“Presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man”, wrote a poet nearly three centuries ago. The advice was in order. Man’s scanning of God has created confusion about Him, His role, and His relationship with us.
There are widely varying beliefs about God across different cultures, religions, and individuals. Monotheistic religions believe in the existence of a single, supreme deity. But there are differing ideas among them. Christians believe in the Holy Trinity, consisting of God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Muslims believe in Allah as the one and only God, as revealed through the Prophet Muhammad. Jews worship Yahweh as the one true God.
Polytheistic religions believe in the existence of multiple gods and goddesses. Pantheistic beliefs consider God or divinity as inseparable from the universe and nature. God is seen as immanent in all things.
Atheists, meanwhile, reject belief in any gods or deities. They assert that there is no evidence or convincing reason to believe in the existence of God.
Then, agnostics claim that it is impossible to know or prove whether or not God exists. They hold that the existence of God is unknown or unknowable.
The above, in short, is the result of the human scanning of God. The ‘scanner’ — the human intellect — seems to be faulty, and consequently the picture it has produced of God is not at all clear.
Our intellect is coloured by our experiences. When perceived through such an intellect, we see things not as they are, but as we are. That is why some people think God is a strict, retributive figure, while others praise Him as the merciful One. Some assert that God is to be feared and obeyed at pain of punishment, even as others maintain that no one could be more kind and loving than Him.
Even within one faith tradition, there are a wide range of concepts about God and what He does. Many Hindus believe God to be omnipresent; at the same time, they call out to Him to come to this world and salvage it. God is said to have incarnated as various creatures in different ages to save the world and destroy evil. He is believed to be the purifier of souls who rids them of their sins and makes them whole again. But millions of people also hold that a dip in the river Ganges washes away one’s sins. If that is the case, why do we need a God?
The root of the confusion is ignorance of our own identity — that we are spiritual, not physical beings. The sentient, immortal soul lends life to the perishable body. The soul is the seat of consciousness – it thinks, feels, and acts through the physical organs. Our experiences, memories, attitudes, and character traits are recorded in the soul, which journeys through multiple lives, playing various roles as it leaves one body upon death to take birth in another.
God, the Supreme Soul, is the father of souls. But when we are unaware of our own identity, it is impossible to know God as He is and relate to Him. God says as much in the Bhagavad Gita, a scripture in which He speaks in the first person. He says that He cannot be known by reading scriptures or performing religious rituals. The Almighty introduces Himself when He incarnates in this world to restore a righteous order for the sake of His children.
He teaches us to connect with Him by remembering Him. This mental link allows souls to draw God’s power and virtues and become free from the harmful traits that have brought them pain and sorrow. When souls rediscover their innate goodness and start to live by it, the world is eventually transformed into what we call heaven — a place where there is no falsehood, violence, greed, or selfishness.
B.K. Usha is a Rajyoga teacher at the Brahma Kumaris headquarters in Abu Road, Rajasthan.