As we discuss the Rudram, we realize the importance of meditation and the different aspects of God or Rudra that we should meditate on. I thought this would be an interesting stage to understand and discuss the concept of God. Is God the elephant headed Ganesh, the dancing Nataraj, the butter thief Krishna, the man who was crucified on the cross, Jesus? Trying to understand the concept of God can be very challenging. Why is this so?
With our sense organs we can experience or study the material world. With our mind, we can see what the sense organs experience. With our intellect, we can interpret what the mind sees. So at each stage, an organ can decipher something that is less subtle or grosser than itself. The sense organs can sense the world of objects since they are subtler than the world of objects. The mind can sense the sense organs since it is subtler than them and finally the intellect being subtler than the mind can interpret and sense the mind. God or Rudra or the infinite Truth is subtler than the intellect and hence it is impossible for the intellect, the subtlest organ we have, to understand and conceptualize God.
Let us take another example. Assuming after a sumptuous lunch over a weekend I am dreaming. In my dream, there can be several characters. Maybe some of them may be spiritual and try to understand their Creator. Though they they may come to a conclusion that someone has created them, there is absolutely no chance that they will know that I, the Creator is sleeping on a bed in NJ. In the same way, it is impossible for us to conceptualize and visualize the true God.
What is the way out then? The Hindu concept of "Nethi Nethi", which means "Not this, Not this" helps us at least eliminate some possibilities. Assume that I have to explain what gulab jamoon tastes like to a person who has no clue of what sweet means. I will tell him it does not taste like bread, not like lemon, not like salt etc and help him gradually narrow down to what sweet could be. In the same way, we try to eliminate possibilities of what God is not, to be able to narrow down to a better concept.
God does not have a shape or form
One of the first concepts of God is that He is omnipresent. If he is present everywhere, it automatically implies he occupies the whole space and by reverse logic, He is shapeless or formless.
God is not an accountant
One of the common concepts we have is of a God who keeps tally of all our good acts and all our bad acts and at the end of our life gives us rewards in heaven or punishment in hell. This makes God an accountant. God is the energizing principle. He is like the petrol/gas in a car. Just as petrol is responsible for the car to move, but is not responsible if the car goes to a gambling den or to a holy place, God is the energizing principle in our life and does not keep track of our good or bad acts and give rewards/punishments.
God is not someone separate
When we look at a wave in an ocean, do we not agree that though it is a wave, if we think a bit deeply, the wave is the ocean or the ocean is the wave. There is no difference between an ocean and the wave. If we look at the space inside our house and the space outside, there is no difference. Similarly God is not someone separate. Our very existence is Truth or Light or God or Rudra or Vishnu.
God is not an ordinary creator
We talk of God as a creator without really understanding the magnificence of the creation. For any creation one needs the raw material, the tools, the intelligence to do and the actual action. Now, a potter also creates pots. Can he be called God? Other than the intelligence and his action, the other two are not his. Once can argue that intelligence is also not his and he can act because he has food which is not his. So in a way he almost owns none of the means of creation. At a higher level, let us look at a spider creating a cobweb. It produces its own raw material and from that perspective is a higher level creator than the potter. But in God's case, he creates his own material, his own intelligence, his own action and his own tools. He is not dependent on anybody.
Hook for meditation
Given all this, how can we meditate on God. It is impossible for many of us as students to be able to conceptualize God as the Energy force. Then, it is also impossible for us to grow spiritually unless we drop the Ego. So, to resolve this conundrum, the Rishis of old, told us to start step by step. They asked us to meditate on something we can relate to. This is where the various images of Gods come into play. Rudra in various forms, Ganapathy, Vishnu, Krishna etc. are images which we can relate to and to some extent focus the mind on and to that extent reduce our ego.
But, if we we were to forever focus on only the image, we are still not able to transcend that limitations of physical form. Hence the Rishis led us to the next stage where God was omnipresent, and omniscient. This is where we have concepts like the Viswa Roopa of Vishnu, which encompasses the entire creation. Note here that in meditating, we have moved from a simple image of God to an all encompassing God. But still we are talking of images. From here, the next step is to get rid of images and meditate on God as the universal Energy force. At this stage there is no image. It is just a realization that God is the universal enlightening force and my ego is merging into the universal energy and I am all bliss.
With our sense organs we can experience or study the material world. With our mind, we can see what the sense organs experience. With our intellect, we can interpret what the mind sees. So at each stage, an organ can decipher something that is less subtle or grosser than itself. The sense organs can sense the world of objects since they are subtler than the world of objects. The mind can sense the sense organs since it is subtler than them and finally the intellect being subtler than the mind can interpret and sense the mind. God or Rudra or the infinite Truth is subtler than the intellect and hence it is impossible for the intellect, the subtlest organ we have, to understand and conceptualize God.
Let us take another example. Assuming after a sumptuous lunch over a weekend I am dreaming. In my dream, there can be several characters. Maybe some of them may be spiritual and try to understand their Creator. Though they they may come to a conclusion that someone has created them, there is absolutely no chance that they will know that I, the Creator is sleeping on a bed in NJ. In the same way, it is impossible for us to conceptualize and visualize the true God.
What is the way out then? The Hindu concept of "Nethi Nethi", which means "Not this, Not this" helps us at least eliminate some possibilities. Assume that I have to explain what gulab jamoon tastes like to a person who has no clue of what sweet means. I will tell him it does not taste like bread, not like lemon, not like salt etc and help him gradually narrow down to what sweet could be. In the same way, we try to eliminate possibilities of what God is not, to be able to narrow down to a better concept.
God does not have a shape or form
One of the first concepts of God is that He is omnipresent. If he is present everywhere, it automatically implies he occupies the whole space and by reverse logic, He is shapeless or formless.
God is not an accountant
One of the common concepts we have is of a God who keeps tally of all our good acts and all our bad acts and at the end of our life gives us rewards in heaven or punishment in hell. This makes God an accountant. God is the energizing principle. He is like the petrol/gas in a car. Just as petrol is responsible for the car to move, but is not responsible if the car goes to a gambling den or to a holy place, God is the energizing principle in our life and does not keep track of our good or bad acts and give rewards/punishments.
God is not someone separate
When we look at a wave in an ocean, do we not agree that though it is a wave, if we think a bit deeply, the wave is the ocean or the ocean is the wave. There is no difference between an ocean and the wave. If we look at the space inside our house and the space outside, there is no difference. Similarly God is not someone separate. Our very existence is Truth or Light or God or Rudra or Vishnu.
God is not an ordinary creator
We talk of God as a creator without really understanding the magnificence of the creation. For any creation one needs the raw material, the tools, the intelligence to do and the actual action. Now, a potter also creates pots. Can he be called God? Other than the intelligence and his action, the other two are not his. Once can argue that intelligence is also not his and he can act because he has food which is not his. So in a way he almost owns none of the means of creation. At a higher level, let us look at a spider creating a cobweb. It produces its own raw material and from that perspective is a higher level creator than the potter. But in God's case, he creates his own material, his own intelligence, his own action and his own tools. He is not dependent on anybody.
Hook for meditation
Given all this, how can we meditate on God. It is impossible for many of us as students to be able to conceptualize God as the Energy force. Then, it is also impossible for us to grow spiritually unless we drop the Ego. So, to resolve this conundrum, the Rishis of old, told us to start step by step. They asked us to meditate on something we can relate to. This is where the various images of Gods come into play. Rudra in various forms, Ganapathy, Vishnu, Krishna etc. are images which we can relate to and to some extent focus the mind on and to that extent reduce our ego.
But, if we we were to forever focus on only the image, we are still not able to transcend that limitations of physical form. Hence the Rishis led us to the next stage where God was omnipresent, and omniscient. This is where we have concepts like the Viswa Roopa of Vishnu, which encompasses the entire creation. Note here that in meditating, we have moved from a simple image of God to an all encompassing God. But still we are talking of images. From here, the next step is to get rid of images and meditate on God as the universal Energy force. At this stage there is no image. It is just a realization that God is the universal enlightening force and my ego is merging into the universal energy and I am all bliss.
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