Episode Details

Speaker A [00:00:00]:

Does God exist? Who is God? Did God create us or did we create God? Who created this universe, and what is our purpose in this universe? Do you think about questions like this? Today, let us understand God and let us understand the nature of reality. I have been personally curious about the subject of God And the meaning of the word God for a very long time, and I started doing a lot of research on this topic. And I started reading a lot of texts and teachings about the concept of God from the past few years. As I studied more and more and as I started learning more about the nature of reality and about the concept of God according to various religions and according to various different perspectives. I soon came across the teachings of the Upanishads, And I soon came upon Advaita Vedanta. And this also led me to write my book, Decoding God. Man has been asking this question about God and about the nature of this universe for a very long time, and Man has tried to define God in various ways. If we look at history, gods were often associated With the forces of nature, whatever man couldn't understand or make sense of, he Associated such things or such phenomena with the concept of God in order to make a certain sense of this universe.

Speaker A [00:01:44]:

Hence, in the past, there were Greek gods of thunder, of fire, of water, etcetera. And later on, as civilization began to evolve the concept of monotheism, which said there is 1 all powerful god, And he is actively involved, and he seeks good things to his creation. So this kind of a concept came about. Various monotheistic religions emerged, but it is very fascinating when we talk about Hinduism And the that is prevalently found in India. In India, the approach towards questions like this And the approach towards God is very different. There are various philosophies and various Perspectives which people have within 1 religion or within 1 culture. Such diverse schools of thought and such diverse Philosophies coexisting harmoniously cannot be found anywhere across the world. This is one specialty of The Sanatana Dharma and of Hinduism.

Speaker A [00:02:58]:

If we discuss the definition of God and the meaning of God according to various scriptures Chosen various different religions, it would take forever because there are such diverse perspectives and Explanations when it comes to God and the nature of reality from different religions and cultures across the world. Today, I will talk about my understanding of God and the teachings of the ancient Vedas and Upanishads of India? This is Advaita Vedanta or what is called as nondualism in the West. And there is one simple, beautiful, elegant quote which was said by Rumi, which explains this concept really well, And it goes like this. I searched for God and found only myself. I searched for myself and found only God? Isn't this a beautiful quote? And this simple quote encapsulates The entire teaching of Vedanta. Just to give you a context, the teachings of Upanishads and Vedas were given to us More than 10000 years ago by the ancient Rishis and Yogis of India, and these teachings Talk to us about the true nature of reality. They explain to us what this reality actually is. They explain to us what God is, and they explain what created this universe and our purpose in this manifested universe? Of course, we will talk about all of this in the future episodes.

Speaker A [00:04:38]:

But to talk about God and the nature of reality, the simply tell us, which means you are it. You are God. Of course, for beginners, this doesn't make any sense, but there is a lot of depth to this statement. And this is a very profound statement that points towards the nature of reality. Now first of all, let us define god before moving ahead. Something which is god or something which can be called god is Omnipresent is all pervading, is infinite, is absolute, and is permanent. It