Tathastu Vs Inshallah – Two Paradigms of Living
Except for the megalomaniacal jokers on this planet, no one has shown up saying he is god. And no space probes have come across anyone with the name “God” or “Allah” anywhere in the space between here and the next galaxy. Actually, as far as the telescopes can see, no one has shown up on the screen with a sign saying “God here”. Yet those who believe in some god continue with their claims and their ways in that imaginary delusion.
Self-effort, Sage Vasistha told Ram, was the most supreme in one’s progress as a being. “Fate or Divine Dispensation does not enter here,” he tells Ram emphatically! In fact, just to reiterate his point he doubles down on it to say – “And the wise seeker knows: the fruit of my endeavors will be commensurate with the intensity of my self-effort and neither fate nor a god can ordain it otherwise.”
In a culture where we were told that whatever happened to us was “our karma” or our doing, (read – Karma, the Stimulus-Reaction Memory Structures) it is but natural that the Sages emphasized not on god but on Self Effort. Because god was not a person, nor was it interventionist. It was the substratum of existence. The Hiranyagarbha – or the Golden Womb, the Womb of Consciousness, which was the source of all existence.
That is why, it was also in only this culture that existence was not called “Creation”. It very well could have been – the word for Creation in Sanskrit is Kriti – but it deliberately and consciously was not. It was instead called Srishti. Or manifestation. Knowingly and after understanding the nature of existence and the true nature of primordial consciousness.
The infinite consciousness alone is the reality, ever awake and enlightened: and with existence also it is the same…. The existence exists in Brahman just as the sprout exists in the seed, liquidity in water, sweetness in milk and pungency in capsicum; but in ignorance it appears to be different from and independent of Brahman. There is no cause for the world’s existence as a pure reflection in the absolute Brahman. When there is no notion of creation, the creation seems to be; and when, through self-effort, there is understanding of non-creation, there is no world. (Vasistha’s Yoga; page 88)
IT is this understanding of the Truth that goes beyond the fantasy-based and scientifically unverified claim of “God” or “Allah” – that when a person had a wish or a dream, he was told “Tathaastu” – Tath + Astu or May that be so. Whatever you wish or work for may manifest for you.
No invoking Gods or asking the god to make it happen. Just saying – bluntly? – that what you wish or work for may manifest.
On the other hand, there is another word that has been used by the Muslims and has been gaining common usage socially in India – by those who think it is either “cool” or “Secular” (Go figure!) – Inshallah. This word means – As Allah wishes. Allah is the god defined as per Quranic text. Nothing outside of that definition can be considered Allah. It is a confined, defined and restricted understanding of the divine.
(What you wish) May that be so Vs What Allah wishes – are two different paradigms of consciousness.
You are. Allah is made up.
I can see you. No probe or person has found Allah anywhere in this Universe.
One is the understanding of realism and the Truth. Other is the understanding of someone juvenile given to a fantastical understanding of life.
Unlike how many would posit these two, the difference between Tathastu and Inshahallah is not ideological or religious.
It is the difference between Truth and Fantasy.
That there is no one to intervene and you and you alone are the maker of your destiny or fate is the Truth. That someone make-believe who only exists in stories is responsible for what happens to you is Fantasy. Juvenile fantasy.
Whether you come to something that you may call “good” or “bad” is your doing. No one either gives or takes away anything. Karma and its impact are not in terms of some wrath or infatuation of some self-delusional god but in terms of how it aligns with the foundational essence of existence. If you burn a certain impulse in your memory, that carries on and brings a reaction later based on that history. How that aligns with the way the existence is decides whether it leaves you in a jail or a palace. In a cave or in a forest. Result is contextual and time-based.
You do not have the insurance to take all the credit for the good and blame the bad to the imaginary “guy up there” as a cop-out.
Tathastu is the call to own it up. No more passing the buck. Because there is no one to pass it to. However loud you shout and however many you may kill who don’t approve of your juvenile ways.
Inshallah is a cop out. It is a loser’s way to live.