God!... What is that? (Upanishads...)

Different religions have different definitions for God. Each one claims its definition to be the right one and all others to be wrong.

For religions such as Christianity or Islam that insist on the God being formless, the formlessness just stops at not having any visible form.  But their God speaks (i.e. He is audible), makes his presence felt in terms of bright light or loud sound, expresses emotions such as love, compassion, mercy and even anger.

But the Upanishads go to the extremes of formlessness.

Here is what one of the Upanishads namely the Kënöpanishad has to say. 

If you think that you know what God is, then you know only the expression loosely used by ignorant people. 

It is not something you can comprehend through your mind. 

It is not something that can be seen, heard or experienced by any of our senses. In fact it is something that drives our senses and hence can’t be known through our senses. Not even  through the mind.

It is not some object that people worship. 

It is different from whatever is known and it is even beyond whatever is unknown. The only way one can know God is through deep meditation.

(You can find more detailed discussion in my book "Ancient Wisdom - Modern viewpoints", Chapter :  God - the indescribable).

Why did the sages talk about such an imperceptible God? What motivated them?

That is what I am going to discuss next.

Start( Upanishads)

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