A
rational and spiritual approach to the existence of God. In this three part of series the reasons for the disbelief in God and its solutions are presented.
Does God Exist?
It is a million dollar question raised since ages. Of course, the question has
been answered time and time again. However, there are always doubts raised
about the existence of God. Perhaps it would be appropriate to examine the
reasons for such doubts so that the problem can be tackled at the very roots.
Causes for Doubts about God's Existence
The first and foremost cause for such doubts is man's ego. It
prevents a person from accepting an authority above oneself, because it would
tantamount to playing second fiddle to God, surrendering to God, etc. The
inflated ego simply does not permit one to accept God as a divine, superior
power.
Abraham Lincoln had echoed the same feeling when he declared: "We have been recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven... but we have forgotten God... we have vainly imagined that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. We have become too proud to pray to God that made us... I set apart 30th April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer."
Secondly, with the advances in science and technology, people have been more
skeptical about their fundamental beliefs in God. They tend to pose such
questions: "We cannot see God so how can we accept Him? God cannot be
proved through experiment in a laboratory, so how can we accept His
existence?" People tend to seek rational grounds for God's existence,
forgetting that there are many things in the world, which are beyond reason. It
is aptly remarked by someone that a mind all logic is like a knife all blade.
It makes the hand bleed that uses it. Hence, such doubts never leave the minds
of rational demagogues.
Thirdly, the cause for atheism is the fanatic attitude of some religions.
In their fanaticism, they tend to denounce other religions, thus hurting the
pious feelings of the followers of such religion. Man looks to religion as the
uniting force of humanity but such fanatics, who constantly strike a discordant
note, precipitate disbelief in God among the more sensitive people.
Fourthly, association with impostors is also another cause for the loss of
faith in God. In the name of religion, they bank on man's inherent fear of God
and try to exploit the credulous people to serve their selfish ends. However,
when these innocent people come to know of the impostors' misdoing, they tend
to lose faith in God. They simply cannot reconcile "cheating" under
the banner of religion. The adverse effect of such impostor's misdoing is that
the followers then develop disbelief in the words of even true saints and
sages, who are the true upholders of religion and belief in God.
Fifthly, atheism develops in one who constantly reads literature that
tends to denounce the existence of eternal God.
Sixthly, the base nature of man like carnal passion, anger, greed, egoism,
and jealousy also prevents one from accepting the authority of even God
realized persons. Hence, doubts about the existence of God always linger on in
their minds.
Finally, even great scholars of religious texts fail to understand the true
glory of God because they ascribe human failings even to God, just as they
themselves have such shortcomings. Having examined the causes for atheism, let
us examine the basic qualifications required to develop faith in God.
How Can We Develop Faith in God?
Just as a person seeking for a job as a Manager should have the necessary
qualifications and experience, there are certain basic attributes which must be
developed in us if we are to develop faith in God.
They are as follows:
1. If one can understand the glory of God then faith in God will
automatically emerge in an atheist. (Vachanamrut Gadhada II-16).
2. We can be convinced of the existence of God through inference. We can
see flames, smoke and clouds rising up in the sky, but we cannot see the wind
that causes the rise. But we can certainly infer the existence of wind from the
phenomenon. Similarly, God can be inferred from his works.
3. We can be certain of God's existence provided we tread on the path of
God realization. Yogi Krishna Prem, a Vaishnav saint, once explained to his
friend: "The Grand Trunk Road leads to Delhi. How do you know? Tread on it
and you will know." Thus mere theorizing does not help us very much in
developing faith in God; one has to practice the various disciplines.
Patient perseverance is another requisite to realize God. K. M. Munshi, the
founder President of Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, once wrote: "I took 16 years
to gain a degree, and yet another 12 years to be a good lawyer. But in matters
of religion, I wanted immediate results." Certainly, you cannot get
mangoes tomorrow from a mango seed sown today. It takes time. But once one has
that vision, it is, as E. Schroedinger, a Nobel Laureate in Physics, said:
"We know when God is experienced that this is an event as real as an
immediate sense perception or as one's own personality."
Once a guru was approached by a disciple. The disciple asked the guru,
"Have you seen God?" The guru replied, "Yes, I have seen
God." The disciple became impatient and said, " Then show me
God." The guru asked him to stay back and promised that he would show God
to him. After a few days, the inmates of the ashram happened to go to a nearby
lake for a bath. The guru also accompanied them. The inquisitive disciple was
also with them.
They all plunged in the lake for a bath. After a while, the
guru went near the disciple, caught hold of his head by his hair, and pressed
hard on him so that the disciple was fully plunged in water. He held him tight
under water. The disciple in desperation struggled hard to surface above the
water. But the guru seemed to be bent on pressing him under water. The disciple
struggled frantically and, at long last, succeeded in releasing the grip of the
guru. He was almost drowned. When he surfaced above water, he began to gasp for
air. In a couple of minutes he came round and charged the guru for trying to
kill him by drowning him.
The guru coolly pretended not to heed the complaint.
On the contrary, he asked the disciple, "What were you doing under
water." The disciple in a fit of anger, retorted, "Good heavens! You
seem to be least bothered about my life. Didn't you see how frantically I had
to struggle to loosen your grip on my head? How can you be so cruel?" The
guru again asked him, "But why did you struggle so frantically to loosen
my grip?" The disciple retorted, "Why not? It was a matter of life
and death for me. Had I not struggled so hard, I would have died." The
guru then told the disciple, "Just as you struggled so hard to save your
life, have you undertaken an equally frantic struggle to see God? If you do so,
then God will certainly reveal Himself to you."
The story underlines the fact that instant results in matters of God are not to
be sought. Perseverance in our endeavor to attain God is a prerequisite.
Also we must realize that there are some things which lie beyond the ken of
intellect. Bertrand Russell in his book "What I Believe" confesses
that, "In the near future when the volume of evidence will increase
quantitatively, we shall have to revise our opinion and come in line with the
findings of religion which are so often branded as trash." Even Pascal has
said, "The heart has reasons of its own, which the head can never
understand." Jean - Jacques Rousseau, the 18th century French philosopher,
opines, "Above the logic of the head is the feeling of the heart."
The Holy Bible says, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see
God." Bergson has rightly attracted our attention to the possibilities of
intuition as a conveyor of direct knowledge. When the heart is thoroughly
purified, one develops a sixth sense, viz. intuition of a purified heart,
through which comes the experience of super sensuous realities that lie beyond
the ken of intellect. The Taittiriya Upanishad has underlined the principle
thus:
"Yato vaacho nivartante apraapya manasaa saha." That is, "The mind and speech can not approach God and return to their empiric state."
In the Bhagvad Gita when Shri Krishna manifested before Arjun in all his
resplendence, Arjun just could not bear to look at him. Only when his senses
were divinized by God that he could behold the vision of Lord Krishna.
During the 1977 foreign tour of His Divine Holiness Swami Maharaj, a press
reporter in his interview of Swamishri asked: "Why can't we see God?"
Pat came the reply from Swamishri, "We do see Him but just can't believe
Him to be God."
Lord Swaminarayan has explained the same in Vachanamrut 51 of Gadhada section
I: "It is like a diamond cutting a diamond. God inspires within the
knowledge of His own Self. He can therefore be realized only by the knowledge
inspired by Him and not through the 'indriyas' (senses) and 'antahkaranas'
(mind, intellect, etc.) which are evolved out of maya."
Thus God transcends our understanding, but through His grace, we can be
divinized to know Him.
The next point which goes a long way to develop our faith in God is faith in
the scriptures and the God - communion sadhus.
"The scriptures are the source of prevalence of 'Dharma' (religion). One
who has not read scriptures, even unknowingly conforms to the rules laid down
in the scriptures and acts accordingly with his mother, sister, wife, daughter,
etc. These relations and its definitions have been born out of the scriptures
and one holds them to be true and behaves with one's relations according to the
code of behavior so laid down. The scriptures are therefore the great and only
authority. But one who does not respect these scriptures and acts according to
his own conception is a heretic. And one who takes the authority of the
scriptures, has a strong foundation for the path of God realization," says
Lord Swaminarayan in Vachanamrut 13 of Sarangpur Section.
In Vachanamrut 68 of Gadhada section-I, the Lord has said that,
"Skepticism develops when one reads scriptures which deny God. The company
of believers in such scriptures is also sure to turn one into an atheist...
However, if one desires to drive out such sceptic influence from one's mind,
one should read Holy Scriptures like the Shrimad Bhagwat, etc."
He goes on to say further in Vachanamrut 27 of Gadhada Section-III, "The
saint in whom the vital redemptive attributes (nishkam, nirlobh, niswad,
nisneh, and nirman) are displayed is said to have established rapport with God.
Therefore, his words should be taken as the ultimate truth, and the knowledge
of God that he infuses in the disciples is the ultimate knowledge and the
eternal truth."
His Divine Holiness Yogiji Maharaj was often found talking to the idol of God.
Once an inquisitive aspirant asked, "Swamibapa, we can hear you talking to
the idol of God. But, does God ever respond to your talks?" Swamishri
said, "Of course, he invariably talks to me." The aspirant asked
further, "Why is it that we can never hear that voice?" Swamishri
replied, "Well, it is like connecting a telephone call to someone. At my
end you can hear my part of conversation but can you, by standing nearby, hear
what the party at the other end of the line is saying?" Thus through the
association with such a saint, who is in direct rapport with God, one can
realize God.
Finally, one should keep away from the vilifying influence of the nastikas, for
they deny the authority of God and the scriptures. One should pray to God to
protect one from such influence (Vachanamrut Gadhada Sec. I-48).
Effects Point Towards the Cause
Just as, when one sees a sword weighing two hundred kilos, one can imagine the
greatness of the warrior who can fight with such a sword; similarly, one can
visualize God's greatness through His works.
Often we wonder: Who is the sculptor that gave such vivid shapes to the various
living creatures? Who is the music maestro who taught the birds their love-song
to beckon their mates? Who is that chemist who put juice in the fruits and
fragrance in the flowers? Who is the artist who painted the designs of the leaves
of the various trees, and put color into the lovely butterflies? Who is the
engineer who designed a cow's stomach such that grass is transformed into milk?
Who is the manufacturer who made wood out of carbon dioxide and water? Indeed
such miracles must have a Miracle-maker taking care of them.
Besides, there are infinite galaxies in the cosmos. Yet they do not meet with
accidents. The sun also never fails to rise regularly every day. No barriers
blockade the overflow of water from an ocean, yet, it never transgresses its
boundaries! No doubt, there must be a controller to regularize all such
activities!
Thus we can infer from such observations that a creator-cum-controller is a
must and that is God!
Scientific Arguments and Illustrations for the Existence of God
There are various rational arguments posed to deny the existence of God. Some
of them are dealt with and explained as follows:
(1) Some people argue, "How do I believe in God when I cannot see
Him?" Sri Ramkrishna Paramhansa explains by giving an example, "Thou
seest many stars in the sky but findest them not when the sun rises, can thou
say that there are no stars, then, in the heaven of day? So, O man, because
thou behold not the Almighty in the days of thy ignorance say not there is no
God." If a mirror is covered by a layer of dust, I cannot see my image in
it. But the moment the dust is wiped off, the image is there. The mirror and
the face are the same but the dust obstructed visibility. Similarly, the dust
of maya (ignorance) obstructs our view of the Lord."
Since I cannot see your brain, am I to assume you don't have one? More and more
powerful instruments are needed to unravel the mysteries of physical sciences.
That being so, is it not scientific to accept that mysteries of the Divine can
be understood only by sharper and sharper spiritual perceptions?
To cite another example, none of us has seen electricity, however, when the
switch is turned on and the lights blaze forth we say there is an electric
current in the line. Thus, though we do not see electricity, we infer its
existence through its working. The same is the case with God whose working
bespeaks His existence.
(2) Yet some people argue, "Can you prove the existence of God with
certainty as done in laboratory experiments by science?"
But the skeptics forget that there are many things in science which have no
proof yet they are accepted as true. For example, nobody has ever obtained the
square root of minus one (i.e., ( \/ -1). But, science has decided to call it
'i' (-1= i) and proceeds on to apply it. Without the said proof, there are so
many applications of 'i' in the theory of Analytical Functions which lead to
fruitful results. Hence, absence of any experimental proof cannot be a
criterion for the non-existence of anything.
Again, Planck gave the 3rd Law of Thermodynamics that, "Entropy of a
perfect crystal at absolute zero (temperature) is zero." There is no proof
for it as none has yet been able to reach absolute zero temperature. However,
it has many practical applications.
Thus absence of experimental proof is no criterion for the denial of anything,
least of all God!
