Part XVIII — Professor Clara Castoldi

PCG 20. Special Visiting Instructor, Department of Physics, Oakland University, Rochester, MI

Professor Clara Castoldi: In modern physics we have found that there is a sea of energy pervading the 'empty' space of the universe which can materialise into matter. Can this be called God?

Sri Chinmoy: My dear Professor, alas, I am a perfect stranger to physics, either ancient or modern. From the spiritual point of view and from the point of view of my inner experiences, everything is God: the finite and the Infinite, the emptiness and the fulness, the silence and the sound, everything that was, is and will be. There is nothing other than God.

In that sense, definitely God and energy are inseparable. But if you say that God and energy are inseparable to such an extent that energy itself will be able to guide or govern the universe without the direct Will of God, then you are mistaken. Energy and God are one, true, but again, God is beyond everything that He has and that He is. Although God appears to depend on us or on laws of nature to achieve something, He can easily achieve that thing without our assistance, independently.

Our Indian philosophy uses the term '_shunya" — emptiness. This emptiness is nothing other than fulness, which we call '_hiranya garbha" — the golden egg or womb. It is from this golden egg that creation came into existence. God embodies everything that is in His creation. He is at once this and that. But He is also beyond this and that. We cannot limit God by saying, "This is what God is." God is everything. At the same time, He is nothing. Our mind finds these concepts difficult to grasp. God can be beyond both this and that. He can be this and that combined. He can be neither this nor that. He must be felt and experienced; He cannot be defined.