Is There God?

If you believe there is God, in a way, you are right. If you believe there is no God, in a way, you are also right. Either way, if you only believe, you admit that you do not know. If you choose just to believe, you close the doors to finding the truth. Is it that you are not ready to face the truth?

The major religions of the world have been instilling the fear of God in the minds of their followers. Well, that is the only way that allows institutionalized religions to exist. The so-called religious leaders would become irrelevant if they did not spread the fear of God.

But why do we often choose to believe in the existence of God? That is because it provides hope to the masses. There is something to hang on to, and there is something to assign the blame to when things are not going right. Interestingly, these reasons are also perpetuated by the religious leaders and the books they use to preach about their religion.

So is believing enough? What if you believed that there was God all your life and suddenly found out that you were wrong? Similarly, what if you believed that there was no God all your life and suddenly found out that you were wrong? You have only this life. Would you spend it blindly believing something instead of knowing the truth?

If you simply believe there is a God, you must have envisioned the appearance of that God as well. For example, you might believe God to be a man or a woman, black or white, this and that. Right? If you can believe something, so can everyone else. And everyone “believes” their version of God to be the only truth! It is no wonder the world has been fighting endless wars over religion.

Evidently, the whole issue with humanity is about believing something instead of knowing the truth. That is why in Yoga, there is only seeking and no believing. If one does not know, one would seek the truth instead of simply believing in what is written or spoken about.

Despite having many thousands of gods to worship in India, Sadhguru rightly says that India has a godless culture. That is because they know that God is of our own making. Therefore, everyone in India is free to worship or not worship whatever form of God they choose to. Since the source of Creation is omnipresent, every rock, tree, animal, person, and everything in this cosmos is a sheer manifestation of intelligence and, therefore, worthy of worship. Hence, many gods came into existence. In Indian culture, God or Heaven is not the final aspiration. Liberation or Moksha is.

Sadhguru has an interesting way of explaining the source of Creation. For example, he asks if he takes a piece of food in his hands and turns it into a human being, who would you think he is? Would he not be the Creator Himself? Well, that is what we all do every day. We eat food, and the intelligence within our body converts that food into the body – the human body. There is an intelligence within us that ensures no matter what food is eaten, it will get converted into our own body.

The skeptics might say there is no intelligence and it is just a mechanical process in the body. Well, try putting the food in the smartest robot you have and see if it can digest all kinds of stuff that you can!

So does this source of Creation protect us? If you think you are the one taking care of yourself, think again. Any bodily process that is critical for your survival is involuntary. You have no control over it. For example, the functioning of the heart, breathing, food digestion, and immune system that fights against diseases are all beyond your control. The Creator did not trust you with these critical functions. Therefore, the intelligence within you makes these all function to the best you let it!

If God is pure intelligence, do you see where that intelligence exists? So is there a God? You can find that out by sheer introspection.