The Evolution of God.

Who is God? Where did God come from? What does God want? And more importantly a fourth question - What is God like?

A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key – as Churchill put it in a different context.

Neither am I an atheist nor a sensationalist trying to disprove God. I am a student of everything that interests me or affects me. That is my reaction as a human. My motive is not to attack any religious beliefs or practices. My motive is to answer, in my limited capability the questions I have put above pertaining to God. I would like to begin with a Doha of the 15th Century Mystic Poet and Saint who originally hailed from a Muslim Family – Sant Kabir. Kabir, incidentally was critical of the practices of both Hinduism and Islam. He famously wrote in one of his Dohas:

Kabira kuan ek hai, pani bhare anek

Bhande hee mein bhed hai, pani sab mein ek

The inference being, while there are many beautiful ways to God, the final destination is one and the same.

This wisdom is echoed in Sufism, which borrows from the wisdom of different Religions. The oldest Religion known to us are the Sanatan Dharma (not to be confused with Hinduism) and Judaism, apart from the Pagan religions. Then we have an advent of Incarnations of God, Messengers of God, Son of God and Prophets. Lord Vishnu in Satyayug did not create Hinduism. Jesus Christ did not create Christianity. Prophet Mohammad did not create Islam. Gautam Buddha did not create Buddhism. They all bore a message for humanity and preached that message.

So, we come to our first question. Who is God? Different Religions, as they exist today will give you different answers.

Some would say Zeus,

Some would say the great I Am (whose name cannot be taken),

Some would say “In the beginning there was the Word and the word was God”

Some would say Allah,

Some would say the Holy Trinity (there are two. One in Christianity and one in The Sanatan Dharma) Christians say The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and the followers of Sanatan Dharma would say Bramha, Vishnu, Shiva.

Some would say Nature.

Furthermore, there are thousands of Religions followed by humans in different parts of the globe along with their sects and sub-sects that worship different Deities. In India we consider Mother Nature’s different bounties like Rivers and Mountains as revered Gods and Goddess. The word ‘Hindu’ or the expression ‘Hinduism’ are both misnomers. The Religion is the Sanatan Dharma and Hinduism is the way to live out that Dharma; or simply put, a way of life. So if we were asked to answer Who is God? From an academic point of view, it would be impossible to answer that question.

God is not a subject of academia. God is a subject of Faith. 

Creation theories in all the major Religions point to the fact that:

God created Man. 

Every Teacher whose teachings have formed the basis of every Religion has taught us that. Then centuries after these Great Teachers no longer walked the earth, we started adding Dogma, Rituals, Laws, and segregated not only it’s followers but also Compartmentalized God:

Man created God. 

That is to say Man applied his profane and sometimes even foolishly arrogant understanding to the Divine messages of the Great Teachers and re-defined God according to the needs of the socio-political structure of that time. We cling to these centuries’ old innovations today and refuse to evolve further spiritually. The answer to the Question Who is God is:

He is the beginning and the end and even after the end of Creation He will remain. For He is eternal.

But this definition that I have just given is also rooted in Scriptures and may sound archaic or even over the top. For in today’s matter of the fact world, what we see is what we believe or what we understand is what we believe.

Albert Einstein once famously said that if we can’t explain something in simple terms, we ourselves have not understood it.

So, let me simplify. God is within us. We are part of His Divine consciousness. All we need are faith and devotion to discover Him. We all have a Spark of the Divine. It has been buried under the cares of our worldly experience. Our relationship with God should be private. Not influenced by Dogma. Raise the veil which has hidden the Divine Spark within you and you will find your definition of Who God is.

Now, we come to our second question. Where did God come from? Again, different Religions and different Scriptures will give us different answers.

I am the Alpha and Omega - the beginning and the end.

Anadi Aadi Shree Govind (not to be confused with Krishna), 

Sarva karana karanam.

Islam says He was there when there was nothing.

Adi Shankaracharya, after mastering all the Scriptures ended his magnum opus with the lines ‘Bhaja Govindam, Bhaja Govindam, Govindam Bhaja Moodha Matey’.

So is God eternal? The beginning and the end? Creationists think so, and say so in the Scriptures.

In the beginning there was God. And God said ‘Let there be Light, and there was Light.’

Indian Vedas similarly say Govind awoke and stared into nothingness. He took the form of Vishnu and his first Creation was Shiva. Both the Creator and Creation were spellbound and started worshipping each other. Thereafter, Bramha appeared from Vishnu and was given the task of ‘Shristi’ i.e. Creation.

Even Mirza Assadullah Khan ‘Ghalib’ wrote:

Na tha kuch to Khuda tha, Kuch na hota to Khuda hota.

How can one find the origin of the Original? Our most ancient Scriptures in every major Religion begins with the description of Creation. Even the Big Bang Theory relates very closely to the Book of Genesis and the Vedas as far as Creation theory is concerned. The term ‘theory’ acquires enormous significance here because neither Religion, nor Science has been able to Prove what was the origin of the Creator, or in scientific terms what were the concatenation of circumstances which lead to the Big Bang. Even the Higgs-Boson particle has been nicknamed the ‘God Particle’ because the understanding of the current scientific community cannot fully define it. Science and Religion should not be at loggerheads. They should work together for the Moral and Material Advancement of Mankind. So, for the time being we believe God was, is and will remain. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Now we come to our third question- What does God want? Is He a vengeful God who demands sacrifices and wants wars waged in His name? Does God want us all to become ascetics? Does God want blind faith and complete and unqualified devotion?

Allah will still be Great if no wars were waged in His name. Prophet Mohammed did not preach bloodshed. Centuries later, the Shariat however, justified ‘Holy war’ when Islam is threatened.

Jesus Christ never uttered a word of violence. He taught us to turn the other cheek and even went n to say ‘the meek shall inherit the earth’. The excesses of the ancient Roman Catholicism were not the result of Christ’s teaching but Papal Dogma and Papal Bulls to retain political and material significance. The Inquisition, the purging of Knight Templars were certainly not a result of the Gospels, those in existence and even those tossed aside.

Buddhism, through centuries has remained non-violent following the Middle Path preached by Gautam Buddha, so has Jainism.

Non-Violent religions have prospered because they appeal to the hearts of their disciples. In Sanatan Dharma Incarnations of Lord Vishnu have come to earth in human form to wipe out evil. I am reminded of the lines from Bhagvad Gita:

Yada yada hi dharmasya glanirbhavati bharata

Abhythanamadharmasya tadatmanam srijamyaham

Paritranaya sadhunang vinashay cha dushkritam

Dharmasangsthapanarthay sambhabami yuge yuge

Whenever there is decay of righteousness, O Bharata,

And there is exaltation of unrighteousness, then I Myself come forth;

For the protection of the good, for the destruction of evil-doers, 

For the sake of firmly establishing righteousness, I am born from age to age.

Thus spoke Lord Krishna to Arjuna in the battlefield of Kurukshetra in the epic Mahabharata, which is a part of what we know as the Bhagvad Gita today.

When Lord Ram returned to Ayodhya after his victory in Lanka, he was posed a pointed question. Did you kill Ravana? He answered- 

‘Ravana was a great scholar and a Maha Yogi. He was a disciple of Lord Shiva and had the protection of Goddess Durga. It was impossible to slay him. I did not kill him. His own ego killed him.’

So, what does God want of us? I could go back to the Scriptures and say:

Sravaṇaṁ Kīrtanaṁ Viṣṇoḥ Smaraṇaṁ Pāda-Sevanam Arcanaṁ Vandanaṁ Dāsyaṁ Sakhyam Atma-Nivedanam.

But, in today’s world, with our human experience, exposed to so much information, some of which gets transformed to knowledge and even a smaller percentage of that gets transformed to wisdom, we are frankly bewildered. What to believe, what not to believe, what to retain and what to discard? What we need today is a simple solution. That simple solution could be a silent prayer from the heart  before we start the day or before we turn in at night, or even simpler, which great thinkers and Prem Avatars like Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in our Yuga have prescribed as Yuga dharma and that is simply to take the name of God, in whatever way that suits you. What could be simpler?

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu created a revolution in the Religious beliefs of his time, breaking with rigid practices and accepting everyone into his fold like Haridas Thakur and Yavanas. He preached that God’s love was Universal and was not restricted to caste, creed or sects. He taught the following lines as our Yuga Dharma and I quote:

Harer Nama Harer Nama Harer Namaiva Kevalam

Kalau Nasteva, Nasteva, Nasteva Gatirannatha

Meaning our Yuga Dharma is to take the name of God and there is no other way in Kali Yuga. He stresses this thrice. 

Thakur Ramkrishna Paramhansa the famous Sage of Bengal, also stressed on the importance of taking the name of God. 

Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism said and I quote:

‘Kahon kahan lagi naam badai,

Ram na sakahin naam gun gaai.’

He inferred, Even God himself cannot describe the greatness of his Name. God’s Name is greater than God. 

The second thing God wants from us is to have Faith after we have prayed. God is Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Omniscient. We don’t need to make further efforts.

God knows. Have Faith.

But there is a proviso. As Rahim or Abdul Rahim Khan-e-Khana a Poet and one of the Navratnas of the Mughal Emperor Akbar wrote:

Mala pherat jug bhaya, phira na man ka pher,

Manka manka dari de, man ka manka pher

It means if we can spend a lifetime chanting the name of God, but if we do not pray with purity of our conscience it will be fruitless.

There were several Yuga Dharmas for different Religions for different Yugas ranging from Deep and Secluded meditation to Havans to Sacrificial Offerings. Those might have been effective in those times, but in this Yuga the Dharma is simply to take the name of God. And again as Christ has said

‘When you pray to God, your Father in heaven do so privately.’

Another Dharma which has been prevalent through all Yugas in all the Major Religions is Charity. Not just by giving to the needy but by developing a charitable disposition. Again I quote Christ -

‘When you give to the needy do not let your left hand know what the right is doing.’

That should be the true essence of Charity. So what do we retain and what do we discard? I quote Tulsidas -

Swantah Sukhaya.

Retain what gives peace and happiness to your soul. Discard everything else. 

In Sanatan Dharma a good soul is rewarded after he has left his transitory existence on earth with two options - Moksha or Re-birth in human form.

As Adi Shankaracharya put it:

Punarapi jananam, Punarapi Maranam

Punarapi Janani jathare shayanam

God does not interfere with free will. If we choose Moksha we are forever relieved from the cycle of re-birth and are given an abode in the heavens. If we choose re-birth we are reborn. According to Vedic beliefs, the human body is the only form capable of taking the name of the Lord.

Now I address a Social issue, which has been forced upon us by our Pundits and Clerics. Lord Vishnu is said to have created the Four Varnas or Castes. Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras. All the 4 Varnas were said to be close to Lord Visnu’s heart. In the Satya Yuga, Dwapar Yuga,Treta Yuga, these Varnas were not held in water tight compartments. A Kshatriya could become a Brahmin according to his deeds or Karma as we see in the case of the Great Sage Vishwamitra in the Ramayana. A Kshatriya could even become a Vaishya if he left his Karma and went into trade. Similarly a Brahmin could become a Kshatriya or a Vaishya and a Shudra could become a Kshatriya, all according to their Karma. In other words, mere birth in a certain Varna did not guarantee that you would remain in that Varna unless you followed the Karma of your respective Dharma. Even in the Middle Ages Chanakya Neeti proclaimed the same. These are again synthetic and self-serving boundaries or shackles to be more precise, put on us by our Clerics today. They are against the laws of God and Nature.

Zarathustra was a Prophet, a messenger of the Higher Power, Ahura Mazda. His message was simple:

 Humktaa, Hukta, Huvarshat - Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds. 

Even the sequence of his message is first Good Thoughts, second Good Words third Good Deeds. Without Good Thoughts there can be no Good Words and without Good Thoughts and Good Words there will never be Good Deeds.

Finally, I shall endeavour to answer my fourth and last question. What is God like? There is no one answer. The spiritual experience is deeply personal. To each, his or her own. God is indefatigable energy. God is the Light. God is inspiration. The poet Shelley once said:

‘When I sit down to write, the first thought, the first line of my poem, comes from God’.

That again, as I have said was perhaps the poets’ own personal experience. God lives in every living being. God Moves with Nature. God is the ultimate artist. God is the ultimate scientist. But above all God is Goodness. By whatever name we choose, by whatever Religion we worship, God is an eternal consciousness. God is where we came from and God is to whom we must return when the sun sets on our very short existence on earth.

Amir Khusrau the 13th Century Sufi Mystic and poets said, and I quote:

“Khusrau darya prem ka, ulti wa ki dhaar, 

Jo utra so doob gaya, jo dooba so paar. 

Meaning,

Oh Khusrau, the river of love

Runs in strange directions. 

One who jumps into it drowns, 

And one who drowns, gets across.”

We must immerse ourselves in the Love of God. With Faith and Devotion. Faith is inexplicable. Faith doesn’t rely on evidence of the Terrestrial world. But, Faith is the connection between the Creation and the Creator.

The revered Sufi Saint Baba Bulleh Shah said, and I quote:

The matter is not finished by going to Mecca, so long as you do not finish off the self from your heart. Sins are not shed by going to the Ganges, even though you immerse yourself hundreds of times. The matter is not finished off by going to Gaya, no matter how many offerings you make to the dead. Bullhe Shah, the matter is finished when the ego is destroyed.

So, by this short treatise, I have tried to say that God has evolved through time. He has preached different Yuga Dharmas in different ages. Enlightened thinkers, Sages, Saints and Prophets have also brought about Religious revolutions according to the needs of their time and age. Alfred Lord Tennyson has aptly put it:

“The old order changeth yielding place to new And God fulfills himself in many ways Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.”

So let us ask ourselves this question – 

If God can evolve, why can’t the rigid practices and dogma of so-called Organized Religions evolve to suit the needs of today’s time and age?

I am a follower of the Sanatan Dharma. A Dharma which teaches us not only to respect but also accept other Religions. I have prayed in Chapels, Mosques, Temples and Synagogues. I have found my God everywhere. I pray in private, with my door locked. Not for hours together, but a few minutes. That is my personal relationship with God. I do not wish to force my beliefs on anyone and believe no one else should try to do so either. Religion is to be practiced privately, not in the glare of society. It should certainly not appear on the agenda of politics or political parties. I believe firmly, that the Bhagvad Gita, the Holy Quran, the Holy Bible, the Guru Granth Sahib, the Zend Avesta and all other Religious Scriptures which preach Love, Compassion, Charity and Goodness are Holy Books, and I respect them equally. But, at the end, at the cost of sounding repetitive, our relationship with God is Personal and Private. It should remain so.

I began with a Doha of Sant Kabir and I would like to end with another of his Dohas:

Moko kahan dhoonde re bande, Main to tere paas mein.

Don’t look for me without, look for me within.

And as Tiny Tim said in Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’:

God Bless us, Everyone. 

Ambarish Singh Roy
Calcutta, India

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