What is God and Does God Exist?

Speaker A [00:00:00]:

Does God exist? Who is God? Did God create us or did we create God? Who created this universe, and what is our purpose in this universe? Do you think about questions like this? Today, let us understand God and let us understand the nature of reality. I have been personally curious about the subject of God And the meaning of the word God for a very long time, and I started doing a lot of research on this topic. And I started reading a lot of texts and teachings about the concept of God from the past few years. As I studied more and more and as I started learning more about the nature of reality and about the concept of God according to various religions and according to various different perspectives. I soon came across the teachings of the Upanishads, And I soon came upon Advaita Vedanta. And this also led me to write my book, Decoding God. Man has been asking this question about God and about the nature of this universe for a very long time, and Man has tried to define God in various ways. If we look at history, gods were often associated With the forces of nature, whatever man couldn't understand or make sense of, he Associated such things or such phenomena with the concept of God in order to make a certain sense of this universe.

Speaker A [00:01:44]:

Hence, in the past, there were Greek gods of thunder, of fire, of water, etcetera. And later on, as civilization began to evolve the concept of monotheism, which said there is 1 all powerful god, And he is actively involved, and he seeks good things to his creation. So this kind of a concept came about. Various monotheistic religions emerged, but it is very fascinating when we talk about Hinduism And the that is prevalently found in India. In India, the approach towards questions like this And the approach towards God is very different. There are various philosophies and various Perspectives which people have within 1 religion or within 1 culture. Such diverse schools of thought and such diverse Philosophies coexisting harmoniously cannot be found anywhere across the world. This is one specialty of The Sanatana Dharma and of Hinduism.

Speaker A [00:02:58]:

If we discuss the definition of God and the meaning of God according to various scriptures Chosen various different religions, it would take forever because there are such diverse perspectives and Explanations when it comes to God and the nature of reality from different religions and cultures across the world. Today, I will talk about my understanding of God and the teachings of the ancient Vedas and Upanishads of India? This is Advaita Vedanta or what is called as nondualism in the West. And there is one simple, beautiful, elegant quote which was said by Rumi, which explains this concept really well, And it goes like this. I searched for God and found only myself. I searched for myself and found only God? Isn't this a beautiful quote? And this simple quote encapsulates The entire teaching of Vedanta. Just to give you a context, the teachings of Upanishads and Vedas were given to us More than 10000 years ago by the ancient Rishis and Yogis of India, and these teachings Talk to us about the true nature of reality. They explain to us what this reality actually is. They explain to us what God is, and they explain what created this universe and our purpose in this manifested universe? Of course, we will talk about all of this in the future episodes.

Speaker A [00:04:38]:

But to talk about God and the nature of reality, the simply tell us, which means you are it. You are God. Of course, for beginners, this doesn't make any sense, but there is a lot of depth to this statement. And this is a very profound statement that points towards the nature of reality. Now first of all, let us define god before moving ahead. Something which is god or something which can be called god is Omnipresent is all pervading, is infinite, is absolute, and is permanent. It Cannot be any other way. Something which is temporary, something which is limited, something which is not all pervading in the sense that it exists Only at a certain place, and it does not exist in some other place cannot be said as God or Cannot be called God because the notion of God represents something that is absolute, infinite, and permanent.

Speaker A [00:05:48]:

Now what the Advaita Vedanta tells us is that your own consciousness or your awareness, Which in reality, who you are is that which is infinite, is that which is absolute, is that which is All pervading and is that which is permanent without any birth or without any death. This is the nature of your own consciousness, And this consciousness itself is God. So don't try to find God anywhere else. Find it within yourself and realize it within yourself. And this is the ultimate goal for a human being, says the Upanishads. But this is not a living experience for us. We experience ourselves to be this Body, mind, unit. We think that we are a personality with a certain name, and we think that we are this body? But let us go a little deep here.

Speaker A [00:06:46]:

Let us try to uncover the reality. There are various ways to understand this, But one way of looking at it is this. When you were young, you had a certain kind of body. You had a certain kind of mind. And right now, You have a certain kind of body, and you have a certain kind of mind. And after a decade, you will have another Kind of body and another kind of mind. And when I say another kind of body, I mean that your body will change in a matter of years or decades? And your mind will change. The belief systems, the thoughts, the emotions that you were thinking when you were a kid are no longer the same right now, and it will not be the same in the future.

Speaker A [00:07:31]:

So your mind is constantly Changing, and your body is constantly changing. But if I show you 2 pictures of yourself, 1 from when you were a kid And one from right now. And if I ask you, who are you in this? You will say, I am both of them. But if we think about Right? How can we be both of them, and how can I say I am all of them or I am both of them? We need to think about this carefully, but If we do, we will come to a profound understanding. We will come to an understanding that there was a witness which was witnessing the body of a child And the mind of a child when I was a child, and there was a witness which is witnessing this body that I have right now, And the same witness will witness an older body in the future. That witness itself, that awareness itself is permanent. It is unchanging. It is eternal.

Speaker A [00:08:31]:

It is infinite. But the body that awareness is experiencing will constantly change, And I am not the body that is changing. I am not the mind that is changing, but I am the witness or the awareness Behind and beyond that body and mind, this is the teaching which is given to us by the ancient Upanishads, And this is how we need to understand the reality. And the Upanishads also tell us that this entire universe as we see it Today do not exist outside of you. You do not exist in this universe. Instead, this existence and this universe Exists within you, and this entire world that you're experiencing is within your awareness. This is what we need to understand. And this is God, not anything else.

Speaker A [00:09:28]:

We will try to understand this In more depth by looking at various examples and various teachings in the future episodes. I hope this was valuable to you. And if you are interested in these teachings, and if you want to go deeper to understand the nature of reality And the nature of God and the nature of self, you can find my book, Decoding God, Thank you, and I'll see you on the next one.