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Once upon a time people thought that the earth was the center of the universe. They thought that the sun, moon and stars revolve
around the earth. It took centuries for Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo to convince the people that the truth is just the opposite
of popular opinion.
Copernicus did not publish his paper for 13 years. He knew the truth but he felt telling the truth will do more harm than
good. He was right. After about 100 years when Galileo made this truth public, he was imprisoned till death!
If you were living in that time what would have you done? Would you care to find out Copernicus's logic and reasons OR
would you have taken sides with popular opinion?
It is a question of majority versus truth. It is quite possible for everyone around you to have a misconception. If someone
is proposing an alternate theory you must use your intelligence and analyze the proposal. You are free to dismiss it if it
does not appeal to your wisdom. But it is illogical to use 'democracy' as a measure to judge the merit of the proposal.
One possible reason for continued ignorance in the field of astronomy for centuries is that the level of intelligence
among the general public was rather low. And there was no Internet for intelligentsia to access scientific discoveries directly.
As a result, the popular wrong notions survived for long.
Can there be any such excuses today? Is it possible for such phenomenon to exist today?
Yes. Most of us are ignorant on the source of happiness. We think that people, material objects, events and the environment
are the source of our happiness. We think that if everything around us is nice and goes on well, we will be happy. That is
not the truth. Happiness does not depend on anything external. It is not even the state of our mind. In order to understand
the source of happiness we need find out who created the earth, sun, moon and stars. Do we know the answer to this question?
In a mathematical problem, the teacher wrote the first step on the board 'Let the unknown number be X'. One student suggested
that it should be M because he is used to that. The teacher agreed and replaced the X with M. Now many more students objected
and some wanted it to be N, O, P, Q etc. Finally after heated debate and discussion it was democratically decided that it
should be X. There was a sigh of relief since the debate was settled. Everyone thought the problem was finally solved. The
unknown is X!
The unknown is not X. Naming it as X was the first step in solving the problem.
Unfortunately just like the students, after heated debate between Krishna, Shiva, Jesus and Allah, we all settle down
to call the unknown as GOD and think the problem is solved.
We need to resolve the expression GOD in order to find the true happiness. We can find this in a scientific manner and
we never need to accept anything that is not logically explained. The words 'Superstition', 'Faith' and 'Belief' belong to
the realm of religion and one can find the truth without resorting to religion.
Religious people are not qualified to resolve this because they are still fighting over naming the unknown. Even those
who blindly hold on to M, N or P to be the ultimate name, are busy defending their faith rather than attempting to resolve
the problem.
So we cannot expect religious people to give a solution. We need to find the solution ourselves. Then we will know the
source of everlasting happiness. You may wonder how these two are related. They are related. If you were believing world is
flat, you will get confused if someone tells you that the world is round. You will ask why the people on the other side are
not falling down? It will take a while for you to grasp the truth. You should spend time to analyze, seek explanations, learn
more and find the truth for yourself. In the meanwhile be aware that what is popularly believed is not necessarily the truth.
The true happiness lies in resolving the unknown.
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