THE LIFE WE WERE
SEARCHING FOR
The well-known German thinker and communist ideologue Friedrich Engels (1829-1895) believed that first of all, man needs clothing to cover his body and food to fill his stomach, and only after that can he ponder on matters of philosophy and politics. But the fact is that the first questions to which man wants the answers are existential questions, such as ‘Who am I?’, ‘What is this universe?’, ‘Who made it?’, ‘Why am I here?’, ‘How did my life begin?’, and ‘Where will it end?’. These are the fundamental questions people ask, which are rooted in human nature.
Man opens his eyes to a world filled with many different things. The sun sends him light and heat, but he does not know why it is engaged in the service of man. The air blesses him with life, but it is not in man’s capacity to take hold of it and ask, “Who are you? Why are you being so kind to me?” He sees his existence but does not know who he is and why he has come into the world. Man’s mind is not able to determine the answers to these questions. He still wants to know the answers to such questions. Even though these questions may not take the form of words and be uttered by every person’s tongue, they keep man’s soul restless and sometimes well up with such intensity that they can even drive a person mad.
The world knows Friedrich Engels as an atheist. But his atheism was a reaction to his environment that manifested in his life much later. His initial years were spent in a religious setting. When he grew up, he became dissatisfied with conventional religion. Reflecting on this state of his, at the age of nineteen, he wrote in a letter to a friend:
“I pray every day, almost all day long. I pray that the truth may be given to me. I have done this since doubts assailed me, but I cannot return to our faith. … I write these lines with tears in my eyes; it is hard to control my emotions, but I feel that I will not be lost and will find God, to whom I aspire with all my heart.” (David Riazanov: Essays on the History of Marxism,” p. 36, copied from “Max Eastman: Marx, Lenin and the Science of Revolution,” p. 148)
This was the natural urge for the search for Reality that had welled up in the young Engels. But he could not satisfy this urge, and becoming dissatisfied with conventional Christianity, he lost himself in political philosophies.
The truth is that the awareness of the One God, the Creator is embedded in human nature by birth itself. It is an essential component of man’s unconscious. This urge is present in every human being by birth. “God is my Creator, and I am His servant”—this is the silent oath that every human being, from the very first day itself, brings with him when he comes into this world. Awareness of the Creator, Lord and Benefactor is unconsciously racing in man’s veins. Without conscious awareness of the Creator, man experiences a huge vacuum inside himself. Deep inside, his soul demands that he find the Master he has not seen with his eyes, embrace Him and surrender to Him his all.
Attaining God-realization is obtaining the correct destination for this inner urge. The emotions of people who do not find God are drawn away from God towards other things.
Natural Urge to Bow Before a Deity
On August 15, 1947, when the Union Jack of the British Empire was lowered from the official buildings of India and the country’s national flag was unfurled, it was a sight that brought tears to the eyes of those yearning to see their nation free. These tears were, in fact, an expression of their connection with the “Divine Gift of Freedom.” The joy is inherent in every person for their beloved, to whom they had devoted the best part of their lives. Similarly, when a leader visits the grave of the “Father of the Nation” and offers flowers, bowing his head in reverence, he perpetuates the same act that a religious person performs for his Creator through bowing and prostration.
Likewise, when a communist passes by the statue of Lenin and removes his cap, slowing down his pace, at that moment, he is offering his emotional devotion in the service of his ideal. In this manner, every individual is compelled to make something or someone their deity and present their emotions as a sacrifice before it.
Every person has a strong desire to offer their noblest feelings to someone. Every person is compelled to make something or the other the object of their devotion and worship and offer the sacrifice of their emotions to it. Because this urge is natural, it initially emerges naturally towards God. However, circumstances and the conditioning of the environment, among other factors, turn it in the wrong direction toward something other than God. After some days, man becomes used to a particular lifestyle that he has been conditioned to and begins to feel pleasure in it. For instance, the atheist British philosopher Bertrand Russell was staunchly religious in childhood. He used to pray regularly. One day, his grandfather asked him what his favourite prayer was. Young Russell answered that he was tired of life and was burdened by his sins. At that time, God was Russell’s object of devotion. But when Russell reached the age of 13, he stopped praying, and because of living in an environment that had revolted against religious traditions and traditional values, an attitude of rebellion against them began to emerge in him. Finally, he became an atheist whose most beloved things were mathematics and philosophy.
In April 1959, Russell sat down with John Freeman of the BBC program Face to Face for an interview. Russell reminisced about his early attraction to mathematics. “I got the sort of satisfaction that Plato says you can get out of mathematics,” he said. “It was an eternal world. It was a timeless world. It was a world where there was a possibility of a certain kind of perfection.”
This British thinker had refused to make God the object of his devotion. But still, he could not remain free from the need for an object of devotion, and he placed mathematics where he had earlier placed God. Not only this, but he also accepted the mathematical attributes that only God can possess, such as eternality and freedom from the boundaries of time. He believed that through mathematics, he could obtain peace similar to that from religion—which his inner being was searching for.
People who do not accept God and regard God’s worship as meaningless prostrate before their self-made idols to satisfy their inner desire for worship and devotion. It is a fact that worshipping something is a natural need of man. If man does not bow down before God, he will have to bow down before other ‘deities’ because his inner vacuum cannot be filled without a deity.
People who make anything other than God the object of their devotion remain deprived of real peace in the same way as a mother who, deprived of her child, buys a plastic doll and seeks in vain to satisfy her motherly instincts through it. No matter how ‘successful’ an atheist may be in worldly terms, such moments are bound to come when he is compelled to think that reality is something other than what he thinks it is. Atheists, no matter how busy they may be, are sometimes forced to wonder what this world is all about, where they have come from, and where they will go from here. There is a lack of contentment and peace deep inside them. People who refuse to make God the object of their devotion and worship may be so engrossed in the preoccupations and temporary pleasures of the world that they may feel very content and at peace. But as soon as the artificial environment in which they live begins to reveal a crack, reality begins to force its way from inside them and reminds them that they are devoid of true peace and contentment.
Search for Meaning in Life
About twelve years before India’s independence in 1935, when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru completed his time in jail, he penned the following words: “I feel that one chapter of my life has come to an end, and now a new chapter will begin. What will it be? No one can speculate about it. The next pages of the book of life are unknown.” (Nehru, “An Autobiography,” London, p. 597)
As Nehru’s life unfolded, it became evident that he would become the Prime Minister of the world’s third-largest country, governing over the most populous part of the world. However, this realization did not quell Nehru’s restlessness. Even in the zenith of his success, he continued to sense that there were still unturned pages in the Book of Life. This question persisted in his mind until his final days, a question that every individual carries from birth.
In the first week of January 1964, an international conference of orientalists convened in New Delhi, with representatives from India and other countries in attendance. During his speech at the meeting, Pandit Nehru, acknowledging his political commitments and limited time for contemplation, expressed his compelled thoughts about the nature of the world, its purpose, our existence, and the actions we undertake. He affirmed his belief in the existence of forces that shape our destiny. (National Herald, 6 January 1964)
A certain unease lingers within the souls of those who have denied acknowledging God as their Lord and have chosen not to worship Him. At times, amidst the busyness of worldly affairs and temporary interests, it may seem as if they are momentarily detached from this unease. However, as the artificial environment fades away, reality begins to exert its force from within, reminding them that they are deprived of true tranquility.
Professor Michael Brecher (1925-2022) from Michigan University authored a political biography of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru entitled “Nehru: A Political Biography.” The author had the opportunity to meet Pandit Nehru himself while writing it. During a meeting held in New Delhi on June 13, 1956, Professor Brecher asked Pandit Nehru to briefly outline his beliefs regarding the essential elements of a good society and his fundamental philosophy of life.
In response, Jawaharlal Nehru stated, “I believe in certain standards, which you can consider moral standards. These standards are necessary for individuals and society alike. Without them, meaningful results cannot be achieved even with material progress. I am uncertain about how to establish these standards. They are associated with religious perspectives, but I feel confined by all the rituals and practices that come with them. I place great importance on ethical and spiritual values that transcend religion, but I am unsure how to uphold them in modern life. That remains a question for me.” (Nehru: “A Political Biography,” London 1959, pp. 607-08.)
This question and answer shed light on the second aspect of human beings. There is another vacuum that man is facing on an extreme level today, which has to do with a severe moral crisis. It is an indispensable requirement for every social group that its members live by specific ethical standards. Without this, human civilization will collapse. But after abandoning God, man does not know how to fulfil this need. Even after decades of experiencing this predicament, man is still searching for a way out.
These signs prove that without God, civilization has plunged the human race into the abyss. It has derailed man from the path that leads to success. Life’s boat has become anchorless and sail-less. The only solution is for humanity to turn towards God. It must acknowledge the importance of divine religion in life. This is the only foundation upon which a better reconstruction of life is possible; no other foundation can reconstruct life.
