Atheism: a hindu perspective

Atheism as a popular belief is a belief which doesn't believe in the existence of Gods. Atheism is the complete rejection of the idea that god exist. Atheism surely has wings that makes it propel itself. The two wings of Atheism for me is rationality and realism. Any idea is consider to be truth if it satisfies some rational logic and contains real facts. A god as claimed is devoid of material facts. A god is like a common accepted axiom about the supreme being of this universe.

Atheism doesn't dwell on the fields of idealism. To believe in god is in itself an idealism. God for many is a matter of pure speculation. It is just like a commonly accepted belief that people don't question upon. God may or may not exist. There is no sure proof way to prove the existence of god. Even the lines of scriptures are vague. If any person has realized god, it is also the matter of personal experience and the personal experience is very hard to tread with people. It is just like a person who has tasted sugar and has realized "sweetness" and then he/she is asked to explain how "sweetness" feels like or to prove the existence of sweetness.


Theist and Atheism are two polar opposite belief systems. But a point where they both converge is the point of incompleteness. Neither Theism nor Atheism is a complete belief system because the former cannot prove the existence of god and the latter cannot explain the universal phenomena or the universal intelligence. For instance, when we eat something the saliva secretes and mixes with the food and when it reaches the stomach the Hydrochloric acid breaks down the food. It is then digested and thus excreted. The subtle point of thinking is that how can a human body be so perfectly intelligent to be functioning as if someone has programmed it. For instance, in a calculator when we press 2+2 the answer is always 4 and not 5. The logic is very simple, the calculator was programmed that way.

So, if a calculator can be programmed similarly nature has programmed the human body. If we look for the answer to who programmed who and the final programmer, somewhere down the pipeline we would have no answers to give. It would be the case of unrealized facts. But if we were to truly respect atheism we could just change our perception towards it.

Now, atheism is also connected to religion. The whole of Buddhism is Atheism and Agnosticism. The Jain philosophy also asserts the same. But Hinduism is more hardcore and hard cornered about the Atheism part. There are many philosophical schools of Hinduism, CHARVAKA is one of the schools of Hinduism which clearly defines Atheism and Agnosticism.


Let's have a look on the following lines of Charvaka:

"यावज्जीवेत् सुखं जीवेत् 

ऋणं कृत्वा घृतं पिबेत्। 

भस्मीभूतस्य देहस्य

 पुनरागमनं कुत: "

The above lines translates as "when you live, live life of happiness, purchase Ghee even if you have to be in debt because after your death there is no coming back"

One of the schools of Hinduism has such to say about life, God and spirituality. He says gods do not exist nor does soul exist. He further says there is no soul and there is no reincarnation. Life is everything and when life ends everything ends. To live life with utmost enjoyment and happiness is the ultimate motive of a human life says "Maharishi Charvaka".

His lines have been quite followed by the western societies. The Banks (financial institution) are the creation of the western society. For instance, the whole idea of credit card is to have the power to spend money on free will. One can buy luxury by being in debt. One can pay it later and like the credit card holder who is in debt and if the person dies the bank is not going to go to the cemetery to collect the dues with compound interest.

Therefore, with all the due respect to atheist, it can be inferred that Hinduism is an umbrella that incorporates in itself both atheism and theist. Islam is a hard cored theist. Christianity is a hard cored theist. Jain and Buddhism are hard cored atheist but Hinduism is like a middle path. It incorporates Atheism and both Theism. It respect theism at one end and gives equal treatment to atheism.

When the western society perceives Hinduism, it only perceives Hinduism as a "cow worshiping" religion. It has its own reasons. Some people might argue that worshiping a cow is more logical then worshiping a cross because at least cow gives milk or some might say god pervades all so why worship a drop and neglect the ocean. There can be never ending discussion on these topics.

But if there is one religion that gives importance to both, theism and atheism is Hinduism. It respects both point of views. What difference does it make to an atheist if god exist and what difference does it make for a theist if atheist don't realize god. The whole point of debate is useless. Why should one thought defeat the another. Its better if people as per their nature be allowed to follow what they want to. Its the Hinduism that gives a person utmost freedom to choose ones own action. Be a believer or non believer, Hinduism wouldn't ask you to slay other persons in the name of Jihad nor the gods of Hindus is by nature a jealous god.

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