So if this short piece of writing on God-debate,initiated in his own aphoristic style by Dr.Bibhash Choudhury on the pages of Facebook,is an excess material on the subject,is very much (no pun intended)due to him.
Carl Sagan has just delivered his lecture on 'The origin of the universe'.He pulls out his gold-rimmed spectacle , straightens his necktie and looks over the lectern towards the audience expectantly. Because it is question-and-answer session.There is already some commotion at the back of the auditorium.He reaches for the glass of water which was kept gingerly for him on the table by the side of the lectern.
And precisely at that point of time,an elderly lady at the front stands up whose wrinkled face mocks at the 'age-miracle' that she applies every morning(and every night too).Our commonsense tells us, precisely at this moment that 'nature never leaves a face unharmed for over half a century'.She gazes upon Sagan with her beady eyes and asks in a woman-to-man fashion:'Mr. Sagan,do you believe in God'?Sagan gulps down the remaining little water in the glass,straightens his necktie again, gazes on her in a man-to-woman fashion and retorts:'What do you mean by God, madam?'
And now the lady is at a loss.Her expression changes.She looks like a lady bats-man(woman?)whose partner at non-striker end is already half way through the wicket and shouts at her for a run.She clears her throat and speaks in a woman-to-man fashion:'By God , I mean,what do I mean...oh!..eh!'
So it follows that God does not have a clear-cut definition and confronted with a situation like the one the lady was in some moments ago, we will react the same way.It is purely subjective. Einstein went to the extent of saying that'I do not believe in a personal God'.
Since the time immemorial,God has eluded us.For some ,God is merciful,benevolent and so on.There is a tradition of defining God via negatives too. God is love.No he is not that. He is merciful.No he is not that...In Upanisadic tradition it is 'Neti,neti'. God is no-thing.
Some believe that God is the perfect and ultimate being that human mind can conceive. But how can we conceive something that we have never experienced in reality.Oops I am lost in my own verbiage.
There are some who equate God with mind.It is beyond space.And time too.The university in Guwahati occupies a definite location. It is at Jalukbari.But where is Sunday?Likewise where is our mind?Thought?(we are thinking all the time. I am thinking precisely at this moment what shall I eat for my dinner.If only I could see it!)Mere invisibility does not preclude its being.And it is beyond time too.
Now Facebook.Where is it? Does it occupy a definite space?We can access it from any where we wish.Is not it like mind? Or God? We are connected through it whereas we debate its locational position. So somewhere I have found a connection between mind,God and facebook.
In the beginning I wrote 'on the pages of facebook.But facebook does not have pages in literal sense. My language has conditioned me to write that way.
Dr.Choudhury, are you listening?What do you think? Am I giving you the 'heebie- jeebies'? Ha,ha...
Wonderfully orchestrated piece.
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