TRYING TO COMPREHEND THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE
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| 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 realise 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 society
comprehends one tiny aspect of the almighty. Thus we say God is: Lawgiver,
judge, king, father, mother, supreme force, quintessence, energy,
truth, 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 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 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. Recognise 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. It is the saaswatha sneham,
which according to Kumaranaasan, is not inferior to heaven. 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”? |
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