If there were no human beings on this planet, there would be no God-talk going on among the other creatures. Essentially, it’s a human thing. Human beings want explanations for everything, while other creatures are okay with what is going on with their lives. Human beings want explanations because their intellect will not settle without answers.
So, if there were no human beings, none of the other creatures would be talking about God. The very idea that God is a big man up there has come because somebody told us that existence is human-centric. But, in reality, it’s not. Existence is definitely not human-centric; before you came it was there, after you go, it will still be there. So, earth being the centre of the universe and human beings being in the image of God has made humanity so absolutely crude and insensitive to every other life on this planet.
If only such things were not taught to us. If somebody had told you that God looks like every other creature on this planet and not like us, you would treat all of them with
utmost gentleness, wouldn’t you?
This was actually done in Eastern parts of the world, where God is the very earth that you walk upon, the water that you drink, the food that you eat… There is no other God to talk to, so you walk gently upon this planet and your humanity gets expressed. Now, however, in the name of divinity, we have completely forsaken our humanity. If you forsake your humanity, you will not know any divinity.
So this idea that God is a big man or a big woman; the idea that creation is human-centric is a very damaging idea. Creation is not human-centric. You are only a small happening in the existence.
Tomorrow morning, if you, I and everybody else evaporates, there will be no disturbance. It will be just fine, actually better! There will be no ecological problems. We think too much of ourselves, that’s the biggest problem. As individual people, we think too much of ourselves. As humanity too, we think too much of ourselves. It is very important that we, as human beings, recognise that every other creature treats and experiences its life as important to itself as our life is to us.
When we say God, we are trying to refer to the basis of creation. Because we have no clue what its nature is, being human we try to give it a human form. But various other cultures on this planet have given it various other forms, too.
People worshipped buffaloes, elephants, snakes, cows, earth, fire, water. They gave it a form that they could relate to. In India, in every village you visit you will always find one tree being worshipped. Nowhere else in the Western part of the world is there any relevance for animals because people were made to believe that every creature is here only to serve you.
This is a gross idea in a human mind, isn’t it? Modern science, unfortunately, is going in this direction. Right now we are only looking at how to exploit everything.
We won’t even spare a bacteria, an organism that we can’t see with our naked eyes. We know how to make use of it for our benefit.
But after using everything for our benefit, it still doesn’t seem like we have been hugely benefited. This is because well-being doesn’t happen that way. Well-being will not come just because you try to milk the whole existence.
— Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, a yogi, is a visionary, humanitarian and a prominent spiritual leader. An author, poet, and internationally-renowned speaker, Sadhguru’s wit and piercing logic provoke and widen our perception of life.
He can be contacted at www.ishafoundation.org
God doesn’t look like you
source pgehttp://www.deccanchronicle.com
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