3. Even as you must come closer to a thing in order to know it, so you may know God only if you draw nigh unto Him. And to draw nigh unto God it is possible only by good woilcs. And the more a man accustoms himself to live a good life, the more closely he will know God. And the better he knows God, the better he will love his fellow-men. One thing leads to the other.
4. We can not know God. Only this we can know about Him: His law and His will, as related to us in the New Testament. Knowing His law, we draw the conclusion that He exists, who has given the law, but we can not know the lawgiver Himself. We only truly know that we must fulfill the Godgiven law in our own life, and that our life becomes better to the extent that we fulfill His law.
5. Man can not help feeling that something is beitv^
done with his life, that he is someone's instrument. And if he is someone's instrument, there is someone who is working with this instrument. And this someone is God.
6. It is astonishing how I formerly failed to recognize this simple truth that back of this world and the life we are living in it there is Something, there is Someone who knows why this world exists, and why we are in it like bubbles rising to the surface in boiling water, bursting and disappearing.
Yes, something is being done in this world, something is being done with all these living creatures, something is being done with me, with my life. Otherwise, why this sun, these springs, these winters? Why these sufferings, births, deaths, benefactions, crimes, why all these individual creatures who apparently have no meaning for me, and yet live their lives to the utmost, guarding their lives so strenuously, creatures in whose hearts the passion to live is so strongly intrenched ? The lives of these creatures convince me more than anything else that all these things are necessary for some purpose, and that this purpose is rational and good, but is incomprehensible to me.
7. My spiritual "I" is no kinsman to my body, therefore it is in my body not of its own volition, but in accordance with some higher will.
This higher will is what we understand as God and call God.
8. God is neither to be worshipped, nor praised. One can only be silent about Him and serve Him. Angelus,
9. As long as a man sings and shouts and repeats in the presence of others: "Lord, Lord," know that he has not found God. He who has found Him maintains silence.
Rama-Krishna,
THE PATHWAY OF LIFE Ъ7
10. In evil movements one does not feel God, one doubts Him. And salvation is always in one thing alone— and it is sure: cease to think about God, but think of His law only and fulfill it, love all men, and doubts will vanish, and you will find God again.
IV.
God Can Not Be Known By Reason
1. It is possible, and it is easy to feel God in oneself. But to know God as He is, is impossible and unnecessary.
2. It is impossible to recognize by reason that there is a God and that there is a soul in man. It is equally impossible to know by reason that there is no God or that there is no soul. Pascal.
3. Why am I separated from all else, and why do I know that all that exists from which I am separated, and why can I not understand what this All is? Why is my "I" forever undergoing a change? I cannot understand it at all. But I can not help thinking that there is a meaning in it all, I can not help thinking that there is a being to whom all this is clear, who knows why it is all so.
4. Every man may feel God, but no one may know Him. For this reason do not strive to comprehend Him, but strive to do His will, strive to sense Him more and more vividly within yourself.
5. The God whom we have comprehended is no longer God. The comprehended God becc«ies as finite as our own self. God can not be comprehended. He is incomprehensible. Vivekananda,
6. If the sun blinds your eyes, you can not say there is no sun. Neither can you say there is no God, because
your reason is lost and confused when you endeavor to comprehend the beginning and the cause of everything.
Angelus.
7. "Why dost thou ask My name ?" says God to Moses. "If thou canst see back of all that moves what has ever been, is and will be, thou wilt know Me. My name is the same as My being. I am who I am. I am that what is. He who would know My name, does not know Me."
Scovoroda.
8. Reason that may be fathomed, is not the eternal reason; the being that may be named, is not the supreme being. LaO'Tse.
9. To me God is that towards which I am striving, in striving towards which consists my life; and who exists for me for the very reason, and imperatively so, that I may not comprehend Him or name Him. If I could comprehend Him, I could attain to Him, and there would be nothing towards which I could strive, and there would be no life. But I can not comprehend Him, I can not name Him, but withal I know Him, I know the way to Him, and of all things which I know this knowledge is even the most certain.
It js strange that I do not comprehend Him, and withal I am always in fear when I am without Him, and only then am I free from fear when I am with Him. It is still more ^strange that it is needless to know Him better or more closely than I know Him in this present life. I may draw near to Him, and I long to do so, and therein is my life, but approaching Him does not, can not increase my comprehension. Every attempt of my imagination to comprehend (for instance as the Creator, as the Merciful One, or something of that order) only puts me further away from
Him and arrests my approach to Him. Even the pronoun **He" somehow belittles Him.
10. Anything that may be said of God is unlike Him. God can not be expressed in words. Angelus.
V.
Unbelief in God
1. The rational man finds within himself the idea of his soul and of the universal soul—God, and realizing his inability to reduce these ideas to absolute clearness, humbly stops before them and does not touch the veil.
But there have always been, and there still are men of mental refinement and erudition who seek to elucidate the idea of God in words. I do not judge these men. Only they are wrong when they say that there is no God.
I admit that it may happen that men and the cunning exploits of men may for a time convince some that there is no God, but such godlessness can not last. In one way or another man will always need God. If Deity manifested Itself still more clearly than now, I am convinced that men contrary to God would invent new refinements to deny Him. Reason always bows to that which the heart demands.
Rousseau.
. 2. According to the teachings of Lao-Tse, to think that there is no God is like believing that when one blows with the bellows the current proceeds from the bellows and not from the air around, and that the bellows would blow even if there were no air.
3. When men who lead a wicked life say that there is no God, they are right: God is only for those who look in His direction, and draw nigh to Him. For those who
have turned aw«iy from Him and are walking away from Him, there is no God, there can be no God.
4. Two kinds of men may know God: men of a humble heart, whether they are clever or ignorant, and truly wise men. Only proud men, and men of average intelligence do not know God. Pascal,
5. It is possible not to mention the name of God, not to use that expression, but it is impossible not to acknowledge Him. If there be no God, nothing can be.
6. There is no God only for Him who does not seek Him. Seek Him, and He will reveal Himself to you.
7. Moses cries out to God: "Where will I find Thee, О Lord?" God answers: "Thou hast already found Me, if Thou seekest Me."
8. If the thought enters your head that whatever you have believed about God is untrue, that there is no God, be not disturbed, for you may know that this is apt to happen to everybody. Only do not imagine that because you have ceased to believe in God in whom you once believed, it is because there is no God. If you do not believe in the God in whom you once believed, it is because there was something erroneous in your belief.