God Was Never In The Past

Hey there, fellas. How are y’all holding up, I wish you a very Happy Monday. Now, the headline might just appear to be staggering to you, ain’t it? I guessed so, and so will it for everyone who is getting to read it for the first time. This is a line that I came across from the Mandukya Upanishad -- one of the oldest, shortest and most profound Upanishads of all times. 

And, what tops it is the fantabulous commentary called Karikas or comments by an ancient philosopher named Gaudapada -- who was a scholar and an enlightened person and was the mentor of Adi Shankaracharya’s teacher Govindapada’s teacher. In all the commentaries of Gaudapada that I read, I came to realise that he is one who is a staunch non-dualist and has little or no interest in anything that talks dualism. In his Karikas there are places where he literally verbally bashed out the schools of dualism. 

Now, most of us would get rattled out here, as this is something that doesn’t gel well with the way we’ve known religion for years. Sure, over the years we’ve heard scholars and philosophers say that the real essence of religion lies in the realisation of the Self and that it’s not restricted merely to observing fasts and mere doctrines and dogmas. 

I was pondering whether this could certainly hold true to the headline that I just put in right there. Some of these commentaries and even what the scholars said that it’s here and now that all the power lies. Now, that’s a radical thing to say, isn’t it? I mean how can we, operating right here in this crooked world be known to be one of the most powerful beings? How can we hold all the power within us? Is that feasible at all?

Actually, Advaita Vedanta says that it is and it is within and inside of us lies all the power, peace, joy and happiness. It’s almost like a state of perfection and as a wake up when we do realise that we were seeking pleasure outside somewhere in the world when in reality all of the peace, serenity and calmness was and will always be lying right here within us. 

Now, addressing the headline directly, it wouldn’t be so difficult now to ascertain that since all of the power lies here within us and it’s available to us right now, we can easily state that “God” -- the divine power, the Almighty didn’t ever lie in the past, and that he’s in here with us, right now. Ever since my childhood I grew up with a phrase that said that whatever you think needs to be done tomorrow, you must do it today, and whatever is reserved for today, needs to be done now. 

So, in the actual process of identifying ourselves with our true nature, we must be able to garner the belief that there is nothing out there which is actually great that can overshadow what we already have. To conclude, I can safely deduce that God was actually never in the past, I am unsure of whether he’ll be available in the future, but one thing is for cert. He is right here and right now, amid all of us -- all we have to do is realise this potential, prepare the ground to receive this knowledge to set off in the field and march forward with this firm conviction in our minds and hearts.

Image courtesy: Marc Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash