Question: A friend of mine told me that he does not believe in God. His explanation was “I don’t believe in anything. I have no need. If I come across something that I cannot explain, I accept the fact that I cannot explain it. I feel that it is a very hard thing to do and I feel those who believe in God cannot do that. They need some way to explain things and God is just an excuse. I believe the ones who believe in God are so weak within that they need someone to blame their mishaps or their wrongs upon.”
What he told me did make an impact on me. I don’t have an answer to what I believed in but he had a reason to not believe in. I thought may be you could give me an answer to my belief .
Answer by Romapada Swami: It is the nature of the inquisitive mind to inquire. That is the special feature and indeed the purpose, of human form of life. Animals also have intelligence but their intelligence is exercised only for the purpose of procuring food, and for mating and defending. However, human beings have the capacity to inquire and understand the deeper meaning of life.
Is there no need to seek the deeper meaning in life? There is a great need to do so. Here are some reasons why. If I don’t know the purpose of life or why I exist, what kind of life is that? An intelligent person naturally asks these questions, “Where did I come from, where am I going, what is the meaning of all the orderliness in nature I see around, who has made it, why is there suffering?” A child may believe that a remote-controlled toy car is running by itself, and may accept this as fact, and may have no need to inquire further, but it is not so for a thoughtful adult.
Belief in God is not an excuse made up by people who didn’t have any other explanation. This is the view of anthropomorphism, the view of God as a “creation” or “imagination” of man, conjured up by the wishful thinking of weak-minded individuals. However, if you read some of the writings of the great acaryas you would realize that they certainly were the opposite of weak-minded. They were scholars of the highest caliber and also men of great character and accomplishment. Nor were they unsuccessful people who turned to philosophy in frustration; many of them held responsible posts in society and were very much respected, wealthy, successful and so on. Men of such caliber have pondered over questions of existence, cause and effect and so on and logically arrived at the ultimate conclusion of the cause of all causes — God.
It is quite possible to come to a completely atheistic or impersonalistic conclusion through such inquiry, as so many modern philosophers and scientists have done. However, the missing point is that they are trying to understand God and His plans, who is beyond the perception of our mundane senses, through their own intellectual exercises. Srila Prabhupada often ridiculed the foolishness of this attempt with the story of a well frog trying to understand the Atlantic ocean in terms of Dr. Frog’s well – the only world he knew. The Vedic method is that in order to understand the true picture of things, to get the right answer to these existential questions we discussed above, one must approach those who have already realized the truth. But acceptance of Vedic authority is not blind sentiment, as many people think. It is very much based on logic and the Vedas are so exactingly scientific. When one makes his/her inquiry in the light of the intelligence of Vedic authority, then one comes to the undefeatable conclusion – the cause of all causes is a transcendental person, God, Who is the source of everything (including our selves) and under Whose control everything moves.
Some unscrupulous or uninformed people might have taken advantage of this fact, to explain away their misdeeds, because after all “without God’s sanction nothing would happen”. However that is not the teaching of these acaryas; the Vedic science very much holds one responsible for one’s actions, and one’s freewill, but under the sanction of God. (Please refer to our previous discussions on Freewill.)
The bhakti yoga process of devotion to God is simultaneously simple and sublime; it is so effective that even a child can practice it, as can a great scholar. Even those who do not have very much knowledge of theological aspects may worship the Supreme Lord by simple acts of faith. Krishna says in BG that unto those who do so, even if they may not have full knowledge initially, He reveals everything to them gradually. After all, it is He who in fact gives knowledge and faith to everyone, including to your friend; his ability to think and speak and have strong faith is also dependent on gifts from God! To those who have faith in the existence and benevlence God, He gives them the real knowledge by which they can know Him and His creation in truth.
