This article is the second part of my earlier article on the vedic concept of God, where in I have tried to further simplify things based on reader comments and queries.
What God is NOT
First and foremost, God as described in the vedas is NOT some super human being with super human powers, who creates the universe, life forms, and then punishes or rewards people based on his own laws sending people to hell or heaven. God cannot be like this, because if he allows people to act according to their free will, then it means he has no control over his universe, and if he has control over the universe then how on earth can people do bad things, unless and until he wants them to do it?
Also if God has created everything in the universe, then how can he say that people of one religion are my people, and those who dont follow his religion are not his people and they should be punished or converted to his side? This definition of God distinguishing between my people and others does not look divine.
God in the vedic texts and as followed by hinduism, is not the God described above.
What is God?
God as defined in Vedic Texts
That which makes the tongue speak, but which cannot be spoken by the tongue…
That which makes the mind think, but which cannot be thought by the mind…
That which makes the eyes see, but which cannot be seen by the eyes…
If you understand the meaning of I neither know nor don’t know, then you understand God.
Those who know that God cannot be known, truly know God. — Upanishads
God according to the vedas is attributeless( Nirguna ), opinionless( Nirvikara ), formless( Nirakara ) and infinite/timeless( Ananta ) supreme consciousness( sacchidananda ). Now, how can a opinionless god punish or reward people? How can a formless god be seen? How can a infinite God be measured? How can an attributeless God be defined? Which is why the vedic texts describe God as Neti, Neti meaning Not this, Not that. Neither this, nor that. You can only define God as what it is not, not as what it is. The key here is to observe that God is referred to as ‘it’, not as some ‘he’ or ‘she’.
The Self is God
So God is the all pervading divine energy and hence has no attributes/opinion/form and is infinite. We all are a part of this God. It is like a cell in our body realizing that it is not some mere entity residing within the body, but is a part of the body itself!
So salvation or mukti is realizing and seeing things from a much higher level, from the level of the universe itself, and you will be free from all the worldly obstacles, and would be able to think and act from a broader world view, rather than a narrower I,me,myself view. Which is why in Hinduism you find sages/spiritual leaders being worshipped as God, since these people have been able to recognize themselves with the higher universal soul. Hinduism since it is based on the vedic texts, hence allows for a mortal person to be raised to the level of a God and worshipped, which is why you see hindus worshipping true spiritual leaders as God.
Container and Containment
The ancient hindu texts compare God and the physical universe we experience to a spider and a spider’s web. The spider’s web comes out of the spider and the spider resides within the web itself. Similarly our physical universe has been created out of the God and the God is all pervading this universe. God is both the container of the universe as well as what is contained inside it.
Brahma – The Physical Universe
Brahma, not to be confused with Brahman, is the name given by the vedas to the physical universe that we live in. Brahma is nothing but the universe that was created out of Big bang. And so Brahma has a birth and a death. Brahma was born in the big bang and will die in a big crunch. Brahma hence is a temporary phenomenon, and thousands of brahmas come and go.
Vishnu or Narayana or Brahman is what is described as Nirguna, Nirvikara, Nirakara, Ananta, the all pervading permanent eternal universe which extends well beyond our physical universe, and it is the understanding of this ultimate truth which is said to be the ultimate goal of human life.
Shiva is the concept of periodic destruction that follows every creation. And this completes the trinity of God = Generator, Observer and Destroyer in the form of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.
Brahma i.e. our physical universe is said to be born out of the eternal universe Vishnu from a Hiranya Garbha. The description of Hiranya Garbha in the vedas represents the pre-bigbang universe which was infinitely dense and which gave birth to big bang and hence to our present physical universe. This physical universe is called the Saguna Brahman (i.e the God which has form, shape and other attributes), which is what our post big bang universe is, which can be seen, observed, felt and understood. The pre-big bang universe is called Nirguna Brahman (attributeless universe) which is what even the modern science describes as, since the pre-bigbang singularity soup had no attributes, no physical laws, was timeless and undescribable.
Every time the formless Nirguna Brahman comes into a manifestation, it attains a dual aspect, i.e pair of opposites like good and bad, positive and negative, matter and energy, etc. God is not a unit of measure, so it is incorrect to argue that there is one God or many Gods, for God is everything, it is this entire universe and exists much beyond the manifested form of the universe we see, into infinity.
Vedas also say that the Brahma i.e our physical universe will ultimately merge back into the attributeless Nirguna Brahman, and hence this observable universe is a temporary phenomenon, and its age/life span as specified by the vedic texts is given in this article .
Atheism
Vedic texts also allow for atheism. Atheism is all about saying there is no God who is observing us, controlling us, deciding upon our fate, who is willing to punish or protect us. In other words, atheism is all about denying a super human intervention in human life, and this is exactly what the vedas say when they describe God as opinionless and attributeles.
In the post vedic period, when people misunderstood vedic representation of universe as God, and started worshipping different attributes of the universe as super human natured Gods (like Indra(Rain God), Varuna(Water God), Agni(Fire God), etc there were reformists like Charvaka, Madhavacharya (not Sri Madhvacharya of Udupi), etc in India who declared that there was no God, and created a movement amongst the masses in trying to make them understand and realize that God was not a collection of some superhuman creatures, or a single super human creature. Even in Mahabharata, Sri Krishna was this reformist who stopped people from blind worship of Indra – the Govardhana Giri incident.
The greatness of the hindu civilization lies in the fact that it has tolerance and allows space for all thoughts, and so none of these reformists were killed or burnt (unlike what happened to Galileo or Bruno in the west). Infact Charvaka and co, successfully created a mass movement based on their thoughts. Buddha was another great reformist of all who denied the existence of a superhuman God and who successfully created a mass movement trying to enlighten people.
So, hinduism in this way transcends theism and atheism. In other words it is transtheistic.
Nature and Personification
Since the entire universe is said to be divine in the vedic texts, hindus worship every form of nature as God. Of course the vedic texts clearly say that one should not believe that a form of universe itself is the God, but it is just a part of the divine wholeness. God is in everything and everything is in God.
Most of us are common people who do not have the ability or time to think to the level of realizing the formless, attributeless, infinite divinity. And since everything in the universe is contained within the God as described by vedas, you see hindus worshipping different forms of nature as God. Hindus worship rain, water, cow, snakes, trees, moutains, hill, parents, books, money, planets, stars, moon, sea, rivers, king, teacher, guests, everything as God. This does not mean that a cow is a Hindu God or a tree is a Hindu God. It is the hindu way of respecting the divinity that is in that cow, in a tree, etc.
Which is why when a hindu if by accident touches any other person or thing by his feet, then he apologizes to that person/thing for having unknowingly shown disrespect by touching with his feet. And that is because a hindu believes that there is God within every person too. And all this because hinduism, since it is based on the vedic texts, sees the entire universe itself as divine. The vedic texts also contain hymns which is supposed to be recited every morning as soon as one gets up from his bed before getting out of the bed, and in the hymn the person apologizes to mother earth, since the person will be stamping the planet earth with his feet for the rest of the day. It is this kind of respect towards nature that ensured in the vedic ages that nature be used only to fill man’s need and not his greed.
On the other hand today, by seeing the world with a materialistic outlook without any divinity associated with it, humans are plundering all natural wealth, destroying forests, polluting the planet, destroying water sources and what not. The difference between seeing nature as divine as described in the vedic texts, and by looking it as something which God created for humans to enjoy and plunder as described by other texts is quite evident today. During the vedic age there was no pollution, and today we are facing global warming and a planetary disaster, thanks to the misleading thoughts that God created the universe and other pleasures for humans to enjoy.
Personification of God in Hinduism is a simplification to express devotion by those who are unable to comprehend the formless universal consciousness as God. Contrary to the popular belief, Hindus do not worship idols as Gods. Instead Hindus worship God through idols. An idol is used as an object of concentration which one can focus on and use it as a medium to try to realize the divinity. It is similar to Christians using a cross or Muslims worshiping at Kaaba.
Now how can a person see God in an idol? Well, it is the same way a person sees and remembers his parents and their near and dear ones via photographs and videos.
NOT Holier Than Thou
There is this problem of religious fundamentalism, religious conversions and resulting violent acts like terrorism and communal disharmony because of the attitude of holier than thou by semitic religions. The moment a religion says that mine is the only way , there starts a conflict between it and other religions.
On the other hand vedas say that Ekam Sat, Vipraha Bahuda Vadanti meaning, there is but one truth (God), and learned scholars call it with different names. This fundamental philosophy of vedic texts makes it accept all religions and which is why you see Hinduism not being in favor of any conversions, for there is no reason to convert from one religion to other when God is one and the same for all irrespective of their religion. It is like calling the same person with different names.
If followers of every religion accept this philosophy then there will be no communal conflicts in this world. Vedas wish Sarve Jana Sukhinobhavantu implying, may all the people prosper and live happily , and say Vasudaiva Kutumbakam which means Whole world is a family .
It is this philosophy of universal brotherhood in hinduism which has provided a space for people of all religions, thoughts and sects to live in India ever since the dawn of history. It is this principle which has made India the birth place of largest number of religions in the world including hinduism, buddhism, jainism, sikhism etc.
The vedic philosophy also makes every life form divine by default and it is only our actions as we grow that make us good or bad. Unlike chrisitianity there are no sinners-by-default in hinduism. Christianity says that only Jesus Christ is the son of God. Hinduism says We all are children of God . Vedas say ‘Sarve Amrutasya Putraha’ – We all are children of the eternal supreme divinity.
Israel has stated in its official records that all over the world wherever the jews went, there was violence against them in the past 2500 years, except in India. India is the only place on this planet where the jews settled and lived for centuries practicing their religion without undergoing any kind of harassment and that is because of the hindu vedic philosophy of accepting all and treating all equal. Even after the formation of the state of Israel, lot of jews in India preferred to stay back here instead of going to Israel!
Parsis (Zoroastrians) were fire worshipping people who lived in Iran before the Arabs invaded their land in the 7th century. Before Iran got converted to Islam following the arabic invasion, Zoroastrianism was a wide spread religion which was practised not only by Iranians, but also by the Pashtoons and Baluchis (in present Pakistan and Afghanistan), and by Kurds (in present Iraq).
When the Arabs invaded Iran, the parsis fled to India to escape religious persecution at the hands of Arabs and landed up in the western sea shores of India at Gujarat. The local hindu king who ruled then allowed them to settle and stay in his kingdom. The Parsis being fire worshippers had brought their holy fire with them, and requested to the Indian king that they wanted to build a fire temple for their God and the king obliged. Then the parsis demanded that their Iranian tradition does not allow non-parsis to enter within a radius of 50 km of their temple!
Now look at the irony here, the kingdom was a hindu kingdom, the people were hindus, the king was a hindu, and the refugees had demanded that no local hindu should enter within 50 km radius of their temple. And yet the king agreed and passed orders that no hindus should enter within the limits of the parsi temple! This is the vedic way of respecting everybody’s beliefs and not hurting anybody’s sentiments. There are numerous incidents from ancient India were people and kings have given their lives to protect the interest of their guests. This comes from the vedic principle of Athithi Devo Bhava meaning Guest is to be looked upon as God.
Today parsis are one of the most successful communities in India. Ratan Tata, one of the most respected businessman and owner of one of the largest business empires in India (The Tata Group) is a Parsi. It was his ancestor, JRD Tata, who started the prestigious Taj group of hotels during the British rule, following an incident of racial discrimination when JRD Tata was denied entry to the Mumbai’s Watson’s hotel since the British then did not allow non-British to enter into British owned hotels.
Karma, Not God
Now a question arises, that if the God as described in the vedic texts is attributeless and opinionless and does not punish or protect people, then what about good and bad deeds? Who punishes the bad and who protects the good?
Well, that is what is called Karma which is nothing but the sum of our past deeds. It is our deeds that punish or protect us. Be it an individual, a family, a tribe or a nation. It is the collective Karma that shapes their feature.
If we do good, think positively, wish good to all, then so will we be. If we do bad to others, think negatively, wish badly, then so will it happen to us. What we sow is what we reap. It is our deeds that decide what happens to us, for we are what we think we are and what happens to us is what we think should happen to the world. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we create the world.
Sarve Jana Sukhinobhavantu. May all the beings live happily.
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Liked the article. Shows Vedic thoughts are well aligned with Scientific findings & Atheist & Theists.
As it looks – its about Human society & harmony.
Now the Hindu literature (specifically Gita) talks a lot about “Soul” or “Atma”. Does veda too talk about such concepts & existence of “me” after my death. Somehow, such concepts seems non-scientific & are created for general human to overcome the biggest fear of “Death”.
In Buddhist philosophy. All the phenomena is emptiness. What we see is all because of our mind which is obscured by ignorance.
Lord Buddha said when we became able to destroyed attachment, jealousy,anger,and ignorance we are free from this Samsara but god still wandering in Samsara.
God is important in Buddhist but never a explained as precious.
Every human can become a god.
It is said that “to become a god you will only require a very good deed in your past life and present life”.
God itself are binded in Samara and they have no Power to help us from Samsara.
Buddhist use prayer but never depend., Buddhist do meditation but different types,
Two kind of meditation are there 1- keeping your mind in one object almost like you are relaxing. 2- analysing the Nature of phenomena through meditation which is most important in Buddhist to become enlightenment.
Its just summary on sanatan not in deep so relax, after giving 2,3 shloks it does not mean that Hinduism is not worshippe idols or there is no any reference in vedas about it. After some century brahmin changed some shloks by their desire-r.s.sharma source.
Very nice article indeed. Just a comment on the term God. As there was no concept of God, as defined in Abrahimic religions, and understood in present society due to the influence of the western education system. This article is trying to find a definition that perhaps does not exist in Vedic texts. These scriptures focus on qualities, and harmony, so we are trying to somehow stretch and make definition that doesn’t exist in these texts.
excellant summary on Hinduism
Just what I wanted to see. I only hope that the other religions of west come to this level of understanding, may be one day. Vedic religion is based on science and that is why it needs to be observed and then followed. I believe that purush and prakritI as talked about in geeta of Krishna are the other names of one God which fill the whole natural phenomenon with the aim of maintaining continuous creation by recycling this universe. Natural calamities,appearance of dictators,wars,are all a part of this recycling.
Lovely article, thanks a lot for sharing this. Has helped me to understand a lot of things I have been trying to know.
I agree, Buddha was a great reformist. Buddha was one of the greatest embodiments of the Vedas that mankind has ever known.
I follow both his and the Vedic teachings, because they are not two, like some people think. Together they are actually one powerful, wonderful system of thought.
Please throw some light on the concept of avatars. As you said Sai baba, Buddha, Mahavira are the spiritual leaders and realized persons what do you say about Ram and Krishna who are not considered as Gurus but Avatars.
Eagerly waiting for the reply.
Vishnu is the preserver, and the avatars of Vishnu are for preserving dharma. The lines “Yada Yada Hi Dharmasya…” in Bhagavadgita clearly indicate when a vishnu avatar appears, which is when the very existence of dharma is under threat, there will be an avatar which will reestablish the rule of Dharma. Having said that, an avatar does not mean Lord Vishnu reincarnates as a specific person in the form of an avatar. Vishnu is the all pervading supreme consciousness in this universe, and is inside everybody, inside you, inside me, inside everything that you can or cannot see around you. Those who come out of Maya and realize the vishnu within is a potential candidate for an avatar, and those who act based on their realization to reestablish the rule of dharma became the avatars of Vishnu. Spiritual gurus show us the path to realize the supreme within, avatar IS the supreme within.
hey gurudev u must see the greek mythology it looks as if they’ve derived it from hindus or it maybe that there really were gods and vedas gave them other names and greeks gave them other names
The Greek mythology is heavily influenced by the Indian Mythology. Not just mythology, but the science, mathematics, culture – they all had an Indian influence. Voltaire has said on record that Pythagoras went the banks of Ganges to learn the Mathematics of the Brahmins. India during those days was what MIT and other US universities are today. Students from all over the world visited Indian universities like Takshashila, Nalanda etc in those days for higher education and to specialize in different streams. Sanskrit texts were being translated into different foreign languages.
http://www.hitxp.com/articles/history/takshashila-taxila-oldest-university/
hey Gurudev
Are the the prof in MNIT bhopal??
God is something that becomes as unachievable and pervading as we grow in knowledge, God will keep on growing with our knowledge! even the earliest people couldn’t know the real one mover! they did say “aham brahmasmi” – we contain part of His, we share some trace of His but the creations are enormously pervaded so the edges are unapproachable.
everywhere in universe or creation there is this conversion of energy and matter, the manifested, erceptible into unseen, formless! Its difficult for any mortal like us to actually comprehend and even guess about God (not the deities like varun, indra etc). We are still far from having even minuscule idea about God. The celestial clouds give rise to everything- basic elements to the organic ones that formas the H, He occupying nearly 95% of universe and other matter- like dark matter etc..and other unseen, unfelt to the organic components that gave living beings ! materially that distance runs in many trillions and trillions of light years and that is still counting but we are amiss from some advanced technique that can spiral us across this stupendous barrier. Wevare still short of it. When we’d be advanced even more than the yet-not-seen ETs the God would still be far from us. There is no point of chasing Him. This the earlier vedic people realized, so they said find the God inside you, HE is found in the very minuscule to the very huge, you can find based on your own efforts and abilities!
This is not philosophy though science actually originated as so and I can’t some references for it but we still have disciplines where you cannot share an experience that you yourself achieved! That’s very intresting mystery!
but the God must be thought, remembered and discussed, always!
not for some faith, but for the vastness and complexities that run in finding him for the wise and seekers!
Very well said Dr. Shailesh.
good to know yeah…
The term “God” in English is being wrongly assigned in Hindu Terms of Bhagawan and Paramatma. These two are not the same. The correct term for “god” is Deva or Devathas or the angels or spirits and celestial beings like Indra, Varuna, Agni, or the Village devathas like Ayyanar, Muniyandi etc. These are NOT the Supreme Paramathma but subordinate workers whom Hindus also worship in Vedic rituals as also Village Tamasika Puja rituals. But, prayers to the Supreme ParamaSiva, Narayana or Parasakthi keeps these Upa-Devathas under control to do only good to the Devotees who pray. This is why, we do a Ganesha Pooja prior to any Vedic ritual.
The article by Gurudev is very good and we must keep that in mind.
Very true. The western concept of God is not the same as the supreme Hindu God. The supreme paramathma or the supreme concsiousness of the universe as described in Hinduism is not some man like being, but is a genderless, formless, opinionless, attributeless all pervanding supreme consciousness for which there is no equivalent in modern religions.
The Muslims who invaded India were not Arabs. They were Moguls, which is the hindu word for Mongols. The Mongols originated in Mongolia and were basically cultureless animals, who went round killing each other and raping their sisters. They arrived in Europe and the Middle East via central asia. They originally had a pagan religion but after encountering Islamic Holy Men in the Middle East their leader Genghis Khan converted to Islam. The Mongols didn’t give a shit about the Arabs or any of the other places they invaded and consequently impregnated the majority of the Middle East’s women. It is a well known fact that the genes of Genghis Khan are the most widespread in human genetics and can be found even in North American Caucasian, (don’t ask me how they got there). This is why many Muslims have the name Khan which is not actually a Muslim name but a Mongolian term for chief. The Mongols then set out to conquer the India and Iran. It is due to the conversion of the Mongol leader to Islam that the Mongol Empire, the largest land empire in history, became Islamic. The Empire controlled parts of China, parts of Russia and Eastern Europe, India, and all of central Asia, which is why there are Islam has been dumped in all these places. It was the Mongols, a barbarian race from the stepppes of Mongolia who conquered India, not the Arabs, Iranians, Turks or any other Muslims.
Great information Uday, I knew half of it, not the other half :) Thanks for that.
u r realy great man…..i m pure hindu from the gujarat in india.i have lots of same thoughts and currently decided to sacrifice my life to people’s happiness in kalyuga.
Good to know about that :)
fantastic effort dude…thanks for educating us on such important issues…..god bless you..go ahead ..long way for you…peopl like u are most wanted in present day….all da best
Thank you very much Sushmeeth :)
Hi Gurudev
I am not able to access the earlier article on this topic, the part I.
Any ideas how it can be accessed ?
Thanks
Thanks for identifying that Mohan. Have updated the link correctly.
The eternal questions of humans about God answered in a plausible manner using the tenets of Hinduism. Everyone has his/her place in this Universe. How simple and how easy (or difficult) to practice.
Thanks Mohan.
What is this concept that is going around as per the ancient Sumerian tablets that we humans are a product of genetic engineering by the aliens called Anu, Enki, Enlil and Anunakis? They made this organic body suit to trap us dimensional beings for us to be their slaves?
Can you clarify? Also, what about the white light at the end of the tunnel these movies show when people die?
Not sure about the sumerian tablets. Might be true too. The aliens might also be what we otherwise call divine beings (not God) :)
Just guessing, the white light might be what the higher dimensions looks like or might be what the brain experiences in its final stages.
Very good informative article and puts todays perspective in mind. Very simple, easy to understand and yet very powerful. Hinduism is the way of living righteously. Sanatana dharma. I just Hope conversions of religions all over the world these days does not pose any threat to hinduism.
Live and let live. Sarve Jana Sukhinobhavantu.
Very true Kalyan. The sanatana dharma is eternal and will live on. if you look at history then the greatest amount of conversions took place during the arrival of buddhism and then during the era of mughals. Today mughals are gone and buddhists are a part of culture and sanatana dharma continues to live on.
Half knowledge…you must read some authentic source of knowledge, Like scriptures coming in authentic disciplic succession, then only you will understand who is God.
God is in parts, ie, existence is parts of God or God is always complete but our perception is breaking it in parts.