Meaning of God in Human Experience

 

Meaning of God in Human Experience

A. K. Brohi

 

Supposing, someone sets out on the sea shore with a view to finding out what the ocean was like, and all he had in his hand was a tea-cup. With the tea-cup he cannot adequately measure the ocean indeed, that is not possible. Every tea-cup that you use in taking out water from the ocean in no way contributes to your understanding of the nature of water, much less does it give you an idea of the size and the depth of the ocean. Human understanding, in its encounter with the Divine, is like that little tea-cup with which man is trying to size up the measure of the ocean which is God. Of course, it is true that the problem of God has been approached by the learned speaker from the point of view of religious belief and more appropriately, that species of religious belief which has been sanctioned by Islam. I would also like to come to that approach at a later stage of my remarks, but I think the far more important question which arises even before religious consciousness comes to our rescue and renders to us the assistance we need for the comprehension of the idea of God, is to look within ourselves to be able to see whether our human experience, such as it is-by which I mean the limited, imperfect, finite human experience-contains some unmistakable indications and pointers to the existence of a Presence which is higher, more enduring, more abiding than our own. The subject, 'Meaning of God in Human Experience', therefore, can only be approached by an analysis of human experience, and it is this that I shall try to present before you, and that too only in a very limited and in a very qualified way. Now, if you think deeply, you will discover that the most startling fact of human life is that all the time the river of human life is rising beyond its source. If you could understand the significance of that aspect of human experience you would be able to get at the kernel of the point I propose to make. You have seen the rivers that flow down from the high tops of hills; they come down into the low-lying valleys and take on a long way- ward course before they eventually disappear into the sea. By the operation of the law of gravitation, their water is dragged down from the high heights and flow on with tremendous force and velocity. Coming down the hill water reaches ultimately the sea level which is the lowest level-that is why when you talk about the height of any particular mountain, you say it is so many thousand feet above the sea level. The sea level represents the nethermost point, the lowest point on the surface of the planet. Thus the earthly rivers have the tendency in them to flow below the level of their sources; they do not go beyond their sources; the waters in flowing rivers do not run up, they come downwards. The river of Human life, on the other hand, has a strange tendency of rising beyond its source. This is established by the facts of common experience. A hero who goes to the battlefield and gives up his life for the cause of his country, is running counter to all biological impulses within him. There is in such a one an impulse of saving oneself, of preserving oneself, of maintaining oneself, but lo and behold there is an inexplicable sort of heroism in the deed of a martyr who is prepared to throw away the only life that he has for some purpose, the consummation of which he will never even be able to witness in his own life; Similarly, we have the proverbial sacrifice of a mother in taking care of her young one: she watches her sick child is prepared to brave and hazard all life's inconveniences, so that the fragile life of the child might be spared. It seems to be an unusual experience, is it not, to find that she is not afraid of exposing herself to the risk of getting infection or getting weak in the process. But she is a martyr to the cause of the emergence of a new life-all she cares for is the end that the child's life might be saved. And it would appear that all the great men in human history are precisely men who have abdicated and renounced their right to this life, in order that some other higher life might be possible. Consider in this context the case of Christ. He gives up his life on the cross (according to Christian tradition). Judged by worldly standards, it didn't seem to be a good bargain at all. If this life is all that there is to it, then one cannot explain why Christ should give up his own life. And yet he believed with the Fire of his soul that only those that give up this life will get that Eternal Life. All that most of us are apt to take life to consist in is the activity of eating and drinking and sleeping, and its meaning is seen by using its so called comfort and conveniences. But if these at all constituted the essence of life, then surely it is not understandable why any person should give up this life for that kind of life which he does not see, but in which he verily believes. These are some of the illustrations of human experience in which we find that the life in man is capable of rising far beyond its own plateau. It does not seem to go downward-which is the way the cowards go but upwards; the heroes of Human History seem to be swimming steadily against the current of mere biological urges and all bravery and all courage and all heroism and all martyrdom, is indicative of the fact that there is something within us which says: "1 am indestructible, If I give up this life for a higher cause it would not make the least difference to me at all." And in listening to that voice, humanity has found it worthy its while to renounce this life in order that some other life might be made more manifest and more real.

Now, the fact that this is possible tends to show that man has an instinctive awareness of the existence of some abiding presence higher than his own. This awareness is our link with eternal life. Otherwise one cannot explain the fact of this life at all. How is it that some men, for the purpose of saying truth, which is bitter, are prepared to invite all the ridicule upon themselves, just to be able to publish the truth. From the worldly point of view it seems to be hardly a bargain, indeed, it is an onerous obligation.' And yet there are men who are prepared to stake all they have, nay, their very own lives, their honour, their reputation, in order that their capacity for speaking truth, or doing justice, might be maintained. There are men who despite odds wish to live good lives; they are prepared at all cost to fight evil.

It is easy to pay a compliment to a tyrant and tell him: "You are a wonderful fellow" "and so come to be patronized by him. But there are some people, nevertheless, who say: "No, that's a lie and I shan't do it". Indeed there are some who are more defiant. All these are illustrations of that significant feature of human life which I mentioned earlier, namely of Man's inveterate capacity to rise beyond its source, of his moral capability of going beyond its present premises. This then is the law of spiritual gravitation. The terrestrial gravitation, the gravitation of the earth takes the flowing waters of the river from the high hills down to the sea, but to man there is the pull of some strange magnet, we call God. This is what draws the life of man up-wards, and responding to that pull man fulfils a higher Law: that is his real ascension, that is his real resurrection.

Evil's Compliment to 'Good':

To the same effect are facts of Man's moral life. Take the case of the greatest rogue going anywhere in the world. Even such as he, when he is left in the privacy of his inner life, condemns himself and says: "what I do is wrong". Is that not a strange phenomenon? After all it is his lifelong profession to go wrong; and yet to his dear ones, to his near ones, he doesn't say he is a rogue or a rascal, he says: "I am a very upright and honest man, I am a very good man". Now why is this so. Is it not strange that a man, who is a professional scoundrel, doesn't admit it to himself, or to those to whom he is devoted. Strange, is it not; although he knows that he is a scoundrel, he down deep in his soul says: "Indeed, this is a false aspect of my life". He never publicly parades that he is an immoral person. He goes to his dear ones and pretentiously says: "I am a gentleman". He knows that he is lying, but still he wants to take up a false position against himself. This then is the mystery of man's moral life namely that somehow the evil seems to acknowledge the good as a superior value. The man who is evil, and does evil and is in fact evil through and through when asked: "Are you evil", says: "No, I am a good man and I do good deeds". Now, why this compliment which evil is constantly paying to the good? I suppose that unless there was the power of an abiding goodness locked up in the inner being of a power of which, some how consciously or unconsciously, man is down deep in his soul aware of, he would not act in this strange manner.

Thus this is, in my opinion, yet another feature of human experience which contains an intrinsic indication of the existence of God, who is the custodian and preserver of moral order. Against all odds, men are impelled to do good, even if the heavens fall the best amongst them, are committed to their code of honour in its surrender at the altar of a higher Law, mankind finds that there is a triumph and a fulfillment of the Law of its Divine Destiny.

 

Natural Cycle of Life:

Take one more feature of human experience. Consider the remarkable cycle of life: we are born as tiny little babes, helpless, struggling babes; then we all inevitably pass through the period of adolescence, become adults, have a youthful chapter of our existence, and soon, very soon, our powers decline, and we grow old and feeble. And there even comes a time when we are hardly able to walk. And then at last there comes a time when all of us topple down into the grave and disappear leaving, as Shakespeare would say, "Not a wrack behind". This is a natural cycle fixed for all of us. Who has fixed it? Can anyone defy it'? Is there a man who can get out of the grip of this cycle? No; the frontiers and rhythm of life seem to have been fixed independently of our wishes and it is not possible for us to defy them. Does this not postulate that there is a pre-existing order which has been ordained, established long before we turn up on the earthly scene and find ourselves encompassed by its grip.

Thus, if you closely analyze and dissect your own direct personal experience of the mystery of life, and reflect calmly on the undeniable facts of life, you will come across unmistakable indications of the fact that there is "some power" that limits your life and determines the direction of its motion.

You may be rich and have everything and yet be unhappy. In Europe some of my friends who are by worldly standards prosperous and who have everything, are unhappy on that account. They are, to say the least, bored to death. Indeed, there soon comes a time in the life of rich men when they do not know what to do with themselves. They have everything and still they are unhappy and precisely so because they have everything. This is the result of the curse of prosperity which has fallen upon Europe. Everybody there seems to be busy taking some tranquillizers, and, as the phrase goes trying to relax. The necessity of consulting a psychiatrist has become for the idle-rich a full job and the practice of psychiatry has in our day become the most lucrative profession. What is wrong with man in the prosperous countries is that he has everything and still he is unhappy. Their was that famous film actress, Marilyn Monroe-I think most of you know her name better than I do. She too had everything (except, as somebody wittely remarked, a lawful husband). She had beauty which gave her power over men and their affairs, riches, wealth, fame yet in the end she committed suicide. What was it that contributed to this sense of frustration on her part? Alas, all that this life had to offer her was there and she was still unhappy. Sweden has the highest standard of living and the suicide rate is also highest in that prosperous country. 

Unanswered Call:

Thus it seems that the mere craving of the flesh cannot satisfy the urge of life, much less is it able to fulfill man's aspiration towards loftier and holier goals. Satisfaction of the mere biological needs does not really satisfy man. It all seems to be like drinking- sea water-the more one drinks the more is one thirsty. Is that too not a fact of experience? Haven't you come across men and women in the .world, who are miserable precisely because they have everything? They ask themselves the unavoidable question: "But what is all this for, where does it take one to? Every morning I go through the same drill, every noon, every afternoon, every night and so day-after-day it is all over again the same cycle. The same joke is repeated day in and day out". The question is: "What is all this for?" And unhappily, alas! They do not find the answer. Such a man does not really know what to do with himself. All the troubles of Industrial Civilization seem to arise from the cult of prosperity which mankind has been worshipping for quite sometime now. They have been busy wooing as William James used to say, "This Bitch- Goddess called "success". French people have a very wise saying on this point: they say that prosperous people have no history. And I agree with them. The prophet of God too had said, "Poverty is my pride". And he was right too. After all it is not what you have, but who you are that is important.

Now, all these are facts of human experience. You do not have to wait for a prophet to tell you that what you are at present, seems to be incomplete, that there is something lacking in you and that which you are lacking will not be contributed by that which you are trying to grab. Then there must be something other than what you see which might perchance be the answer for the purpose of filling in that void which is all the time gnawing at your soul and the lack of which is making you so miserable. It is this perception of facts of your own life which creates the setting and the background against which the perception of the divine dimensions of life become possible. It is only when you have the hunger and feel it that you ask for food and the divine hunger comes to the rescue of man only when he is completely convinced that this usual type of food does not satisfy him. He begins, therefore, to search if there is something else, which perchance might bring him everlasting peace.

 

State of Dreaming:

I would like to explain this idea of Divine Dimension of Man's being further. It is like this. You are, let us say, dreaming. The state of dream-consciousness is a matter of common experience for all of us. We all have dreams. While in a state of dream, we see things which we believe are real at the time when the dream-state is upon us, it is impossible to convince a person while he is dreaming that he is dreaming. In such a state it is not possible even to communicate with him If two persons are sleeping in the same room and are dreaming, each sees a different world, each is convinced that that world, that that person is seeing, is real and yet they cannot" even communicate with each other what they see. There is, in a dream-state no communication possible at all. How do you convince a person who is dreaming that he is dreaming? That again is not possible. The only way to convince him that he was dreaming is to wake him up. Then when he wakes up he says: "Ah; my word; this was only a dream, what a fool I was to have taken it seriously while it lasted? I think our so called waking-life is something like that. What you think is real, is a dream-state of your undeveloped consciousness and, one day, when you will really wake up, you will see the utter unreality of that which you thought was real. And the purpose of religion is no other than to enable man to wake up. My beloved Sindhi poet- mean Latif has put it in his own way in the words of Sasui; "Jin hit na hote ditho se hut kinya possindyiun hotesin," Those that cannot see the beloved here, how will they be able to see him there-if they are blind here there too they will be blind equally. So if this dream state continues then it is not possible to escape the grammar of the dream-world. The only way to convince a dreamer of the unreality of the dream world is not to argue with him, because it is not possible to convince a man while he is dreaming. The only way to destroy his illusion is to wake him up.

 

Wakeful Life of Prayer:

I said that the best way to help is to wake the man up. And in the morning prayer call, when the Mo'azzin in the usual prayer call adds up one line: 'As-Sala-u-Khairum-minan-nueum, he daily reminds us that the waking is better than sleep. The life of the prayer is calculated to wake us up. Your communion with God wakes you up to your real existence. At present you are in a state of dream and when the blessed moment would come and you wake up-then you would see that which it is your destiny to see. And the release from the world of your dreams comes only when you are able to perceive that which it is your mission on Earth to realize. The Holy Qur'an gives the Shahadat about this, and says that indeed a man is walking on a very thorny path to God, but he will meet Him. And the Christian Biblican tradition also has it that the pathway to God, is as sharp as a razor's edge. It's a difficult path, but the prize is worth fighting for. And my friends, you might learn even from me that you can't get in this life anything without paying a price for it, it is impossible that you will be able to get the eternal reward of your union with the divine without making sacrifices for it, without renouncing things which are your cherished illusions at present. But of these illusions you are fond if only because you are going through a dream state, and are not aware of the real world. To be awakened, to be enlightened, to be uplifted, to be transformed by the Divine touch-this is the meaning of God in human experience. Till such time as you directly come to a point of religious consciousness you have to go through this preliminary drill of dissatisfaction with this life. As things go, after all where will you go my friend? And how far will you go? Soon, death comes and you lie buried under the ground-five feet deep. If that is life, and that is all that there is to it, would you be satisfied with this end? If not, then escape; and religion gives you the escape door through which you gain a higher and better life for all time to come.

 

Idea of God:

Now, to realize that God exists is easy but to have a correct conception of God raises a difficult question. How to conceive Him, His Nature, is not that easy. The fact that God exists is easily established. That God exists can be discovered even by average intelligence just by reflecting on the facts of human experience. For instance, from the fact that our human life is limited, we can infer that there is something which limits us and which by itself, is unlimited. The fact that we have a finite consciousness contributes to the belief that there is the Infinite which enfolds it and makes it appear as Finite. Thus that God exists can be inferred-but for the Religious consciousness that is not enough. You have some manner of idea of who God is. It is here that religious Prophets come to our rescue. These Prophets have come to mankind to point out to us the true conception of God-a conception which has been revealed to them. We cannot adequately set forth the truth of their revelations in philosophical terms. of our understanding. But to that extent, I Philosophy can only point out to us the limits also maintain, it frees us; because it can decide for us the limits of our understanding, it liberates us and enables us to rise to a higher level of consciousness altogether. So, philosophy. by serving the cause of delimiting our knowledge frees our knowledge; it tells us what is the permissible sphere in which it can operate. So philosophical education does adequately the only thing it can do, víz.: by delimiting your knowledge and your awareness and your understanding, it points out that there are other possible sources of a better and greater understanding. Just as the eye cannot see the melody which is being played which the ear can hear but the eye can see that beautiful painting which the ear cannot see; just as in my own life what my eye sees, my ear is not able to hear, what my ear notices my eye is not able to see-so also within the circle of humanity itself, there are certain things which we ordinary people are not able to see. And it is the Prophets who have brought to us, the ordinary people, their awareness of another life which has been revealed to them and their account of it is preserved in the Holy Scriptures, in the holy books which have been given by them to mankind. By reading these revealed books mankind will be able to acquire the correct conception of God.

And now, when we come to the conception of God, as it is to be found in the Qur'an, I can do no more than to share with you an idea or two. For instance, the prophet of God, when he was asked to say what God's Nature was like, he said:

ؕ لَیۡسَ کَمِثۡلِہٖ شَیۡءٌ (شوریٰ:11)

"There is nothing like Him" (42:11). And:

قُلْ هُوَ اللّٰهُ اَحَدٌاَللّٰهُ الصَّمَدُۚ۔لَمْ یَلِدْ  وَ لَمْ یُوْلَدْ۔وَ لَمْ یَكُنْ لَّهٗ كُفُوًا اَحَدٌ(اخلاص 1-۔-4)

Say, Allah He is one; neither begotten, nor is He a begetter. There is none comparable unto Him. (Al-Quran-114)

How can He be compared when He cannot be compared with anything because anything you compared Him with, is not like Him. So He is unique; it is not possible to present to ordinary consciousness adequately the idea of God. There is one verse in the Qur'an which is most revealing. Here it is:

لَا تُدۡرِكُهُ الۡاَبۡصَارُ وَهُوَ يُدۡرِكُ الۡاَبۡصَارَ‌ۚ وَهُوَ اللَّطِيۡفُ الۡخَبِيۡرُ (الانعام:106)

"Your vision cannot comprehend Him i.e. God, but His vision comprehendeth everything that there is, so that He is aware of the minutest that there be." (Al-Quran- 42:11)

If you can possibly reconstruct for yourself this wonderful conception that we cannot comprehend Him, but that He comprehendeth everything, so much so that He is aware of the minutest that there be--- you become somewhat aware of the majesty and power of the Lord.

Then, again, He is aware of the deepest secrets that are stirring within you and He is the Hidden and the Manifest(ظاہر و باطن)

He is the First and the Last ((اول و آخر)). Then you have the beautiful names of God that have been mentioned in the Qur'an symbolizing his 99 attributes.

By constantly reflecting upon these attributes of God you absorb the light of His Being and in you grows that which He blew into the nostrils of Adam, i.e. the substance of God, the Divine element which is part of your real self.

It will take me too long to give you an excursus on this point that what I do say is this that in the mid-twentieth century when human knowledge has grown so much, it is impossible today to take up the position that God does not exist. I have not come across any genuine or earnest thinker in the modem world who takes up that position. It is impossible to escape the necessity of affirming God's existence. The difficulty only arises in offering a satisfactory conception of God's attributes. Even an atheist when he denies that God exists, in some sense affirms Him, because you do not ordinarily deny a thing which does not exist. Even the denial of God is affirmation; in respect of absolute propositions, all denials become significant affirmations. You knock at a door only when the door is closed; you do not knock at an open door; indeed the fact that you are knocking shows the door is closed. So also the atheist: when he is denying God, he is asserting that God exists. The existence of God is involved in our finitude and the kind of God we worship ultimately influences our own growth. In some strange way that which we worship we are in the process of becoming. A man can be always found out by what he loves. If you can find out what a man loves, you will come to know who he is. If a man loves money too much that is in reality his God, and for him his God is not anything more than that. Find out what a man wants, that is his craving for the divine as he perceives it, that is the form which the Divine takes for him; that is how the Divine addresses itself to him. He doesn't know anything beyond it. So by the concept of God being progressively refined, all that is meant is that your ideal has become perfect and now if you keep it steadily before you, you will become perfect. God does not need our worship. He does not need our acknowledgement of His existence. He is independent of everything.

وَمَنْ كَفَرَ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ غَنِيٌّ عَنِ الْعَالَمِينَ [آل عمران:97]

We are all beggars at-the door of God. God does not need our worship; it is we who need His love, His grace. So this insistence of religious belief that we have to acknowledge God, is in our interest. Why? Because that which we worship we will become and if that which we worship is perfect, there is a possibility of our growing and becoming, perfect in the process. It is this pragmatic demand that compels us to grapple with the question of worshipping the true God, not this that we are paying a compliment to God as if to tell Him: "dear God nobody looks after you but now be happy at the thought that we are thinking about you". It is not that; and this is not the way to go about without a feeling of humility, without a feeling of reverence you cannot even be; that attitude will, on the contrary, hurt you, for that is arrogance. . A religious belief which only contributes to your pride and arrogance is dangerous. That is why the real 'Me'raj' of man, his real final summit of perfection is humility.

 

Awareness of God:

Today the tragedy of mankind's religious belief is that religion has become totally external to us, as is the coat which I wear, I discard it when I like. Real belief in God is not capable of being so discarded; it is there, something you cannot do without, it is as necessary to you as is the air you breathe. How many of us are constantly grateful to oxygen which is present in the atmosphere?

We keep on breathing it in and out all-right. somebody throttling us, that we know what it But it is only when we are suffocated by is that we are missing. So in spiritual terms also; the divine consciousness is something we live upon. Without God not one of us can survive. We are all anchored in God, our moorings are in God, we are surrounded by God. The only question is to be aware of this link, that's all. I ask you a simple question. Supposing any one of you had been born in a place which was constantly under light and had no experience of the darkness of the night. Imagine your life having been lived in conditions in which you had no experience of the darkness of night, in that you were all the time surrounded by light. Would you then even know that you are surrounded by light? No, if you are only surrounded by light and have no experience of darkness of the night, you would not even know that you are living in a light. We are so much surrounded by God that we do not know that we are living in God. So it is only the cultivation of your awareness that is important; God is not created in the process of knowledge, He exists. If fishes were the philosophers and you had a conversation with them, you would not be able to convince them that they are living in water. "Impossible" the fish would say: "What, water, what are you talking about, where is water?" Because she does not know life except in water, so she had no awareness of what water is. So, much is God surrounding us that the difficulty of knowing Him arises from the fact that He is surrounding us, And recited from the Qur'an.

وَ نَحْنُ اَقْرَبُ اِلَیْهِ مِنْ حَبْلِ الْوَرِیْدِ(ق:16)

Because He is nearer to us than the vein of our neck, therefore, He is difficult to see. May His light show us the way.