The Attack of Bhagavad Gita on Freethinkers
It is almost certain that a rationalist will either smile or get annoyed when he reads that the God who goes on telling his disciple about how wonderfully he has created this and that and that he is everywhere, and everything is in him like the blowing wind is in the sky also tells the following.
‘Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature as the Supreme Lord of all that be. Those who are thus bewildered are attracted by demonic and atheistic views. In that deluded condition, their hopes for liberation, their fruitive activities, and their culture of knowledge are all defeated. O son of Påthä, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible. Always chanting My glories, endeavoring with great determination, bowing down before Me, these great souls perpetually worship Me with devotion.’ – From Texts 11 to 14, Chapter 9, Bhagavad Gita (Translated by AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada)
It is clear that the human form of God is scared of the mockery from the skeptics after uttering so much of extravagant stuffs. After himself getting surprised at his own creation; after repeatedly attempting to convince his disciple that he is the only truth and the cause of creation and its dissolution he himself seems annoyed of atheists whom he created. He is deriding his own creation as fools.
He wants everyone to be sheepish and follow his orders. He wants everyone to see the world through his own eyes. What he calls confidential knowledge is only his self-praise and attempt to persuade the gullible. He calls ‘thinking’ or ‘reasoning’ or ‘questioning his authority’ bewilderment, and categorizes all the alternate views of the universe as either demonic and atheistic which he dismisses with contempt. If the character Krishna is to be considered a mere fictional character trying to persuade Arjuna to go into fight, then Krishna seems to be a clever character. If he is to be considered a human being who thinks that he is the creator of everything and thus people should follow his instructions then he certainly has some problems. If he is to be taken as a God, then he seems powerless before freethinkers and resorts to calling them ‘fools’ and ‘bewildered people’ while hiding his omnipotence nobody knows where.
He also goes on to tell Arjuna that the people who do not believe will not be liberated after death. Basically, he seems to be making a ruthless killer out of Arjuna equivalent to modern suicide bombers who is to be liberated after death by him. Being the God, war seems to be the only solution to him in whole of Gita and calls those who question him and do not believe him as fools. What a dictator!
In the aforementioned texts, he seems to be reassuring the believers that they are under divine protection and blindly believing is called ‘not being deluded’. He wants people not only to believe him but also to chant his glory all the time with enthusiasm. He wants his believers to bow down before him and calls these people ‘great’ who worship him with devotion. What an interesting creator of the universe he is who is hungry of so much praise. He seems to me a mere maniac who wants to impose his thoughts and beliefs on others because he thinks that these are the only ways of a perfect life.