Amish Tripathi

How you see the world is often defined by where you come from. Now, I'm a Hindu. Hinduism is most probably among the most ancient living religions on Earth, and Hinduism is a part of the Dharmic group of religions, which also includes Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism.

In many ways, our worldview is fundamentally different from the Abrahamic group of religions. The Abrahamic group, as you all know, is Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It could be argued that Western atheism, which emerged as a reaction to the Abrahamic religions, also has many of the features of Abrahamic religions.

So, how is our worldview, the Dharmic worldview, different? One of the key things is we don't see the world in binaries. You know, good, evil, black, white.

We don't see the world that way. We see it in shades of gray. So from this perspective, how do we answer this question that God is a delusion?

The question itself is incomplete for two reasons. The first is that according to Hindu philosophy, anything that has a beginning and an end is temporary and hence an illusion. The Sanskrit word for it is maya.

So therefore, everything, including the universe, because it does have an end date, is an illusion, which makes this entire debate itself infructuous. But there's a second concept of reality of Hinduism that I'm more interested in. It says that anything that has a purpose and function is real, even if it's intangible.

Now, let me explain the second concept a bit more. We've all heard of Carl Sagan, obviously. Carl Sagan had said that all our bodies are made up of water, calcium, and organic molecules.

This is a scientific fact. Now, if you pick an amount of water, calcium, and organic molecules of the right proportion and throw it under a bus, nothing will change. Nothing will happen to the bus or those elements.

But I'm not about to jump under a bus, very obviously, right? Even though my body is made up of that exact proportion of the list of elements that Carl Sagan had listed. Why? Because I'm not exactly just the elements that make up my body.

There's something extra within me, and that something extra gives purpose to the elements that make up my body. Therefore, I have a purpose for now. Therefore, I'm not an illusion for now.

That's the way it is with me. That's the way it is with all of us, and that is the way it is with God. If God has a purpose, then God is real.

So is the real question perhaps not whether God has a purpose? Is the real question that why has the West why does the West not feel a need for the purpose of God anymore? Or to calibrate a bit, why do most Westerners not feel the need for God anymore?

I think maybe the answer for that is in the tortured relationship that Abrahamic religions have with science, or more broadly, knowledge. Any scientific truth that is in conflict with Abrahamic faith can be called as blasphemy, and that sets up that magnificent duel, right? Abrahamics and God on the one side and science on the other, and you have to pick one side.

You can't have both. How does Hinduism see this debate? Well, first of all, Hinduism does not have a doctrinal concept of blasphemy, so there is no scientific truth that I have to deny to prove that I'm a good Hindu.

It Simply the concept of blasphemy doesn't exist. But even more, Hinduism has a different relationship with knowledge. Let me explain that through, you know, taking you to the Book of Genesis, and all of you are aware of the Garden of Eden, right?

Broadly, what the story was. God punished Adam and Eve because they ate from the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Correct? Everyone knows that?

And most Abrahamic religious scholars say that good and evil was a metaphor for everything. So therefore, essentially, Adam and Eve were punished because they ate an apple from the tree of the knowledge of everything. Now, I'm not deriding this philosophy.

Knowledge, if you're not prepared for it, is often a path to unhappiness and destruction. It can be argued that you see a lot of evidence of that in the modern West, today. So if your purpose is primarily to just simply be happy, then maybe it's a good idea to avoid knowledge.

Innocence is bliss, right? It's, it's a fair call, right? Just remain innocent. Remain happy.

How does Hinduism see the relationship with knowledge? Hindu philosophy does acknowledge the risks of knowledge, but still tells us to go for it. To put it in terms that you may understand, Hindus wouldn't be told, "Don't eat that apple."

In fact, we would be told, "Go for the entire freaking tree." But what would what we would also be told that before you go for that tree, prepare yourself so that you can handle that knowledge. This is essentially the concept of karma and dharma.

Learn, evolve, so that you can handle that knowledge, and then learn some more. And keep learning till you learn everything that there is to learn, till you have consumed that entire tree, then you become God. You attain nirvana. I'm sure that's a term that most of you would have heard of, right?

Nirvana. This is what the concept of nirvana is. You keep growing, keep learning, keep evolving till you learn everything that there is to know, and then you become divine because you attain nirvana. Now, from this philosophical construct, what is the purpose of God?

God is not supposed to be a strict father who keeps you in line for your own happiness. No. In the Dharmic way, in the Hindu way, God is supposed to be like a witness or a guide who guides you on how to acquire knowledge without messing up your own life. Which is why you'll find that it's very common in India to be religious and scientific at the same time.

How many of you read about the, Indian space scientists who sent a probe to the moon? Everyone's aware of that? Yeah? We sent a probe to the moon.

The cost of that project was cheaper than a Hollywood movie on that project, right? But the scientists, and many don't know this, that the scientists who prepared that probe and that rocket, before launch, they took the components of that rocket to a temple to pray to it. They saw no contradiction in it.

Unlike Western atheists who very often feel the deep need to insult religion to prove their scientific temper. In the Hindu way, the divine can be male, female or transgender, and allows, even expects human beings to question him or her, as Lord Krishna did in the Bhagavad Gita. I'm primarily an author.

In the books that I write, I openly criticize and question the caste system. I write of powerful women. I have, gay and transgender characters, in my books.

My books, by God's grace, actually sell in reasonable reasonably high numbers. You won't find any controversy around me because in the Hindu way, there is an openness to multiple truths. There's an openness to multiple paths to the divine.

In. If I may complete, please. In some ways then, this debate is similar to the debate that's taking place over artificial intelligence. From what I have read, not that I know Elon Musk personally, but from what I have read, apparently, Elon Musk is concerned about the risks of AI and is therefore hesitating.

Whereas, Sam Altman is, you know, going all guns blazing, wants to forge ahead, right? In the Hindu way, the opportunity of AI would be seen, but the risks of it would also be acknowledged, right? So perhaps, you know, it cannot be denied that AI almost has the power of God.

Do we have the ability to wield that power? Do our societies have the ability to handle the consequences of something like this? Everyone knows what this gesture is.

Yeah, it's namaste. Most Westerners erroneously translate namaste to mean hello. That's not the actual meaning. In Sanskrit, namaste means, "I bow to the divine within you."

Now, this is a statement of humility. I'm bowing. But it's also a challenge to you. Discover the divine within you.

That is the challenge that Hinduism puts up. If I may just complete. I'm almost at the end, right?

If you find purpose, you will discover that God exists within you and your task over this life and multiple lives is to grow, evolve, learn some more and become God. God is not a delusion because you are God. You are a potential God.

You are all potential Gods. You just don't know it yet. What you have to do is find your purpose, and you will discover that you and God are in fact very real.

Thank you.