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The Ultimate Revelations
by
Jamshed Akhtar
Excerpts from three chapters of the book are provided here:
Excerpts from a chapter entitled
'The Fire'
He could feel the chill
of the mountain air seeping into his bones. The plain expanded from
the mountain's foot as smoothly as an inland sea, its distant shores
invisible in the golden haze of the setting sun.
The temporary settlement
that dotted the area seemed to belong to some nomads of this place.
Hamza first heard the collective bleat and then saw the sheep
returning amidst an air full of golden dust.
Through the fleecy
turmoil, he saw a tall shepherd moving towards a large tent. The man
was wearing a homespun cloak, and looked exceptionally graceful,
strong and stately. He watched, fascinated by each single movement
of this man, who seemed to have a kingly bearing even in this desert
setting. He was walking among sheep as if a king was moving among
his subjects.
As the man reached a
tent, a woman emerged with a pitcher of water and greeted him with a
smile. The gentle woman who must have been his wife, was wearing a
loose flowing robe with a head covering. Her face had a soft
ethereal quality which he had never seen among the coarse nomadic
tribes he had encountered in the Thar deserts of India. Who were
they? He knew that a lot of gypsies still preferred a nomadic
existence, but these nomads seemed very different.
The woman who was
looking towards the mountain pointed out something to the tall man,
who turned to look. Others also arrived on the scene. They too
stopped to look at the mountain. A hush fell suddenly on the
assembly. Even the sheep seemed to fall silent. Hamza whose back was
towards the mountain, turned to look at the object of attention.
The hill soared for
thousands of feet into the sky. There was nothing to halt the upward
path of the eye, except here and there, an irrelevant tuft of
vegetation curling from the rock-face on a single stalk or a
straight damp smear of some spring's overflow, like a snail track.
But near the top, a strange luminescent glow was visible, lighting
up the cloud layer that must have been near to its source.
Was it some kind of
forest fire at the top? Hamza turned to look at the nomads. These
people seemed equally perturbed about the cause of the light. The
man was saying something to his wife. He gestured towards the path
in the mountain and then towards the setting sun, which suggested
that he was going to identify the cause of the fire, and promising
to return soon.
Hamza felt a strong urge
building up inside him. He wanted to talk to that man. But what was
he supposed to do? Wait for his return or go after him? Hamza
decided to go after him. He too wanted to see the source of the
fire.
The shadows were
lengthening. The sunlight was now mellow and golden. A deep gorge
opened before Hamza, which narrowed and rose along a chasm between
the mountains. He saw the man climbing steadily, and scrambled
behind as fast as he could. Hamza had barely reached the end of this
gorge when the sun dipped below the serrated edge of the hilly
range. The mountain ahead turned greyish blue - sad, cold and
threatening…
…"The light you saw was
the start of the ministry of Moses." Father Joseph was looking at
the jungle of skyscrapers from the wide glass wall of Hamza's
apartment. He was a friend of Richard and a Bible scholar. His work
was recently published, under the title, 'How the Pentateuchal
traditions were transmitted'. Richard had already told him about his
dreams and he had come straight from the church to Hamza's
apartment. Throughout the narration, he had maintained an absolute
silence without any interruptions or questions. It was only when
Hamza finished his monologue that Father Joseph began speaking
dreamily. "How strange it feels when one considers the fact that you
personally saw an event that had actually occurred more than three
thousand years ago...All the while that you were fighting wild dogs
and hyenas in the mountain, and Moses was climbing higher and higher
for a tryst with destiny, who knows what sufferings were being
encountered by Hebrew families in Egypt. The same moon must have
been shining on the opulent palaces of the Pharaoh and on the slave
labor camps, where the slaves were rebuilding the fortified cities
of Pithom and Remesis. I wish you could have stayed behind and
waited for the return of Moses." He looked literally crestfallen.
"Just imagine, the source of light you missed seeing last night was
God's light Himself, the most mysterious event in the history of
humanity. It was the key incident in the whole drama. The gift of
Moses' staff came from within that fire. The plagues, the turning of
Nile into blood, the shadow of death, the exodus, and the parting of
the sea all followed later. It was that light, the fire that was all
important. I wish I could have been in your place, I would have
definitely waited for Moses to return instead of taking this stupid
risk and losing the chance for ever. Oh my God!" He covered his face
with both hands.
^Top
Excerpts from a chapter entitled 'The Preacher'
The jungle trail became
an aural, visual and olfactory treat for Hamza. He had never seen so
many birds of different varieties, size and shapes, flitting from
one branch to another; so many flowers, in hundreds of different
shades and hues; butterflies of breathtaking beauty; droves of
animals, known and unknown that came to the trail, stopped for some
time, looking quizzically up at the humans and then vanishing into
the lush dense growth. Never before in his life, had he encountered
such diverse and exotic smells that were emanating from the combined
array of flora and fauna, present in this tropical forest. And he
had never heard such a symphony of jungle sounds that included
multitude of bird calls, animal calls and the chirping of the ever
present crickets, having a rhythm of their own. Hamza had a musical
ear. He reacted to musical compositions much more intensely than his
colleagues. Sometimes, even the prosaic mundane background sounds of
a rural or urban day, blended into pleasing compositions for him.
But, this aural experience was something different. It was much more
richer than anything he had heard before. He wanted to stop and
savor each and every note, every movement and color that was dancing
before his eyes, and every exotic smell he was experiencing. But the
monks were moving inexorably towards their destination. And Hamza
did not want to be left behind.
The jungle had kept him
so engrossed that he lost track of the time. Suddenly, he heard the
voice of the boatman calling the monks. He was not visible from
here, the trail had curved ahead into the forest. One by one, all of
them joined the old man.
The forest had thinned
from this point onwards. Through the branches, a large clearing was
visible, where hundreds of men were sitting cross-legged on the
ground, listening to a discourse being given by a man, not clearly
visible from this distance. Hamza saw scores of people coming to the
clearing and joining the congregation from all sides of the
encircling forest. Many of them were in monks' apparel but common
people too were sitting among them.
The boatman and the
party of monks with him joined the congregation. They sat reverently
in the last row, which soon got filled up by the new comers.
The rows were neat, and
the large gathering extremely attentive and silent. Barring the
clear and melodious voice of the preacher, Hamza did not hear a
single murmur, whisper or even somebody coughing. Sometimes one of
the monks from the front row spoke something, but that seemed to be
in reply to a poser by the preacher himself. The discipline was
absolute.
Who was this man? How
come so many monks and common people were getting attracted to his
sermons? Did he belong to some Buddhist order? Buddhism was very
popular in the eastern lands but it had practically vanished from
India, long long ago. Hamza did not know about any preacher in
India, Buddhist or otherwise, with such a mass appeal. Then who was
he? He had seen the photographs of Dalai lama. But he was sure that
this man was somebody else.
Hamza decided to take a
closer look at the enigmatic preacher. Together with the young boy,
who had not joined the congregation, and walking on the periphery of
the clearing without disturbing the congregation, he reached behind
a tree, from where the man was clearly visible.
Sitting still on a
raised mound in the lotus position, he seemed to have absolute
control over his perfect body. The hair neatly tied up in a bun on
the head, showed his clear broad forehead, the sharp long nose, the
glowing complexion and the large eyes that were closed in
meditation. All these factors had combined to give him an extremely
handsome and stately appearance. But, the thing which struck him
most about this preacher, was the peace and serenity on his face.
Such calm, such peace, he had never seen in a human face before.
Suddenly, the man opened
his eyes. And even from this distance, Hamza felt the power behind
those black, unfathomable eyes. As the man looked around, he looked
straight at Hamza and Hamza felt, as if he had been scanned by a
very powerful source of X-rays…
^Top
Excerpts from a chapter entitled 'The Creator Factor'
"Just a moment, if you
are implying that we must look for a coded solution to our present
problem in the Scriptures of the world religions, then before
proceeding any further I suggest that you find out at least some
credible answer to the question of the existence or non-existence of
the Creator itself. If the atheists have a stronger case, and we
have only a vague faith based on Scriptures whose accuracy is anyway
doubtful, then let us not waste any more time on this wild goose
chase. Let the masses wallow in their opium, fighting each other,
and let the scientists do what they are best at doing, that is, let
them try to find a way out of this crisis. If they succeed within
time, we will be saved. If not, well the extra-terrestrials who may
pass by this planet some day in the future, would know that at least
we tried, and failed. After all, from the beginning of civilisation
till today, several townships have been wiped out by natural
catastrophes, and not all of them can be accused to rival Sodom or
Gomorra. In those towns, there must have been children, too innocent
to differentiate between right and wrong, and some citizens who were
God fearing, loving, and good to others etc. etc." Dr. Keplar was
the first to react when Hamza floated his suggestion before an
assembly of his space station colleagues. The vehemence, the
passion, and the anger showed that he was either a chronic atheist
or an easily excitable man.
"Creator factor is a
fascinating and mysterious subject." Dr. Drake was a senior
scientist and resembled a very likeable half human, half Vulcan
character Mr. Spock from an ancient Tv serial 'Star Trek'. Hamza
could not guess his age, but it must have been within the age limits
prescribed for a space mission. "It has always excited the most
intelligent and the most stupid..," Hamza was again unable to guess
which category was meant for Dr. Keplar "..And it is still being
studied vigorously by extremely sharp men of knowledge and
intellect, from all walks of life. But, no one has yet succeeded in
really proving or disproving the existence of a Creator."
"Dr. Drake, two third of
humanity is supposed to believe in the Creator factor. Do you really
think that all this faith is without any tangible evidence of His
existence?" This question had come from an eternally inquisitive
young engineer Reeve, responsible for maintenance of life support
systems of the space station.
"Surprisingly yes, but
the statement should be amended to include that we neither have the
proof for His existence nor for His non-existence."
"What do you mean?"
"There are basically
four ways through which humanity has tried to discern the reality
behind the concept of a Creator." Dr. Drake opened his broad palm
and began counting on his fingers. "Through experiences and
knowledge of spiritualists and mystics; through philosophical
reasoning; through the testimony of prophets down the ages; and
through scientific examination and observation of the world for
evidences of a Design and a Designer of this Creation."
"And did none of these
sources provide a definite knowledge of Creator?" Reeves asked
again.
"The metaphysical
experiences of mystics and spiritualists the world over, not only do
not tally with each other, but such experiences also can not be
verified individually. Therefore they are unreliable by their very
nature."
"What about
philosophical arguments for the existence of God?" Hamza asked.
"The philosophical
reasoning started with Greeks, who tried to comprehend the reality
of the First Cause but could not succeed. Then Arab scientists
coming in contact with Greek logic tried to correlate the philosophy
and reason with their Scripture, but that movement also failed and
Creator factor remained a matter of personal belief. Saint Anselm in
the west meanwhile, provided Ontological arguments for the existence
of God, and after him Saint Thomas Aquinas gave arguments that
became known as 'Five Ways'. But, unfortunately, as later
philosophers showed, none of them could succeed in proving the
existence of God satisfactorily."
"What about the third
way you outlined. Doesn't the testimony of prophets provide a
definite concept of Creator?" The question was asked by Dr. Isaac,
the science officer of the space station, a serious and sensitive
man, and a devout Jew.
"Except
Buddha, who did not want to talk about metaphysics, Scriptures of
other world's authentic religions, do provide us a definite concept
of God. But these concepts are contradictory. The belief in the
Vedas as a revealed wisdom is an essential part of Hindu religion.
But the latitude permitted in the interpretation of Vedas is so wide
that atheistic Sankhya philosophy of Kapila and the polytheism of
Puranas are both recognized as orthodox. Besides Vedanta philosophy
give us an organic concept of God while the God of Judaism,
Christianity and Islam is understood to be an ultimate 'Father in
the Heaven' figure. And even this 'Father in the Heaven' concept is
not without differences. The God of Israel and Islam is single, but
the God of Christianity is a Trinity of three persons. Then this is
not all. There are differences in the God of Israel and Islam also.
It is for these reasons, and the fact that there is no infallible
way to judge the accuracy of these Scriptures, that men of knowledge
have always found the exercise of scientific reasoning as being the
more acceptable way to prove or disprove the existence of God."…
^Top |
