Cycles and Arrows
Cycles and arrows are major metaphors which form part and parcel of not
only everyday discourse in various contexts, they appear and reappear -
sometimes assuming technical significance - in the frame of specific
disciplines as well, such as Physics, Cosmology, theology etc.. Recent writings
of anthropologists and paleontologists have shown what role these time metaphors actually play in various cultural
traditions and why an exclusive claim on one leads to a distorted view. It seems to me that the crisis of the
phenomenon of religious pluralism, in intra-cultural and intercultural contexts,
lies to a very large extent in our inability to open up a creative
conversation, which is informed and inspired by a spirit of critical
understanding. Today, while discussing
alternative modes of thinking about such multi-faceted problems as that of the
question of ‘beginning’ of the universe, we need to be on our guard so that we
avoid such pitfalls. What is vital
while considering such a large theme is to be aware of the precise sense and
the specific contexts in which a notion of ‘beginning’ is forwarded or withheld
so that the religious meaning of these statements do not get lost in the
process of relating it to any model proposed in scientific cosmologies,
regardless which one is in vogue and which one is out of fashion in the current
phase of the investigation.
It may be remarked here that occasionally one
comes across in current literature the view that a religious meaning with
regard to the cosmos and of our place within it could be and has been
attributed only within a scenario that had a narrow sense of space and time,
where there were no ideas comparable to the modern conception of cosmos. This view seems to be at variance with the
experience of the Indian conceptual world where a vast sense of space, time and
cosmos instead of hampering the soteriological quest is used in the religious
discourse to motivate it. Thus, for
example, the late nineteenth century saint Sri Ramakrishna compares countless
worlds to innumerable crabs on a sandy beach in the rainy season in order to
‘invoke humility and inspire a religious quest in a visitor.
Contributed by: Dr. Anindita Balslev
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