BY : DR.

SANAT TRIVEDI
B/15 PAVAN APARTMENT
BODAKDEV
AHMEDABAD
GUJARAT INDIA
Email: sanattrivedi@yahoo.co.in
The God, Absolute truth or Mere Faith

There are three eternal basic questions, which have never been
answered satisfactorily. These questions are
1] Whether God exists or not?
2] Who created this universe?
3] What is after death?

The God

Being rational and analytical by nature, I tried to theorize the

subject of God. I am methodical in my analysis, so I always
precisely define the subject.

What is the definition of God?

As per the Webster’s dictionary the God is defined as

‘a being conceived as the perfect, omnipotent, omniscient,
originator, and the ruler of the universe, the principal of the faith
and worship in monotheistic religions, a force ,effect, or
manifestation or aspect of this being’.

Read the definition very carefully. First of all the God is described
as ‘a being’. Being means the quality or the state of having
existence, or an object or idea. ‘Being’ denotes the state of having
existence, can be as object or idea.

The object can be living or non-living. If object is living then it can

be insect, bird, fish, animal or human being. It can be either male
or female gender.
Now let us examine the definition of God, more carefully and try
to locate the being that fulfills all the criteria like, perfect,
omnipotent, omniscient, originator and the ruler of the universe. Or
let us try to evaluate the being with our available parameters.
Now let us examine the possibilities of the God being non-living
object.

Is the God non-living object?

As per the definition, the God is supposed to be creator, originator

and ruler of the universe. No non-living object can be ruler of the
universe.
Universe is infinite, having millions of galaxies, stars, suns and
planets. There are living organisms and non-living objects. Only
living organism can create new life. Non-living object can not
produce either living or non-living object. Reproduction or new
creation is specific character of living organism, so non-living
object can not be creator of the universe.
Again non-living object can not be omnipotent or omniscient.

Conclusion

The God cannot be any non-living object.

Can God be a living subject?

Living subject can create its own image by the way of

reproduction. The dog produces dog, cat produces cat and man
produces man. It is the universal truth that each species on this
earth can reproduce its own child, which is the precise image of its
own. So each living being on this earth is creator. As per the
definition of the God, he is a creator. So logically each living
organism on this earth can be God.
Is it so?

No, because there are other parameters attached to the character

of God.

As per the definition he is perfect, omnipotent, omniscient,

originator and ruler of the universe. So it is mandatory to apply
these parameters to each living organism to logically prove
whether the specific organism is God or not.

Is any of the organisms on this earth is perfect?

Perfect means ‘lacking nothing essential to the whole, having no

defect.’
No living being on this earth is perfect. Each of the organisms is
having one or more then one defect. Some of the organisms are
very weak. Being weak they are the prey of stronger animals.
Smaller fish is the prey of bigger fish and weak animals are the
prey of strong animals. Some animals are very small, some animals
are very ugly. Some animals are weak physically while some
animals are weak mentally.
The greatest defect found in each animal is the fear of death. Death
is certainty. Nobody on this earth is immortal. It is told in Gita that
those who are born are sure to die. Life span can be as short as few
hours or as big as few centuries. But at the end death is certain.
Each animal on this earth is born with definite life cycle. Birth,
growth and death are explicit sequences of each living being. Now
if we consider any of these living being as God, then the God has
to take birth, grow and finally die. So at regular interval there will
be birth of one new God. And such short lived God can not be the
creator of the universe. He can not be omnipresent. Omnipresent
means who is present on this earth all the time. Omnipresent means
one who was present on this universe at the beginning and who
will be present till end. In that sense none of the living being on
this earth is omnipresent.
The second parameter of the God is omnipotent. Omnipotent
means having unlimited and absolute power. Power means ability
or capacity to effectively rule over and control others. Now let us
examine, who possess such capacity?
If we survey all the species on earth, none of them seems to have
such capacity. On the contrary each of the species is dependant on
others for their food and living. They live in continuous fear of
loosing their life. None of them have absolute power of controlling
others. Small animals are afraid of wild animals, and wild animals
are afraid of stronger species.
Among all the animal species man is comparatively more
powerful. He can rule over whole animal kingdom. But among
human beings there are weak and strong. Strong rules over the
weak. And strongest can rule over all. One can say that king is
strongest so he is powerful.
So can we consider the king as the God?
The answer is absolutely no, because there are many kings on this
earth. Each of them rules over very small area. None of them have
ever ruled over whole universe. Secondly kings are mortal. And
their powers are never absolute. The God is supposed to be
immortal and having absolute power. So logically none of the king
can be considered as God. It concludes that no animal or human
being is omnipotent.

The third parameter is omniscient. Omniscient means one who

knows everything.
One who knows everything is God.
Let us apply the same to non-living and living objects. Non-living
can not know everything because knowing itself is the live process.
We can think about computer. It seems computer has limitless
capacity to know everything. But the knowledge stored in the
computer is in the form of memory; the computer is merely
storehouse for the knowledge. But the knowledge is not created by
the computer. As such the knowledge is fed in the computer by
human being.
Among living objects, no animal species can claim to have
complete knowledge, not even human being. It is not possible to
find the single person on the earth, who knows everything.

The last parameter of the God is the ruler. He is the sole ruler of
this universe. If we apply the same parameter to either living or
non-living, we will realize that none of them can claim to be sole
ruler of this universe.

Now let us read the definition again.

‘A being conceived as the perfect, omnipotent, omniscient,

originator, and the ruler of the universe, the principal of the faith
and worship in monotheistic religions, a force ,effect, or
manifestation or aspect of this being’.

Read the definition very carefully. First of all the God is described
as ‘a being’. Being means the quality or the state of having
existence, or an object or idea. ‘Being’ denotes the state of having
existence, can be as object or idea. The object can be living or non-
living.
He is ‘being’. And ‘being’ is either object or idea. We tried to
apply the definition of God to the object, either living or non-
living. But unfortunately none of the object can fulfill the
parameters required for the God.

It logically concludes that the God is an idea. The idea created

by human being, more precisely it is the faith, created by the
human being.
How such faith was created?

The primitive man, homo-sapian was living under heavy physical

stress. He was very weak to fight natural forces, like earth quake,
flood, heavy rain, and extreme environmental conditions. He was
all the time afraid of death. He was not properly equipped, to
protect himself from these natural calamities. He had no weapons
to fight these natural forces. It is the human nature that when you
can not fight you surrender. Again weak mind requires support, a
support, which can be helpful for strengthening mental power and
self confidence. That support may be a subject, object or idea. In
the absence of any powerful subject or object, the man created the
idea of god. He created the god, who is powerful to control all the
natural forces and who is powerful to protect the man from all the
dangers of life.

When Aryans migrated to India from northern hemisphere, they

were worshiping all the natural forces as God. That is because
they realized that human life can not survive without the support of
these basic elements. Those basic natural elements were sun light,
air, water, fire and earth. So Aryans were worshiping all these
basic elements as god.

There are varied and different concepts for God, among different
communities, different castes, different regions and different
religions. Their concept of God depends upon their perceptions of
life and their understandings of spirituality.

The concept of God differs in different religion.

In Christianity before the birth of Jesus, there was belief in old
testaments. The old testaments were followed by Jews. That
tradition was known as Judaism. The messages given to Moses by
god was known as commandments
The Ten Commandments, or Decalogue, are a list of religious
and moral imperatives that, according to Judeo-Christian
tradition, were authored by God and given to Moses on the
mountain referred to as Mount Sinai.
It says that
I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of
Egypt, out of the house of slavery; do not have any other gods
before me.
Jesus Christ made some change and gave new version of god.
That was known as New Testaments.
The concept of trinity is prevalent in Christianity. Trinity means
Father, son and Holy Spirit. These are considered as God head
with three faces. As per the bible, Lord Jesus had always
mentioned regarding the supreme power as the father. Jesus was
sent by him to teach religion to the people.

Christians believe that there is only one God and Jesus Christ was
his son. The God through the media of his son sends the messages
for the people.

Islam believes in monotheism. There is one and only one god in

the universe. The name of god is Allah. Allah is supreme authority.
He has created whole world. All the living and non-living beings
are created by him. He rules over the world. He is omnipotent and
omnipresent.
Mohamed Payagamber was the prophet [messenger] sent by him.
Through Mohamed Payagamber he had sent commands and
messages for the man kind. It is mandatory for all the people to
follow his commands. Koran is the holy book. It gives detailed
description of Allah. It also teaches the people how to live holy
life, how to behave with other fellow members of Islam, how to
worship Allah.
It is believed that on the Day of Judgment, Allah will punish those
who have not followed his commands, they will be sent to hell as
punishment. Same way those who have lived holy life, have
worshiped God, and followed all the rules, will be rewarded by
giving them place in heaven.

Buddha was known as Siddharth. He was prince. His father was

the powerful king of big kingdom. Siddharth was enjoying all the
luxuries of life. He had never seen misery or difficulties of life. He
had perceived life as beautiful and joyful. Once he went out of the
palace, and saw diseased person. He asked his servant, ‘ why this
person looks weak and abnormal, what has happened to him’ the
servant replied that ‘this person is sick. And so he is unhappy’
Then Siddharth asked him ‘whether I will be sick any time.’ The
servant told him ‘yes’
Next time when he was wandering he saw one old man, Very
weak, and debilitated. Again he asked his servant, ‘why this person
is so weak? His servant replied that ‘he is very old,’ then he
inquired ‘I also will be old in future?’ the servant replied
‘certainly, those who are born are definitely going to be old in
future”
Third time he saw dead body. He asked his servant why this person
looks lifeless. The servant replied that ‘he is dead’ then he asked ‘I
also will die some time?’ the servant replied ‘of course, death is
certain for every body’.
He was very much disturbed. His perception that life is beautiful
and joyful was shattered. Then he left the house in search for the
meaning of life. He met various religious leaders, thinkers and
philosophers. But he could not find suitable answer to his question.
Then he sat at one lonely place, and deeply meditated on the
problem. Hours, days and months passed, without any result.
At the end he found the solution to his problem.
He realized that the life is full of sufferings and difficulties. Most
of the sufferings are self created. The root cause of the sufferings is
selfishness. Only love and compassion can relieve the human
being from his life long sufferings.
He then started conveying this message to the people. Concept of
Buddha, is to relieve man kind from the sufferings. He never had
clarified his concept of god in his preaching.

Hindu philosophy:

Hindu philosophy is most ancient. Hindu philosophy is not the

creation of one person,
It is the combine efforts of number of thinkers. Those thinkers
were known as Darshaniks. [who can see beyond ]
Chatterjee and Dutta has expressed that ‘cornerstone of Indian
philosophy is a tradition of respect for multiple views.’
They have further added that
‘Indian philosophy denotes the philosophical speculations of
Indian thinkers; Indian philosophy is marked by striking breadth of
outlook which only testifies to its unflinching devotion to the
search of truth. Though there were many different schools, and
their views differ some time very widely yet each school took care
to learn the views of all the others. And did not come to any final
conclusions before thoroughly considering what others
have said.’
Hindu theology carries multiple concepts regarding existence of
God. There are multiple views and multiple schools of thought. It
can be monotheism, ditheism, polytheism, and atheism. It is some
times known as henotheistic system. [i.e. devotion to single God,
while accepting the existence of other gods. ]

Four Vedas, Upanishads, and Gita are the main religious books,
which have thoroughly explained, and elaborated the basics of
Hindu philosophy. In addition there are different schools of
thoughts, which have their own philosophies regarding existence
of God, and creation of universe.
As per the traditional and basic belief among Hindus, the God is
the supreme force, who is responsible for creation, maintenance
and destruction of the universe, all living and non-living objects on
this earth. The God, when he is engaged in the work of creation, is
known as Brahma. When he is engaged in the work of
maintenance, is known as Vishnu, and when he is engaged in the
work of destruction, is known as Mahesh.

Vedanta philosophy:
It basically depends upon the teachings of Upanishads. As per that
philosophy, there exists supreme and universal live force or
universal consciousness. The universal consciousness is also
known as Brahma- consciousness. Individual consciousness is
nothing but the mere extension of Brahma- consciousness. So
each individual living object carries small fraction of that Brahma
consciousness. This is known as Adwait theory.
One can compare it with individual wave and ocean. On the
surface of ocean there are multiple waves; those waves are unique
entity, even though they are not separate from the ocean.
Sage Adi Shankaracharya was the firm believer of Adwait theory.
Adwait means ‘non-duality’. As per his opinion individual spirit or
consciousness is not different from Brahma consciousness.
Individual consciousness or Atman is designed to take birth on
earth as per individual actions. Re-birth is the resultant outcome of
the total actions in previous birth. The cycle of birth and death
continues till the Atman reaches to the final stage of purification,
which is known as Atman Shuddhi. When individual Atman
reaches to this stage of purity, he is not supposed to take new birth
and finally he himself dissolves and unites with Brahma-
consciousness that is called Moksha. Moksha is the ultimate aim of
life.
Madhavacharya was not in total agreement with the opinion of
Shankaracharya. As per his opinion, there are three ultimate
realities, the Brahman or universal consciousness, individual
consciousness or Atman and inert mass or matter. This is known as
Dwait theory.
Sankhya:
Sankhya school was founded by sage Kapil. Sage Kapil denied the
existence of God. As per Sankhya theory, whole universe is
nothing but the interplay of Purush and Prakruti. Purush is the live
force or vital force, while Prakruti is non-living matter, energy and
creating energy. Prakruti can create the object but the object can
not function as living organism without the presence of Purush.
Purush is an analogous to Atman or spirit, described by other
schools of thought.

Vaisheshika:
This school of thought was founded by Kanada. As per this
school, all the objects either living or non-living, are made up of
very small particles which are known as Atoms. Universal live
force is responsible for creating life in these atoms.

Charvak:
Charvak was of the opinion that there is nothing beyond this
visible life. There is no existence of God, or no existence of re-
birth. Death is the last terminal of this life.

In addition to this main and important theories, there are varied

thoughts regarding the God and re-birth among Hindus. Some
people believe that the God has definite shape and size. With the
result they created the idol and started worshiping that idol. It is
believed by them that if individual worship his idol with total
devotion, he will be properly rewarded by the God during existing
life and during re-birth.

Most of the Hindus believe that ultimate aim of this life is Moksha.
What modern science believes about these eternal questions?

Existence of God.

Modern science is completely silent regarding this question. There

are no scientific surveys or research carried out, either to prove or
to disprove the existence of God. Eminent scientists on earth,
remain silent as far as the subject of god. Even there is no
approved methodology or parameters available for solving this
problem. Modern science is not in the favor of the opinion that
God has created this universe.

Creation of universe.

Several theories are floated regarding the creation of universe.

Most of the theories are incomplete, imaginative and not based on
solid scientific data.
The theory accepted by most of the physicist, cosmologists,
astronomers, and astrophysicists, is the theory of Big Bang. The
theory depends upon the observations that this universe is
constantly in the state of expansion and cooling. If the universe is
seen expanding to-day, in that case it must be very small, dense,
and hot at some point of time in the past. After some very
complicated mathematical calculations, scientists draw the
conclusion that before some billions of years, the universe might
be as small as, or even smaller than the atom. It might be in very
hot condition. From that point it suddenly started expanding and
cooling. So it is logically believed that the universe expanded from
an extremely dense, small and very hot state and it continued to
expand till to-day. It explains that the space itself is expanding
carrying galaxies with it.
During this process of expanding, it started forming atoms,
protons, positrons, and then various gases, matters, stars, planets
and galaxies. As per this theory the universe is automatically
created from nothing. It is not possible to think, imagine or
calculate beyond this point. Number of questions remains
unanswered even if we accept this big bang theory.

Conclusion:
These questions are eternal. Neither science nor religion can have a
complete and totally satisfactory answer for that. None of the
theories can satisfy all the doubts created by the inquisitive minds.
Whether we believe or not believe, the truth is that

‘there is some unknown supreme force, who has created this

universe, and who is responsible for the coordination, and
maintenance of fine balance between various natural forces, which
are responsible for all living and non-living objects on this earth.’

We also know that this whole universe is governed by natural laws.

These natural laws are eternal. Nobody has power to change these
natural laws. Even we believe that this universe is the resultant out
come of those natural laws. Then logically there should be some
supreme entity, which has created these natural laws. And that
supreme entity is known as The God.