It is the is most refreshing thing to open a newspaper and read a column on God (The Northern Star, Oct. 12, Kevin Lyons). Who or what is God, is indeed the greatest of all questions.

The question itself is extraordinarily significant because we could not even ask if there was not something of God on us, some understanding of God in us already. Nonetheless, there are so many scriptures in the world, so many ideas and theories about God that we often end up only confused and reject all ideas about God, especially when we see people hating and killing in the name of God. God, as an idea, doesn’t take us very far and can actually be destructive (e.g. Jim Jones and David Koresh). That is why Mother Teresa said, “Many people talk about love and about God but they may be not loving at all. Love has to be put into action.” That is the key to understanding and experiencing God. Put your idea of God into action. If it liberates you from fear, misery, enmity and selfishness while giving you the strength to be a positive force in the world, then you’ve hit upon the reality of God. If God is anything he must be something that liberates you instead of enslaving you. But don’t make the mistake of believing your way to salvation is the only way. That belief is what has led to intolerance and killing each other in the name of God. A limited understanding of God can be ungodly.

God, being infinite, contains all attributes. Some experience God as He, others ads She; still others experience God as Superintelligence, Superconsciousness, the Impersonal Absolute, Krishna, etc. If any of these are your experience, who can deny it? Any person or even scripture that would attempt to do so would be stupid. The great Vedantic saint, Swami Vivekananda, said: “The old religion said that he was an atheist who did not believe in God. The new religion says that he is the atheist who does not believe in himself.”

Arthur Shimkus

Siddha Yoga worker