Part XXIII — Professor Ananda W.P. Guruge

PCG 25-28. Visiting Professor, Department of Religion, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. Hsi Lai University Hacienda Heights, CA. College of Buddhist Studies, Los Angeles, CA. California State University, Fullerton, CA. Senior Special Advisor to the Director General of UNESCO Formerly Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the USA (1992-94)

Professor Ananda W.P. Guruge: How would you explain to an agnostic why God has hitherto not revealed Itself, Herself or Himself to humanity as a whole? Is knowledge of God a privilege reserved for a few? If so, why?

Sri Chinmoy: My esteemed Professor, each one has his own concept of God. An agnostic (as, for example, India's supremely beloved son and matchless Prime Minister Pandit Nehru) believes that God is both unknown and unknowable. He is doubtful as to the existence of God. Our philosophy is that God is known and God is knowable. At the same time, He is unknown and unknowable. He is both, in the same way that we say He is and He is not. When something is vaster than the vastest, it is unknowable. But again, the same Energy or same Force can take the form of something very small which is visible, and we can easily see it and fathom it.

If somebody takes Reality as unknowable, how can we convince them otherwise? From our inner experiences, we have come to learn that Reality is knowable. When our good friend stands in front of us, we know that he has certain qualities. But another person may say that this same person is unknowable. For us, he is knowable. For someone else, he is unknowable. Who is right and who is wrong?

If I may venture another point of view: why should God have to come and prove to an agnostic that He is? God will honour each theory. If someone says that God is unknowable, God will say, "If you are satisfied by saying or feeling that I am unknowable, that is fine. Satisfaction is our goal." If someone else says, "God is knowable. He is my Father, He is my Mother. I will one day speak with Him face to face. I see Him and feel Him in Nature — in the little flowers, in the trees, in the river. I see and feel Him everywhere," God will say to that person, "My child, be satisfied with your undeniable inner experiences."

Let the one who wants to be satisfied with the unknowable aspect of God be satisfied, and let the one who wants to be satisfied with the knowable aspect of God also be satisfied. There is also a third party who says that God is both known and unknown, knowable and unknowable. He is the finite and the Infinite. The God-lovers who are of this belief take God's unknowable aspect as real, and God's knowable aspect also as real.

When a tiny seed is under the ground, we are not aware of its existence. Only the one who sowed the seed will know that it is there. Everybody else will claim that there is nothing there. In spite of their accusations, is the gardener under any obligation to dig up the ground and bring the seed to the surface? No, he will simply say, "You be satisfied by believing that there is nothing under the ground. I will be satisfied when the seed germinates and becomes a plant and then a tree." Again, there will be someone who will believe from the very beginning, although he did not see the gardener plant it, that the seed is under the ground. Right now the seed is unknown because it is under the ground. But the fact that I do not see it does not mean that it does not exist.

I do not have a telescope, so with my human eyes I cannot see faraway objects. That does not mean they do not exist. Let somebody bring a telescope, and he will be able to prove the existence of those objects. With the help of the telescope, our human eyes will be able to see the stars, the planets and so on. Just because something is beyond your physical senses does not mean that it does not exist. If we can have a high consciousness, an elevated consciousness, that consciousness can take us to the unknown in the same way that a telescope takes us to far distances. When something is clearly visible, our minds take it as reality, but when it is invisible, our limited minds take it as unreality.

The knowledge of God is not a privilege reserved for a few. We are all God's children. But we have to strive for it. Professor, you have spent so many years studying, and you have become a scholar, a philosopher, a theologian, an historian, a cosmopolitan. How did you become all these things? It is because you had the inner urge and the outer dedication to pursue them.

Very often when something is unknown, our mind brings doubt into the picture. If a spiritual Master of the highest order stands in front of a seeker, immediately the seeker will recognise who he is and what he is. But an ordinary person, a desire-bound person who does not care for spirituality, will see the spiritual Master as another ordinary man, in no way different than he is. It is the aspiration of the seeker that knows that the man in front of him is a great spiritual figure.

Spirituality is not the sole monopoly of an individual or a small group of individuals. Inner food is there for all to eat. Those who are hungry will devour it, whereas those who are not hungry will not care to partake of it. But to say that the food is available only to the few who are hungry would be the height of folly. It is available to all.

God is under no obligation to us to prove His Existence. The light of the sun is for all. The sun does not beg us to come outside to bask in its rays. It is we who feel we need the light of the sun and therefore go outside. Similarly, God the Infinite, Eternal and Immortal is within us, but He is not begging us to go deep inside and discover His Presence. If we feel the need for inner light, then we will go deep within and discover it.