How Rabindranath Tagore and Einstein Envisaged God

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 17 September 2024 "The mention of Rabindranath Tagore, Albert Einstein, and Ghulam Mohiyuddin is used as a way to validate the author's position, without providing any clear or relevant connection to their expertise or authority in the matter of theology. Einstein, for instance, was a physicist, not a theologian, and his views on God were complex and personal, rather than authoritative in religious studies." First of all, if you insist on a theological perspective on god, it'll be an extremely narrow opinion based on limited premises and precincts because a theologian is someone who studies the nature of god, religion, and religious beliefs. His domain cannot be all-encompassing and all-embracing. Tagore and Einstein experienced god as humanists, mystics and rationalists. They didn't confine themselves to theology to define god in a conventional and orthodox manner. Tagore's religion is based on the divinization of man and humanization of god. While explaining the meaning of humanization of god, he said 'Humanization of god does not merely mean that god is god of humanity but also it means that it is the god in every human being.' Einstein believed in Spinoza's god. He did not believe in a personal god who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings, a view which he described as naïve. To comprehend god as all love, would you please read all 108 known Upanishads or at least 10 principal Upanishads, namely, Isha, Kena, Katha, Prashan, Mundaka, Mandukya, Taittriya, Aitreya, Chandogya and Brihadaranakya? And don’t resort to ChatGPT! Please learn Sanskrit, even rudimentary, to imbibe the spirit of a universal god that's Ishwar Kshamyanti (God is forgiveness). Mind you, you can forgive wholeheartedly only when you're brimful with love. There's no mention of god in Upanishads, punishing those who deny or defy Him. The very belief that if you defy your god, you'll be despatched to hell to be roasted forever, sounds so juvenile and worldly. It doesn't even make a rational person laugh. It makes him feel pity for those who entertain such prehistoric views about a god and unwittingly equate Him with a despot. Only a believer, dovetailed to his/her man-made faith, may think of god as an anthropomorphic being who gloats over the failings of humans. Remember, Einstein wasn't a practising Jew. Nor was Tagore an orthodox Hindu. He was a Brahmo. Brahmo Samaj is a monotheistic sect of Hinduism (later separated from it) that translates to "community of men who worship the one Brahman". The term is made up of two Sanskrit words: Brahmo, which means "one who worships Brahman", and Samaj, which means "community of men." Tagore eventually became an apatheist, having arrived at a human-centric 'religion of Man' towards the end of his life. Had Tagore and Einstein been typical theologians like Al-Farabi, Ibn-Arabi, Imam Ghazali, Ibn Furak or Abu Mansur al-Baghdadi, they would have defined god/ Allah as described in the Quran. But as I stated in the beginning, they were humanists. So, they could envisage god purely in terms of love, forgiveness and as a transcendental reality. Punishment is alien to a transcendent god. Lastly, rise above the stupid binary of theist and atheist; honest and dishonest. It shows a person's abysmal vocabulary, his/her parochial vision, dichotomised thinking, implacable vindictiveness, stone-age perceptions, propensity to cast opprobrium on those who're markedly far superior and also lack of understanding of profound subjects. ------ A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/rabindranath-tagore-einstein-god/d/133216 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism