God is one of the oldest concept of the world. In all ages people have believed in something super natural who is running the show, punishing someone and showering favours to others. It is giving abundant crops in one year and causing drought in another. It is giving joy of motherhood to many on one hand and taking away the life of tender aged children from mother. It is making children orphan on a regular basis. It is causing genocide in one group of people and giving abundance of peace and prosperity to another. It is keeping one group of people in utter poverty where as giving abundance of luxury to another. It is causing hurricane, tsunami, heatwave, AIDS, Ebola, malaria and what not. On the other hand it is feeding, clothing and giving a decent living to a vast majority of population.
Still life goes on, faith survives.
Even in the worst of situation we pray and expect miracles to happen. We.pray that we are safe, prosperous, and sheltered from all the troubles of the world. The more we are in trouble the more we pray. Still for the majority of us, it yields no solution. But faith is hardly dwindled. And when all road seems to be closed and no light at the end of the tunnel, we resign it to fate. We satisfy ourselves to this and continue to face our hardships in our daily life. We keep on thinking why has God been unjust to us where as he has favoured so many? Why are all the troubles written in my name where as so many are living a happy life. Why all the doors are shut for me? Why my children will have the same pathetic future that I am enduring? Why was I born is such a situation and family? Why and on what basis is this differentiation?
Still God is the ultimate concept which is present in every household and every individual. In what ever form or what ever way- we believe. We can love it, hate it but cannot ignore it. We pray together, fight among us, divide us, join us, feel protected within it, feel insecure without it.
Still we do not know what it is.
For most of us God is a personal concept/being. As a routine we pray, ask for the well being of all our loved ones starting from our closest ones and seldom reaching the farthest ones. It is our daily routine and mostly at a fixed time that we pray. Our mind limits our prayer to our individual needs. We praise it when our needs are met and show our displeasure when God does not pay heed to our requests. Some even become antagonistic towards it.
We all have our different ways of calling it. Some believe in idol worship, some the direction of the Mecca, some the non-dualistic way, some call him through the crucifix and almost all through the holy books of their respective religions. But all are using some ways and means to gain his attention. Some believe that the good work done in this life will fetch a better life in the next reincarnation, some believe that they will go to heaven for the good work done in this life, some believe in freedom from the cycle of birth and death. Some believe God is somewhere out there and some believe God is inside him. Some call it Jesus, some Allah, some Krishna, so on and so forth.
But we all have a need for God in their respective ways. Need to fulfill there respective desires. Some will fast for the required number of days, some will offer flower, fruits and ornaments to appease it, some will celebrate specific religious days, some will confess there misdeeds, some will pray and sing carols We all will do anything to gain his attention as if we are in a market to barter our time, money and efforts for the well being of ours. We need a God to listen to our problems and provide quick fix solutions. We need a God to give us more than what we deserve, to give us more with no or the least effort. We need God to make us rich, to cure our diseases, to have a bigger house, to have a bigger pay package, to have intelligent children, to have a sensible life partner, to live a long life, to make our business successful, to hurt and cheat others without the guilt, to kill others without being a murderer, to do a crime without being a criminal. The fear of the unknown drives us to find a shelter in God.
The ones who go beyond their individual needs are made saints and spiritual masters. It is they who have outgrown from the selfish to the selfless. It is the who have known the 'truth'.
If we analyse the core teachings of all religions, then we get to the fact that God is not a king running the kingdom from heaven. God is Godliness, or we can say, the best qualities that a human being can achieve/ attain without constricting ourselves to our petty requirements and gains. To realize that all human being and all other life forms as equal. To help those in need. That, the process of life will go on with all its so called aberrations. But with all the hardships faced, to bring the best out of ourselves. That, all we have gained and enjoyed by using our five senses will stay back upon death. That, there is something beyond the senses and beyond the mind, the realization of which removes all the doubts. That, death is a part and parcel of life, without any guaranteed time frame. God is unity in diversity. God is not here to solve our problems but to give the strength to solve our problems ourselves.
WHY DO YOU NEED A GOD?
God is my everything