WHAT IS GOD? The Answer Is Simple In Nature

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By DaveBains

The ancients lived in nature. They observed their surroundings but did not know much about it. They wondered about the universe around them.

How did it come to be?

Who put it there?

For what purpose?

And, even for what purpose they themselves were put here? We are talking thousands of years ago, let’s say 3,500 years ago. There was fear of the unknown. Even though we now have lot of scientific knowledge about the universe, religions continue to perpetuate fear and mystery about God – in part to control and keep people dependent on them.

If you do an objective study, there is not much mystery about God. Unfortunately, historically Sikhs don’t have a tradition of reading. Like most things in nature, the concept of God is rather simple. I learned this from a prolonged study of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji – the Sikh Holy Book, and that there are two distinct, unrelated aspects to God.

Let’s look at this in a bit more detail. On the physical side we have Creation with the sun, stars, wide open sky and of course the earth with all the life on it. This is the Creator part. Guru Nanak gave an extensive list of attributes of God – Omnipotent, is everywhere and in everything, has no form, cannot be fully described or understood, timeless, self existent, etc. etc. Due to advances in scientific knowledge, we now know there is only one thing that encompasses such broad powers. It is the Universal Cosmic Energy which brought the universe into being. These forces are fully capable of creating, sustaining and destroying. They include gravity and various emissions including radiation from stars. Some of the sun’s radiation is harmful but also gives light and heat. No mystery – Grade 12 physics! If what you hear is not logical but there is some mystery to it, you are being misled knowingly or not.

The second part deals with virtues after the emergence of mankind. This came billions of years after earth’s formation by which time it had cooled down sufficiently for life to develop. A common theme among religions is to be a good human being – a virtuous person. We can call this part of God the Virtues part. Wise people through history identified virtues needed to be a good person. They answer some of the questions I posed in the beginning. An interesting aspect of the Virtues part is that it is accessible to you or I. For instance, saint Kabir Ji said there is no difference between God and him. He is obviously talking about Virtues he had gained. He could not create a mountain, for instance. The take away from this is religions deal with questions of morality and ethics but should not be considered source of scientific facts.

Misconceptions abound in religions and they are resistant to change. In Sikhi, there is a bigger problem because Guru Nanak’s philosophy has been hijacked for 150 years. What is meant by destiny written on forehead? How can you have God’s Darshan when God has no outline, marks etc? How can It know your inner most thoughts? After all It is just Cosmic Energy. We’ll look at these another time.

Dave Bains is a Surrey-based writer.