God

• Development of the Idea of God

– Animism:
• Anima
• Presence of spirit perceived in everything
– Totemism
• Groups identify special relation with an
animal/object
– Formal Religions:
• Religious dogmas and scriptures

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– Psychological Explanations:
• God is more a psychological need
• To overcome the feeling of dread
• Freud: “it is a willful error” (The Future of an
Illusion)
God = self sublimation
• Marx: projection of everything good in man
It opiates the masses

God = a part of man’s quest for survival

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Different Approaches:
• Theism:
• belief in an i)existent, ii)conscious and iii)supernatural power
• Pantheism:
• all God (Spinoza [substance]; Indian thought)
• Atheism:
• no God; Russel; Ayer, Marx; Nietzche
• Agnosticism:
• not knowable; Spencer, Hume…
• Naturalism:
• in terms of natural laws; nature is the ultimate reality;
Dewey, Bergson…
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 God in Western Religions
Unambiguous affirmation
1In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over
the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering
over the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and
there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he
separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light
“day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was
evening, and there was morning—the first day.

26Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in

our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea
and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild
animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the
ground.”
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• Pre-existed
• Conscious decision-maker
• Omnipotent

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 God: Indian Thought
A different picture
Writings in general talk about deities; not God
Ṛg Veda: Brahma concept:

“…in the beginning in the state of flood there was neither matter
nor non-matter, neither being or non-being. There was neither sky
nor space nor anything beyond. There was no life. What was there?
Where? …no water…no death, no immortality, no light…Then, the
One, Brahma, imbued with energy in his nature only existed…with
the exertion of its own tapas (heat) emerged Brahma; not from an
external force…creation begins from it. Who knows the entire truth
of creation?...gods originated after the creation…” (sutra 129, mandala X)

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• Brahma is the source of creation; not the creator
(from; not by)
• Not conscious
• Condensed form of energy?
• Big bang? (Stephen Hawkins)

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 Upanisadic Development
(Brahma Sutra Bhashya of Sankara)

• Nirguṇa Brahma & Saguṇa Brahma

• Nirguṇa: no attributes; no matter or form;

material as well as non-material;
neither living or non-living; not
having human-like consciousness
• Saguṇa: conceived with attributes (s-s-s)

• Pāramārthika dṛṣti & Vyāvahārika dṛṣti

transcendence & immanence

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 Gita
• Brahma does not do any action; not affected by
human actions
• No superhuman power intruding into human
acts
• Individual is the master of one’s acts
• Difficult for an ordinary mind to know Brahma

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