Time to begin our own journey to inner Truth

Gautam, the Buddha once visited a small village on the outskirts of river Ganges. A lot of people from all around gathered to have a glimpse of the Self realized one and listen to his talks. Just being around the completely peaceful one and listening to his talks gave glimpse of inner peace and inner happiness to the people. Soon his fame spread all over and a lot of people started to gather for listening to Buddha’s discourses.

Whenever anyone used to ask Buddha about the existence of God, he used to enter into a long silence without saying much. His disciples were all confused about the existence of God as most of the Buddha’s talks were around explicating the Dharmas constituting reality.  During his discourses, Buddha hardly spoke anything on the subjects of metaphysics, reincarnation, life after death and God.  

In the same village there was a pious Rama devotee who has worshiped Lord Rama throughout his life. After years of worship, he was still restless and empty within. Somehow, he thought let me confirm the existence of Lord Rama or the God with the Saint. Next morning, he went to the place where Buddha used to give discourses and stood behind the tree for the whole discourse. After most of the villagers left, somehow he gathered the courage, inched closer to the Saint and asked, “Dear Sir, do you think God exist?”

“No”, replied the Buddha in a firm voice and left the place. Among the disciples a wave of satisfaction spread by hearing the answer – finally our master has denied the existence of God. Throughout the day there was a lot of commotion among the disciples on the topic.

In those days, the philosophy of Carvaka was widespread. The Carvaka philosophy was characterized as the atheist and materialistic school of thought with no belief in God. They held perception to be the only valid source of knowledge. One of such old Carvaka became suspicious about his beliefs and thought – “what if God exists. Foolish me, have rejected existence of God and wasted my whole life. Let me confirm this with the holy Saint.”  

Next morning, he also sat in the crowd. Again, in the end, he gathered courage, slowly moved forward and asked the same question to the holy one, “Dear Sir, do you think God exist?”

“Yes”, replied the Buddha in a similar steady voice and left the place. Now the disciples were all confused except Ananda, one of the principal disciples and a devout attendant of the Buddha. 

Ananda was smiling at the answer silently with his closed eyes. The confused disciples gathered all around Ananda and asked, “Dear Brother, can you please shed some light on the topic. We are all puzzled about the subject. Yesterday only our Master denied the existence of God and today he is accepting it. Please enlighten us by telling the hidden meaning  behind our Master’s answers.”

Ananda opened his eyes, slowly looked around with his deep eyes full of wisdom, similar to the Master and said, “Dear fellow seekers, I cannot read Mater’s mind, but I can take a guess. The intention of our Master is not to prove existence of God or to deny it. But, he intended to shake the deep rooted belief of those two believers and wake them up in such a manner that they can begin their own journey, begin their own seeking. Instead of believing others, our Master wanted them to begin their own seeking to explore the Truth.”

All the disciples gathered around Ananda nodded their head in affirmation with satisfaction in their eyes.

Ananda continued, “When it comes to knowing the truth, walking on the path to Dharma, both the believer and a non-believer are on the same boat. Both have believed thoroughly what others have said about the existence or non-existence of God with a closed mind. Both haven’t explored on their own with an open mind. Both haven’t made any effort to look into the inner world of spirituality. Both have only used their physical eyes to limit their vision to the outside world. Unless a seeker begins his own inner journey, there is no possibility for him to know the Truth or to reach the ultimate doubtless state of being one with the Truth.”