A myth usually denotes a fantasy made up by humans.

Now a days God and religions, by many people are considered myths. But God and religion, as far as anyone knows, have always been part of human existence, so to denounce God and religion as myths is without basis. It’s simply unreasonable to suggest that mankind has invented God and religion when their beginning cannot be traced in time. Why would a thinking person posit that humans have been dedicated to myths since the dawn of time?

Photo credit: Jahnu Das

Other myths like abiogenesis and evolution, which are decidedly concepts created by humans, have no basis in observable reality, still they are being peddled to the public as scientific facts.

The problem with modern science is that it has been taken over by atheists, who use science as a pretext to reject God. Ideas like abiogenesis and evolution are being used by atheists to explain away God, when actually these ideas have nothing to do with science.

In modern science, the myth has been created that only matter exists, and the only way to valid knowledge of the world is the empirical study of matter. Actually, the word science, from Greek, means to know, but in modern society science has been redefined to mean materialism.

The plain fact is that there is nothing unscientific about the Vedas. For instance, in Bhagavad Gita, God explains how nature works according to three modes of material nature. It doesn’t get any more scientific than the way God explains reality in Bhagavad Gita

Still, more and more people turn away from religion, instead they now rely on science to explain the realities of life. In fact, science has become the new religion of the masses. It’s very important in a consumer culture, where constant economic growth is the goal of any progressive society, that people are trained up to become mindless materialists.

Even though modern science has absolutely nothing sensible to say about the reality we live in, the general population has become convinced that science has explained away the need for God and religion.

Now a days, people have the same awe and reverence for scientists that they used to have for their priests. So-called scientific theories like abiogenesis and evolution, even though they are pure and unalloyed myths, are being taught in all educational institutions of the world as scientific facts.

Where as modern science has nothing useful to say about life, it is very useful in making technology. In fact, it’s the only thing science is good for, and when we live in a world where the general mass of people are kept in awe and reverence of technological wonders, science has become a most noble and sacred undertaking.

In the modern world people walk around with their eyes glued to little screens, keeping themselves updated on the newest technology, with religious fervor .

In the middle ages, in the West at least, the regents of society kept their subjects in ignorance, so they were easy to control and manipulate, and today the exact same means are used to enslave people in ignorance. In the global culture the slaves have merely been upgraded to a middle-class with their own house and car.

People still slave their lives away in boring and often harmful jobs, and they are marred by the same endless worries and miseries people have always suffered from. They are still being ground down by taxation, victims of greedy politicians, exactly like they’ve always been.

But what exactly is the indication that humans now, with their advanced knowledge of mathematics and physics, have understood the world and their place in it, any better than the people of former times, where they worshiped nature and various gods?

—but, but I have an Iphone, something a cave-dweller couldn’t even dream of. And don’t you mind the climate-changes, that has nothing to do with ignorance of how nature works. The smart-phone in my hand is proof that we have understood nature better than ever before.

Seriously?

Some years ago, WHO was asked by UN to issue a report on human health in the new millennium. WHO published a report saying that the biggest health crisis facing the world in the new millennium is that more and more people will be born with mental defects.

We are clearly not living in an evolved society of happy and satisfied people, rather, more and more people need psychiatric treatment, and the sales of various psycho-drugs are shooting though the roof.

This devolution of mankind, was predicted by the Vedic sages already 5000 years ago.

prāyeṇālpāyuṣaḥ sabhya
kalāv asmin yuge janāḥ
mandāḥ sumanda-matayo
manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ
Meaning:”O learned one, in this iron age of Kali men have but short lives. They are quarrelsome, lazy, misguided, unlucky and, above all, always mentally disturbed.” [Srimad Bhagavatam, 1.1.10]

Regarding the topic of myth another important questions may arise-
Is our existence really a myth? Do we really have a purpose for life?

Our existence is real in the sense that it happens. Everyone suffers or enjoys according to their activities. It’s called karma.

From a spiritual point of view, ie. from the point of view of our eternal selves, our life in a material body is unreal.

Krishna says:

Those who are seers of the truth have concluded that of the non-existent [the material body] there is no endurance and of the eternal [the soul] there is no change. This they have concluded by studying the nature of both. (Bg. 2.16)

The suffering or the happiness we experience in life is all happening to the body and mind, it’s actually not happening to our real selves, the soul. Only because we identify with the body and mind, do we experience the karmic reactions to our activities in the form of suffering or enjoyment.

As soon as we realize ourselves, we will become liberated from our karma, good as well as bad.

The purpose of the human form of life is to realize ourselves as different from the body and its culture, realize ourselves as the eternal soul within.

Lord Brahma says:

One attains the human form of life after transmigrating through 8,400,000 species by the process of gradual evolution. That human life is spoiled for those conceited fools who do not take shelter of the lotus feet of Govinda.

—Brahma-vaivarta Purana

(Guest Post)

Talker:Jahnu Das