Evolution and Creation Theories

[Guest guest]

I am 12 year old Christian who is studying theories of evolution and creation by alternative religions. I am trying to find out what the Hindu evolution theory is and would be grateful if someone could explain this in its simplest manner. I have had little luck researching this on the internet as I am finding most references quite difficult to understand. Please post your answer asap on how you believe the world was created as I have to hand this in tomorrow! Thanks

 

 

[Guest guest]

No religion has conveniently answered the questions "What is the purpose of creation?" and "Why there are miseries and cruelty?".Except Hinduism.

 

Islam says that humans were created to be slaves of god.On miseries and cruelty it blames free will.This is somewhat echoed by christianity.Free will is the foundation of these religions.Sin and being an infidel(other religion) will take you to burning hell.

 

Free will destroyes the all-knowing ability of god and is thus rejected.So only fate is the acceptable option.THis will be clear by following.

 

CHOICE A:

1)"Man has free will.Satan is responsible for sins"

 

This raises following questions.

1)who cretaed satan?Did not god know when he created satan that satan will be bad?If he knew that and cretaed satan, then is satan responsible for his deeds?Why create a Satan and give him free will knowing fully well that he will be evil?If god did not know that Satan will be bad when creating satan,this goes against gods all knowing ability....

So this is rejected.

 

CHOICE B

 

2)man doesnt have free will.He is guided by god through fate.

 

This raises the following questions.If all is fate then who is responsible for cruelty?God.He is doing evils through his tool man.Why?

 

I will answer this question from vedas.

 

1)Why creation?

 

God was alone for kalpa kodi yugas.He was as sath sith anandha bhramman for anathi years.But he then started to have a craving.He felt a need to be loved.He wanted to be with a family.He needed affection,love and care.He needed somebody who will love him madly.But where will he go?There wasnt anybody except him in the universe.

 

He wanted creation.But whom to create?He cannot create an equal to him.That is one power which even the god doesnt possess.Vishnu cannot create another vishnu.If he creates another vishnu, that means again he is alone.But he can create perfect ones,equilant of bhramma jnanis, but the problem is bhramma jnanis dont love him.They remain forever in advaitha stage.So he had to create inferiors only.

 

He created world and people then.But how did he create them?From his body.Vedas tell the example of spider web coming from spiders mouth. we are the parts of god.But we are inferior to him in two ways.

 

1) we are covered by maya

2)we are just parts and cannot become ishwara.Your hand is you, but it will never become YOU.Like that.

 

He wants us to love him.He wants us to love him only.If we do that he will give anything to us.Just see what all he does for his devotees.Just because of love he showers wealth,honors,moksha everything.In the end when you love him so much he lifts you to a stage where he even foresakes his need of you loving him.He takes you to liberation stage where you dont need to worship him.Just like a father marrying his daughter abroad, thus foresaking his seeing her for ever.That is his need for love.That is why creation exists.

 

WHY CRUELTY THEN?

 

We can see that he can immediatly make us bramma jnanis, which will make us realize that we are him.But that will defeat the very purpose of creation,our need to love him.He will again be alone.

 

But he also wants us to realize that we are his parts.But that process should drag on.So we have to remove the maya by ourselves which takes us millions of births.In between he is searching for love.Somebody very rarely gives him love.He immediatly becomes so happy.

 

Cruelty and misery are to make us perfect.He is guiding the process.He guides us through the production process of a bhramma jnani.When a product is perfected, the foreman of the factory knows that each product has to be perfected.But here each product is imperfect.Each one needs different treatment to perfect it.One needs cruelty,another needs small troubles and so on.

 

He guides us all through fate perfecting us.In that process we all do pray him.He enjoys it like a child craving for affection.Many times he was born and himself enjoyed all love of yasodha,gopikas and seetha and dasaratha.

 

This is why cruelty exists.This is why fate wins.fate is the production plan of a production manager.

 

[maadhav]

god can create anything small or big, instantly by his wish.

 

if there is evolution, then that too is created by god.

that is vedic view.

 

 

[barney]

Dear Jeanette Darling,

 

Only Scientist call it a Theory but not Hinduism. I hope this would help you in your research.

 

 

Hinduism and Evolution of Life

 

 

Hinduism believes in the concept of evolution of life on earth. Although it is not the same as the one known to modern science, in many ways and in a very fundamental sense, it is not much different from the latter.

 

Modern science speaks of physical evolution and the evolution of nervous system, starting with simple life forms and proceeding to more organized and complex beings with well developed and self-regulating biological and mental mechanisms. Man is so far the known and the ultimate product of this very complex and continuous process.

 

Hinduism, on the other hands, places its emphasis on the mental and spiritual evolution of life on earth. It speaks of evolution of the beings from a state of ignorance to a state of illumination through progressive and successive intermediate states of partial ignorance and partial illumination. It alludes to a process that proceeds in three primary stages.

 

The first stage consists of formation, development and strengthening of individual centers of consciousness in physical bodies that are mostly and vastly very inert and unconscious and driven by the force of blind instinct and natural impulse.

 

The second stage consists of the consolidation and concretization of these personalities into individual egos which act under their own individual and independent wills powered by the energy of desires, and the instinct of survival, undergoing repeated births and deaths, as an ongoing process of further evolution towards the next phase.

 

The third phase consists of development of a new center of discriminating awareness (parisilanatmaka buddhi) that leads to the gradual surrender and ultimate dissolution of the ego into Truth, Consciousness and Bliss.

 

The emphasis here is more on the evolution of the subtle bodies rather than on the gross body. Science heavily rests its speculations upon the latter making it the central theme of its attention. But Hinduism goes a step further and tries to explain a more comprehensive and holistic vision of the same process.

 

Science is yet to come to terms with the theory that man can consciously and willingly direct his evolution through the exercise of his will, intelligence and choice, where as in Hinduism there is no such hesitancy or bias. Here evolution is very much a product of individual effort and can be consciously willed and controlled under the guidance of an enlightened master.

 

According to science, evolution is a process directed by Nature for its own ends, which tries to maintain balance in the physical world and evolve forms that are progressively competent and mutually self-destructive. The evolving beings are at the best experimental models in its gigantic laboratory. Here the individual being has little freedom to determine the evolutionary course of himself or of his species, helplessly enacting the drama authored and directed by the forces of mysterious Nature.

 

In contrast, Hinduism explains the process of evolution from a wider perspective. It views the whole problem on an universal scale, going beyond the visible and the manifest forms of life to understand the mechanism that is involved in the creation of not just the earth or its beings, but of the entire universe in which exist different planes of reality and consciousness.

 

Thus the vision that we come across in the scriptures is much wider and comprehensive. Here Nature is also a powerful agent, playing a very dominant role, but only so long as the individual being is willing to let himself remain under its influence. When wisdom and insight prevail, he realizes his folly and tries to liberate himself from the bonds of Nature.

 

Through his will and sincere efforts, he succeeds in overcoming his limitations, which Nature so far imposed upon him, and achieves liberation from its overwhelming and deluding dominance.

 

Thus Hinduism interprets the process of evolution both from within and without, both as a mechanism of Nature and a product of self-effort, with a hidden agenda which is the ultimate liberation of the soul. This objective is accomplished through inner transformation and purification of the mind and the body.

 

The transformation begins with a new awareness of ones personality and a new sense of responsibility,that tries to separate itself from the external confusion and the surface reality. It leads to the gradual withdrawal of oneself from the external world and a journey into oneself. The next step involves elimination of all forms of desires, egoistic effort and impure thoughts, preferably under the guidance of an advanced soul. In the third stage one has to make desireless effort through detachment, devotion and self-surrender to realize the Highest Truth.

 

From unreality towards reality, from darkness towards light and from death to deathlessness: these are the chief aims of the terrestrial evolution of life in this world. It primary objective is liberation but not bondage, immortality but not survival. It is a movement away from primeval Nature, and towards light and boundlessness. Its aim is not to render the being into fit a instrument under the control of Nature, or into a better player in the game of survival, but to establish divinity in the being so that it can transcend Nature, both within and without and attain immortality.

 

Evolution is the expression of each individual being seeking to escape from the cycle of births and deaths and regain its lost glory. The process is neither instantaneous nor uniform, neither uniformly progressive nor easily predictable. There is no one particular way. There is no particular result. The paths are many and the methods as well as the outcomes.

 

There are no definitives here, except those sanctioned by the laws of creation. Intuitive awareness may help us to predict the possibilities and explore the opportunities. But the limitations are always there. The difficulties on the path are innumerable. Only an enlightened soul can guide us safely to cross the mirage of life. So long as the Jiva is in love with its own chains and its distracting dreams, desires and faulty actions man has no escape and no hope from his own illusions.

 

The laws of evolution are applicable to all beings both in the mortal worlds, and also in the worlds of devas and the demons, for they too are a part of the creative and evolutionary process. The plants animals and the worlds of mere forms too evolve in their own limited ways towards light and delight.

 

But in this play of God, man has certain rare advantages. In the chain of evolution he stands at an important threshold. Rare and precious indeed the mortal life for it is attained after innumerable births and deaths and which sometimes gods also envy for the opportunities it offers to the humans not only to surpass themselves but even the gods to reach world of immortal Brahman.

 

The pitfalls on the way are many. By his wrong actions a being may falter and fall temporarily on this path and descend down into lower worlds, taking birth as an animal or under a misfortune, as an inanimate object such as a stone, a lake, a tree or a plant. He may also degenerate into a demon or an evil spirit.

 

But that is not the end. All is not lost. The being so devolved, can ascend again into higher life forms through a process of self-correction, penance and penitence, performing good deeds according to the laws of karma and adhering to the path of righteousness as prescribed in the scriptures.

 

It is the proper exercise of buddhi which is the key. It is by knowing the reality from unreality, truth from falsehood, right action from wrong action, right knowledge from wrong knowledge, that one can ensure ones own progress towards the Divine. None can help him in this process except himself and the Divine. Man is his own enemy and he is his own friend in this stupendous effort.

 

Those who fail to discriminate properly have to relearn the process till they become adepts. But in no case they should willingly let themselves lose control and fall prey to the evil passions. The Isa Upanishad (I.1.3) warns the students of Brahman in no uncertain terms, "Demonic worlds enveloped in blinding darkness they enter after death those who are the slayer of the self." So does Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita, (Chapter 9, 14 and 16).

 

Shri Aurobindo was one of the modern seers of Hinduism who saw the vision of supermen evolving out of present race of men and laying foundation for a new future for the world to emerge. With the awareness of an awakened soul he declared that man can hasten his own evolution from the state of an ignorant consciousness struck in an animal body struggling to express itself to the state of a supramental consciousness manifesting itself in a divine and immortal body of light and bliss.

 

"To know, possess and be the divine being in an animal and egoistic consciousness, to convert our twilit or obscure physical mentality into the plenary supramental illumination.- this is offered to us as the manifestation of God in matter and the goal of Nature in her terrestrial evolution," he wrote.

 

Thus it can be concluded Hinduism believes in the retrogressive process of the descent of the Universal Self and the evolutionary process of its ascent. Each being that comes into existence into the manifest worlds is in a state of evolution whose ultimate aim would be its liberation from ignorance, darkness and mortality and movement towards knowledge, light and immortality through a process of inner purification and illumination. The Divine descends in order to ascend.

 

Creation and destruction are the two sides of the same reality. Creation begins with destruction and in creation there is already a seed of the destruction to come. The same is true in case of destruction, which begins with creation and contains in it a seed of the creation that is yet to manifest.

 

If birth of an individual is creation, his death is destruction. It is through this repeated process of creation and destruction that the individual being evolves gradually in series and stages. The One indivisible Self, divides Himself into many, in order to become One again. "In a word godhead; to remake ourselves in the divine image."

 

This in brief is the story of evolution in Hinduism.

 

Friday , September 24, 2004

 

 

[Guest guest]

 

No religion has conveniently answered the questions "What is the purpose of creation?" and "Why there are miseries and cruelty?".Except Hinduism.

 

Islam says that humans were created to be slaves of god.On miseries and cruelty it blames free will.This is somewhat echoed by christianity.Free will is the foundation of these religions.Sin and being an infidel(other religion) will take you to burning hell.

 

Free will destroyes the all-knowing ability of god and is thus rejected.So only fate is the acceptable option.THis will be clear by following.

 

CHOICE A:

1)"Man has free will.Satan is responsible for sins"

 

This raises following questions.

1)who cretaed satan?Did not god know when he created satan that satan will be bad?If he knew that and cretaed satan, then is satan responsible for his deeds?Why create a Satan and give him free will knowing fully well that he will be evil?If god did not know that Satan will be bad when creating satan,this goes against gods all knowing ability....

So this is rejected.

 

CHOICE B

 

2)man doesnt have free will.He is guided by god through fate.

 

This raises the following questions.If all is fate then who is responsible for cruelty?God.He is doing evils through his tool man.Why?

 

I will answer this question from vedas.

 

1)Why creation?

 

God was alone for kalpa kodi yugas.He was as sath sith anandha bhramman for anathi years.But he then started to have a craving.He felt a need to be loved.He wanted to be with a family.He needed affection,love and care.He needed somebody who will love him madly.But where will he go?There wasnt anybody except him in the universe.

 

He wanted creation.But whom to create?He cannot create an equal to him.That is one power which even the god doesnt possess.Vishnu cannot create another vishnu.If he creates another vishnu, that means again he is alone.But he can create perfect ones,equilant of bhramma jnanis, but the problem is bhramma jnanis dont love him.They remain forever in advaitha stage.So he had to create inferiors only.

 

He created world and people then.But how did he create them?From his body.Vedas tell the example of spider web coming from spiders mouth. we are the parts of god.But we are inferior to him in two ways.

 

1) we are covered by maya

2)we are just parts and cannot become ishwara.Your hand is you, but it will never become YOU.Like that.

 

He wants us to love him.He wants us to love him only.If we do that he will give anything to us.Just see what all he does for his devotees.Just because of love he showers wealth,honors,moksha everything.In the end when you love him so much he lifts you to a stage where he even foresakes his need of you loving him.He takes you to liberation stage where you dont need to worship him.Just like a father marrying his daughter abroad, thus foresaking his seeing her for ever.That is his need for love.That is why creation exists.

 

WHY CRUELTY THEN?

 

We can see that he can immediatly make us bramma jnanis, which will make us realize that we are him.But that will defeat the very purpose of creation,our need to love him.He will again be alone.

 

But he also wants us to realize that we are his parts.But that process should drag on.So we have to remove the maya by ourselves which takes us millions of births.In between he is searching for love.Somebody very rarely gives him love.He immediatly becomes so happy.

 

Cruelty and misery are to make us perfect.He is guiding the process.He guides us through the production process of a bhramma jnani.When a product is perfected, the foreman of the factory knows that each product has to be perfected.But here each product is imperfect.Each one needs different treatment to perfect it.One needs cruelty,another needs small troubles and so on.

 

He guides us all through fate perfecting us.In that process we all do pray him.He enjoys it like a child craving for affection.Many times he was born and himself enjoyed all love of yasodha,gopikas and seetha and dasaratha.

 

This is why cruelty exists.This is why fate wins.fate is the production plan of a production manager.

 

 

Well well well ur version of GOD looks even worse than the Muslim version which u ridicule by saying he made them like slaves,ur version purposely created peope inferior so that they love him,that shows he has a cheap mentality,so he was selfish to create someone just for loving him,not for them to be like him so that they enjoy bliss all the time.

Maaya is similar to satun as it causes trouble,suffering,misery,y is ur mind not looking at it and thinking ur version of GOD(visnu) is soooo sweet,i dont see him any different from the dictator version of Christian and Muslims,except ur vedic version doesnt call the evil product or the negative aspect as Satun rather it calls it Maaya.But the end result is the same,the creations keep begging for his grace,which in turn is granted from time to time but not fully so that they constantly crave for misery less life.

GROW up face it,it all sounds the same,Muslims school of thought made em name the negative aspect Satun and u call it Maaya,all in all its all the same,GOD does sound very very selfish and cruel as he allows people to suffer(no matter what reason u give,its still the same suffering for centuries and centuries),so a truely self respecting individual would never go beg someone who wants love(forcefully),rather they would settle as Dwaithees and not beg for his grace.