God - Preamble by David Godman

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God

Preamble by David Godman

At first sight Sri Ramana Maharshi’s statements on God appear to be riddled with contradictions:

on one occasion he might say that God never does anything, on another that nothing happens

except by God’s will. Sometimes he would say that God is just an idea in the mind, while at other

times he would say that God is the only existing reality.

 

The contradictory statements are largely a reflection of the differing levels of understanding

he encountered in his questioners. Those who worshipped personal Gods would often be

given anthropomorphic explanations. They would be told that God created the world, that he

sustains it by his divine power, that he looks after the needs of all its inhabitants and that nothing

happens that is contrary to God’s will. On the other hand, those who were not attracted to such

a theory would be told that all such ideas about God and his power were mental creations, which

only obscured the real experience of God, which is inherent in everyone.

 

At the highest level of his teachings the term ‘God’ and ‘Self’ are synonyms for the immanent

reality which is discovered by Self-realisation. Thus realisation of the Self is realisation of God;

it is not an experience of God, rather it is an understanding that one is God. Speaking from this

ultimate level, Sri Ramana’s statements on God can be summarised in the following way:

God is immanent and formless; God is pure being and pure consciousness.

Manifestation appears in God and through God’s power, but God is not its creator.

God never acts, God just is. God has neither will nor desire.Individuality is the illusion that

we are not identical with God; when the illusion is dispelled, what remains is God.

 

On a lower level Sri Ramana Maharshi spoke about Iswara, the Hindu name for the supreme

personal God. He said that Iswara exists as a real entity only so long as one imagines that one

is an individual person. When individuality persists there is a God who survives the activities

of the universe; in the absence of individuality Iswara is non-existent.

 

Beside Iswara, Hinduism has many deities which resemble the gods and demons of Norse

and Greek mythology. Such deities are a central feature of popular Hinduism and their reality

is still widely accepted. Sri Ramana surprised many people by saying that such beings were

as real as the people who believed in them. He admitted that after realisation they shared

the same fate as Iswara, but prior to that, he seemed to regard them as senior officials in

a cosmological hierarchy which looked after the affairs of the world. _