Mr joseph vempeny Posted on : 30/01/2008 11:36:46

NATURE OF GOD

(Trying to comprehend the incomprehensible)

Six blind men went to find out what an elephant is like. Each came back with a different perception depending on the part he could feel. Much worse is the case of humans trying to comprehend the nature of God. If one would pause and reflect the meaning of the term ‘infinite’ one should realize that it is beyond the power of human comprehension to comprehend the nature of God.

As God is infinite each one or each system or each society comprehends one tiny aspect of the almighty. Thus we say God is: lawgiver, judge, king, father, mother, supreme force, quintessence, energy, truth or love to cite but a few. One might say that each one is right. Because God is all that. Trouble starts when the blind men start arguing among one another. “You are wrong. I had first hand experience. I am right and all others are wrong”. This attitude is the attitude of the ignorant blind. The wise blind must be able to say, “The elephant was so large I felt only a small part of it. I don’t know about the whole.”

The limitation of the human intellect in trying to grasp the nature of God is brought about in a story about Augustine of Hippo, great Christian theologian of the first millennium. ‘He was walking on the beach, deep in thought, trying to unravel the mystery of the Holy Trinity. He saw a small boy using a seashell to carry water from the sea to pour it into a hole he had made on the beach. When Augustine asked what he was up to, the boy said that he was going to empty the ocean into that hole. When Augustine pointed out the futility of the attempt the boy told him that the attempt of Augustine to unravel the mystery of the Trinity – his attempt to understand the nature of God – was even more futile. Then the boy disappeared, meaning that he was an angel.

Instead of trying to ‘know about God’ shouldn’t we be trying to ‘know God’? Here we may be more successful. Recognize God as the father or mother who is always there with you, looking after you and your needs. Develop this acquaintance into a strong relationship of trust and love. Remember this is not a one-way relationship, as He knows you very well though you don’t know him all that well. The best way to ‘know God’ according to an ancient Indian prescription is to become like “the doll made of salt that went down into the ocean to measure its depth.” Even as the doll ceased to exist except as a few molecules in the immense ocean, the one who wants to know God must lose one’s identity and become a drop in the ocean of God. We must become one with God.

I, one of the blind men, would go with Apostle John and say “God is love” and that “to live in love is to live in God.” Here the term love has a special meaning to me. Love is the spiritual dimension of our existence. It is goodness – heaven - and its absence evil. According to a poet, Asan, ‘heaven does not excel true love. This kind of love is like light without switches or shades. You do not switch it on and off at will nor does it have shades of discrimination. Well, when you live in that state of universal love ‘you are in God and God in you.’ This is the way to make heaven on earth. Is this not what Jesus had in mind when he said, “Kingdom of heaven is at hand”?

Groping about in my ‘blind darkness’, I came up with this picture of God,

this infinite impersonal source of everything.

There always was, there is, and will always be,

this 'ocean of infinite dimensions'.

This ocean has no boundaries.

Going up you never reach the top;

going down you never reach the bottom;

going in any direction you never find a frontier.

It is fathomless, endless, and infinite.

But it is not water; it is not matter; nor is it 'nothing'.

Rather it is the fullness of 'Being".

In this ocean, bubbles of matter are often generated.

But these bubbles are generally very short-lived,

may be a very tiny fraction of a second only.

Then one bubble of matter was conceived in this infinite ocean,

for which all the relevant physical constants were fine-tuned

to such infinitesimally minute details

that it survived the matter-antimatter annihilation.

This is the singularity that expanded and evolved into our universe.

This ocean of infinite dimensions is called 'vacuum state' by scientists,

'sunyatha' by Buddhists and 'Creator' by poets and philosophers.

Our universe is just a bubble in this infinite ocean.