The Ambiguous "God"

- Shishir Kumar

Ahambrahmasmi – and yet God is a Puzzle!

Though religion has been the boundaries of the lifestyle we follow, the epicenter remains God, which means a defined law around the undefined. My quest today is who, when, what, where, why and how is God.

The Hindu ancient text, considered as the oldest, the nearest to which can be the Old Testament, explains ‘Gods’.

A corner of it says that it is within us – the infinity and then the other corner gives it names, forms and says it should be treated as a king or a super human – an expensive house, dresses and great food. The journey from one infinite God to 33 Crore god and goddesses has been time taking and interesting.

Hanging between the two theories we with time seems to have sidelined the oldest theory and are happy with the second one as the later seems more relevant in the physical world and can be perceived by our five senses.

But to understand better let’s move as the belief moved from formless to form.

The first explanation of God is Nirankara by which means something without form and infinity. Then the first add on, to explain its vastness, that not even Vishnu and Bhrama could find its starting and end. The sum up, whatever it is - it is very important and powerful. The only form or personification this theory has is “Duality”, half male and half female body form.

Thinking as a skeptic, when you say something is formless and infinity it means you don’t know and have submitted that you shall never know it. Which further throws a question, “Did we give up our quest for finding God and so we zeroed to a theory that can never be resolved?”

But then this logic does not end this simple.

There is a federal form God in Hindu Religion, the second line being the Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. And then it said that the two could not find the starting and end of the Parabrahma.  Now why was this theory put to task?

What if I say it was written to create a belief system – First we were made to believe the three gods are much above us humans and second that if they could not find God we humans can never find it.

Can you go where I want to take you?

So is it convincing or you still believe in the theory that only a monkey got super powers and changed into an intelligent man while the frog remains frog, a fish remains fish and the reptiles still crawl?

OK my next question would surely make you think. Is it that we are being forced to think something so that we don’t actually think of what really exists? Has a barrier been created to keep us away from the next level?

Let me share a dream of mine with you which accidently fall relevant here. Being a self claimed spiritual I once in a while get weird dreams. In a dream I saw myself as an ascetic clad in white. I with my followers was running for life after being attacked by a huge arrogant looking army with bows and axes. I rushed into a depleted garden which had a metal swirl staircase that went beyond sky. I was lead by a voice that said that I should board the stair and it would take me to heaven where I shall be safe with followers.

I looked back and saw the army marching towards me. I rushed on the stair and was followed with all my people. I kept watching as the army got near us. I reached the last step by then the staircase was half filled with people, the army reached. They had a victory smiled, cracked jokes on us and gave us a look as if we were fools. I was stunned, I saved my people I have won and they are giving such a reaction. Suddenly, I realized that the base of the stair is where they stand, weapons they have in hand and I with all the followers hung between earth and the promised heaven. Made sense?

Will get back on what I mean at end.

Now the second theory, here we shall be talking about all religions, the God with forms. What if the stories of man being very near to god in early days stands true? The Hindu text says that God came on earth in Yajnas, the Old Testament mentions that Musa talked to God and got his requirements of the people fulfilled, Jesus talked to someone who he said was his father the Almighty God and healed people, Prophet Mohammad got his Aaayats from God that was made into Quran.

So something that was so easy to be communicated with is so far today, what’s the logic?

Let’s play the game of probability. What if the prophets were also the one who believed in what was “Said” to them? By this I mean whatever they said was actually being said by someone else. Now who was this someone else? Might be someone smarter; may be a messenger who formed a bridge as well as a wall between the human and the undiscovered God? Which can mean that what the prophets saw as God were some living messengers whom their perspective named God?

So can we come to conclusion that it was just the messengers we call God? Well, I thought further.

Then a day I saw a newspaper cutting of old times that says, “Neil Armstrong grabs the Moon.” I understood that it was the ecstasy of the author that made him write so about the first man landing the moon. Now the second thought that hits my mind is what if everybody on earth looses memory or there is an end of human race and a new race comes up. This intelligent race finds this paper cutting and decodes it. To their shock there was a super human who could hold moon in hand - God Neil Arm Strong. Though there is no logic but it is written and what is written long back has to be true.

So the same story changed, but what actually changed is just the perspective.

Now the second point I would like to raise is from the Indian politics. As congress ruled us for years, the front runner for Independence movement were Gandhi and Nehru, even though there were no Independence movement after 1942 and we got Independence as all common wealth countries were being released by the World War weakened England. Now after six decades there is new political system and with it new heroes who had lost their names like Savarkar would find a place in the Indian history. So the one who has power is the one who is worshipped, this bit of information would solve the question regarding the many gods who came on earth.

There is a theory that communists propagate about religion. It talks about the oppression of the tribal by the invaders. Where in Devasur Sangram is actually the fight between the invaders and the tribal of India. Indra was just a king and as invaders won they wrote the history according to themselves and termed the local tribes as Asur. I don’t totally buy this theory, but merging the two theories could give some sense to the travel from one infinite power to so many gods.

Before I end, I give you a relief. Hinduism never ran from one to about 33 Crore Gods and Goddess. There is no such mention in Indian text but is just a misinterpretation of what has been written in Veda. It says “33 Koti Devta”. Koti does mean Crore but then it also means ‘types’. So it was 33 types of gods – 8 Vasu, 10 Jeevan Shakti, 12 Aaditye, 1 Vidhut, 1 Yag, and One the God of all Mahadev.” This is an example of the changed perspective of the changed religion that gave changed God that we follow.

As I come to the conclusion for a while lets believe in aliens. One of their decoded message to the human said “Do you know what religious symbols you draw? Do you know what they mean? Do you know what God is? You run behind some men who promise you to give you a lead to god when they themselves have never seen it. What can be more foolish than You the human race.”

The quest for god shall Continue…