Guest guest Posted September 21, 2006 Report Share Posted September 21, 2006 Few basic questions: We always hear God is all pervading and powerful. Everything is God. He is formless. 1) Does he have a personality ? Or is he like petrol or electricity which power all machines. Does he have feelings and emotions like we do ? 2) Why does God need to be worshipped ? Why does an all powerful being require any sort of praise/devotion to be pleased by mortals like us? Why all this pooja etc to invoke the holy one. 3) I have seen animals being sacrificed in holiest of Indian temples, in name of God. Where is God at that time to protect the innocent, mute beasts ? Or for that matter during the sacrifices of animals in other religions as well. Is it not God's duty to protect the weak and innocent ? regards Sundeep Get on board. You're invited to try the new Mail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 21, 2006 Report Share Posted September 21, 2006 Shree Sandeep - PraNAms. Here is my understanding. The definition of God can be provided at three levels depending on the maturity of the individual asking the question. 1. God is the creator - jagat kartaa Iswara. Since the universe is a well ordered and well behaved system, work has to be done to create that order. In addition, it requires intelligence to create an order. A scientist sitting in a remoter corner in the universe can discover the laws that are applicable galaxies and galaxies away shows that these are universal laws. From the nature of the product we can estimate the creative intelligence that produced it. Hence all religions say that God is the creator. He has to be a conscious entity since unconscious entity cannot create. If so where is He/she? - All religions put him in Heaven - vaikunTa or kailasa etc -That is the first definition. Hence scriptures say he is sarvajnaH and sarvashaktimaan. 2. If one asks further the questions you have raised then the scriptures takes you to next level - He is 'jagat kaaraNam Iswara '- He is not only the intelligent cause but material cause as well. Just as the spider puts forth material for its net. Hence the material from which the universe is made is also God. That is what implies also as sarvavyaapi or omnipresent. So he is everywhere including in you and in every being including the animal that is being scarified and the one who is sacrificing. 3. If you further ask how can that be? How can that cruel act of sacrifice is being performed by God then scripture takes you to further level. He is - jagat adhyShTaanam Iswara - He is the substantive of the world - just as the gold appearing as the ring, necklace, and bangle and so on. Gold has not become ring, bangle or bracelet but gold is not different from ring bangle or necklace. The properties of the names and forms do not belong to gold. Gold is not affected by the sufferings of the ring and bangle and necklace etc. Krishna gives example as in my presence everything is being done but I am not involved in the action. Actions do not affect me. mayaa adhyaxena suuyate sa caraa caram' - under my presidentship the world is getting produced - the world of names and forms. They rise in me, sustained by me and go back in me but I am not affected by their changing states. 4. If you keep asking further Vedas go into four fundamental definitions called Mahaavaakyaas. 1. prajnaanam brahman - consciousness is Brahman 2. tat tvam asi - you are that 3. ayam aatma brahman - this soul in you is aatma 4. aham brahmaasmi - I am that Brahman. They provide the consciousness that you are is nothing but Brahman. If you are a conscious entity then you are that Brahman. Now try to answer that question you posed since that Iswara is nothing but you. People act because of not realizing the truth because they get carried away with names and forms and that identification crystallizes the 'egos' and separateness from one another. If my finger goes into my eye I don’t punish the finger. The same finger will go and sooth the eye. That is because the notion of I pervades both the finger and the eye. If one realizes that the self that one is nothing but the self that pervades every movables and immovable then ones true compassion for all beings will be spontaneously expressed. Until then we just blame God without understanding who we are really blaming. I suggest that you read some introductory book on Advaita Vedanta that clarifies and many of these questions and force you to think deeply. Hope this helps. Hari Om! Sadananda --- SUNDEEP GUPTA <sundeep_gupta1 > wrote: > Few basic questions: > > We always hear God is all pervading and powerful. Everything is God. He is formless. > > 1) Does he have a personality ? Or is he like petrol or electricity which power all machines. > Does he have feelings and emotions like we do ? > > 2) Why does God need to be worshipped ? Why does an all powerful being require any sort of > praise/devotion to be pleased by mortals like us? Why all this pooja etc to invoke the holy one. > > 3) I have seen animals being sacrificed in holiest of Indian temples, in name of God. Where is > God at that time to protect the innocent, mute beasts ? Or for that matter during the sacrifices > of animals in other religions as well. > Is it not God's duty to protect the weak and innocent ? > > regards > Sundeep > > > > > Get on board. You're invited to try the new Mail. > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 21, 2006 Report Share Posted September 21, 2006 Nmaste, Sandeep Gupta-ji Supplem enting Sada-ji's lucid answers here are my answers to your basic questions. 1) "We always hear God is all pervading and powerful. Everything is God. He is formless. Does he have a personality ? Or is he like petrol or electricity which power all machines. Does he have feelings and emotions like we do ?" The thing about God is He is everything. So He has a personality. He is also a power like electricity. Now what is true? That is where the matter gets into its first complication. Nothing that we can say about God is absolutely true. They are all relative statements, from one level, from one point of view. That is all. Then what is absolutely true? That is where advaita comes. There is no God separate from us. When we discard from ourselves everything that we call ours – starting from our extrnal possessions, then discard the concept of our own body, mind and intellect, and any ego that remains, then what remains is a Consciousness within and that is God, the God supreme – which is what is called Existence, Knowledge, Bliss. You may say that I have suddenly complicated the explanation. Well, that is why, Sada-ji asks you to start from a first book of advaita and read through all of it, slowly but steadily. Let me now go to your next question. You will find that to every question of yours, the first answers will be simple, but may not be acceptable at a higher level. So you will come again to the same requirement that one has to start from the beginning and keep reading. 2) "Why does God need to be worshipped ? Why does an all powerful being require any sort of praise/devotion to be pleased by mortals like us? Why all this pooja etc to invoke the holy one." God does not have to be worshipped for His sake. He has to be worshipped for our sake. Earlier I said that our own Self, when we have thrown off all that we call ours, is God. This is difficult to understand. In order to convin ce ourselves that this is so, the first step is to seek His help and worship God as if He is external to us. All religions therefore recommend this. But it is only Hindu religion that says, that that God whom you worship will be discovered by you in yourself. So when we worship Him externally, it is not to please Him or to get some petty things from Him, but to purify our mind from its dirty content. 3) "I have seen animals being sacrificed in holiest of Indian temples, in name of God. Where is God at that time to protect the innocent, mute beasts ? Or for that matter during the sacrifices of animals in other religions as well. Is it not God's duty to protect the weak and innocent ?" Good. Your question is legitimate. But the answer will take you through the whole labyrinth of religious philosophy. Having created the world God does not interfere in the workings of nature. Whatever man does is his own working. It is true in Vedic times there were animal sacrifices and these were part of certain rituals which contributed to the well-being of the totality of the universe. But in course of time these tended to be misused. And a Buddha had to appear on the scene and wean people away from their other-worldly ambitions and make them concentrate on compassion, sympathy and non-violence as one's basic Dharma. This is how the Almighty takes steps to protect the mute and the innocent. It was because of the misdirected emphasis on the ritualistic sacrifices still persisting after the Buddha's time tht a Shankara had to appear and emphasize the transience of every benefit whether of this world or the other world and led everybody on to think in terms of their upward path of evolution rather than keep circling in the quagmire of births and deaths. The multifaceted religion that Hinduism is, it has a wide spectrum of norms and practices and a lot of flexibility in terms of rules and regulations. This has been very often overplayed to such an extent that an intelligent observer from the inside or outside finds it difficult to clearly lay down what is right or what is wrong in any given set of circumstances. The most important thing is to have the right attitudes. If we are going to do animal sacrifice for the Lord, in the hope of getting something from the Lord to gratify our senses, or a benefit material or otherwise, this attitude of selfishness will certainly be recognised by the Lord, who is in our heart of hearts. And He is not going to accept it as a token of bhakti. In all cases of a dilemma of Dharma, the stand of Hinduism is clear, whatever may be said by the secondary scriptures. Any time when there is even an iota of selfishness or self-aggrandisement in whatever we do, it is against dharma. The philosophy of advaita from the beginning teaches you to have the right attitude and the right emphasis of reactions to events and happenings in life. The explanation and the logic for these right attitudes takes you into the whole of advaita! PraNAms to all advaitins. profvk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 21, 2006 Report Share Posted September 21, 2006 advaitin, SUNDEEP GUPTA <sundeep_gupta1 > 2) Why does God need to be worshipped ? Why does an all powerful being require any sort of praise/devotion to be pleased by mortals like us? Why all this pooja etc to invoke the holy one. > Gupta-ji, There is no need of all this pooja if your mind is pure. However, mind by its very nature, is perpetually agitated and goes in thousand different directions. We can intellectually argue about his infinity and question why there is suffering, sorrow etc but intellectual arguments don't help. Ask your mind, heart and conscience if you are speaking from conviction about his infinitude or simply for the sake of argument. All questions will rest after that. This much you have to accept with shraddha that the very name of the Lord is holy and works wonders. You can experiment by chanting one holy name audibly for sometime. Check the state of your mind after that. Dennis Waite (one of the moderators of this list) gives a good analogy in his book. It is as follows. If you ask your friend directions to say Connaught place in New Delhi, you are not going to start arguing about directions. You are going to have faith in his words and follow his directions. So you need to accept the words of the great ancient Rishis and experiment for yourself - discover Atman. regards, Om Namah Sivaya Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 21, 2006 Report Share Posted September 21, 2006 Namaste Sundeep-ji, advaitin, SUNDEEP GUPTA <sundeep_gupta1 wrote: > > Few basic questions: > > We always hear God is all pervading and powerful. Everything is God. He is formless. > > 1) Does he have a personality ? Or is he like petrol or electricity which power all machines. Does he have feelings and emotions like we do ? > > 2) Why does God need to be worshipped ? Why does an all powerful being require any sort of praise/devotion to be pleased by mortals like us? Why all this pooja etc to invoke the holy one. > You may find some answers to 'what' God we are worshipping etc in this intruiging dialogue between the then Sringeri Acharyal HH Sri Chandashekara Bharati and a visiting educational officer. This was posted in this message advaitin/message/31784 The question starts with "What is the deity that is being worshipped in the daily sandhya Worship?" and leads on to some very important insights on what is being worshipped and why. regards Sundar Rajan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 21, 2006 Report Share Posted September 21, 2006 advaitin, "Sundar Rajan" <avsundarrajan wrote: > > > > advaitin, SUNDEEP GUPTA <sundeep_gupta1@> > wrote: > > > > Few basic questions: A similar engrossing dialogue on "Utility of God" between Sw. Chandrasekhara Bharati and an agnostic youth can be read at: http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/articles/utility_of_god.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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