Thoughts And Trivia

So once again lets ask: "Who am I?"
Uptill now in earlier posts we have argued that:-

• We are here to contribute towards the exploration of Knowledge and of the Universe.
• Implanted in our brains, the Trojan viruses, of survival instinct and the passion for mating, facilitate continuity and refinement of genes for this task.
• Lets take the bricks-and-mortar world as the only reality.
• Lets explore the reality, with the approach of Riemann's Geometry, deciphering the world with each step physically taken by us - and not rely on any handed down world-view, as in the omniscient approach of Euclid's Geometry.

Lets not get ensnared, into our various religious hand-me-downs - soul, sin, morals. Our ancestors who wrote these, were even less sure of reality, than we are, since we do stand on the high ground of knowledge, gathered by these ancestors. They are more likely to have erred in their basic assumptions, on which most of their world-view is based. Strongest of citadels built over foundations of sand, will crash out one day or the other - sooner, than later.
Mahatma Gandhi, once, removed and retained the paper-clip from a verbose and pretentious letter, by a big-wig, and threw the letter, in the dust-bin. Mahatma explained with an impish smile that, he has retained whatever was of merit, in the letter. Our approach in assimilating hand-me-down world-view, should also be similar.
I would therefore, not go in search of anything more than, this bag of skin, containing arthritic bones called empirically "Girish Bhatnagar" - when I want to know "Who am I?". This is a wrong questions. Wisdom lies, not in giving intelligent answers, but in avoiding wrong questions!
In rejection of soul, morals and other religious commandments, I am not advocating negation of these virtues. Honesty and Morality are based on other tangible considerations, which I recommend, instead of merely religious grounds. I am not advocating desertion of religion either. That's an individual choice.

Posted by Girish Bhatnagar at Thursday, April 14, 2005