Foreword
God Without Religion
By Arun Gandhi
The question — What is God? — has baffled mankind for eons and will continue to defy logical understanding as long as we live with the concept that there is Heaven up above and that God sits there judging all of humanity and punishing those who misbehave.. Eminent people throughout the history of mankind have tried to find a logical answer to this vexing question with little success. His Holiness Gautama, The Buddha, one among many, did tapasya under a banyan tree for years and ultimately found that God exists within every human heart in the form of love, compassion, understanding and all positive attributes that human kind is capable of but often chooses to suppress. I think instead of trying to put an image to our concept of God we ought to devote greater energy to understanding the meaning of God.
This book God Without Religion: Questioning Centuries of Accepted Truths, by Sankara Saranam is the result of many years of study of different scriptures in a refreshing attempt to provide humankind with a modernized, up-dated spiritual road map to use in our eternal quest to understand God. Since the identity of God is so inscrutable (may even be considered the best kept secret in the world) and the philosophy surrounding this Power so impenetrable religious leaders of different religions have defined God in ways that raise more questions than they answer. The easiest and the most accepted explanation is to see God in the shape of those we consider to be God’s messengers – among Christians Jesus; among Muslims Mohammed; among Hindus Krishna and among Buddhists Gautama.
.The common thread that runs through the lives of all of God’s messengers is Love, Compassion, Understanding, Commitment and Respect for all living creatures. Each one of them demonstrated these qualities through their work and their lives. It must, therefore, be assumed they were demonstrating to us humans the way our Creator expects us to live. Although I do not attribute saintly qualities to my grandfather, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, but what he said about a week before his assassination on January 30, 1948, is pertinent here. Of the Indian people he said: “They will follow me in life, worship me in death but not make my cause their cause.” These are prophetic words that could have been said by Jesus, Mohammed, Krishna or The Buddha. The story of their lives have been enshrined into scriptures that we mostly read with no intentions of making those lessons a part of our lives. This book attempts to give us a different, perhaps a more logical, perspective of God. I hesitate to say that this perspective is right because as mere mortals, irrespective of our profound scholarship, we cannot fathom the depths of spirituality and, therefore, it does not behoove any of us to arrogantly declare that we have the right way.
I recall the wisdom that my grandfather imparted to us when I was living with him as a young teenager. He said all human beings can only hope to understand God and aspire to reach “salvation” which he defined to mean living a life of service and sacrifice and satisfaction. He believed the greatest religion was to ensure that we wipe the tears from every eye and bring hope and decency to every life wherever they may be. It is important that this service be performed with utmost humility. There are many ways to serve humanity so there are many ways to salvation. We must have the magnanimity and the humility to accept and to recognize the many ways to God realization. I am convinced at the root of the spiritual problem that we face today is the intense competitiveness that we have injected into religion. Each of us believes our religion is the best and that it is incumbent upon us to save the world by converting everyone to our way of worship. I recall a painfully sad episode that took place a few years ago when I was invited to explain the Hindu way of life to Christian students of comparative religion. Also invited were Muslim and Jewish priests. After my talk the Muslim priest prefaced his talk with the remarks which were clearly addressed to me. “We Christians, Muslims and Jews,” he said, “have something in common. We not only have a common source but we are a ‘book religion’ unlike you who are pagan.”
The implication was clear. He believed that the Muslim, Christian and Jewish word of God came to them in the form of a book whereas for the Hindus the scriptures were orally transmitted. Thus, he concluded that Hindus believe in 50,000 Gods whereas the western family of religions believed only in one. This is a common misconception in the West. An ancient philosopher once said the easiest way to kill a philosophy is by writing a book. Then it becomes a dogma and ceases to be a vibrant, living philosophy. As for believing in 50,000 or more Gods, I said, the Hindu belief is not that there are so many Gods (in fact many of us believe there are as many Gods as there are human beings) but that there are many images of God. It is this openness in Hinduism, the admission that no one really knows the true image of God that leads to the belief that human beings can only “pursue” the Truth and not “possess” it as the western family of religions believe. Pursuit implies humility, acceptance, openness and appreciation while possession implies arrogance, closed minds and lack of appreciation. Herein lies the rub. If we persist in pursuing competition instead of working in unity to pursue the Truth we are going to face untold grief and worse, violence. When asked what he thought of the meaning of God grandfather said: “There is an indefinable mysterious Power that pervades everything. I feel it, though I do not see it. It is this unseen Power which makes itself felt and yet defies all proof, because it is so unlike all that I perceive through my senses. It transcends the senses. But it is possible to reason out the existence of God to a limited extent. “I do dimly perceive that whilst everything around me is ever-changing, ever dying, there is underlying all that change a Living Power that is changeless, that holds all together, that creates, dissolves and re-creates. That informing Power or Spirit is God….
For I can see that in the midst of death life persists; in the midst of untruth truth persists; in the midst of darkness light persists. Hence I gather that God is Life, Truth, Light. God is Love. God is the Supreme Good.” – Arun Gandhi
