148. System of the World. Part Six
This leads us to a paradox: On one hand mankind is
supposed to develop on their own, without outside interference, on the other
hand glaring examples of divine intervention. No doubt is left in the mind of
the participants (like prophet
Muhammadpbuh, Giri Bala, and Therese Neumann) and the people around
them, that this is the finger of God doing it, because the two women lived on
air for years, for everybody to see. God is supposed to be hidden. Why manifest
Himself by miracles?
I do not know the
answer, but I can try.
God intervenes in a
major and a minor way due to His three eminent qualities. I have picked these
three, in a litany of others, with some consideration. These are Goodness,
Mercy, and His desire that people should appreciate Him, and if possible love
Him.
Goodness.
The proof of His goodness is that when He intervenes in a major way through
prophets like Moses, Jesus, Muhammadpbuh, Buddha, Krishna, the
ensuing teaching is to love the fellow man. To create a good society. All the
preaching of prophets and mystics, inspired by God, is to do good and make the
society better.
Mercy. Although He
appears indifferent, but He is merciful. If a society becomes selfish, a major
reformer, like Jesus, is sent. Here is a thoughtful verse in Gita, the Hindu scripture: Lord Krishna
(human incarnation of God, according to Hindu religion) said;
“Whenever dharma (Divine way) declines and the
purpose of life is forgotten, I manifest myself on earth. I am born in every
age to protect the good, to destroy evil, and to re-establish dharma.”
The Bhagvad Gita. 4:7-8
Why would God take
the trouble of helping if not from mercy?
Consider the two
prayers of Mufti Sahib (blog 112). He begged God to help him in feeding his
guests. Prayer was immediately answered. Money was provided. His other request
was for helping him to spend Eid with his family. Again his request was
granted, and money came through the hands of a stranger. The person who wept so
much that skin under his eyes broke down.
He importuned God for a huge debt relief (blog 112). His request was granted.
All these three episodes denote mercy. Out of all the qualities of God, this
mote, appreciates His mercy the most.
To be appreciated if
not loved: When Jesus was asked what the most important commandment was, he
replied; to love God.
There is something
in God which is attracted towards the people who love Him. The person, who
loves Him without any reward, and without any answer (from Him), is indeed
rare. Because it is very difficult to love somebody which is just an idea in
the mind in the form of infinite expanse of empty space; Dionysius the
Areopagite gave it the name of Divine Darkness. It is difficult to love a
concept. To love Goodness, Justice and Beauty. It is much easier if there was a
human form to love, such as Jesus, Muhammadpbuh, Buddha, Krishna,
and Ram, or an object such as Kaaba (
the holiest site of Islam ).
2. What is the
purpose of life? I don’t know.
3. Is God personal
or impersonal? By personal God is meant that He is approachable. He has human
qualities such as joy, sadness, love, and justice. Requests can be sent to Him
as supplications. He takes interests in the affairs of the world. And finally,
he interferes in the world.
By impersonal God it
is meant that He is somewhere, far, alone, absorbed in Himself. Nobody can
reach Him. He is not aware of the affairs of this world.
He is neither happy
nor unhappy
He is neither angry
nor jealous
He is neither just
nor unjust
He is neither
merciful nor cruel
He does not love or
hate
He is neither good
nor bad
From my own personal
experience and from centuries of mystical thought, I am certain, as certain can
be, that God is personal. To experience Him, one has to invite Him in one’s life. As I have said earlier, this
is a cardinal principal. I have narrated so many incidents of His (or His
deputies) interventions in blogs 102-112, that there is no doubt left of a
personal God.
But part of God is
impersonal. Unapproachable.
The only fact which
is still unclear is that what if all these instances of miracles, answering of
prayers, prophecies, spirits of dead connoting life after death, are perpetrated
by His deputies and not by Him? He may be remote and unattached to this world.
It is an unanswerable question, but it does not bother me at all, because the
system under which these deputies operate has been created by God, and all the
prophets and thousands of mystics have said the same thing ( except Buddha ),
on rooftops, at peril of life. These systems, such as spirits of bygone human
beings, (trillions of them, over millions of years) and life after death, are
huge systems. They cannot be created by humans, since they predate them. The spirits
could not have developed spontaneously, because brain, like the rest of body,
disintegrates.
Therefore, God is
both personal and impersonal. The great saint Sri Ramakrishna said that
impersonal and personal God cannot be separated; they are the same, like milk
and its whiteness.
This mote thinks that
the Holy Spirit in Christianity is based on the same principle; it is the kinetic
energy of God._____________________________________________________________________________________
(1) Dionysius the
Areopagite, ‘De Mystica Theologia’. Taken from the book, ‘Mysticism’ by Evelyn
Underhill
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