Srimadh Bagawatham - Does God Exist?

Continued From: http://thoughtsonsanathanadharma.blogspot.ca/2013/04/srimadh-bagawatham-introduction.html

The Puranams help us to answer the following questions.  The following are part of the conversation between Vidurar and Sri Maitreyar. Before leaving for Sri Vaikuntham, Lord Krishna instructed Srimadh Bagawatham to Udhavar. At that time Maitreyar obtained permission to join the lecture as well. Perumal asked Udhavar to inform Vidurar to seek Maitreyar and learn Bagawatham from him. Per this instruction Vidurar approached Maitreyar Maharishi. The following are the questions and answers part of the conversation between Vidurar and Maitreyar.

Each one of us feels that the Lord troubles us by sending us to take birth in samsara. We feel that He makes us do papams and punyams. He uses us for his enjoyment and treats us as a real slave. He causes troubles for us. He shows partiality when He saves some of His devotees like Prahaladan. Since He incites us to do papams and punyams, He is responsible for our sufferings. He is not compassionate since we are just like a toy in His hand. Even if we go to temples we keep facing troubles therefore why should we go to temples? We will examine the above questions one at a time in the next few posts.

 Does God Exist?

Science propounds the big bang theory to explain the origin of the Universe and states that everything will sink into a black hole and be reduced to a point form at the time of dissolution. Creation cannot begin by itself without a creator as mentioned by the big bang theory where there was a large explosion which set creation in to motion. Clay doesn’t turn in to a pot on its own. It is fashioned in to a pot by a potter. Similarly the Universe doesn’t appear in its current form with the various living and non-living matter in such an organized form without the hand of a creator. Everything in the natural world is controlled and organized. The ocean never breaches its shore, heavenly objects follow their orbit like clock-work, and there is a high level of organization in the natural world. The creator responsible for everything we see around us in our Universe has to be very intelligent, powerful, talented and knowledgeable being.

We think that there is no God because we are unable to experience God with our senses. We are unable to use our senses to perceive the many things which are around us. We know that there is a limit to what we can see/hear in day to day life. There are millions of micro-organisms around us and yet we are unable to see them with our eye. We cannot hear these organisms; we don’t normally smell many of these organisms either. And we certainly cannot feel their presence by touching them. Just because we are unable to use our sense organs to perceive them doesn’t mean that they do not exist. Similarly we are unable to use our eyes to see the atoms or hear ultrasonic noise. There is certain spectrum of light which is also invisible to our eyes. High frequency vibrations are invisible to our eyes. For instance, we do not see the rotating blades of a fan.

People experience many things without using their sensory perception. We feel love, worry, hate, sadness, anger and so on yet we cannot describe the physical appearance of these emotional concepts. Lack of sensory perception doesn’t prove the nonexistence of an object or concept. The above emotional concepts we experience are beyond sensory perception and yet we acknowledge their presence. We say that we worry; who can tell if worry is tall or short, dark or white, sour or bitter? Is it soft to touch, mushy or hard?

Similarly God is beyond our sensory perception. Just because we are unable to see Him, hear Him, touch Him, smell Him or taste him doesn’t mean that He doesn’t exist. It is not possible to prove the non-existence of God. Someone cannot claim that “there is no God” as this is a general statement. They have to state the co-ordinate of time and space where they think God is not present. Once we bring time and space it becomes impossible for people to disprove presence of God because they certainly wouldn’t have looked everywhere and at all times. If they say they looked today, did they look yesterday? If they say they looked here, did they look everywhere else in this vast Universe of ours?

Hence, it becomes impossible to disprove God’s existence.

 If we cannot use our senses to perceive Him then how can we know Him? 

We can only know Him with the help of the Vedas. The Vedas have been accepted as true by many intelligent sages like Sage Vasishta, Veda Vyasa, Parasara, Valmiki and many great philosophers like Sri Sankaracharyar, Sri Ramanjacharyar and Sri Madhvacharyar. We are in no way more intelligent than any of the above people and nor do we have the proper training to discover God on our own. We accept many scientific theories without any question. For instance, we accept Bohr’s atomic model without question. How do we know that it is the most accurate model of an atom? Have each and every one of us seen an electron in orbit? We accept the model because it has been accepted by other scientists. We know that we don’t have the training/intelligence to discover the atomic model on our own. Similarly, we have to accept the Vedic teachings about God because it has been accepted by the many sages and philosophers.

Continued On:http://thoughtsonsanathanadharma.blogspot.ca/2013/04/srimadh-bagawatham-is-god-cruel-for.html