Wake Up: God is Knocking at the Door

Hello everyone, How are you all?

Godliness, but there is no God
7_ So I am not an atheist, but I am not a theist either. And there is a third term also, which is ’agnostic’.
Socrates, Bertrand Russell, people like this are agnostic. An agnostic means one who says, ”I don’t
know whether God is, or God is not.”
These agnostics are at least more honest than your so-called theists in the churches, in the
synagogues, in the temples, in the mosques – all phony and hypocrites, not knowing what God
is and still bowing down. Their hearts are empty, their prayers are phony, they don’t mean what they
are saying and doing. They are just imitating their forefathers; they are just puppets in the hands
of tradition. They are hypnotized by their society, culture, civilization; they are conditioned by the
teachers, by the priests, by the parents. What they are saying is not their own; it is borrowed.
The agnostic is at least far more honest than your so-called theist, and also more honest than your
so-called atheist, because these atheists also have not taken any trouble to search and seek and
then say, ”There is no God.” They have read it in Epicurus, they have read it in Karl Marx. Nor has
Karl Marx taken any trouble to find out whether God really exists or not, whether there is something
in it or it is all fiction. No, he has borrowed from other atheists, from Epicurus, from Diderot.
If you don’t find God you say, ”There is no God.” If you are still searching, you can say, ”I am still
searching, seeking, hence I cannot answer the question with yes or no.” Then you are an agnostic.
But I don’t think Bertrand Russell is right, or an honest agnostic. He has just argued against all the
proofs of God – and it is very simple to argue. And he has argued against all the arguments against God – that too is very simple. Seeing that both the arguments are invalid, the theist and the atheist
both are talking nonsense, he declares himself agnostic: ”I will not take any position.”
But I am not an agnostic. I am very strange in a way because you cannot categorize me. These are
three categories – there is no fourth category – and I belong to the fourth, the unnamed category. I
have looked, searched. I have not found God, true, but I have found something far more significant:
godliness.
I am not an atheist, I am not a theist, I am not an agnostic.

Godliness, but there is no God
6_ I am reminded of one of my professors. He is a very beautiful man: Professor S.S.Roy. Now he
is retired as head of the department of philosophy from Allahabad University. The first day I joined
his class, he was explaining the concept of The Absolute. He was an authority on Bradley and
Shankara. Both believe in The Absolute – that is their name for God.
I asked him one thing which made me very intimate to him, and he opened his whole heart to me,
in every possible way. I just asked, ”Is your ’absolute’ perfect? Has it come to a full stop or is it
still growing? If it is still growing, then it is not absolute, it is imperfect – only then can it grow.
If something more is possible, some more branches, some more flowers – then it is alive. If it is
complete, entirely complete – that’s the meaning of the word absolute: now there is no possibility for
growth – then it is dead.” So I asked him, ”Be clear, because ’absolute’ represents to Bradley and
Shankara, God; that is their philosophical name for God. Is your God alive or dead? You have to
answer me this question.”
He was really an honest man. He said, ”Please give me time to think.” He had a doctorate on Bradley
from Oxford, another doctorate on Shankara from Benares, and he was thought to be the greatest
authority on these two philosophers because he had tried to prove that Bradley, from the West, and
Shankara, from the East, have come to the same conclusion. He said, ”Please give me time to
think.”
I said, ”Your whole life you have been writing about Bradley and Shankara and ’the absolute’ – I
have read your books, I have read your unpublished thesis. And you have been teaching here your
whole life – has nobody ever asked you such a simple question?”
He said, ”Nobody ever asked me; not only that, even I have never thought about it – that, certainly, if
something is perfect then it has to be dead. Anything alive has to be imperfect. This idea has never
occurred to me. So please give me time.”
I said, ”You can take as much time as you want. I will come every day and ask the same question.”
And it continued for five, six days. Every day I would enter the class and he would come shaking,
and I would stand up and say, ”My question.”
And he said, ”Please forgive me, I cannot decide. With both the ways there is difficulty. I cannot say
God is imperfect; I cannot say God is dead. But you have conquered my heart."

Godliness, but there is no God

5_ When you say ’God’ you are using a noun, something static, dead. When I say ’godliness’ I am
using a word for something alive, flowing, moving. So these points have to be clear to you. I am not
a theist like Jesus or Mohammed or Krishna, because I cannot agree with a dead god.

Godliness, but there is no God

4_ when I say there is no God, I am saying there is no person as God; all personality is human
projection. I want you to take away the personality and let God be free, free from the bo***ge of
personality that you have imposed upon him.
I am not an atheist. To me, the whole universe is full of the energy of God and nothing else.

Godliness, but there is no God

3_ I am not in favor of such gods, which have been projected by the tiny mind of man. And
of course the tiny mind of man is bound to give qualities to God which are its qualities.

Godliness, but there is no God

2_When I say there is no God, I am not agreeing with Marx or Epicurus. I am certainly not agreeing
with Jesus, Krishna, Moses, Mohammed, when they say there is God, because they use God as
a person. Now, to think of God as a person is just your imagination. Giving personality to God is your projection.
When I say there is no God, I am denying personality to God. I am saying God is not, but there is
tremendous godliness. That is an impersonal energy, pure energy. To impose any form on it is ugly.
You are imposing yourself on it.