The Brothers Karamazov by Fydor Dostoevsky

Wow! I just recently finished reading the most amazing book, The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

I am always a little vexed by the question, "What is your favorite book." I want to say Bhagavatam but that is not what people are looking for and it never satisfies people, and it is not really a book anyway, but now I have an answer, "The Brothers Karamazov is my favorite book."

The back of the jacket say, "The last greatest of Dostoevsky's novels, The Brothers Karamazov is a towering masterpiece of literature, philosophy, psychology, and religion." This is not an exaggeration, it really is a towering masterpiece.

It is hard for me to say anything about it because there is so much to say, the book is 700 pages. But I'll just say that it address all the most important questions.

Again from the jacket, "Into the framework of the story Dostoevsky poured all of his deepest concerns-the origin of evil, the nature of freedom, the craving for meaning, and most importantly whether or not God exists."

Many people consider Dostoevsky's work a precursor to existentialism, for in his books he lays bare the human condition. He looks into the inner recesses of the human soul and reveals all that evil but ultimately all that is good.

"Ultimately Dostoevsky believes that Christ-like love prevails. But does he prove it?"

It was really interesting for me reading this after my recent readings/writings/discussions/thoughts on atheism.

I see atheism as more of a existential issue than an intellectual issue. This is the only book I've come across that really address the issues on that level.

In the Brothers Karamazov Dostoevsky address the core issues without getting distracted in philosophical red herrings. How can the existence of God be justified in light of the suffering we see? Is there any such thing as morality without a conception of God? Is there a possibility for the redemption of humanity or are we doomed to kill each ot

I highly recommend everyone, atheists and theists, to read this book. It is well worth it. I was worried it would be boring and hard to finish, but it was actually hard to put down. The plot is very exciting, full of intrigue and sordid love affairs, and the issues address are even more fascinating.

Just one excerpt, this is from father Zossima, the revered guru and saint speaking about the importance of the monastic order, or more broadly devotion to God, in regards to creating peace and happiness in society (what Srila Prabhupada called "spiritual communism"):

"They have science; but in science there is nothing but what is the object of sense. The spiritual world, the higher part of man's being is rejected altogether, dismissed with a sort of triumph, even with hatred. The world has proclaimed the reign of freedom, especially of late, but what do we see in this freedom of theirs? Nothing but slavery and self destruction! For the world says:

"You have desires and so satisfy them, for you have the same rights as the most rich and powerful. Don't be afraid of satisfying them and even multiply your desires." That is the doctrine of the modern world. In that they see freedom. And what follows from this right of multiplication of desires? Int eh rich, isolation and spiritual suicide; in the poor, envy and murder; for they have been given rights but have not been shown the means of satisfying their wants. They maintain that the world is getting more and more united, more and more bound together in brotherly community, as it overcomes distance and sets thoughts flying through the air.

Alas, put no faith in such a bond of union. Interpreting freedom as the multiplication and rapid satisfaction of desires, men distort their own nature, for many senseless and foolish desires and habits and ridiculous fancies are fostered in them. They live on for mutual envy, for luxury and ostentation. to have dinners, visits, carriages, rank and slaves to wait on one is looked upon as a necessity, for which life, honour and human feeling are sacrificed, and men even commit suicide if they are unable to satisfy it. We see the same thing among those who are not rich, while the poor drown their unsatisfied need and their envy in drunkenness. But soon they will drink blood instead of wine, they are being led on to it. I ask you is such a man free? I knew one "champion of freedom" who told me himself that, when he was deprived of tobacco in prison, he was so wretched at eh privation that he almost went and betrayed his cause for the sake of getting tobacco again! And such a man says, "I am fighting for the cause of humanity."

How can such a one fight, what is he fit for? He is capable perhaps of some action quickly over, but he cannot hold out long. And it;s no wonder that instead of gaining freedom they have sunk into slavery, and instead of serving the cause of brotherly love and the union of humanity have fallen, on the contrary into dissension and isolation, a my mysterious visitor and teacher said to me in my youth. And therefore the idea of the service of humanity, of brotherly love and the solidarity of mankind, is more an more dying out in the world, and indeed this ideas is sometimes treated with derision. For how can a man shake off his habits, what can become of him if he is in such bondage to the habit of satisfying the innumerable desires he has created for himself? He is isolated, and what concern has he with the rest of humanity? they have succeeded
in accumulating a greater mass of objects, but the joy in the world has grown less.

The monastic way is very different. Obedience, fasting, and prayer are laughed at, yet only through the lies the way to real, true freedom. I cut off my superfluous and unnecessary desires, I subdue my proud and wanton will an chastise it with obedience, and with God's help I attain freedom of spirit and with it spiritual joy. Which is most capable of conceiving a great idea and serving it-the rich man in his isolation or the man who has feed himself from the tyranny of material things and habits? The monk is reproached for his solitude, "You have secluded yourself within the walls of the monastery for your own salvation,k, and have forgotten the brotherly service of humanity!" but we shall see which will be most zealous in the cause of brotherly love. For it s not we, but they, who are in isolation, though they don't see that."

Here are a few more random quotes off the inter net (although these isolated quotes do not at all do the book justice):

"I think the devil doesn't exist, but man has created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness."

"People talk sometimes of a bestial cruelty, but that's a great injustice and insult to the beasts; a beast can never be so cruel as a man, so artistically cruel. The tiger only tears and gnaws, that's all he can do. He would never think of nailing people by the ears, even if he were able to do it."

"If you were to destroy in mankind the belief in immortality, not only love but every living force maintaining the life of the world would at once be dried up. Moreover, nothing then would be immoral; everything would be lawful, even cannibalism."

"What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love."

"There is only one salvation for you: take yourself up, and make yourself responsible for all the sins of men. For indeed it is so, my friend, and the moment you make yourself sincerely responsible for everything and everyone, you will see at once that it is really so, that it is you who are guilty on behalf of all and for all. Whereas by shifting your own laziness and powerlessness onto others, you will end by sharing in Satan's pride and murmuring against God."


"Listen: if everyone must suffer, in order to buy eternal harmony with their suffering, pray tell me what have children got to do with it? It’s quite incomprehensible why they should have to suffer, and why they should buy harmony with their suffering."

"Is there in the whole world a being who would have the right to forgive and could forgive? I don't want harmony. From love for humanity I don't want it. I would rather be left with the unavenged suffering. I would rather remain with my unavenged suffering and unsatisfied indignation, even if I were wrong. Besides, too high a price is asked for harmony; it's beyond our means to pay so much to enter on it. And so I hasten to give back my entrance ticket, and if I am an honest man I am bound to give it back as soon as possible. And that I am doing. It's not God that I don't accept, Alyosha, only I most respectfully return him the ticket."

"I'm a Karamazov... when I fall into the abyss, I go straight into it, head down and heels up, and I'm even pleased that I'm falling in such a humiliating position, and for me I find it beautiful. And so in that very shame I suddenly begin a hymn. Let me be cursed, let me be base and vile, but let me also kiss the hem of that garment in which my God is clothed; let me be following the devil at the same time, but still I am also your son, Lord, and I love you, and I feel a joy without which the world cannot stand and be."

"Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men happy in the end... but that it was essential and inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creature ... And to found that edifice on its unavenged tears: would you consent to be the architect on those conditions? Tell me, and tell me the truth!"

"The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love, and in order to occupy and distract himself without love he gives way to passions and coarse pleasures, and sinks to bestiality in his vices, all from continual lying to other men and to himself."

"By the experience of active love. Strive to love your neighbour actively and indefatigably. In as far as you advance in love you will grow surer of the reality of God and of the immortality of your soul. If you attain to perfect self-forgetfulness in the love of your neighbour, then you will believe without doubt, and no doubt can possibly enter your soul. This has been tried. This is certain."

"His whole theory is a fraud! Humanity will find in itself the power to live for virtue even without believing in immortality. It will find it in love for freedom, for equality, for fraternity. "

"Beauty! I can't endure the thought that a man of lofty mind and heart begins with the ideal of the Madonna and ends with the ideal of Sodom. What's still more awful is that a man with the ideal of Sodom in his soul does not renounce the ideal of the Madonna, and his heart may be on fire with that ideal, genuinely on fire, just as in his days of youth and innocence. Yes, man is broad, too broad, indeed. I'd have him narrower. The devil only knows what to make of it! What to the mind is shameful is beauty and nothing else to the heart. Is there beauty in Sodom? Believe me, that for the immense mass of mankind beauty is found in Sodom. Did you know that secret? The awful thing is that beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and the devil are fighting there and the battlefield is the heart of man."