DOES GOD EXIST? IS THERE A FREE WILL?
agrasen
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DOES GOD EXIST?
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agrasen
To: RAVI GUPTA
Cc: Lakhapati Daswani
Dear Raviji,
Namaskar. You have really raised a real question which only self-realized souls can answer. When I look at the cluster of stars, the human body, its anatomy, the expanding number of human beings on this planet, I wonder who has done all this, who is doing this. But I do not agree that it came with a big bang only! All of it must have been pre-planned and the secret to the answer lies in each and every soul if one can commune with it and ultimately realize it, like some of our saints did, including Budhdha who themselves became part of God, upon their realization of soul. (Even though Buddha even denies existence of such a thing as soul, perhaps!)
Also I am not too sure of the FREE WILL of each one of us. In some matters, small ones, each being may have limited free will, but our past, present and future is mainly dictated by the POWER THAT BE who is moulding the world according to his own plan, if there be any. Our religious stories go on to prove that most of the happenings can be predicted far far into the future, like the case of Ahilya and so many others. And if things were to happen according to one's free will and karma only, then how such predictions could be made with such accuracy into the distant future.
Coming of Rama/Ravan, Krishna/kans, Buddha, Mahavirji, and all the high personalities as also the low ones, could become possible with the pre-planning of some SUPER SOUL or many of the souls together, with their planning only, it would appear.
It would appear that the more we delve in this matter, the more confused we become because of the limitations of our mind; one has to go into the soul and then only one can realize, perhaps, that what is what!
Your comments are most welcome.
JAI SITARAMJIKI, JAI RADHAKRISHNJIKI, JAI VEER HANUMAN.
Bhavdiy,
SHER SINGH AGRAWAL.
On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 12:36 PM, RAVI GUPTA
We have had some correspondence on religion in the past. Here are my views on God. These are excerpted from blog: http://borderlessuniverse.blogspot.com/2009/09/my-musings-religion-does-god-exist.html
Does God exist? I believe he does but not in the traditional sense of the word.
The traditional God is defined as an all-knowing, all-powerful and compassionate being. He is considered to be the creator of the universe and the cause of everything that happens in this world.
When I look at history and observe what is happening around us today, I am not convinced that such a being exists or has ever existed.
Six million innocent Jews were killed by Hitler during the Second World War. Tens of millions of innocent Russians were mercilessly put to death by Stalin during his regime. Close to a million people of one tribe were killed by members of another tribe in Rwanda only a few years ago. Besides, tens of thousands of people have killed one another over the years, and continue to do so, in God’s name!
One wonders why an all-knowing, all-powerful God would permit so many people to suffer so much at the hands of evil forces. It makes no sense. If God were a living being, he would most certainly be immediately arrested, tried and put in jail for not abiding by the Good Samaritan provisions of the law that prevails in many jurisdictions of the world.
Some argue that God gave human beings a free will, and if things go wrong it is because they do not exercise that will properly. It is as if God gave free will to humans and forever washed his hands off what followed. If God can no longer intervene to fix the wrongs done by evil forces, then who cares whether or not he exists.
What about the suffering caused by natural disasters for which God alone is believed to be responsible? Earthquakes, droughts, famines cause untold suffering and misery especially to the poor and helpless people. How can God be considered compassionate? Any living being that did this will surely be deemed a sadomasochist and put in a psychiatrist institution for good.
I believe that God does exist but not in the traditional sense of the word. To me all well-meaning people in this world are gods. They may not be all-knowing and all-powerful but they are generally compassionate and will normally do everything within their power to help their fellow human beings when they are in trouble.
I am of course referring here to our parents (who bring us into this world, nurture us until we are able to take care of ourselves, and teach us the difference between right and wrong); family; friends; and members of the communities in which we live. For me they are the real gods. You can touch them, feel them and even hug them. They are the ones who deserve our respect and adoration and not the abstract God who is nowhere to be seen in times of trouble.
One could argue that human beings that I describe as gods above are also the creation of God who has put in place a system of checks and balances to ensure that every evil is matched by goodness in equal amounts in this world. This suggests that God is like a spoilt child who enjoys making things and then breaking them up for fun. The difference is that God is not playing with just inanimate objects but with real living beings that happen to feel real pain. While no living being is allowed to behave this way, why do we have to accept such bad behaviour from God?
We are told not to question the workings of God, for whatever God does is ultimately for our own good. Isn’t that what Hitler and Stalin had told their countrymen?
The question still remains that if it wasn’t God then who created the universe? I am quite happy with the Big Bang theory, the idea that the universe has expanded from a primordial hot and dense initial condition at some finite time in the past (currently estimated to have been approximately 13.7 billion years ago), and continues to expand and evolve to this day. Since the expansionary and evolutionary phenomenon is observable, it offers a much more rational explanation than that the whole universe was created by a human-like being in a single day for the sole purpose of serving human needs and for His self-aggrandizement. I reject the human-centric view of the universe.
Finally, some argue that religions may have many faults, but on the whole they have had positive effect on humanity. If there were no God and His commandments, how would we know the difference between right and wrong? This is a false premise. Human beings have learnt to be good to one another from their own experience over the years. The Golden Rule “to treat others as you would want others to treat you” does not require a divine declaration. The first caveman who stole his neighbor’s wife and got clubbed to death by his neighbor as a result was enough of an experience for the rest of the cavemen to learn and follow the Golden Rule. You don't need God to tell you to be good. You need to be good because you want the rest of the world to be good to you.
In conclusion, I believe that God the compassionate does exist but not in churches, mosques and temples but all around us in the form of people of goodwill. They are to be found among our family, friends and members of our community, country and ultimately the world. These Gods are not elusive. They are real.
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SHER SINGH AGRAWAL
Please see my blog at
http://agrasen.blogspot.com/
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posted by SHER SINGH AGRAWAL @ 6:00 PM
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