Logic of God: Gita and God 0002

Gita: Identifying the Creator

Gita’s simple and abstract concept of God did not reveal itself suddenly one day during 2500-5000BC. It quite probably evolved through centuries of quest by the thinking men and women. They were awed by the great diversity of inanimate objects and living beings in the environment around in the land, water, fire breeze, storm, sky, day and night, hunger and pleasure, peace, conflict and rivalry, sun, moon and the stars, the mountains, the trees and woods, the rivers and the seas as also the continuous change in the environment including the climate and the temperature. They wanted to know who would have created all this. Their quest for knowledge about the Creator through observations and application of logic led them to the following conclusions about the Creator:
1. Unique Creator (multiple Creators would have led them to search for the Creator or Creators; so single creator would be the ultimate)
2. The question of who created the Ultimate Creator was illogical therefore by definition (the word ultimate stops one from going beyond)
3. If the concept of Ultimate Single Creator is accepted, then no one created the Ultimate Creator: hence He is ageless, limitlessly old, was never born, was never dead, never ceased to exist, therefore He is inexhaustible, indestructible and always present.
4. Since observations showed that all new things that emerge owe their origins to some one or more source/s (seeds grow into plants), the properties of any part of the creation must have been imparted by the source/ origin (fish cannot start swimming, birds cannot start flying, drops of rain cannot stop falling mid-way in the sky, the Sun cannot stop emanating light unless these properties were inherent in the source from which they came into being). If everything did not come out of nothing but emerged out of something through transformation from one or more sources that existed before, the transformation process would have passed on the properties of old source/s to the new one that they gave rise to. Thus the ultimate Creator being the Ultimate Source, the Creator must have contained all the properties of all that is in the Creation (including all transformation/ creative/ destructive processes) that we come to know or yet to know.
5. If the Creator as the Ultimate Source contains all the properties of all that is and will be in the Creation, the Creator is present in all parts of the creation and hence everything contains Him in this sense, though we cannot identify Him separately in each of his creation. Each part of the creation therefore contains Him: even if each part is further decomposed in to smaller parts, He still exists in each of the smaller parts. So, the Creator is in this sense indivisible even if the Creation has so many parts, elements and processes.
6. If the Creator is present in each of the infinitesimal parts of the Creation, this amounts to accepting that the entire Creation is contained in the Creator.
7. Apparently, 5 and 6 seem contradictory. But given the assumptions of (a) the Ultimate-ness of the Creator and (b) transformation of properties from source/ origin to the transformed new creation (new parts at any point of time – like a human at birth or the clouds and rain or a new species or a new thought, a new weapon, an invention), both 5 and 6 are mutually consistent. God as the Creator is contained in us and all of us are contained in the Creator. So, God is all-pervasive.
8. Given the instruments of scientific testing of Truth that the thinkers had during 2500BC to 10,000 BC (and probably even now), there was no way to test the Truth contained in 5,6 and 7 empirically. If the assumptions held good, the theory contained in 5,6 and 7 held good as well by logical deduction and induction.
9. The parts in the Creation are numerous, uncountable. This was easily testable empirically. If the Creative and Destructive processes were part of the overall Transformation process that relates all origins/ sources to their transformed output and the transformation process did not seem to end, the Creator is Infinite to the human senses.
10. Since the Creator is infinite, so is the Creation as the entire Creation is contained in the Creator and the Creator is present in each part/ component/ process/ element/idea of the Creation and as of the time when Gita had been uttered by Lord Krishna (who is Krishna is a separate issue) there was absolutely very little knowledge of the diversity and dimensions of, and the processes that goes on in the Universe, the Creator was incomprehensible and unexplainable (Science has progressed much since the days of Lord Krishna and yet the Universe is far from being comprehensible and explainable in the entirety: there are more questions to which answers are being sought by scientists today to explain the Universe than the number of questions that occurred to human being at any point of time in the past).

We have got some idea as to how the abstract concept of Unique, all-pervasive, omni-present, infinite, ceaseless, inexhaustible, indestructible, everlasting, incomprehensible, unexplainable, unalterable God evolved through scientific pursuit of the knowledge about the Creator and the Creation through observations and logical reasoning.

The Question that arises now is to what use did the Gita put this simple, abstract concept of God, especially when competing theories of God already existed in that ancient ages ? That is what we may try to explore next.

Concept of God: Gita and God 0001

Concept of God

God is defined and interpreted variously. All may be acceptable as there is no scientific criterion available to test which concept of God is correct or incorrect. It is meaningless to debate over the various concepts of God. Each concept of God is relevant only to the application of the concept to various uses. Here we first try to find out the definition of God from select veses contained in Shrimad Baghwat Gita and then explore its applications and uses.
Gita does not define God as one would find any definition given in a standard textbook. The concept is to be extracted from a few relevant verses dispersed in various chapters of Gita. The simplest way to pick up the concept of God in Gita is to read the verses (slokas) where God is described in some way or the other. Let us select the following (translated in to English by me from translations into Bengali from Sanskrit by others: take care my translations are word for word and are influence by my own understanding):

1. God (Atman) “ encompasses the entire universe (creation), pervades all phenomena, matter and elements – everything in the universe: God is all pervasive, indestructible and ceaseless.” (II.17)
2. God is “ ever present, ceaseless and unlimited infinite: God never destroys anything or gets destroyed.” (II.18 -19)
3. God “was never born and never ceased to exist: God is ever present, permanent, agelessly old and never disappears even if the forms in which God is manifested may be transient and transform continuously.” (II.20)
4. God “cannot be cut into pieces by any weapon, cannot be burnt by fire or become wet by pouring water on it, nor can God become dry because of air or breeze. God is not exhaustible, not inflammable, not penetrable, not containable, God is static, is everywhere, in everything, incomprehensible, unexplainable, inexpressible, unimaginable, unalterable and original. (II.21-24)
5. God also “exits in all forms, independent of the form, shape and body.” (II.30)
6. God has “never been born, is inexhaustible and is ever present in every being, every thing. God appears in varying forms as a result of God’s own nature. At one level, God takes form as land, water, fire, wind, air, sky mind, intellect and ego. At another level, God is not apparent and formless and yet holds and sustains the entire universe or the entire creation.” (IV. 6)
7. “God’s illusive power is reflected in all things: Land, Water, wind, fire, Sky, mind, intellect and ego. But all these and all life forms and materials arise from God as the source. God is the cause of all creation, destruction and transformation. There is no other ultimate source than God: everywhere everything is ultimately related to me as the source. God is the essence of everything, of water, of light provided by the Sun and the moon, all words and sounds and of all the power of human beings. God is the fragrance in everything, the heat produced by fire, life of all living beings and the power of sacrifice, meditation and renunciation. God is the seed of everything, the wisdom of the wise and the strength of the strong; God is the source of power gained from renunciation as well as the strength of all desires of human beings. God is the desire, attachment, and anger in all beings. All different kinds of characteristics, tendencies and properties of different beings and things arise from God: God does not depend on these properties or characteristics but completely controls these instincts and natural tendencies and properties exhibited by living beings and all other things.” (VII. 4-12)
8. “ God is formless but is in all forms. Formless God is not discernible to the human faculties and senses. God fills the entire universe/ creation. That senses do not perceive or discern my presence is also the result of God’s power to keep them in illusion. God in everything All life and matter exists in God, yet God’s existence in not limited to all forms of life and matter nor limited to the known and the knowable.” (IX. 4-7)

It is clear from the above that the concept of God in Gita is very simple, even if abstract. God is not conceived as a known, identifiable physical or extra-physical form nor is God perceived as a known or unknown power or force. God is conceived as something enveloping, encompassing, all pervasive, incomprehensible, and unimaginable and the ultimate source of the entire creation – known or unknown, and perceived as always there even when time might not have existed. Yet God’s presence is perceived in all elements of matter and life everywhere, every moment of time and beyond time ans space. God seems to be the creator and the creation as well.

It is a clear admission that God is indescribable, if not unknowable, source of all that we know or do not know and is defined as such. Why has God been conceived and defined in this way some 2,500 or 5,000 years ago? Why is this God not named? How is such an abstract concept or definition useful and applied in human life?

We shall explore this soon by looking at other verses of Gita itself.

Thy Will Thy Flag

ALL MOMENTS MANIFEST THY WILL

You make us feel free to choose
Our destiny, we think we decide and do.
We aim at gains, never to lose.
Pride we take in successes we make;
For failures to blame there’s You too.
Yet, we seek Your blessings, and we pray,
Your injustice makes Luck skip our way.
That’s Your design; it’s Your principle
Working each moment to manifest Your Will.

All in Your team are to try, You only identify:
One Bill Gates, and his mates,
His charity others to embrace.
One Bin Laden, a few to die for him
And some others to fall victim.
Two to fight each other,
One heart to love another,
Many to lose wealth in stocks
Scribes to earn selling scandal shocks,
Our moments to restore peace,
And the moment we pierce it with ease.
You sequence moments to follow :
Life and happiness, death and sorrow.

Whose Flags Fly High

The Towers of the Rich crumble,
Thousands die and millions cry.
Whose flags fly and rise high?
Champions of the deprived, the poor?
Super-minds of religious adventure?
Wonder if, this can ever ensure
That poverty dies with the rich and the martyr!
And, wonder if religions make us humble!

Winning power to control others’ lives –
Is a cherished goal that drives
The jealous hearts cast in stone.
Hiding failures to create on their own,
They destroy what others have grown.

As leaders of the innocent, gullible mass
They sell hatred to the poor, illiterate class
At prices that make this business gain.
Buyers must struggle for hatred to sustain.
Through the ages, fluttering in the sky,
Bloodstained flags of hatred rise high,


When Terrorism Wins!

Find fault with others, if you fail to compete.
And the competent you cannot hope to beat.
Building competencies takes time too long,
Past legacies stand as a burden too heavy,
Entry barriers prove difficult to cross over.
But for the one in-a-hurry to become strong,
Impatience grows, seeking ways to be ready
To snatch the comfort of peace with violence
From those not yet tired of their tolerance
Of the extant order where the proficient thrives.

But does terror bring justice and lies re-write
History? Lies breed lies, fear begets fright.
Violence multiplies. Terrorism grows.
But, it’s power to terrorize weaken with time
whose healing touch quietly sows
the seeds of change in the hearts of men
Like fire. Then it loses steam,
It continues to kill and destroy
Only to burn itself out. To let life enjoy
Diversity and difference as hearts in pain
Pump tolerance back again.
Terrorism wins in its demise
As truth, honesty. peace and love rise
To fill hearts and intellect.
And, nothing seems incorrect, imperfect.