“I am seated in everyone’s heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas am I to be known; indeed I am the compiler of Vedanta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 15.15)

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सर्वस्य चाहं हृदि सन्निविष्टो
मत्तः स्मृतिर् ज्ञानम् अपोहनं च
वेदैश् च सर्वैर् अहम् एव वेद्यो
वेदान्त-कृद् वेद-विद् एव चाहम्

sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo
mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca
vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyo
vedānta-kṛd veda-vid eva cāham

“Have you thought about the best way to refute atheism? I think that is an important topic to consider, based on the steadily increasing madness of the population at large. This is my opinion, but I am sure any sane and rational person would agree with my assessment.

“The people today behave as if they will live forever. They are so accustomed to indulging the senses, free of any barriers or controls, that you simply mention any sort of restriction and they think you are crazy. They accuse you of being sent from the stone ages. If you press the issue, if you respond with logic and reasoning, they will accuse you of being abusive.

“Nothing is worse than the abuser, you see. Since you are abusive, you must be silenced. Your voice is gone. They will block any means of communication. They will try to shame you publicly. Perhaps you might lose your job, as you dared to engage in civil conversation for which the other party had no suitable replies.

“How do we stem the tide? How do we bring people back to the light? It is easy to dismiss them. It is not difficult to write them off, to try to take joy in their guaranteed misery, but I would rather not be like that. Every person has God inside of them. That Divine spark is lit; let it shine. That is how I see it, no pun intended.”

It should be acknowledged from the beginning that if a person refuses to see, if they are only pretending to be asleep, if they will not budge from their ignorance, then there is no way to wake them up. As Shri Krishna explains in Bhagavad-gita, He is never manifest to the foolish.

नाहं प्रकाश: सर्वस्य योगमायासमावृत: ।
मूढोऽयं नाभिजानाति लोको मामजमव्ययम् ॥

nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya
yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ
mūḍho ’yaṁ nābhijānāti
loko mām ajam avyayam

“I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am covered by My eternal creative potency [yoga-maya]; and so the deluded world knows Me not, who am unborn and infallible.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 7.25)

For the skeptic, we can show them the truth. We can explain everything to them. We can ask thought-provoking questions. We can start with a basic understanding and gradually build upon that knowledge to reach something beyond the life-death cycle.

If the recipient is foolish, if they have no respect, if they are stuck in their ways, then what can be done? It is like trying to move a rock that is buried deep into the earth. Neither is it a valuable utilization of time to attempt to reverse the negligence to the most important topic of understanding.

If there is a little open-mindedness, then the most obvious justification for following Divine life is the intelligence embedded into nature. If a person staunchly believes that there is no God, how do they explain the seasons? How does nature know to change the average temperature, the times of the daily sunrise and sunset, and the percentage of cloud cover?

How do the birds know to fly south for the winter? How do the leaves know to change color and fall to the ground? How do the trees know to produce new leaves during the appropriate season? The blossoming of trees is so predictable and reliable that Shri Rama uses the transformation to explain the arrival of the appropriate reactions to sinful deeds.

अवश्यं लभते जन्तुः फलं पापस्य कर्मणः।
घोरं पर्यागते काले द्रुमाः पुष्पमिवार्तवम्।।

avaśyaṃ labhate jantuḥ phalaṃ pāpasya karmaṇaḥ।
ghoraṃ paryāgate kāle drumāḥ puṣpamivārtavam।।

“Just as a tree starts to blossom during the proper season, so the doer of sinful deeds inevitably reaps the horrible fruit of their actions at the appropriate time.” (Lord Rama speaking to Khara, Valmiki Ramayana, Aranya Kand, 29.8)

How were the milestones for growing children established? How does the child know the process for eating and drinking? How do the birds locate their nest after having left? In fact, how does anything in nature, large or small, operate on its own?

“Disparity in human society is due to lack of principles in a godless civilization. There is God, or the Almighty One, from whom everything emanates, by whom everything is maintained and in whom everything is merged to rest. Material science has tried to find the ultimate source of creation very insufficiently, but it is a fact that there is one ultimate source of everything that be. This ultimate source is explained rationally and authoritatively in the beautiful Bhagavatam, or Shrimad-Bhagavatam.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Shrimad Bhagavatam, Introduction)

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains that there is a source. That source can be identified, studied, located, and kept close by. That source is the reason for the intelligence that we see. That source, through its ever-flowing mercy, is also responsible for forgetfulness, for stubbornness, and for the refusal to apply intelligence that we sometimes witness.

Removing the ignorance, waking up from the slumber that may extend back to many lifetimes is the actual beginning of the human life. It is the most important understanding to seek, and Vedic culture as a whole is for alleviating this deficiency in the human society.

In Closing:

Wake up man,
Do something while you can.

A waste when in illusion spent,
For higher purpose here sent.

Evidence everywhere faced,
Like embedded knowledge placed.

The birds without GPS driving,
And the seasons on schedule arriving.

Categories: questions

Tags: atheism, hare krishna, intelligent design, nature, poem, poems, poetry