Mathematics and God

I was talking to children who take extra tuition classes and their teachers on why tuition classes were needed and which subjects children really wanted these extra classes.  Most children take tuition in mathematics.  When I was talking to the teachers and children as to why they took maths tuition, it was becoming increasingly clear that some children were frightened of maths. They scored low marks and they just did not want to go through exams without extra tuitions.  I was wondering why this was so with mathematics.  Someone told me that it was because mathematics was abstract and, therefore, difficult to understand. She also told me that Maria Montessori (the founder of the Montessori Method of education) had made it more tangible by making use of materials to make children understand mathematics.  The use of materials to explain maths made it fun for children and it removed the abstract nature of the subject and actually made it tangible - something children learnt by touching and feeling.

This got me thinking of the questions that gets asked by many - Why do you have idol worship in India? or Why do Indians give some kind of a form to God and use photographs or paintings to pray?

Our ancestors seem to have thought through this well.  They quickly realised that the concept of God was difficult to explain because we could not see or feel God.  We had different types of people - some who said that God exists (the theists); some who said that God does not exist (the atheists); and some (the realists) who said, "we do not say God does not exist but it would be great if he/she can help out once in a way".  People were struggling to relate to God and were also struggling to explain to their children on what/who God was.  I believe that is why a form would have been created by our ancestors.  Once form/s were created, then, there had to be stories around how such Gods came about.  That is why we find so many stories on each of the Gods in India.  Most importantly, every element of nature became a God and people could relate to them easily.  This way they also started respecting every aspect of nature and preserved nature - the birth of what I call as The Green God!!!

What this all means is that when something/someone is abstract like mathematics, we need more help in understanding.  God is as abstract.  And, Gurus are these tuition masters.  They help us get closer to the understanding of this abstract God.  The term "GuRu" means "One who removes darkness or ignorance".  Gu stands for darkness or ignorance and Ru means the person who removes this.

I read an interesting interpretation of the term guru by the great Yogi Jaggi Vasudev.  He said that a guru is one who shatters the disciples’ assumptions and beliefs and shows them the truth.  So, what is truth?  As abstract, if not more, than mathematics and God. Truth, like God, is abstract and there is more than one interpretation to it in any given circumstance.

Our teachers built some models and taught us mathematics and when we solved few problems and built models, we started figuring out what maths was.  So, how do we then understand what God is?  Much more complex and that is where the concept of faith comes in.  When the concept of God gets ingrained in to us from when we are young, we start trusting what we have been told since we were young.  This trust turns to faith when things that we pray for happen.  As Paulo Coelho says in his book, The Alchemist, "When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."

If we understand that God is nothing but one part of us and if we could use this God in each of us to remove the thoughts in us that is likely to cause harm to others, we will understand that God resides in each of us.  To better understand this and to remove the ignorance in us, we need these teachers - the Gurus.

The concept of faith and God is in each of our minds.  Faith in God creates meaning for us in our lives.  If it is all in our minds and helps us make out the meaning of our lives, I am not sure why we fight wars and kill/hurt each other in the name of God.  I have never seen anyone fight wars and kill/hurt people in the name of mathematics!!!