God is Infinity

Mind Boggling

Infinity: painted by Scott Williams

Sri Ramakrishna says, “Not a leaf moves except by the will of God.” It’s impossible to conceive of such multiplicity of action. We are like that one-seer pot (about a quart) that, of course, can not contain 10 seers of liquid. (Or a trillion seers of liquid). God is operating every atom in the universe. He is every atom. I read in Gemini AI that there are about ten quintillion (10,000,000,000,000,000,000) insects on Earth. God is each of them going about his or her insect business. Here at Ridgely, I am surrounded by lawns, trees, and twittering birds. He is each cell out of which they are constituted, all working together as a team. Also, a mind in each directing the show. Mind boggling. I can barely do two things at once. There seems to be no limit to what God can do simultaneously. And His greatest mind-boggling creation – the human being with five sheaths, three and a half cubits tall – what pranks it does.

But Sri Ramakrishna says, “What is the need of understanding all this?” It’s like counting the leaves in a mango orchard. We’re here to eat the mangoes. Don’t waste time counting leaves. What is eating mangoes? It is the stupendous joy of realizing God. He is saying that we should make the search for God our first priority. Why should we settle for anything less?

However, I think there is a pride issue here. Humans don’t want to admit how puny we are compared to that infinite Being, so we doubt that such a being, so vastly greater than we are, CAN exist. As for how the universe came into existence, they are satisfied with “I don’t know.” I think many such people don’t believe in God, but do believe in goodness. Goodness is their religion. Swami Vivekananda declares that goodness is a transcendental value. One does not practice goodness for the sake of material advantage. You can’t logically justify goodness if you’re a materialist.

The infinite aspect of God can be realized, but why seek this? Arjuna, in the 11^th chapter of the Gita, requests that he be given that vision, and Krishna gives it to him. It scares the bejesus out of him, and he begs Krishna to withdraw it.

Science has answered many questions, and as a result, enjoys great, deserved prestige. On the negative side, it has engendered doubt about God’s existence. However, it is silent about the really big questions. What caused the universe? How did life come about? What creates consciousness? What is the purpose of life? Why is there so much suffering?

Let us have faith in God’s infinity even though we can’t understand it.

Go to Bill daivs of Sri Ramakrishna for earlier posts.