WHO IS, WHERE IS, AND WHAT IS GOD?
Till now, we have been discussing 'I', the ego, and how it is an illusion. Along with the Mind, the Ego becomes ME and makes us suffer. It stops us from our ultimate goal of realizing God, the Universal Power that has created this entire cosmos.
Along with the mind, what does the ME think? It thinks that God is a statue and we continue to pray to our God in temples, churches, gurudwaras, synagogues, and monasteries. It doesn't permit us to realize the truth of who God really is. From the time we are born, we have been conditioned to believe that 'I' am Raj and 'my' God is Krishna. Our devotion to our God grows stronger and stronger. But as long as we don't realize that 'I' am not Claire and 'my' God is not Jesus, we will never discover the Power that is God. Why does the Bible say, 'The kingdom of God is within'? Because that is the truth! It is the ego that separates us from God by saying, ‘This 'I' is 'me' and that is God.’
Can God be somebody that is made of bone and skin? Can God be born, and can God die? If we use our intellect, we can realize that God is immortal, not a person or saint. God is beyond human comprehension, a Power that no human being can paint. God is near, not far away. God is within. But we do not realize this truth because of the ego. Those reading this for the first time may think it makes no sense. All along, we have believed in the duality of 'I' and 'my' God. And so, we pray to our mythological God and we never realize God in the temple of our heart. God is not an old man with a white long beard, sitting somewhere up in heaven. But the ego, along with the mind, makes us a monkey that doesn't use the Intellect to discriminate this simple truth. Does God actually live somewhere far away in heaven and does God have a private jet to come to earth? Can't we see through and through that this is a myth? Then why do we believe it?
The problem is the ego. Unless we let go of the ego, we will never be able to find God. But at this point, we cannot realize what this means. For a start, let us at least understand what God is not. Then we will realize, who God is, what God is, and where God is.
Do we doubt whether God is? Some people are atheists and some agnostics. Either they do not believe in the existence of God or are doubtful about it. Some of them are mere skeptics who don't have faith. Thus, they suffer. But some agnostics are intelligent people and do not accept God because of the way the world prays; because we don't know whom we pray to and what we say. Some people become agnostics, not because they do not believe in God, but because they do not accept God in the form they are told to pray. Their intellect doesn't permit them to murmur prayers that they don't understand. Unfortunately, this, sometimes, stops people from believing in God and prevents them from realizing the ultimate purpose and goal of life. Instead, they should ask questions and investigate, until they realize the truth.
There is no doubt that God exists. There was once a conference about science and spirituality and a famous scientist debated the existence of God with a spiritual saint. They were both intelligent and after two days of deliberation, they agreed to disagree about the existence of God. Before departing, the scientist visited the saint to bid him goodbye. As he was leaving the office of the saint, he noticed a beautiful globe made of ornate marble with an intricate design in gold, on the table of the saint. He asked the saint, 'This is a beautiful piece of art. Where did you get it from?' The saint replied in wonder, 'I don't remember. One day, out of the blue, it just appeared on my table!' The scientist got a bit annoyed and replied, 'If you do not want to tell me where you got the globe from, please just say so! Do not give me a story that it just appeared on your table.' The saint, realizing the Divine opportunity, replied, 'For the last two days, you have debated at the conference and insisted that this entire universe and this beautiful earth just appeared from nowhere! And now, you are unable to believe that this tiny globe on my table can't just appear from nowhere. It must have a manufacturer, somebody who created it! Why can't you believe that a Divine power that we call God created this humongous globe that we live on?'
The scientist left, hugely impacted by this incident. There is no doubt that a Creator whom we call God exists. Somehow, because we believe we are the ego, we lose sight of God. If we truly love God, then we will go in quest of God, transcend the ego and mind and find God.
Over 6 billion people in this world believe in God. But not even a small fraction realize the truth of who God is, where God is and what God is. We just pray, without understanding what we say. We look up at the heavens for our God as if God is living on a distant star. Who is causing this ignorance? It is the ego – 'I'. It is the ego that doesn't understand who we truly are and who God is. Of course, we exist. We can feel our breath at this very moment. But we don't stop to realize what happens at death. We don't find out the secret of our birth and how and why we came to planet earth. Our biggest enemy is the ego and along with the mind, it becomes the ME that not only suffers the pain of the body, the misery of the mind and agony of the ego, but continues to suffer birth after birth as it lives in ignorance, praying to a distant God far away. The ME creates Karma as the ego living in a body and returns to earth to settle past actions. Why does this happen?
It is because of the ignorance of the ego. The ego doesn't realize that we are all a manifestation of the Divine. The ego makes us live and die as an entity called a 'human being'. We don't discover the real connection between us and God. The ego distances us from the very God we seek.
If we truly want God, if we truly want to achieve the ultimate goal of life, we must explore what this journey called life is all about. We must understand what the ego is doing and how with the mind, it creates the illusion of ME that makes us crave till we reach our grave. We need to overcome the ignorance and realize we are not the body. When we proceed on the journey of life and realize we are not the mind, then the ego faces the question, 'Who am I?' If we are amongst those who don't believe in the Divine, if we are non-believers and don't believe in the existence of the God that created us and this beautiful earth, then we will just die only to be born again and again. However, if we believe in God, and we want to achieve our ultimate goal, then we will realize we are the Divine Soul. We will realize that we are a manifestation of the Divine and we will be liberated from all suffering forever. Let us explore this journey called life.