How Can You Learn About God?
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| Sunrise – A Chalk Pastels Painting by my Son Gopal |
“Wow, it a beautiful painting of a Sun setting” –I said, looking at this painting of my 8 year old son. “No Daddy, it is a sunrise” my son replied. “Oh, sorry it looked like the birds are coming back home” I replied. “No, they are actually flying away for food” my son said.Ok, whatever it is, it’s a nice painting – I quickly corrected myself. So, this is what it is. Every one of us has their own perception of reality, what they see, how they see and how they perceive things. Depending on one’s mood, perceptions and Psyche one interprets things in a different way. I am sure, someone else looking at this might wonder, where is the sun ?
One of the question or thought that I always get and many philosophers wondered is that, does two people share same reality. Do they see or the same object or hear the same sound at the same time. How do we know ? We simply assume that because, this is so and so, I can hear, feel, touch it, the other person also should be perceiving it in the same way. But, it is a well-documented, researched and noticed fact that our perceptions are greatly influenced by the amount of attentions that we pay to a particular thing, by past experiences, motivations, context, faith and so many other factors. In other words, our reality is built by ourselves or the experience of reality is psychologically constructed.
An interesting verse from Srimad Bhagavatham explains that “Atmavan Manyatae Jagat” – everyone looks at the world from their eyes, thinks of others from their position. For example, when a person is hard of hearing, he thinks others can’t hear. A man thinks others like himself. I have recently experienced this thing.Something happened to my right ear and for about, two days I could not hear anything. But, when I speak, my voice would amplify and I would hear it myself and too loud. So, what I used do was, to speak too soft or low to others and my friends would not understand what I am saying and they were saying, what.? Thank God, it’s all over and I am back to normal.
There is a nice story of Frog who used to live in a small well. One day, another Frog which visited a Ocean came to see him and was trying to explain him how vast is the ocean. But, this frog which is accustomed to living in a small three feet water and had no experience of seeing an ocean is trying to figure out how big is the ocean compared to his well. He said, is it bigger by 10, 20, 100, 1000 times.? How can there be any water reserve that’s bigger than that.? An Ocean is beyond the limits and comprehension of that Frog in the well.
Similarly, people try to apply their logic and reasoning to know, find out God. They try to define God by logic, reasoning, by experiments. But, the Supreme God is beyond our material sense perception and material knowledge. For example, think of Something like – God Paradox or Omnipotence Paradox, which try to define God and his powers through logic and reasoning. Man can go on arguing for centuries and millenniums but, cannot come to a conclusion.
The omnipotence paradox is a family of semantic paradoxes that address two general issues and three specific issues:
Is an omnipotent entity logically possible?
What do we mean by “omnipotence”?
What do we mean by “power”?
What do we mean by “logic”?
What is the relation between power and logic?
The omnipotence paradox states that: If a being can perform any action, then it should be able to create a task that it is unable to perform. Hence, this being cannot perform all actions. On the other hand, if this being cannot create a task that it is unable to perform, then there is something it cannot do.
In the Mahabharata it is mentioned that the Supreme God cannot be perceived by logic and reasoning but, he is actually residing in the hearts of the great Paramahamsa devotees and through their mercy one can learn about the God.
Here is a nice excerpt from one of Srila Prabhupad’s lecture –
Lecture on SB 7.9.8 — Hawaii, March 21, 1969: So our folly is that we are trying to study Krsna, or God, by our own standard, frog standard. We do not know how great Krsna is, how His potency is great, how He is manufacturing, how He is… Because we think, “If we have to manufacture something, I require some tools, I require some energy, I require some ingredients. I have to collect it. Then I can make.” Therefore we are surprised, “How Krsna can make, or how God can create, this universe? Where is that instrument? Where is that ingredient?” They cannot. They are thinking in that way, that “I require instrument. Krsna requires the hammer and the saw to manufacture this comic manifestation.” I am thinking in that way. Therefore I cannot believe it, how the cause of this cosmic manifestation can be a person. They are thinking impersonal. Impersonal bigness, they think it is very important. Actually, it has no value. Background is person. Krsna says in the Bhagavad-gita that “brahmano hi pratisthaham” I am the basis of the impersonal Brahman. That is the mistake of civilization. We think everything in our own standard.
