Who is God?
who is He? Where to find? –ss
–There is a Tamil saying, ‘Whoever has seen God cannot explain Her and whoever explained Her, has not yet seen God.’ Muktiveda says, ‘No one has seen God and no one can see God’. (I Tim. 6:16). As I have already shared with you ‘Our God’ is too small. To confess the truth, I don’t know who God is. If we begin to summarize all the scriptures in the world that talk about God, then we have to end up in several volumes. (I heard that one Indian has written one book entitled ‘Oh My God’ on this subject but I am not sure about it) Sometimes, I think that it is good that we don’t know who God is? Once we have a clear understanding about Her, then all our jikjansu (curiosity or desire to know) and anxiety will come to an end. Even those who claim to have realized God or have experienced Her, have to live with the question and anxiety whether their realization and experience is true or not? I too believe in God, but my search is not to find Her, but to know the way to begin the process of ‘Knowing God and also Known by Her’. And I think for this we all need a guru and my search for that guru began and now ended in Muktinath.
One better way to understand God is to keep quiet. There is a famous story in the Upanishad (immediately I cannot give the reference). A disciple approached the guru with the desire and requested to show him who god (or Brahman) is. Then the guru remained silent. The disciple repeated the same request for the second and third time receiving the same response of silence from his guru. When the fourth disciple with much depression put the same request, the guru responded by saying, ‘all these time I am only sharing about god (or Brahman). Only you were not listening’! About this Hume says:
How now is this kind of real Brahma to be known? The practical method, stated in Katha 2.8-9 and frequently elsewhere, that if one were taught by a competent guru, or teacher, he might find Brahma, is of course superseded. The progress of speculation had taken Brahma to that fare-off, transcendent real where it is a question whether it may be reached or know at all (Sevt. 4.19-20)…that higher Brahma is not accessible to knowledge by sense or by thought or by instruction (Kena 1.3; Tai. 2.4.9). No more than it is bare existence can be postulate (Katha 6.12). Even here the real point is dodged (Sevt.5.1; Mund.2.2.1; Kena1.3; Isa 9.10), utterly inconceivable is this supreme Brahma. The very attempt to conceive of it indicates that one does not know the essential fact about it (Kena 2.3).— Robert Ernest Hume, 13-Principal Upanishads, AN OUTLINE OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UPANISHADS, Oxford University press, pp.32-42
[Katha, Sevtasvathara, Kena, Isa, Mundaka, are Upanishads]
Dayanand Bharati, March 17, 2011.
Also see my two articles: Oh My God and Who God is in the blog.
Where do I find the real Him? Is he Jesus? Is he Lord Krishna or someone else? — SS
Even if you are sure of God as someone whom you have chosen, keep the search alive. Because one who is satisfied with her search and need for God and spirituality is a dead person. The day one thinks that she is satisfied, then she begins to dig her own grave. One saint in his record about his search for spirituality says that one day he told God, ‘I am not sure whether I know the truth and you. I still have doubts about you and also my experience. I am not sure.’ For this God said to him, ‘What would you have done if you know you are sure, then do it now’. (I think this is Thomas Kempis which is recorded in his book: Imitation of Christ) This is also my conviction. Regarding God and spirituality, we have to live ‘one day at time’. But even for this we need a firm foundation which a guru alone can give. Once we found that guru and have faith in Her, then we should begin to live ‘one day at a time’
In his letter to an Atheist what P. Sudhakar says about knowing God is worth reading:
Great discoveries, like electricity and the steam engine, were unexpected even to the discoverers. For an atheist it is an accident, but to the theist it is providence. Yet the fact remains that it is sudden and unexpected. Similarly, great ideas are born and not made. Extend this further and you will accept that God is the ‘Grand Discovery’, and not the process of systematic and regular thinking. (p.132) Life is so wonderful and worth living because of the joy of discovery. And God wants man to discover Him. So the discoverer of God is a happy man, and his joy never fades, because, though man may know God, yet there is no end of knowing Him.’—Wilhelmina Sudhakar, Chosen to Serve: The Life and Writings of Paul Sudhakar, 2007, pp. 132-33
And when it comes to knowing God or ‘discovering’ him the greatest hurdle for humans is her own reason. About this Sudhakar says, ‘Reason is always neutral. Proving and disproving faith, and relying on reason, is to shipwreck our souls. Reason should only be a servant and never a master. Have you ever thought about why man reasons? It is the reasoning mind which makes man doubt many things and establish many things; but has it occurred to you that the Mind never doubted itself or himself? Man has thought many things, but has not thought out his own thoughts.’—Wihelmina Sudhakar, op. Cit. P. 133
It has also let me ask myself that, are God and religion different? Can it ever happen that religion might miss out some aspect of God and there might be more about God that we may never know? Do we have to follow a religion to know God?–ss
The word ‘religion’ is derived from the Latin word ‘relegare’ which means that which binds together. Religion is invented by us to set some boundaries for our rituals and beliefs. It is like traffic rules. It is like the law. Before we make a law we have some freedom to make them and debate a lot. Once we make it, then we are obliged to follow it. And when they become out of date, then we bring amendments. But in most cases, religious boundaries rather than providing security try to exclude others so that we may not feel threatened by their presence and views. Religion always created ‘the Other’ and by comparing and contrasting with them, we either feel comfort or challenged/threatened. Religion is the womb of fundamentalism also.
There never comes the question of ‘religion might miss out some aspect of God’. Because no religion holds the monopoly to know all the truth about God. As I have already said, till the end we won’t know all about God and there will be more about God that we may never know. If we can know all about God, then we can become greater than God. Though religion can provide some guidance, it can never help us to know God. At the same time, we cannot live without its influence and service in one form or the other. Most of the time, like computers, it becomes a necessary EVIL. So many scholars have written so many things about religion. And it is beyond the scope of this dialogue to go through all those points as it will complicate our thoughts about religion than giving clarity. Sometimes, I think it is better to live with it like an unwanted person in our house. Neither can we ignore her nor can we entertain her.
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