Thiruvalluvar and God.

Thiruvalluvar on GOD

What Thiruvalluvar says about God ? Did he believe in God ? What was Thiruvalluvar's religion ? Has he mentioned the name of God anywhere? These are the common questions asked by many.

God is a metaphysical phenomena, meta in Greek means 'above' or 'after' or 'beyond', Aristotle ( 384 -322 BC ) wrote the book 'Physics' in which he explained about physical objects. Subjects which are dealt beyond physics became metaphysics. 'God' is not a physical phenomena, Aristotle defines metaphysics as ' being in the highest form of abstraction.' God is not an observable phenomena that can be tested or experimented.

Then who is God ? Does God exist ?

Aquinas ( 1225-1274) an  Italian  philosopher and theologian outlines five proofs for the existence of God based on reasoning and revelation. Dutch philosopher Spinoza (1632 -1677 ) held that God is ' absolutely infinite being '. Many believe in God, a few disbelieve.

Belief in the existence of God is Theism. ( Hinduism, Christianity, Islam )

No belief in the existence of God is Atheism ( Jainism )

Doubting the existence of God is Agnosticism ( Buddhism )

Hinduism believes in only one God ( Brahman ) He is the absolute reality existing in three forms ( Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva ). Here Brahman should not be confused with Brahma. ( see n in Brahman )) Brahma ( no n ) is one of the manifestations of Supreme God Brahman or Brahmam. All other gods worshiped in Hinduism are the different forms of  one and the only  Almighty Brahman. ( In reality Hinduism is Monotheistic  not polytheistic as many think.  Monotheistic = in  belief one God , Polytheistic =belief in  many gods )

Christianity believes in one God who exists in three forms, Father, Son and Holy Spirit ( Doctrine of Holy Trinity ). Islam  believes in only one God, it does not believe in the doctrine of trinity . Hinduism believes in three forms of God, Brahma - the creator, Vishnu - the protector and Shiva - the destroyer. It should be remembered that Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are the three forms of one and the only ultimate reality Brahman.

Hinduism believes in rebirth (theory of karma) ,when the cycle of birth ends, the departed soul goes in union with the Universal Soul (God) which is  called moksha. Christianity and Islam do not believe in rebirth. According to them , the departed souls should wait for the future final judgement of God, only after this judgement , there will be punishment for wrong doers. Like this the doctrines of the religions differ. In an " All faith convention ", I explained all these differences that prevail in the dogmas ( doctrines ) of the religions and said  no religion is inferior and finally concluded " follow your religion and respect other religions."  This was welcomed by the entire  crowd with cheers and claps.

Now, the question is, in which name Thiruvalluvar calls God ? 

The answer is , he calls God in neutral names which cannot be associated with any religion.

வாலறிவன் = one who possess pure sense of knowledge

எண்குணத்தான் = one who possess the eight fold excellence.

தனக்குவமை இல்லாதான் = one who is incomparable

மலர்மிசை ஏங்கினான் = one who occupies the flower like mind

பொறிவாயில் ஐந்தவித்தான் = one who destroys the five desires/ senses.

உலகு இயற்றியான் = one who created the world

All  are neutral names, that is the greatness of the  Thiruvalluvar. 
For him,  God is one who created the earth. உலகு இயற்றியான்.

Thiruvalluvar  had written 1330 Kurals,  the first kural is,

அகர முதல எழுத்து எல்லாம் ஆதி

பகவன் முதற்றே உலகு (1)

( Letter A  is the first of all alphabets, God is the beginning of all the objects in the Universe)

Aadhi Baghavan is interpreted in different ways by different authors . Some say Aadhi Baghavan is the first Thirthankar Rishabnath of Jainism. Dr.Santhalingam concludes that the Thirukkural  was written by a Jain. In my school days, I had studied that Thiruvalluvar was a Jain Saint.

In one of my Thirukkural  sessions in US, the same argument was placed by the elite participants.Their contention was that Thiruvalluvar had written ten couplets against meat eating ( killing ), which is the doctrine of Jainism, hence he should have professed Jainism.

I placed some logical arguments, according to Jainism, the universe is 'beginningless and endless', which means there is no creator God.

But Thiruvalluvar uses the word உலகு இயற்றியான் = one who created the world. Which means, he believed in creator. Jainism does not believe in the creator deity ( God ). A person who accepts the 'Creation Theory' cannot be termed as a Jain. Thiruvalluvar believed in God and written first ten couplets in   praise of God. If Thiruvalluvar was a Jain, he would not have written about the creator and praised Him.

Some argue that  Aadhi-  Baghavan denotes Thiruvalluvar's  parents. Thiruvalluvar had not revealed any thing about his personal life in any of the Kurals.  It is unacceptable that he had introduced  parents names in his work.

Aadhi Baghavan is translated as  Primal God ( G.U. Pope ), Ancient God ( Suddhananda Bharathi ), First God (  S. Iyengar ) , etc.

Let us think, is there first God and second God, ancient God and modern God, no,  the absolute reality ( God ) is one and the only one. He created the universe, He is called by different names.

Modern science ( cosmology ) explains the events after  the creation ( Big bang explosion ) step by step in precision.  Present universe is the result of Big bang explosion that took place about 13.75 billion ( 1370 crore ) years ago. Only at that moment of explosion,  the Space, Time and Energy had come into existence. Big bang theory is not a bluff, Cosmologists have sufficient evidence like presence of Cosmic Micro Wave Background Radiation, expansion of Universe, the highly uniform temperature of the universe ( WMAP result released in 2003 ), pictures of baby universe captured by Hubble telescope, etc. 

Astronomer Edwin  Hubble ( 1889 -1953 ) proved by using red shifts of far away galaxies that the universe is expanding . It was the greatest discovery . Yesterday's  universe was smaller than to-day's . Day before yesterday, universe was still smaller. Billions of years ago, it was very small. At one stage , it was a point. This zero size point of singularity which was dimensionless , boundless and endless possessed the entire energy of the present universe ( Stephen Hawking's  theory  ). 

This ' pointless point ' which is the 'Cosmic egg' exploded or expanded and formed the present universe. The entire energy content of the present universe was  found in the 'point of singularity'  that energy had  never changed , the energy cannot be created or destroyed, it is physics.

Now the biggest question is, what was present before explosion , who triggered the explosion, who created the cosmic egg ( the point of singularity which possessed the entire energy of the universe ). Except a few ( atheists ), many accept that God was present before creation. God existed before Space, Time, Matter and Energy came into existence.  For the question , how God had come into existence,  there is no answer, it is a mystery , it is beyond human reasoning. Any effort to know it will end in vain.God is the causeless cause who caused everything.

God ( call Him  by any name ) was present before creation, He  was responsible for the creation, He is omnipresent ( present every where ), omniscient (knows every thing ), omnipotent ( all powerful ). He  is called in different names . Bible calls Him Logos ( Greek: Sound or Word ) . Bible says ," in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with  God, and the Word was God ". ( St. John 1 : 1 ) which means before creation  God  was present in the form of Word or Sound vibration which is called  Logos .  Once I met a professor of Greek language, I had a lengthy discussion on 'Logos' ,he explained me the various meanings of Logos and finally  told me that Logos has been wrongly translated as 'Word' in Bible, it  actually  means 'Sound '.

Word is வார்த்தை, Sound is வாக்கு or ஓசை. A word can be visualized but not sound. ( please know the minute difference ). Logos cannot be visualized.  In simple terms,  God cannot be visualized or seen in the mind as a mental image.

Bhagavad Gita ( 9 : 17 ) refers  God as syllable Om, Om ( Omkara ) is the most sacred syllable in Hinduism which stands for Brahman, the ultimate reality . Lord Krishna says to Arjuna, " I am the Father of Universe..... I am the syllable Om ",  which means Om is God. ( it is said that the creation itself was set in motion by the  vibration Om ). Om or Logos is the 'soundless sound vibration'  which was present before the creation  with God .  Thiruvalluvar calls the creator God by the name Aadhi Baghavan. Sikhism also calls God as Akal Prakh which means, "Timeless Primal Being " and says  the creator is one ( Ak Onkar,  Ak= One, Onkar =Creator )

Primal God ( creator ) , Logos or Word ( Bible ), Om ( Bhagavad Gita ), Akal Prakh ( Sikhism)  and Aadhi Bhagavan ( Thirukkural ) are  one and the same. To-day creator is called by different names by different religions. But the creator is one and the only one, who is called Aadhi Bhagavan by Thiruvalluvar . ( Adhi Bhagavan = Primal God = having existed from the beginning = Timeless being  ). 

God and religions are different aspects. Religions claim that they guide people to reach God or attain salvation. There are people who believe in God but do not believe in religions. They are of the opinion that God does not interfere with day to day life of people. For them, God created the Universe and set it go on its own by regulating itself ( Deism = God created the universe and then abandoned it ) , according to Deism, God is not the architect of any individual's life, man is a product of evolution not a creation of God.  God is not responsible for whatever that happens in the universe. He has not designed any natural calamity or catastrophe. In fact,  God is not even  aware of the humanity that exists on the Earth.Certain favourable conditions of the planet earth helped for the formation of air, water and living beings. Everything is the result of evolution. This Deism theory had not gained the support of the people, it was rejected.

Albert Einstein says, " I can not conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures." This is a different school of thought. The impact of technologies, scientific advancement, human cloning, etc had led the people to lose faith in religions. Gallup International millennium Survey conducted in 60 countries reveals that 13% of people do not profess any religion. This percentage will increase in future. I know in Chennai, a group of elites formed an association of ' no religion people '.They are wrong, it should not be forgotten that religions take care of the moral side of the society.  According to Sigmund Freud , religions help to avoid individual neurosis ( a sort of mental illness ). Hence religions are required. As said by Pope Paul,  science should purify religions. When religions are purified , faith on religions will become strong among the people.  ( Science can purify religions from error and superstitions. Religions can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes : Pope John Paul II).

It should be remembered that Science had done many  miracles. (TV, cell phone, robot , computer, dialysis, separating conjoined  twins, stem cell treatment, etc ). Humanity cannot live without using the inventions of the  great science , at the same time , live peacefully without associating with God. 

According to Thiruvalluvar, God dwells in mind , those who unite with God living  in them, will peacefully live long in this world.

Those who unite with God who occupies the flower of  mind,

Shall  live long  in this world ( happily and peacefully ). ( 3 )

மலர்மிசை ஏகினான் மாண் அடி சேர்ந்தார்

நிலமிசை நீடு வாழ்வார் ( 3 )

It is interesting to know that Thiruvalluvar  curses God in one of the Kurals. He is totally against beggary, even during his time ( 2000 years ago ) there were beggars. They had to go door to door, street to to street, place to place and wander to get  their livelihood. They are subjected to insults. Beggary is a social problem, social set up should be blamed , rulers should be held responsible. God is no way responsible for it.  But , if God is responsible, if God had destined a person to beg and maintain himself , then God is wrong. He can not be termed  merciful and benevolent. God should be punishment,  as a punishment, God  should wander like beggars from street to street , place to place and experience the suffering of beggars . This curse is the outburst of emotion , it is an act of frustration which reveals the compassion of Thiruvalluvar towards the beggars.

If the Creator had destined a person to beg and meet his needs.

Let God too wander like a beggar and perish. ( 1063 )

இரந்தும் உயிர் வாழ்தல் வேண்டின் பரந்து

கெடுக உலகு இயற்றியான் ( 1063 )

( இரந்தும் = by begging,  பரந்து = wandering, 

கெடுக = perish, 

உலகு இயற்றியான் = Creator of the world)

பிச்சை எடுத்து வாழ கடவுள் ஒருவனைப்  

படைத்திருந்தால்,

கடவுள் ஊர் ஊராக பிச்சை எடுத்து, திரிந்து கெடுவானாக.

Some say , he practiced Hinduism because, he mentions about rebirth.
Some translate rebirth as next generation. For them seven births means seven generations.

Some say , he practiced Jainism because, he rejects meat eating by killing animals.

Some say, He practiced Christianity because, he mentions God as 

பொறிவாயில் ஐந்தவித்தான் which means one who died in the  Cross (பொறி)

What religion he practiced,  remains a mystery but the  ageless Thirukkural is above any particular religion.

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