WHO IS GOD ?

Many people say they believe in God, but they don’t really know who he is.

Suppose one day a little girl named Daisy walked past the garden where you live.
“Someone must live there,” she thinks to herself.
And she would be right - YOU live there! But then suppose she thought you are a wicked cruel man, had long, pointy moustache, and protruding teeth, and furry feet; and that you hated children and dogs; and all you did was sit around beating your children, all day eating ice cream and playing on computers all sorts of video games.
That wouldn’t be you at all!
....except maybe for the video games part.
That is sort of God’s problem.
People see the moon and the stars and they think, “Someone must live there!” And they may be right. God knows best.
But then they get all kinds of different ideas about who God is.
And most of those ideas may’t be really who God is at all.
Daisy and her friends might sit around at lunch and talk about the person who lives in the place where you live, and in one way they all are right. Someone DOES live there. But if Daisy thinks you have furry feet, and one of her friends thinks you are just a kid who likes to play basketball, they aren’t really talking about the same person at all.
That’s how it is for God.
People say they believe in God. But what if one person thinks that God is the all-loving, all-powerful person who created everything there is. Then another person thinks that God is an old man with a white beard sitting up in a cloud somewhere. And then another person thinks that God is the statue of a cat he has sitting on his dresser. They aren’t really talking about the same person at all.
God had to find a way to let us know who he really is.

Is God only a concept? Let’s presume that we have never heard anything about the concept of God or even the word called as “God” and start afresh about learning and developing understanding about that Divine Entity. Let us unlearn what we have learnt about God based on our cultural upbringing, prior learning or forming an opinion or belief of what He is like. Let us not act like a sagacious fool and egoistic intellectual pretending to know Him. Let us admit that we are zero in our knowledge and can’t understand Him. Let us be like an innocent child who has not learnt his alphabets so is unable to form any concept.

We have given Him a particular name or names based on our cultural milieu and past upbringing, oblivious of the fact that a human word is just a vocal-cord’s sound or a sequence of alphabets to which – in our mental perception – have adorned and attributed it with a meaning. If you do not know that language, then that word will appear to be with no meaning at all. This type of words is called a attributive word which can be spoken or written or listened with human’s faculties of perception. It is also called as “Varnatamak Shabd” in Devanagri script, anything which can be written with 52 alphabets. Every language has its origin and period of evolution. They too have their life of their like human being. They originate, evolve for certain period, may change their form and may eventually die. They have to as they, too, are human creations.

It has been said in scriptures, that He is beyond all names and concepts. He is nameless. The name that can be named is attributive and cannot be His real name. Even the concept of God is an abstract one formed from our past beliefs, mental images, cultural association. How do we really form a concept about anything?

The logical acts of the understanding by which concepts are generated as to their form are:

1. comparison, i.e., the likening of mental images to one another in relation to the unity of consciousness;

2. reflection, i.e., the going back over different mental images, how they can be comprehended in one consciousness; and finally

3. abstraction or the segregation of everything else by which the mental images differ ...

In order to make our mental images into concepts, one must thus be able to compare, reflect, and abstract, for these three logical operations of the understanding are essential and general conditions of generating any concept whatever. For example, I see a pine, a willow, and a neem. In firstly comparing these objects, I notice that they are different from one another in respect of trunk, branches, leaves, and the like; further, however, I reflect only on what they have in common, the trunk, the branches, the leaves themselves, and abstract from their size, shape, and so forth; thus I gain a concept of a tree.

But in our case, we do not have the privilege to see Him and nobody to compare with. We cannot reflect as we have not the luxury of contemplating over His form. We cannot abstract Him as we have not compared, reflected and contemplated over Him further our human mind is very much limited to comprehend or abstract Him. And if we try to bind Him or restrict Him or realize Him by just an intellectual construct or abstract concept, then that concept will hold us back. Such concept will undermine and belittle Him and will restrict our possibility of understanding in future. And we should realize that all our concepts are just balloons of hot air filled in our mind giving us false notion of being learned intellectuals. All our related concepts of creation, reincarnation, heaven and hell and so many abstract notions are just conditional concepts triggered by our environment. It does not mean to say that they are useless. Offcourse, they are to be used as tools of scientific methodology, as communication devices or understanding things on physical plane but never to assume them as reality stuff. A description of something cannot be the reality itself.

Some smart guys may ask, “Who created God?”” and if we are honest with ourselves then we will honestly say, “We have.” The ideas, abstractions, conceptions, ideals, attributes, with which God has been endowed with, are almost created at this human level and are more or less mental conceptions. The God of religion has been conceptualized in the mind of human beings as mental imageries, past beliefs, cultural constructs.

After we come to realization that our understanding of God is at conceptual level and merely a perception based on our belief system leads one to ponder whether or not God exists. The idea of existence of God lurks in mind of every seeker who wants to understand these issues for themselves. However this enquiry shall be incomplete before we understand the concept of “God.” What we actually understand when we speak of God. You ask hundreds of people what they understand by the word ‘God’, you will probably get hundred different answers. The replies will be vague interpretations, confused conceptions drawn from a medley of religious, social, cultural, and familial and personal effects and impressions. Some will described God based on their religious beliefs and reading of religious scriptures. Some will describe him in anthropomorphic or humanlike trait, as a God endowed with emotions, liable to give boons when pleased and punishment when offended. Some would like to portray Him as a Universal Spirit or a transcendent, absolute reality. The variety of conceptions will depend on different perspectives of seekers based on their mindset. Many will try to be atheists and will tend to completely deny about the existence of any entity with name of God but will tend to him, consciously or consciously by any other name. They may recognize it in form of Nature, Beauty, and Love or simply as some entity – unknown and universal, beyond all human beliefs, conceptions and imaginations.

Those who try to mock or cut down to size the concept anything relating to concept of God try to take the easy way of becoming jingoist and cynics. They first set up a raw concept of God, choosing the most bizarre aspects out of many prevalent conceptions of the Divine, just like scarecrow made of straw. Then you set it on fire by sheer power of your intellectual jugglery, cool logic, bald reason, cynicism, and mockery. Cynics may say thatvirtue is the only good, that the essence of virtue is self-control and individual freedom, and that surrender to any external influence is beneath the dignity of man. But this is very superfluous and facile approach bringing disrepute to an atheist. Many spiritually inclined people also reject this simple explanation of Divine and have intuitive feeling that there is a far more intelligent way to understand the nature of Super-Consciousness.

Of course, cultural, religious and social beliefs play a big role in our notion about our concept of God. Spiritual disposition also does not depend on our belief or non-belief about God. Our belief system needs to be transformed into practice, awareness and experience. Yet, whatever may be our belief system, we should give full freedom to others’ perspectives and should not try to force our opinions on others.

Whether we believe in concept of God or not, we cannot outright reject the concept of “God”. We have to follow a scientific temper and say He may exist or He may not exist. We have to give a fair chance to the idea of His existence and acceptance of the fact that if such a Being exists then His personality and nature is going to be far beyond the reach of human logic, comprehension, discussion, and description.

We should also realize that evidence or lack of it does not affect our belief system in God. Feelings from emotions determining our belief system may not arise from any reason or logic though they may be supported by them. The real faith will arise from awareness, consciousness, perception and understanding.

Human life is full of different aspects, perspectives, paradoxes and contradictions, some in reality and some on abstract level. A diamond face may have different faces, each representing different colour due to internal reflection, yet its different colours does not contradict its oneness. Those intellectuals who feel that they can explain in rational and intellectual way, “the mysteries of life, the universe and God” are making exaggerated claims by venturing out on endless journey. Much of our intellectual life is full of concepts, opinions, perspectives, mental constructs. Everyone has different viewpoints on various issues. Yet we also have “self appointed authorities” who will willingly tell you everything about anything. Just give them a little push and they will not leave you before two or three hours. They are fond of teaching what they themselves do not practice, They are self appointed saviours of this world.

--- Shri Vipin Tyaagi