazaki has beautifully captured this essence too. The topics such as culture vs nature, man vs wild, human emotions have been a constant theme in his movies (The essence of humanity).

Then the next important aspect of GOD is consciousness, which many cultures have tried to address. As we humans evolved and developed understanding of nature, it made us question the reality of things around us. Two of the profound questions that still don’t have answers in Science and two of the most important philosophical questions – Who am I? Is there a GOD in the universe? are topics that has driven the quest for knowledge and understanding nature/GOD and consciousness respectively. 70% of our body is water and the rest is flesh. In a year almost every atom of the body is replaced. Here is another philosophical question – “If every atom in our body is replaced each year, who are we if we are not our atoms and we are not our cells? “. It is very easy to break and shake the foundation of science. Additionally, science of today has just begun to get a grasp of the universe. A question like what exactly is consciousness? Why do we sleep? Why do we love and have emotions? Is it possible to represent consciousness of the mind and the love every human being experiences in terms of a mathematical equation? Concepts like Schrodinger’s cat, string theory, dark matter, what existed before big bang will give even the best scientists a run for their money.

Here is where spirituality takes its abode. Spirituality is a person’s relationship with the Divine. Religion is crowd control. Spirit and Science are two sides of the same coin. Please read this below article that eloquently describes the nuances of modern day science versus spirituality. Where science gets it wrong and what exactly it means when people say they are spiritual is described below.

Spirit vs Science

The best definition of consciousness can be found in the Bhagavad Gita – “When you feel the suffering of every living thing in your own heart, that is consciousness”

To further understand higher-consciousness please refer to these below videos:

The above video covers excellent points except for the fact that they don’t want to credit spirituality. This can be due to the lack of their understanding about spirituality. We human beings tend to have astonishing attachments to materialistic things and other individuals in our life. When we suffer a loss of someone dear to us or even crash a car we tend to go into long periods of depression and mourning. But have you ever wondered why we don’t mourn the death of several thousand cells that die everyday without us having to do anything? Or have you also ever wondered how so many precious healthy cells die due to bad junk/fast food habits?

The point is we are all born sinned, the day we are born we are surrounded by slime and blood and we enter into this world. If it wasn’t for consciousness we are merely biological machines, flesh and bones. It is common to have desires and fantasies. It is human to have desires and is just a phase in life. But surrendering to desires alone should not be the end goal or purpose of life. We come into this world alone in a very vulnerable state and also leave the world alone in a vegetative state. Until prana (life force) flows in us we always think in terms of ‘I’ and then one final day everything must pass and we shall pass too, taking nothing with us. We are buried and our body decomposes so why should we have this great attachment to this materialistic world? That is what all spiritual teachings revolve around and their aim is to direct an individual towards self-knowledge, self-inquiry and understanding that is basically what serves as foundation of science. There is no person greater than one who understands himself, his purpose in life and orients along that path.

This is the entire essence of spirituality in the Vedas. To overcome the cycle of many rebirths and deaths and for that, we need our guide or guru, the privileged ones get it, the not so privileged ones find it practicing on their own. God or ista devatha or to attain moksha one need not look to specific GOD in my opinion. If you feel there is a specific connection to one specific god then leave all astrology, religion, culture, and spirituality aside and stick to it. Listen to your inner voice, which is you subconscious or intuition at play. Many times it will be more accurate than any astrology technique.

Any human being is certainly scared of death and time, which is why all the cultures in their mythology talk about immortality in one form or another. But if you pay attention to the events one goes through on a daily basis we are reborn like a new human being once we wake up from bed, spend the rest of the day pursuing things we desire than when we go to sleep during the night the system resets and thus is the death of that day. To summarize concisely “Every day is a birthday and every day is the first day of the rest of our lives”. If a native adapts such an attitude towards life and embraces fate, he/she will appreciate all the little things of life and never has to worry about astrology, any events of the future including death.