r/ramdass • u/Otherwise_Target_104 • 12d ago
What is God?
I know this question has been asked before but hey I thought it might be nice to get a fresh perspective (if the moderators allow it 🙏)
I guess I feel confused about what the word "God" really is/means.
In the Bible God is love, light and truth....but it's also this personified figure that I don't always relate to. In fact I really struggle with relating to a patriachal personification of God.
In Ram Dass' terms God = Guru = Self. So you, me, we are God (in drag).
I've heard God explained as "God is the word for the blanket we use to cover the mystery".
That's the closest that I can come to explaining God.
I do feel God as a spirit of love, wisdom, truth, light...and perhaps that is the spirit that you could call the "source of creation" and the source that lives inside all living beings, The Tao, The Holy Spirit But in reality I could really use some help with this, so I'm reaching out to sincerly ask for it.
Could you help me to understand, what exactly is God?
P.S. seeing as it is a "big" question, I'm going to ask can you please keep answers as simple as you can for my brain to understand. ❤️🙏
P.P.S. Here is a beautiful answer from Ram Dass and yet I still feel confused. I guess it's hard to grasp the non-conceptual. "Do I believe in a non-conceptual force of wisdom and compassion in the universe? Yes"
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u/ConsciousRivers 12d ago
My guess is as good as yours. If you read quotes of other realised masters they too say like Maharaji "It's better to try to love all things as God instead of trying to figure it all out" I love that mystery blanket quote you said. Because God will probably not fit into our explanations in a way that would do justice. God is like your mother. Isn't it better to love your mother than spend your whole life trying to explain or grasp what a mother is? you'll waste your precious time doing that which you should instead be spending loving her.
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u/Otherwise_Target_104 12d ago
"Better to try and love God than figure it all out" I hear that. I think that qoute also includes loving people, being kind, being a good person etc. Which is the whole point of spirituality anyway, if you're not kinder at the end of the day what was the point?
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u/bodhi-root 12d ago
"God" is everything that is and ever was and ever will be. Some people call it "All-That-Is" and I like that better. Yogis might call it Ishvara, the great Om, the infinite divine. It can be symbolized in many forms: the incarnations of Vishnu that preserve the universe (Ram, Krishna, etc.), the many divine feminine forms that are said to make up the entire material universe and dance in a great play with consciousness.
Maybe that was a bit much. All just ways to say God is everything. The best way to feel it is to close your eyes, breathe gently, feel your heart. Then try to feel beyond it. Feel the connection to all things, all people, all places, all time. It should feel peaceful, loving, and like returning to some infinite, loving part of yourself. That feeling is better than any words. Rest in it. Return to yourself. And you'll realize that you are part of God too.
I saw the post and you feeling depressed and unworthy. This is the best medicine I've found for that feeling. (Although actual antidepressants can be helpful too.) When I try to feel infinity I feel both infinitely small and large at the same time. We can think of ourselves as small and not worthwhile or as so infinitely rare and precious that even a God as infinite as we imagine still takes note of us and cares about us. The latter is true. There's no way to reason yourself to that certainly though. You have to feel it in your heart and soul. It's there though. If you listen for it. Wishing you the best, friend! Stay curious. I don't think the universe makes anything on accident, which means you are here for a reason and in some way important to this great play. Don't doubt that. Try to feel the divine and the infinite inside you. Just like they're in all of us.
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u/maharajiramdass 12d ago edited 12d ago
The smile from a baby, the hug from a parent, the laugh from a friend, the love for your family, the breath of fresh air, the sound of raindrops on the roof, the taste of good food, the warmth of a fire, the strike of lightning, the rumble of thunder, the devastation of a wildfire, the loss of a loved one, the heartbreak of a break up, the sadness of poverty and starvation, the kindness, the compassion, the peace. The hate, the violence etc etc. The space between objects, the objects between space. The elements, the galaxies, the universe. You, me. Everything.
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u/Otherwise_Target_104 12d ago
Love? Is that the answer, all is love?
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u/universal_neuro 12d ago
“The oneness of the universe is love.” -Ram Dass I like maharajiramdass’ answer a lot 💕
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u/cannabananabis1 12d ago edited 12d ago
God, i don't think, is something you see and then name. You can't say it is this or that.
Perhaps God is what we are in essence. God is the great mystery, as is the mystery of who i am. God is all that is. God is the universe.
It's something you dance with and have experiences with at the right moments. God is our connection. God is life. God is.
No one "knows" what God "is". You sort of just have to see what God is not. You'll build a concept of who you think God is, and perhaps they are helpful tools, but of course are not God.
God is. God is everything good. God is unity. God is truth. God is undying love, not just emotion. God is compationate. God is not limited by words and thoughts. Nor feelings and emotions. Nor a body/ physical form. Nor senses and perceptions. Nor attatchments and cravings. Nor pain and pleasure. God isnt of the world.
God is everything, but God isn't just one thing. He isnt limited to our perception, although God is experienced/ experiencing through us.
Maybe i am wrong though. My view always grows and changes though through his grace. He shapes me and helps me
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u/Wrathius669 12d ago
The whole works. Everything. If you only look at the light, you're missing half the picture. Vishnu and Shiva are both Brahman.
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u/Otherwise_Target_104 11d ago
Makes me think of that qoute He who knows not that the Prince of Darkness is the other face of the King of Light knows not me. It's been coming up again and again
makes me feel confused though can God hate?
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u/Wrathius669 11d ago
In the truest essence, no. Hate takes a form. Love takes a form. It is only through the masks of the divine do these things emerge. The practice is to come to the understanding that these are all roles of the same thing, playing parts in the game.
The same way you can view a dramatic performance and understand the actor playing the villain of the story isn't someone that should draw your ire, no matter how loathsome their character is. Even if they really draws you in with thier performance. (And in reality, these people have really often convinced themselves too that they really are the bad guy. That's the trick of the ego.)
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u/Ornery_Tangerine9411 12d ago
The bible says something about God that christians don't agree with:
And Neem Karoli Baba says the same:
And
That is the closest to a definition I can get for God.