Drinking Wine In Paradise; Not A Crime, Says The Man 'Wise' !
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
6 September
2022
Drinking wine in paradise;
Not a crime, says the man 'wise'
Then, let me drink in this world
Later will I think over god's word
-Omar Khayyam, translated from Persian by the author
" All scriptural 'truths' are relative and time-specific. They're
not inscriptions on the granite. Expunge them when they lose their relevance.
The problem with all humans is that they take 'divine words' as something
lapidary on the stone-slab of human civilization. Wipe them out........."
Nietzsche, ' Thus Spoke Zarathustra, '
translated from German by Shaun Daniels
" Set yourself free
Care not for divine decree "
Salman Rushdie, quoting American poet Ezra Pound
" When scriptures become standard rule books, marching of the
cavalcade of humanity stops. All so-called 'divine' books are stalkers on your
way to freedom and self-realization."
-Anon
In a desert
country, trees were scarce and fruit was hard to come by. It was said that god
wanted to make sure there was enough for everyone, so he appeared to a prophet
and said, " This is my commandment to the whole people for now and for
future generations: no one shall eat more than one fruit a day. Record this in
the Holy Book. Anyone who transgresses this law will be considered to have
sinned against god and against humanity."
The law was
faithfully observed for centuries until scientists discovered a means for
turning the desert into green land. The country became rich in grain and
livestock. And the trees bent down with the weight of unplucked fruit. But the
fruit law continued to be enforced by the civil and religious authorities of
the land.
Anyone who
pointed to the sin against humanity involved in allowing fruit to rot on the
ground was dubbed a blasphemer and an enemy of morality. These people, who
questioned the wisdom of god's holy word, were being guided by the proud spirit
of reason, it was said, and lacked the spirit of faith and submission whereby
alone the Truth can be received.
Nothing
could be done to change the law because the prophet who had 'claimed' to have
received it from god was long since dead. He might have had the courage and the
sense to change the law as circumstances changed for he had taken god's word,
not as something to be revered, but as something to be used for the welfare of
the people.
As a
result, some people openly scoffed at the law and at god and religion. Others
broke it secretly and always with a sense of wrongdoing. The vast majority
adhered rigorously to it and came to think of themselves as holy merely because
they held on to a senseless and outdated custom they were too frightened to
jettison.
"Men
can break the laws of society, but not the so-called divine laws," wrote
Rene Descartes. We're perpetually in the penumbra of imaginary divine wrath and
dare not question the ways of god. Whoever questions, gets a stock reply from
the elders and especially from the so-called 'holy men and women' that god's
ways are inexplicable to the mortals like us. This is discouraging to the hilt
and leads to a defeatist mentality at the collective level.
Why can't a
mere mortal question the relevance of an antediluvian custom or law, sanctioned
by a religion? What's the use of still sticking to a 'divine law' just because
it's hoary-old? Puranmityev Na Sadhu Sarvam (Old's not always the
assurance of being genuine and irreproachable). How long will we allow the
fallacy of majority and fallacy of duration to dictate terms to rationality?
Man stops
growing spiritually and gets stuck at the level of religion when he blindly
starts following what his primitive ancestors followed in a bygone era. A soul
that doesn't have the rebellious spirit fails to comprehend the mind of god, if
at all it does exist. Someone said very succinctly, " God's fed up with
the prostrating, genuflecting and unquestioning followers. He too wants rebels,
who can challenge his divinity and defeat him in his own game." Remember,
every law has a flaw, even if it happens to be a divine law.
No truth is
so great that it can transcend all ages and become relevant for the ages to
come. That's why, among the truly religious, the (divine) law is observed. But
it's never feared, nor revered. It's neither absolutized, nor magnified out of
all proportion, nor exploited for one's selfish ends.
Questioning
a 'divine truth' is not a sacrilegious act. An iconoclastic defiance can open
up a plethora of spiritual avenues. But the problem with mankind is that we're
always apprehensive of unwittingly breaking a set pattern.
Though the
German philosopher Immanuel Kant wrote "Critique of pure reason," he
too admitted that the grovelling acceptance of any belief wasn't expected of a
rational being and it was an insult to his volition as well as faculty of
reason. " Fear blunts the tip of a spear." This adage is universally
applicable to humankind. Our fear of god or the atavistic fear of all organized
religions puts brakes on our questioning self so much so that we eventually
lose it and act like a sheep in the herd. And at the same time, we're also too
keen to kow-tow to anything that's recondite to us.
We're always
awestruck by supernatural phenomena and more than willing to succumb to their
mysteries. This attitude never allows free will to thrive and we remain in the
dungeon of our own prisons, languishing there till eternity. To quote an Urdu
couplet, " Itne Maanoos Sayyaad Se Ho Gaye Hain/ Mili Rihaii Bhi Toh
Mar Jayenge " (So much have we got inured to the imprisonment of the
huntsman/Even if he sets us free, we long for the captivity). Most of the
humans are suffering from the Stockholm Syndrome; reluctant to leave the
slammer of gods, scriptures and religions.
-----
A
regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative
religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to
world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/wine-paradise-crime-wise/d/127884
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