Skip to main content

The Agony of Ivan Karamazov


“The more stupid one is, the clearer one is.” That is one of Ivan Karamazov’s numerous profound observations. Ivan is one of the most fascinating characters in literature for me. He is intelligent and troubled but he would rather be stupid and happy. He is sensitive but such sensitivity can drive one to insanity. He is sceptical but he’d rather be a genuine believer in God.

But does God exist at all? If He does, is He a benign entity or a malign one? “If there is a God, then He is a malicious and cruel being,” Ivan asserts. On another occasion, we find him tortured by the thought that “If God exists, then, as the children are tortured, He must exist for the sake of tormenting them.” Children’s pains afflict Ivan particularly. Innocence does deserve better particularly if there is a God who cares.

Ivan could not accept God because of the evil in the world. An omnipotent God could easily get rid of evil. And God is not only omnipotent but all-loving too. One of Ivan’s fundamental problems is his inability to reconcile his intellect with his emotions. His emotions rebel against his brain. The conflict is so deep that Ivan becomes one of the most troubled characters in literature and hence most fascinating.

Ivan’s brother, Alexei is a deeply religious person. His religion gives him meaning and a sense of fulfilment in life. It makes him a saintly character. Ivan is incapable of such faith. This is where we are left wondering whether religious faith is a gift that not all people are blessed with.

I find Ivan fascinating probably because some of Ivan’s questions and agonies are my own. I could never come to terms with God precisely for the same reasons that Ivan raises. Evil in the human world is a grave question mark etched deeply on the very heart of God. Evil is so powerful that if God comes again to the human world, He will again be nailed to the cross or shot down or burnt alive by people who claim to be religious.

Like Ivan, I experience a deep longing for God within my troubled heart. But not a single religious place has ever given me the kind of serenity that I hope to derive from religion. Secluded places offer me such serenity. God has no place among believers, I feel every time I visit religious places.

In the end, I am as confused and troubled as Ivan Karamazov when it comes to God. But I have resolved the conflict by choosing to leave God to his believers. Let them fight it out as they are doing every day on the streets, in media, wherever.

PS. This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon

Previous Posts in this series:

1. Heights of Evil

2. Pip Learns the Essential Lessons

3. Delusions and Ironies of Love

4. Good Old Days without meetings

5. Finding Enlightenment

6. An Oracle Gives up his Goddess

7. The Ruler Matters

The series will end with two more posts.

Labels:

Comments

  1. Liz A.September 7, 2024 at 8:13 AM

    The problem is the definition of God. What is God? We have such an anthropomorphized vision that I doubt is accurate.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 7, 2024 at 9:29 AM

      Agree with you. I have wondered again and again how God can have a gender? What will God do with genitals, for example?

      Delete
  2. Yamini MacLeanSeptember 7, 2024 at 10:51 AM

    Hari Om
    Ah, The Brothers Karamazov... A favourite tale. I enjoyed it for all the reasons you elucidate here. My life long search has served me well and I'm satisfied with the answers. What requires remembering (and majority organised religion tries to keep their sheep ignorant of) is that "God" is made in Man's own image... hence so many variations of the One Manufactured... YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 7, 2024 at 11:19 AM

      What I find incredibly ludicrous is how millions of people refuse to see that Man-u-facture.

      Delete
  3. GeethicaSeptember 7, 2024 at 11:18 AM

    I feel like you resonate with Ivan for all the queries both of you have, one day you will find another character that will answer your queries in a way like they never existed. Until then you are doing good by leaving God to his believers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 7, 2024 at 11:20 AM

      In fact, Zorba of Kazantzakis answers my quest partly. I may write about him next.

      Delete
  4. Pradeep NairSeptember 7, 2024 at 9:49 PM

    An insightful exploration of Ivan Karamazov's complex character and his struggle with faith and doubt. It's difficult to define God. It means different things to different people. For me, God is an invisible power. A power that is manifested in everything living and non-living. A power that leads us.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 8, 2024 at 5:49 AM

      Those who have experienced God really won't ever fight for that power. We have so much violence in the name of God(s) because the believers haven't ever understood what divinity is about.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
47 comments
Read more

The Veiled Women

One of the controversies that has been raging in Kerala for quite some time now is about a girl student’s decision to wear the hijab to school. The school run by Christian nuns did not appreciate the girl’s choice of religious identity over the school uniform and punished her by making her stand outside the classroom. The matter was taken up immediately by a fundamentalist Muslim organisation (SDPI) which created the usual sound and fury on the campus as well as outside. Kerala is a liberal state in which Hindus (55%), Muslims (27%), and Christians (18%) have been living in fair though superficial harmony even after Modi’s BJP with its cantankerous exclusivism assumed power in Delhi. Maybe, Modi created much insecurity feeling among the Muslims in Kerala too resulting in some reactionary moves like the hijab mentioned above. The school could have handled it diplomatically given the general nature of Muslims which is not quite amenable to sense and sensibility. From the time I shi...
13 comments
Read more

The Real Enemies of India

People in general are inclined to pass the blame on to others whatever the fault.  For example, we Indians love to blame the British for their alleged ‘divide-and-rule’ policy.  Did the British really divide India into Hindus and Muslims or did the Indians do it themselves?  Was there any unified entity called India in the first place before the British unified it? Having raised those questions, I’m going to commit a further sacrilege of quoting a British journalist-cum-historian.  In his magnum opus, India: a History , John Keay says that the “stock accusations of a wider Machiavellian intent to ‘divide and rule’ and to ‘stir up Hindu-Muslim animosity’” levelled against the British Raj made little sense when the freedom struggle was going on in India because there really was no unified India until the British unified it politically.  Communal divisions existed in India despite the political unification.  In fact, they existed even before the Briti...
16 comments
Read more

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...
19 comments
Read more

Insecurity and Exclusivism

“ Hindu khatare mein hai.” This was one of the first slogans that accompanied the emergence of Narendra Modi on the national scene. It means Hindus are in Danger . It reveals a deep-rooted feeling of insecurity. Hindus constitute an overwhelming majority in India – 80%. All the high positions in governance, judiciary, academics, any significant place, are occupied by Hindus. Yet the slogan was born. Strange? It will be facile to argue that Modi used this slogan and its concomitant hatred of Muslims and Christians as a political weapon for winning votes. True, he was successful in that; he rose to the highest political post in the country using minority-bashing. But the hatred did not end with that achievement; rather it spread outward and became more exclusive. Muslim and European rulers of India were booted out from the country’s history books and wherever else possible like the names of roads and institutions. With vengeance. Now there is a concerted effort going on to place In...
30 comments
Read more