Nyana Sunni

I'm sure I don't know

Its a Sanskrit adapted term … to refer to … people who are impervious to wisdom … later termed as ' infidel.' Its possible that the term arose … in the founding of the Buddhist faith … between 700 bce and 2 ce. Buddhism caused considerable turmoil … in the existing faith practices … until the Mauryan King Ashoka … embraced Buddhism in about 220 bce. My own speculations … on the issue … intimate that Christianity and Islam … arose in the period … 32 ce and the 6^th C ce … as response to the evolving change. No doubt the existing faiths … referred to the new as … ' nyana sunni.'

The faith that existed … prior to Buddhism … is expected to be representative of the human family. Historically … that refers to Zeus … Hera … and the family … that lived on Olympus. With the rise of Christianity … and diminishing of pagan practices … in the West … the Indics … commenced the practice of the Siva family in the 8thC ce … as living on Mount Kailash. Such changes today … reflect the existing landscape of the world … with regards social and cultural practices.

In parts of Greece and Italy … the worship of Zeus has returned … in the form of communal activity. Elsewhere … in Europe and the Americas … the web provides indications of individual practices … that's commencing tentatively. In comparing the practice with Siva worship … the individual will be struck by the similarity of the two … and quite often … each assists in understanding … the epistemology of the other.

In simplifying the experience … its my intimation to say that … the Olympian and Saivite … represent the knowledge of the father and mother. It may have arose … in the natural intimation of the times … to view father and mother with reverence. Hence Christianity and Islam … represent the faith of the children … whose initiative to consolidate the faith … arose after father and mother worship waned. Today they exist independently … as the faith of each member of the family.

The term ' nyana sunni ' … may have been applied to the growing restlessness of the children … and the institutionalization … of the family based faith practices … rose to teach the children. Hence … we encounter the need today … for every individual … to discover and realize for himself … the foundation of human faith. For the innocent … and naturally existing convictions … of a child in these times … are subject to much tests … from friends and foes alike.

However in making the effort to overcome … the self cultivated aphorisms … of the individual … he finds that … that which brought him down … are also subject to the same tests of authenticity. Hence in the re-construction … in the mind of one individual … they join hands … in re-cultivating the faith of man … by recognizing the disparate ethos … of every faith in the world. Its the role of each individual … in making up the total … ethos of faith … in relation to a creative endeavor … as big as the universe.

At this time … the issue of faith faced by man … appears to be one of … ' how to break away from the denominational practice … to re-establish the tenets … and return to the universal view? ' Such a break is necessary … to undertake the study objectively. The initial point of break … is filled with intense fear and paranoia. It erases the personality … we grew up as … and in a phrase may … ' cause the sky to fall.' Its here … that the ' nyana sunni ' … provides the greatest help.

Science and Atheism … are perhaps the two factors … that continue to resist all attempts … by man … to wrap the entire experience of life … in the cloth of faith alone. I can't help but feel … that its also the work of creation. It provides the opportunity … to stand apart from the many arguments about faith … and thereafter … to satisfy oneself … that our return to faith … is on the basis of an objective … re-discovery of the meaning of its tenets. Thereafter we are free from any further doubts.

In the family of the scientist … a child born that is raised … in the conventions of knowledge … and is eventually brought into a career in science … may well reflect a new star of Bethlehem. In collaboration with a man who has re-discovered faith … they may represent the twin aspects … of man and progeny. It would form the basis of a new faith … as it does science.

In my new found experience of faith … I find that faith … at its source … comprised the principles of science. However in restating the experience … to man … it underwent much in the way of edit. But in foregoing the need to explain my faith to anyone … I find myself free … of any metaphoric representation of the experience. Like Bodhidharma … at the Emperor's palace in China … I simply need to point to the clouds and the water in the stream.

Its been an adventure of discovery. Perhaps the hardest … was in lifting my foot from one rock … as I stepped onto another … in crossing the river … of confounded natures. It was difficult in giving up faith … to rediscover faith. Herakles was reported to have killed the river God … went mad … and paved the way for science. In Indic reference … that's Ganga … an ancient God … circa 1500 bce … who may have brought the Puranic tales to earth from heaven. In the West … that's Thetis … who dipped her son … Archilles … in the river.