सब सत्यविद्या और जो पदार्थ विद्या से जाने जाते हैं, उन सब का आदि मूल परमेश्वर है (February 2022)
सब सत्यविद्या और जो पदार्थ विद्या से जाने जाते हैं, उन सब का आदि मूल परमेश्वर है
God is the efficient cause of all true knowledge and all that is known through knowledge.
As you know, the theme of this year’s assignments is the understanding of the Ten Principles of the Arya Samaj. This month, we will cover the first principle. This principle establishes faith in God and acts as the basis for the next nine principles. It underlines the source of the root of the true and pure knowledge and the fact that that knowledge and everything known through it emanates from God.
For a human being to become a noble person with moral values and ethical lifestyle, it is essential that one understands the cause of the physical and non-physical world we see around us. When it is not possible for a person to become a better citizen without understanding constitution, rules of society, and workings of government, how can one think of becoming a evolved human being without understanding God and its relationship with human and nature. That is precisely what the first principle does.
This principle is written in parallel sentence structure. For the understanding purpose, we can divide it into two parts: God is the efficient cause of all true knowledge; and, God is the efficient cause of all that is known through that knowledge. Let’s understand what it means.
In both the parts, God is termed as the ultimate source (आदि मूल). On Earth, the human is the only species that can learn and evolve in a single lifetime. Unlike the other species, humans do not come programmed with fixed knowledge. That advantage of the ability to evolve also means humans need knowledge to grow. That knowledge is given to humans by God at the start of the creation.
The first part of this principle emphasizes on true or pure knowledge (सत्य विद्या). Can knowledge be wrong or impure? Yes, it can be. If you feed a kid completely wrong information from his birth, chances are he will consider that knowledge to be true and accurate. For a long period, a large population of humans also continued to believe earth is flat and is at the center of the universe. In our society, too, we see that there are a large number of superstitions, sometime even in the name of religion. Even though some people believe in that wrong or impure knowledge, that impure knowledge cannot be considered to emanate from God.
God through the Vedas gave us the perfect knowledge, a knowledge that tells what is right and what is wrong; what is real and what is unreal; what one must adopt and what one must drop; what gives bliss and what gives sorrow, etc. In the Vedas, there is absolutely no incorrect knowledge*. Only a perfect entity can generate a perfect outcome. That perfect entity who created and gave that knowledge is the super power, which we call God.
* By the way, from time to time, one may come across a wrong and twisted interpretation of the Vedas or mantras. We must have the faith that the incorrect interpretation is because of the ignorance of the interpreter; we must consult a knowledgeable Vedic scholar to clarify our doubts.
What does that superpower called God do? He creates, sustains, and destroys. There is an easy way to remember it using the acronym GOD (Generator, Operator, and Destroyer). While the Vedas contain the complete information about the unending cycle of creation, sustenance and destruction, in our monthly assignments, we have focused on and learnt mostly about the sustenance aspect. That is, through the Vedas, Upanishads, Gita, and other Arsh granths, we have been learning how to live moral and ethical life.
The second part of this principle talks about all that is known through the true knowledge (जो पदार्थ विद्या से जाने जाते हैं). Here ‘all’ means everything: physical and metaphysical, visible and invisible, related to Nature, Soul, and Supreme Soul, are all known through the basic and root level knowledge, which again is imparted to us by God. In our life, we see that whatever new inventions, bigger creations etc. are produced, their roots always go to basic rules and foundational knowledge only. For instance, scientists can design and build rockets, but the knowledge for those creations emanates from the basic concepts and knowledge of physics, chemistry and mathematics etc., which those scientists acquired from their teachers/books. In the same sense, all that is known to humans is acquired through the root level knowledge, which God imparted to us at the onset of the humanity in the form of the Vedas.
In this month’s article, we
- established faith in God;
- understood what God does;
- learnt why we need to know about God;
- learnt how God shared the knowledge with humans;
- learnt how knowledge can be both pure and impure;
- learnt why it is important to acquire only the pure knowledge;
- and, understood why having basic concepts right is critical for our growth etc.
Above are the points I expect kids to include in their assignment. As always, I am looking forward to listening to interesting yet insightful perspectives of our kids.
Understanding this month’s topic is an abstract one, I request parents to discuss the article and concepts with their kids. Also, please feel free to contact me anytime should parents or kids have any question/query.
With Best,
Harsh Mendiratta
www.hawan.net