Peaches & Cream

More from The Bros. Karamazov

‘There was, so it goes, a certain thinker and philosopher here on your earth who repudiated everything, ‘laws, conscience, faith’ and, above all, the future life. He died thinking he’d go straight to death and darkness, and, lo and behold, there was the future life before him. He was astounded and indignant. “this,” he said, “is against my principles.” So for that he was condemned – I’m sorry,, you see, I’m only telling you what I heard myself, it is only a legend – so, you see, he was condemned to walk in darkness a quadrillion kilometers, and when he had finished the quadrillion, the gates of heaven would be opened to him and all his transgressions would be forgiven .. ‘
…
‘Well, so the man who was sentenced to the quadrillion kilometers stood still, looked round and lay down across the road: “I won’t go! I refuse to go on principle!” Now, take the soul of an enlightened Russian atheist and mix it with the soul of the prophet Jonah, the chap who sulked in the wale’s belly for three days and nights, and you get the character of the thinker who lay across the road.’
‘What did he lie on there?’
‘Oh, I suppose there must have been something to lie on. You’re not laughing, are you?’
‘Stout fellow!’ cried Ivan, still with the same strange animation. Now he was listening with a sort of unexpected curiosity. ‘Well, is he lying there still?’
‘That’s the whole point – he is not. He lay there for almost a thousand years, then he got up and off he went.’
‘What a silly ass!’ cried Ivan, laughing nervously, and still apparently thinking hard about something.

***

I love the adamant insistence of this thinker & how he fought belief to the point of denial solely for pride derived of a principle. I can’t help but admire the stubbornness of man even when in the wrong. I mean he is in the after life now, yet he still denies & refuses to be swayed. I also love how in the end after a thousand years, he too bowed his head to the Lord and believed accepting his punishment in all humility. It is reported that upon entering heaven & being there for no more than two seconds, the man exclaimed that for those two seconds, he’d have gladly walked not only a quadrillion, but a quadrillion of quadrillions raised to a quadrillionth power!

One thing I’m not so sure I fully understand. The crossing of an enlightened Russian atheist’s soul with that of the prophet Jonah; Sayidna Younis, 3aleh el salat o essalam.

Sayidna Younis was sent to the people of Nainawa in Mousil, Iraq. They did not respond to his calling & he stayed within them many years inviting them to God & his forgiveness. Still the people of Nainawa would not listen, after a while the prophet became angry and exasperated with them and it looks like they were angry with him too. For they persued him and he, without waiting for an order from God, fled & abandoned them. He walked till he came to a shore where he found a ship & asked to travel with the people of the ship. Seeing in him a kind righteous man they agreed. When the ship had sailed to the middle of the sea it suddenly grew stormy, and they started thinking that perhaps there was one of sin among them and decided to spin an arrow between them and who ever the arrow fell upon would be thrown into sea. So it was that the arrow fell on Sayidna Younis, the people were astounded that such a man should be the chosen one & the prophet told them his story and asked them to throw him off board. And in the sea he went only to be swallowed by a great big whale to stay there for three days & nights. In the whale’s body Sayidna Younis knew that this was his miraculous punishment for leaving his people angry and not waiting for the word of God. He started praying to God for forgiveness & that; there is no God but you & I have been a sinner. After three days God in his mercy responded to him finally and the whale threw him onto the shore.

The exact qualities meant in the prophet’s soul are no doubt that of learning after a period of punishment, being forgiven & belief in God. But what is the quality of soul of the enlightened Russian atheist that produced the thinker when crossed with the qualities in the soul of the prophet?

And another thing; can an atheist actually be enlightened? I’ve always associated enlightenment with God, so how does one with no belief in God be enlightened? Unless even an atheist actually believes in God without knowing it himself!

Maybe the reader can help me out with these thoughts!