The God I Want to Love (An Old and Rare Book)

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Born in 1951, Meera Prakash hails from a deeply religious family and has been influenced by a long line of writers, philosophers and scholars. She has a major in English (Hons.) along with Sanskrit and Hindi. A naturally introspective person, her leaning towards learning about other religious beliefs and cultures provided more than a common interest in the origin of creation and God. She has been a Community of Faith columnist for the Tallahassee Democrat. She contributes articles to spiritual magazines. Her poem "What am I" is part of an anthology called 'Echoes of Yesterday', published by the National Library of Poetry, U.S., as well as being recited on a cassette by world renowned speaker, Ira Weich. She is the author of "The Quest for Happiness in rough the Essentials of Religion' and 'Tales from Indian Mythology.

This book has taken shape after much cogitation about God and mystery of life and about the purpose of living - always from the point of view of laity. It probes into the why of sorrow and suffering, the seemingly unfair play of life, and the moral conflict within man which generates fear and anxiety at the thought of meeting God. It tells in simple terms how human beings can understand and love God.

Scientists and rationalists say: "If we see it, we will believe it". Men of faith assure us: "If we believe, we will see it."

Our intellect has its own limitations, as we are increasingly realising with new scientific discoveries. We have gone far in probing the sub-atomic world but we do not yet know why the particles behave in the manner they do.

Denial of God may be attributed to our ignorance arising from our intellectual limitations. One of our eminent scientists, Dr. Raja Ramanna, in an article contributed to 'Bhavan's Journal' (August 15, 1988) asserted the validity of an old Indian classification - Things with Consciousness, Things without Consciousness and God. God in this context need not be taken to be the God conceived in anthropomorphic terms. It could be the Vedantic Brahman. Says Dr. Raja Ramanna: "If we compare the Supreme-Symmetric Brahman of Sankara with the 'Unification' proposals of modern science, both show similarities.....Given the necessary flexibility in interpreting an ancient exposition, to compare with modern technical language, the parallel is striking. Both refer to the Supreme Origin of Symmetry which takes no moral responsibility for what it can create".

Sankara identifies the self with Brahman, deriving his support from the 'Mahavakyas'. "Thou art that', says the Upanishad.

In the whirligig of Time, age after age, earnest and inquiring minds attempt to probe into the unfathomable mysteries of the universe and its creator, God. Brahman is ageless and infinite. Individual perceptions of God may differ but the ultimate Reality is one ekam sat.