This article is so lucid and helped me a lot in understanding the evolution of God concept. I have heard many great men say that 'God lies in simplicity' and your article has made such a complex subject of God so SIMPLE. Although I am too insignificant to comment yet I am forced to put in some lines out of inner instinct. The corollary between the Trinity of God and the Trinity of our democracy is just amazing -- even in Christanity I think there is a concept of Holy Trinity.

Moreover the proposition of "Dauna" causing a social revolution is so convincing. I think the first seed of greed in human being was sown with the invention of 'dauna'. The saga of insatiated greed continues till today causing so many social unrests amongst and emotional turmoil within ourselves.

Its really a compelling read. I would venture to suggest that this article must be published in leading dailies for the benefit of larger audience.

Ajay

On 10/8/07, Singhals <maharanibagh@airtelbroadband.in > wrote:











Hi,

Here is an article to generate some thinking to delve into the minds of our ancestors for creating a society which seemed appropriate and very relevent at the time . Even the present caste system degenerated along the times from a simple labour distribution. The reason being that expertise of the profession was passed on from father to son . It did not spread horizontally. Society did not visualise the long term ill effects of the arrangement which appeared simple at the time. This is a food for our thoughts . we should think ahead of our times while taking actions which may have long term effects. Case in point is reservation on the basis of castes.
I would appreciate your comments for improvement


Ancient Vedic Civilization--- Unique Example of A Functional Democracy

At the outset it is considered necessary to appreciate the distinction between 'Science','Faith / Belief',and 'Fiction'. Science establishes 'truth' by proving it and demonstrating it repeatedly. Faith / Belief intutively assumes 'truth' which can neither be proved nor demonstrated repeatedly. It may perhaps be felt by the inner self. Fiction is complete imagination devoid of basic tenets of truth.
Primitive human beings needed to live together for their very existence. Their only means of learning was by watching the behaviour of animals in their vicinity. Survival instinct brought the people together to live as a society . Individual societies thus erupted all over the world where human beings lived .
Initially there were no major problems as there were neither clothes to wear nor any personal possessions. Each day all will go and eat whatever was available and edible in the jungles. This continued till the time man developed the art of stitching the leaves together to make a receptacle ( Dauna). A social revolution had taken place. A storage device was in existence. Every one collected the edibles for future to avoid the necessity of going to jungle every day. Soon there was shortage of food and fights and quarrels became the order of the day . Thus a need arose for discipline in the society to avoid a possible extinction.
An accepted code of morality was required. Rules for morality had to be framed for individual conduct. Some one had to be put in authority for ensuring and enforcing these rules. Easiest way was to accept the strongest member as head as was prevalent in animal kingdom. Fear of punishment had to be instilled in the society. So the need for awarding punishments for delinquency emerged. Head's position was coveted by all young adults . Regular fights ensued to asume this position. The society was on the brink of disintegration. Ways and means had to be found out to avoid this .
The wise men among them felt the need of some one Supreme from outside the existing society . They had observed that among all there was fear of the Unknown , who was controling the bounties and furies of the nature. They used this vital information in creating a concept of a Supreme Being who would control every thing in this world including human beings. Then they needed to connect all the beings with the Supreme Being to justify their hypothesis to the other members of the society . Hence they wisely and cleverly thought of the concept of 'souls'( Atma ) in all nonliving and living beings on earth. They logically related these 'souls' with the highest and noblest 'Soul' - "Paramatma"- the Supreme Being with all powers at His command. This divine view was easily acceptable to all the members of the society without questioning. Supreme Being is now called by various names ,such as , God, Allah etc
Then the wise men , we now call them 'Sages' or 'Rishies",held long discussions on connecting the Paramatma with the universe and imparting Him with qualities which would be acceptable to all the persons just as a simple corollary to the basic tenet. This had to be a conscious effort for general acceptance.
Thus unwittingly and spontaneously a modern Democratic process was evolving in such ancient times. They thought that a single person be He a Supreme Being should not be assigned all the powers and authority , lest He may appear to be a Despot , a Dictator or an Autocrat . They felt that human beings would copy the Almighty some time or the other and absolute power would corrupt them with evil results. They thought of devolution of power just as democratic societies do now. A trinity was created of three semi gods. Brahma was given the responsibility of creation of universe, Vishnu for its sustenance and Mahesh / Shankar / Shiv for destroying the evil . The feature of destruction or punishment was necessary to instil fear in the minds of errants. Powers were further devolved into many more lesser gods , syuch as , Indra for controling rains, Surya for light and heat , Varun for air etc ,etc. Thus each lesser god was assigned a specific regime. They all were vested with advisory and implementing authority by the tiinity , who themselves were responsible to Paramatma for their actions.
After so many centuries modern democratic concept follows the same intutive knowledge of our old Rishies and Sages. Modern democracies have a powerful Prime Minister or President who exercises authority through his cabinet and is held in bounds by the trinity - Legislature ( Creating laws), Executive (Sustaining the society through implementation of rules and regulations ) and Judiciary ( Destruction of evil through punishment ) . This can not be brushed away by mere coincidence. Humanity owes a great deal to our wise ancestors. We pay our homage to them.