[Advaita-l] Fwd: There's No God. No One Directs Our Fate: Stephen Hawking In His Last Book

[Gopal]

Dear Sri Subbuji, Murthyji,

namaste. Thanks for the note and the link.

It is not surprising that Dr. Hawkings wrote about God in his (final) book.
He has been saying so for a pretty long time.
Most of the 7+ billion people or a few dozen religions in the world would
not have known him much, and even if they do, would not care for his words.

But, he was a great scientist,  a human who lived a life that demonstrated
a victorious struggle against what the destiny handed to him. Most other
people would have yielded to that  'fate' but he had means, supporters,
funds and mindset to
fight and succeed until he could write the words "There is no God" in a
book that ended up being his last...

I beg to see this viewpoint from the man's shoes. For all his natural
talent, he was struck with a debilitating illness when  he was in youthful
days. The disease sucked the life out of his liveliness. He became a slave
to machinery, manipulated
to remain alive. By his sheer will power (and support of funds and other
kinds) he mastered the use of the many modern medical machinery (real and
figurative) to bring out the outputs of his talent, studies, thinking and
mathematical calculations.
He made tremendous discoveries in modern higher order physics in spite of
these medical difficulties.

The question, personally i guess, he would have lived with, would have
been:"why I am struck by this illness which only degrades my ability to do
more and contribute to science more?".
He might  not been alone. There are millions who are affected by visible,
congenital (by birth) or inherited, malfunctioning of human body systems at
all levels, that have brought most of them down from functioning physically
as
typical human beings. I am pointing to those cases where physical and
physiological malfunctioning not fully limiting mental and intellectual
faculties. In the case of Dr. Hawkings, he is one of those extraordinary
examples. In many millions,
I would imagine these 'not-their-responsibility' illnesses would be
affecting their cerebral excellence and ability to enjoy life's small
joys...

I am speculating on this with high confidence:  In the religion(s), Dr.
Hawkings would have been mainly exposed to, there is not much explanation
to be offered beyond certain "unseen intent of God". It is not surprising
that he would have said "there is no God" in print because the discourses
of "God" he would have known personally  neither explained why he was
afflicted nor provided any solace or longevity. Modern medicine did. And he
appears to have a strong case to argue for what he felt and wrote about
this unhelpful "God".
( I assume he did not attempt studying vedanta ...).

Do you think hindu religion offers a better explanation? Does vedanta
explain these millions of cases in a way? I am sure one would point to
excellent thesis on karma and adhrushta factor in one's birth and death.
How does the explanations "help" their day to day lives? When cognizant and
intellectually active but physically limited patients struggle on a day to
day basis to live at all and live meaningfully, is it surprising if there
is a skepticism for 'theories of existence' of 'God' among them?  Maybe it
takes  more to practice one's belief in God when he or she is suffering
without an end. May be, it is better to respect their judgement whether to
believe in such beliefs that do not deliver in their lives. Maybe it would
help us to appreciate what we have and do not have, when we recognize that
there are things in this 'God-made' world that would eventually snatch us
away from our fundamental beliefs of Ishvara.  While I know I cannot equal
Dr. Hawking's intellectual prowess, he could also be a test for me to look
into how strong are my beliefs are and what makes them remain as they are.

Rather than annoyed at his educated 'foolishness', I am awed at his
self-made will.  In tirukkural, there is a  verse that goes:" when even the
gods declare not-doable, a man's perseverance will yield the results:
deivattaan aagaadu eninum...  Also, even while ending up reading his works
that ended with a stamp  'There is no God',  one would find a lot of
interesting  parallels between the ideas of cosmogeny in kaabbaala, some
saiva agamas, advaitic vedanta, and his earlier works. We would all agre
that Dr. Hawkings did  not develop his models to prove or disprove these
religions beliefs but his thinking paralleled a few from another domain of
scholarship : theology.  He could be considered a top-notch agnostic rishi
for his perspectives on cosmic dynamics.  Let us respect him for what he
was and not trash him for what he was not..

my 2 cents,
..gopal

On Fri, Oct 19, 2018 at 10:24 AM sreenivasa murthy via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

>  Dear Sri Subramanian,    Stephen Hawking and his tribe are
> panDitamUrKAs.    That is what I feel.
> With respectful pranams,Sreenivasa Murthy
>
>     On Friday, 19 October, 2018, 11:37:34 AM IST, V Subrahmanian via
> Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
>  There's No God. No One Directs Our Fate: Stephen Hawking In His Last Book
>
>
>
> https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/stephen-king-in-his-last-book-theres-no-god-no-one-directs-our-fate-1933745
>
> regards
> subrahmanian.v
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