Listeners' Reflections

This is your place to publicly comment on the topics and issues addressed in Speaking of Faith programs. React in a personal way, and put into words what this program meant to you.

Submit Your Reflection about "The Heart's Reason: Hinduism and Science."

You Made My Day! (November 25, 2007)
This morning I turned on the radio to listen to a story on the River Ganges that was supposed to be aired as a part of Weekend America. That's how I caught the last few minutes of today's Speaking of Faith. As curious as I am about the religion I was born into, I visited this Web site and just finished listening to the complete program (thanks for making the program available online). I have to say that the discussion was very illuminating and edifying. Only such impartial, open-minded, and intelligent discussions can help people of different religions work together for a better world. Before today, I have never listened to SOF (partly because 7 AM is a little too early for me on Sundays), but, I look forward to listening to SOF from now on (at least online). Thanks a million!

PS: The choice of the soundtracks for background score was perfect. Also, thanks for making them available online!

Aswani Pulipaka
Farmington Hills, MI (WUOM, 91.7 FM)

Much Like Tillich's View (November 25, 2007)
V.V. Raman's idea of spirituality/religion as belonging to a different dimension of reality reminded me of the words of theologian Paul Tillich below [that appeared in] my book Beauty in Science and Spirit. Tillich saw religion as part of the vertical dimension of depth, ultimate concern, meaning, and purpose. He regarded science as part of the horizontal dimension of relationships between finite objects.

Tillich states: "Science lives and works in another dimension and therefore cannot interfere with the religious symbols of creation, fulfillment, forgiveness, and incarnation, nor can religion interfere with scientific statements." "Dimensions cross without disturbing each other; there is no conflict between dimensions." A program on Paul Tillich, a colleague of Reinhold Niebuhr, could be in interesting sequel to the Speaking of Faith program on Niebuhr. Science and religion also have complementary beauty.

Paul Carr
Bedford, NH (Listens to SOF OnDemand)

Bias (November 25, 2007)
Although I am enjoying this program with V.V. Raman, I find it polarizing in the way you identify him as "theoretical physicist and Hindu scholar V.V. Raman." Why can't he be a scholar and allow him to address the Hindu religion? I suspect my point is an extreme one, but this is how we divide ourselves rather than join together.

Gary Apter
Boise, ID (KBSX, 91.5 FM)

Criticism (November 26, 2006)
V.V. Raman's perspective as a physicist looking and accepting Hindu traditions failed to convince me of the relevance of religion. Neither did it convey the majestic culture that Indic culture is. It more sounded like mouthing platitudes without either insight or realization. Mental scholarship and information is not the essence of knowledge. For an atheist who has recently embarked upon Hinduism, personally his analogies are weak poetry at best and his view-points are segregations of human faculties (minds reason and heart's reason) without effectively linking them up.

Though intentions of including this scholar were rational and noble, he unfortunately did not live up to it. For example, his stance on reincarnation did not convey whether he accepted it or not. Scientifically he did not know and could not digest the irrationality of the concept and his conclusion was that he did not know. However, what does his trans-rationalism say about it? Does his heart's reason believe it? Why should there be a logical conclusion of karmic principles? Are the consequences suffered in bodies or souls?

In essence a disappointing chapter in glorious annals of Speaking of Faith and in V.V. Raman as an inadequate votary of Hinduism to the American public.

Moloy Goswami
Bethesda, MD (WETA, 90.9 FM)

Spirituality & Science (November 17, 2006)
In your reflection on your interview with the Hindu physicist V.V. Raman, you write that "Karma and reincarnation, for example, are not concepts he would defend with his scientific colleagues." As a priest within the tradition of mystical Christianity, I work with a series of lessons called the Tree of Life, a collection of all the ancient wisdom teachings, the science of how the universe is created and functions. Personally, I have never understood the "contradiction" between science and spirituality, because it seems clear to me that they describe and emerge from the same realities.

In my view, karma and reincarnation are some of the best purveyors of the reality that the spiritual and material worlds obey the same natural laws. The law of karma is simple: as you give, so shall you receive. So is Newton's law of physics which states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Reincarnation, as a reality, is an extension of this law. Even if we do not see people paying off their karma in this life (an occurrence which often drives people to question the existence of a "just" God), they will pay it off eventually. Personally, I cannot imagine how people can believe in the idea of a just universe without the reality of reincarnation.

We learn how to be the most balanced, loving, and thoughtful beings we can be through learning in the school of experience on this earth. By experience, we learn what is hurtful to others and ourselves, what is helpful and what is not, how certain things feel on both the giving and receiving ends.

As a mystic, I know love and light as energetic realities that are as tangible as intangible, I know the life-force as a powerful movement within my being and the whole of the universe. I recognize that "as above, so below" is a reality, because I see it everywhere — around me and within me. The universes around us and within us all beat with the same heartbeat. Science looks at them from the outside in; mysticism looks at them from the inside out. Both disciplines come to the same knowledge and compliment each other. I cannot imagine it being otherwise.

Mostly, I wanted to share that, and also the fact that not all Christians see two diametrically opposed knowledge camps, with each deserving an oppositional approach from the other. Rather, just as Jesus taught, truth is and always will be, and that truth is all within you. Jesus mastered both the material and spiritual worlds to such a high degree that he could walk on water and heal any ailment, spiritual or physical, with his very word. Jesus knew the scientific and spiritual laws; He lived and breathed them. He was a walking example of their marriage within the eternal truths. Thank you for your show and your seeking heart.

Cecelia Lucas
Milwaukee, WI (WUWM, 89.7 FM)

Issue Well Taken (November 14, 2006)
Thanks for the excellent program about Hinduism and science. I don't understand the previous posting regarding "requires a dramatic paradigm shift away from a moral premise." What does that mean anyway? How is Hinduism not moral?

I believe that this program was a good primer on the Hindu faith and how it differs from that of the West in which polarization is the mainstay for things not understood or explainable. The subject was explained in terms digestible to a mass audience that mainly is not knowledgeable about Hindu thought. It makes me want to delve into the Vedic Scriptures. It was definitely an inspiration! I'm sure that if a Christian scientist were to speak on his faith and science, he would give an equally intelligent and compelling presentation that was understood by the general public. Keep the faith and keep on coming on public radio! Namaste.

Trusan Comstock
Evergreen, CO (KUNC, 91.5 FM)

Poetry as Experience (November 13, 2006)
Your interview and presentation of V. V. Raman's discourses were invigorating. One of the most interesting comments was the view of poetry as a sophisticated way to experience things. Creating poems gives me fresh views on many levels. I was inspired by the entire interview and have decided to read more of Dr. Raman's writings. I believe you touched a common chord on many levels for many listeners with this great interview.

Larry Brown
Franklin, TN (KWMU, 90.7 FM)

Need Hindu Religious Scholars (November 11, 2006)
I am really taking issue with today's program about Hinduism. I understand the need to put things into Western terms so that Western minds understand, but trying to reduce dharma as virtues is just wrong. Remember you are talking to a physicist! Just because he happens to be a Hindu is like taking any Christian scientist and asking him about Christianity — it is absurd. You really need to have credible scholars and theologians making broad brushstroke definitions of words like karma and dharma that attempt to make nice between completely antithetical concepts! You are just trying to make everything look like it all goes together nicely, but Hinduism requires a dramatic paradigm shift away from a moral premise that you so desperately hold onto!

Vishali Varga
Montclair, NJ (WNYC, 93.9 FM)

Refreshing and Forward Thinking (November 10, 2006)
I received your newsletter and listened to the Hinduism program with V.V. Raman. What a refreshing and forward thinking interview and point of view. I loved it. As your broadcast indicated it is what is lacking in our world today. Thanks again and Namaste.

Mukesh Mehta
San Diego, CA (Listens to SOF OnDemand)

Change (November 10, 2006)
I have to applaud V.V. Raman's observation that "Hinduism has changed, as all civilized religion ought to." Coming out of a Christian evangelical background, I find that is one tradition that has changed in many ways, but not in the ways that would be most helpful in bringing about understanding of others, and ultimately a culture of peace in the world. This is something I address repeatedly in my comic strip, and something that adherents of all fundamentalist religions will have to come to grips with if we are ever to live together on this planet as friends and neighbors with respect for one another's traditions and beliefs.

Spyder Webb
Greenville, PA (Listens to SOF OnDemand)