Where There Is Sunshine

“By Me, in My unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 9.4)

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मया ततम् इदं सर्वं
जगद् अव्यक्त-मूर्तिना
मत्-स्थानि सर्व-भूतानि
न चाहं तेष्व् अवस्थितः

mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ
jagad avyakta-mūrtinā
mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni
na cāhaṁ teṣv avasthitaḥ

Perhaps we have heard dismissal of religion presented in the following manner, to contravene against a prevailing culture of hope, faith, belief, and repeated and steady supplication:

“I don’t buy into any of it. Straight out of an introductory psychology class at the university level, we can discern the pattern. We see what is going on. People are afraid. They are baffled. They are bewildered. They are looking for deeper meaning to life. They need something to hold their system of right and wrong together.

“Well, just because there are mysteries in life doesn’t mean that we should toss aside logic and reasoning. We shouldn’t start accepting fairytales about some mythical figure managing everything from beyond the clouds. You do realize that people of the past had no idea what was above the clouds, right? It was easier to be duped by religion since mankind lacked images of outer space. Even the hot air balloon was a significant invention, as only the eagles previously had a view from that high up.

“Science has improved. We are smarter now. We are wise to the game. There are no gods in space. There is just this vast expanse. Religion is a coping mechanism and nothing more. I am not going to interfere with your make-believe, but please don’t try to push it on me. Not until I see something right before me, in plain sight, will I move an inch from my stance of skepticism.”

For those trained in the Vedic tradition, in the system of education known as raja-vidya, the exclusive reliance on sight as an anchor for dismissal is a little baffling. This is because the viewpoint is both narrow and flawed. The flaw is in relying solely on a single sense for validation, when there are other senses. There is also faith extended in believing with certainty that which we cannot see right in front of us.

The viewpoint is narrow because it attempts to place the Almighty into a single image, fixed in a single place, visible at a single moment in time. Just because I cannot see something does not mean it ceases to exist. This is the foundation of the spiritual science, as presented to the bow-warrior named Arjuna. We might not see someone after they have left this world, but they never cease to exist.

न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचिन्
नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूयः
अजो नित्यः शाश्वतो ऽयं पुराणो
न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे

na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin
nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ
ajo nityaḥ śāśvato ‘yaṁ purāṇo
na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre

“For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 2.20)

If God were to exist, why should He be limited to a single place? Why is a direct vision of an individual the only way to validate their existence? His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada gives the example of the sun. Where there is sunshine, there is the sun. A young child might have never seen the sun. They are confined to the home, learning to crawl and then walk. They have been carefully guarded by the adults up until the time they can contemplate the concept of a single solar body situated high in the sky, providing heat and light to the entire universe.

If someone refuses to believe in the sun, we can show them sunshine. If they acknowledge sunshine, it means they also acknowledge the sun. Whether they admit to that acknowledgment or not is a different story. They may remain obstinate in their refusal to believe, but they have already offered a tacit admission through their tangible interaction with sunshine.

In the same way, this entire universe is like a collection of different aspects of the energy of God. Vishnu Purana makes this exact comparison. It is like taking a giant fire and seeing its sparks spread in this direction and that. Those sparks are still connected to the fire. Those sparks are proof of the existence of the fire. In this case, both the sparks and the places upon which they land are part of the giant body of the original source.

एक-देश-स्थितस्याग्नेर्
ज्योत्स्ना विस्तारिणी यथा
परस्य ब्रह्मणः शक्तिस्
तथेदम् अखिलं जगत्

eka-deśa-sthitasyāgner
jyotsnā vistāriṇī yathā
parasya brahmaṇaḥ śaktis
tathedam akhilaṁ jagat

“Everything that is manifested within this cosmic world is but the energy of the Supreme Lord. As fire emanating from one place diffuses its illumination and heat all around, so the Lord, although situated in one place in the spiritual world, manifests His different energies everywhere. Indeed, the whole cosmic creation is composed of different manifestations of His energy.” (Vishnu Purana, 1.22.52)

Bhagavad-gita offers an additional point of focus: the avyakta-murtina. It is a murtina in that it is a distinct object. It can be conceptualized, thought of, and identified. The only issue is that it is avyakta, or unmanifest. We cannot really see it. This avyakta-murtina is actually God. It is one of His features. We can say with confidence we know that God exists because of the impersonal form, which is everywhere.

We say that there is a sun based on the presence of sunshine, and so we can say that there is God because of the presence of life. To say that God does not exist is to say that life does not exist. If someone asks us to prove that there is God, we can ask them to prove that no one exists. The question is silly, as is their repeated denial of the reality, which is eternally fixed.

In Closing:

Truth eternally fixed,
Not by clever words dismissed.

Or from expert magician show,
Simply from life’s presence to know.

That God everywhere and always to exist,
Just like individual through time to persist.

The sun from the sunshine receiving,
God too from avyakta-murtina believing.