For all rational people, God is the greatest mystery despite the fact that He is said to be omnipotent and omnipresent. It is also said that God is present in all things sentient as well as non- sentient. If it is so what is His form and where does He live? This is a question which comes and should come to every thinking mind. Most of us accept God in the form, our mind has been trained to believe by our observation of family and social traditions. Some form their opinion by the study of books both authentic and not so authentic. No wonder God is conceived in different forms by different people resulting into more and more confusion. I have myself been quite confused about the concept of God and have contemplated a lot on the subject. In this brief write up I am trying to narrate the outcome of my contemplation on God.
In India, most of the people still believe in personal Gods. For them God has a definite form either human or non-human. They believe that God is a kind of super ruler and behaves that way. He has the power of rewarding as well as punishing. People also believe that God can be pleased by their external acts and in order to seek His blessing they indulge in all sorts of rituals. If their wishes are granted fully or partially they feel that the God is kind and just. But if their wishes are not granted despite their rituals, they even call Him cruel and unjust. Those who think rationally refuse to accept such an arbitrary God and in the process stop believing in the existence of God itself. I feel that this write up may be helpful for them though I also feel that many such rational people must have their own concept of God. The problem is further compounded by the fact that God is invisible through external senses and any discussion about Him can only be appreciated at level higher than that of senses. With this background let me speak about my concept of God.
According to me God is akin to a Government. As a Government runs the administration of a country or a province or a district, in the same way God also runs the administration of the Universe. We must appreciate that there are laws of Universe which have to be followed or complied with properly. If it is not so there shall be greater disorder and the living will become impossible. There has to be some power which must be controlling all these laws of the Universe. I feel that God is this power and that is why it is called omnipotent. However, here omnipotent does not mean to be arbitary. Such a great power like God can never be arbitrary. God's purpose is to ensure that Universal laws are followed by everyone and if there is any defaults, corrective action is taken accordingly. We may call such actions by any name like punishment or cruelty but God does not inflict them with any such intention. He only ensures the enforcement of laws in order to run the Universe. Similarly there is no such thing as reward and everyone only reaps the fruits of his or her actions. This way God is the most neutral entity which neither distributes any awards or inflicts any punishment but only ensures that everyone gets his due. There may be phase difference between our timings and His timings and that is why at times there is delay in the system of awards or punishments. Some of us may interpret it as God's injustice or arbitrariness but the fact is that virtue is always rewarded and evil is always punished. While there may be exceptions and failures in the system of human Government, there is no such chance in God's Government. Thus while God is all powerful, His exercise of power is governed by fixed Universal laws and there can be no arbitrariness. This way God is very much like an ideal Government, which is supposed to make laws and ensure their compliance in order to run the society smoothly.
Now we come to the omnipresence and invisibility of the God. For this also we have to understand the nature of the Government. After all whom do we call Government in a geographical unit be it a country, a province or a district. If we think deeply no single person can be called Government and whosoever is carrying out the function of the Government, he or she is the Government at that place. It may be a Minister, a Collector, a Police Official, a Tax Official, a Peon or any other functionary of the Government. While the nature of their jobs or level of powers may vary, but all of them perform the duty of the Government at their respective places. This way Government instead of being concentrated in a single person is spread in all its constituents. This is not the case only with sentient constituents, it is so with non-sentient components also. That is why a vehicle, a piece of furniture and all the articles belonging to a Government office also become part of the Government. Seen this way, Government is something which is manifested in all its constituents while as a single entity it is always invisible.
The same thing applies to God. God being the Government of the Universe is also manifested through all its creation sentient as well as non-sentient. Whatever God does is through its constituents only. When God helps someone, He does so through some of its creature and also when He punishes some of us, He does so through some different creature. Thus the whole system of creation is so interwoven that each of the units carries out the function of God only. This is perhaps each creation is said to be a part of God only and one who sees God in all is Godly in true sense. This way God is nothing but the sum total of the creation and that is why it is called "Paramatma" while its constituents are called "Atmas". Since the creation of God is present everywhere, God is also omnipresent. Also God is so subtly present in its creation that it is not possible to see or experience Him easily. That is why it is Invisible to most of us.
Somehow I find that this explanation of God clarifies all possible doubts about Him. Hence I am sharing it with others. However, everyone is entitled to his or her own version of God. Surely it does not affect the reality and God will continue to be what It is. To me it only shows that God is really incomprehensive for little minds like us and even we all together fail to describe God in totality.
Rakesh Mittal IAS
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