Oh My God (OMG)

In one of my time travels I got a chance to meet and interview Buddha,The Enlightened One.

His Sangha normally did not allow media to question him, however upon my entreaties and on condition that I would not film him but would stick to print, the meeting was allowed to go through.

Following are the excerpts from a 10-minute chat I had with him, sitting next to the Bodhi tree, under which he had attained enlightenment.

Me: Lord thank you for agreeing to meet with me. Since our time together is limited so I will not ask you about dharma, four noble truths or eight fold path but about God. I want to take your view on What is God and what is the way to seek him?

Buddha, had a beatific smile all through our interview, which I wanted to avoid staring at but also could not resist gazing upon. When he spoke, his words were soft and gentle like sound of water flowing in a stream.

He said: “God, is not some entity that is outside of you. It is actually an expression of your inner sacred. Like Music is an expression of your creativity, speech of your thoughts, likewise god is an expression of your inner sense of profound”.

”So Holy one, are you saying that there is actually no objective God who based on deeds, rewards one to heaven and banishes other to hell” I asked, amazed.

He sat totally still. I could not see even his lips move as he spoke “The outcomes you get are within your lifetime. Heaven and hell are terms for state of your life and not some physical places that exist anywhere else in Universe “.

I was curious :”So how does this justice system work”

He replied” You are a vibrational reality and so is this universe. The frequency that you emit aligns you with other similar frequencies, giving you resonant outcomes. So if you do bad deeds you will be sending those vibrations out and attracting its echoes. If good deeds are sent out, favorable frequencies crowd you and convert your life into a heavenly state”.

I had to ask him ”There are so many gods and so many religions already and there will be more in days to come. So Holy One, can you talk a little about this divine multiplicity”.

He spoke thus:“To embody the projection of inner sacred, your immediate culture will always provide you with a screen. If it is using nature as your screen, you will find sacred in sun, moon, stars, trees and other natural things. If you use some transcendental screen, you will be able to project your sacred on to it and thus make that look holy”

I was intrigued as to how the enlightened one was defining God. I wanted to double check” So there is no absolute god and we invent him according to our cultural leanings. Sir is that what you are saying”.

His smile touched a deeper shade or was I imagining “There is Holiness and you need a form to realize it in your life. So in that sense there is a God Principle if not an absolute God that exists. Without the God principle actualizing in your life, you life will be devoid of all its magic and will seem like sun without its warmth. I always point to my fellow travelers the truth, that all religions need God. However God does not need any religion. He can be independently realized.

His disciples or his fellow travelers as he referred to them, were getting restive. However I could not have left without a final soundbyte from him, so I asked ”O venerable one any message you want to give for the future generations who will roam the planet after you are not physically present,”.

He stayed silent for a long while before offering this suggestion “Avoid dogma by not believing anyone else’s words on what is sacred. Find your own holy and then follow that inner compass through your life. Overall I would say, aim to be spiritual & not merely religious”.

I thanked him for this wisdom, bid him farewell and landed back in our time.

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