Atma and Param atma

By Victor M Fontane

Atma, soul, is the experienceable state of existence of living beings.  This is clearly felt by humans.  Existence itself is called soul.  The consciousness or realization that I am.

In other living organisms, including plants, the level of this recognition may be different.  They may not know themselves and others as accurately as humans do.  But they all have enough sense to survive,  even a mosquito. 

The concepts of Param atma, God or Creator are religious. Semitic, or faith oriented.  There is no scientific basis for this. 

Such ideas arise from the realization that a perfectly functioning universe could not have happened without cause, out of nothingness. This thought is valid. But evolution is misunderstood.

The universe is a, or in a, self-evolving state.  So the universe has always existed in some state at all times. What we see now, is the current form.  This is what we can infer today in the light of modern science.  

The undated Upanishath comes very close to these conclusions. The Upanishath indicate that Jagat (world in Sanskrit) happened through self-evolution by its own will. Primordial consciousness (sat, state of being or existence), evolved into jagat, as if  a seed evolves into a tree. 

If the seed is called God, that religions believe in, then if we ask, where is God, we can only  say that it is now the universe in an  Evolved state.

This explanation cannot be understood by most undergoing the evolving state.  For them, creator and creation theory  can be understood very simply.  It is Scientific logic doesn't matter to them. They want shoulders to cry on. Such people cannot digest the state of self-evolution, with no possibility of a “creator”, separate from the 'creation”.  An almighty is required to fill up the gap of ignorance, fear confusion and dependence. That phantom is God.  

Everyone close eyes and clap hands in prayer! Heard this somewhere? It is a trap to make one feel weak so that cunning priests can scare the masses and seek rent for sweat free easy life. For them, god is the bait.

Believers think because of their belief in god, they are saved after death. While living, positive and negative things may happen. This is normal. Believers think all these are plays of god to test their belief! These are illogical immature thoughts of humans during evolution process.  Who wants unpalatable truth? 

Mankind is still generally in the same period of Socrates, Copernicus and Galileo.  The Sun revolves around the Earth is verifiable reality for the majority, a glaring fact before the eyes !  They may even ask if one is blind that they cant see the sun going around ?! These wise guys quickly fall into beliefs. For them, belief is more real than reality itself.

In the meantime, the truth of life that we can simply experience is that the universe is an event in a state of self-evolution. We are all part of this. We can live comfortably, taking care of all beings as siblings. It is terrible to think some are higher than the rest. Others are created to serve the chosen few and what we can get, now and after death, at the expense of others. These are thoughts of religions and priests.

Such people need more time to understand evolution. May be generations or thousands of years or more. 

Until then, the rest will have to endure their taunts, ridicule, gnashing, biting, barking and spitting. There is no escape from ape state.