ON LIVING WITHOUT GOD

Dr. Sudhansu Kumar Dash

            What incentive is more powerful, God or belief in God ? To look at the problem intellectually and honestly it is certain that ‘belief in God’ is more powerful an incentive than ‘God’ . It will not be wise of course to deny God and also accepting God. Both are a sort of foolishness. It is but true that one who does not know the reality indulgence in meaningless words. One who says he knows, is definite enough that he does not know. And also who experiences reality every moment has no language to communicate it.

            Belief is nothing but a negation of the truth as belief conceals the truth. Therefore, to believe God is not to know God, but to know the belief only. So the whole purpose is futile. It does not mean that the non-believer will find God. Because a reality is unknown and the belief or the non-belief in God is nothing but a self projection. The belief or non-belief is nothing but a consolation. The question comes why do we believe ? We believe because it gives us a satisfaction, consolation, hope and think that it gives life a significance. This belief is significant, because it exploits. The rich believes in God so also the poor and the rich exploits the poor mercilessly to accumulate money, so builds a temple and becomes a philanthropist.

            The people who believe God have made the world a complete misery. It is only through intolerance we have made divisions as believers and non-believers. We all believe in different ways. When we believe or not believe we are actually not in touch with the reality. The reality is what we are, what we do, what we think and the belief in God is nothing but an escape from our reality.

            Belief never brings people together. It divides people invariably into Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Communist, Socialist etc. and all these are nothing but the pseudo communal forces. So what ever one believes brings misery in the world and equally the belief in God. The belief in God may bring one a momentary consolation but really it brings more misery and destruction in the form of war, class division and merciless activities of individuals. Then what ‘God’ is ? It is nothing but the freedom come the idea of God. All that we know about God are words but not reality.

            The background of all these things is but mind. This mind must be completely free from the known and be in complete silence. He does not mean that it should be made silent. The mind which is made silent by practice or discipline is not silent at all. The silence comes when we understand the whole process of thought, because understanding the process is the ending of the process and the beginning of the silence. It is only when silence happens, the unknown comes into being. The unknown is not something to be experienced by mind as mind is not there. Silence is the freedom from the conscious and unconscious memory. When mind is silent without any effort the eternal manifests itself. We may call it anything as God, Truth, Eternity but not when mind is disciplined according to a pattern. This is the reality of living.

Lecturer in English

SridharSwami College of Education & Technology

Sadangi, Dhenkanal, Odisha (India)