What are your thoughts on this? Can you provide a straightforward answer? Does God exist, or doesn’t He? A simple yes or no will do. And if the answer is yes, how can we best connect with Him during our lifetime? It’s quite a profound question, isn’t it? Throughout history, from the ancient Greeks to the Sumerians, humanity has grappled with the concept of God, haven’t they? I’m not entirely certain if the Upanishads mention God at all, or if it’s a later invention. Do you see what I mean? So, the question remains: What is God? We’re in the midst of an exploration.
I am not attacking God. I am not denying God, but we are investigating whether there is such a thing as God. Who invented God? Did God invent us, did God create us? God, who is omnipotent, omniscient, eternal, merciful, just, all goodness.Right? That’s your concept of God. And if you say, he has created us, then we are part of his image. We are part of him. That is, we are omniscient, generous, loving. Right? And eternal. Are we? Or we think we are? Do you understand my question? If God created you, he must be an extraordinary entity because he wants you to lead a terrible life.
Do you understand my question? If God made you, why are you like this? You must be extraordinary human beings, mustn’t you? Beautiful, full of joy, excitement, full of delight, but you are not. So either you have created God, or God has created you. But if you examine very closely, you have created God.
In India, there are about – I was told there are about 300,000 gods and more. Every local person has his own god. So, sir, we have created God. See the irony of it. Thought has created God and then thought worships the image which thought has created. Which is, to worship oneself and call it ‘God’. Do you understand all this? ‘The better part of you is God’.Right? I wonder if you understand this. First of all, let’s be clear. Have you created God? The local gods, round the corner, or the local god in Rome, or in Tirupati, or wherever, you have created them, haven’t you? You’re so very uncertain, aren’t you? So frightened. If you say, ‘We have created’, then you are scared stiff because you have created out of your fear, that.
Out of your fear, you want security. You want safety, you want to feel there is somebody looking after you because you are afraid. Do you follow? So you create that and then worship that. Just see what you are doing! Going to Tirupati and putting all your money in the bag. Do you think God wants your money? Sir, look at it all. You have nothing to offer but money, garlands, prostrations, rituals. Right? You have nothing else to offer. Have you realized the tragedy of this, sirs? If you love, not God, that’s very easy to love God because it’s an abstraction, it has not much meaning.
But if you loved, that very love God, that very love is sacred. You won’t go outside to look for God. Do you understand all this, sirs? And the questioner wants to know if I believe in God. I don’t. Because ‘God’ is not something created by man. There is such a thing as eternity, which is to be outside of time. Right, sir? For that, you must have a mind, a heart that is completely free from all the burdens of life. Right? From your vanity, your arrogance, your selfishness. You follow, sir? And we say, we are not capable of it, tell us what to do.
The word is not that like the word ‘tree’ is not the tree. I can describe eternity, blah, blah, but the word is not that. But we are satisfied with the word. Right, sir? You love with your heart, with your mind, with everything that you have, you love somebody, and you tell me of that love, and I accept the words but I have no… – the flower isn’t there, the perfume isn’t there. You see, sirs, you have leaders: religious leaders and political leaders. I don’t know why, why you have leaders at all. Ramakrishna, whatever gurus that you’ve had, one after the other. This country is full of them. And why do you follow? Do you understand?
If once you realized that you are responsible entirely for yourself, that you are in a jungle, literally in a jungle, where you have to make your own way out. There is nobody to lead you, then you forget all this: the examples, the books, everything because you have got vitality, strength to go through. But the moment you depend on leaders, you become weak. If once you realize it, in your heart not just intellectually, then you are a man, a human being, free to walk straight! But we don’t want all that. Sir, it’s so simple when you think of it all.