Friday, June 20, 2008

God is Love?

Maha Kali
I see the statement God is Love* often, and wonder if we can make such statements. If we say that God is something, aren't we implying that God isn't everything else other than that something? Basically, by saying God is love, we are defining limits to God, implying that He (She/It) is x,y, and z (e.g., lover) and not a,b, and c (e.g., destroyer). How can an Infinite Being have limitations?

An Infinite Spirit can have many attributes - like Krishna, the lover, and Maha Kali, the destroyer. It makes sense to me if we say I choose to pray to the loving attributes of the God. This way, we are not ruling out the existence of Kali.

I believe that, logically speaking, the statements God is love and God is destroyer have the same weakness (we can't prove them) and the same strength (they are not falsifiable). We choose to believe that God is love with absolutely no basis, because it comforts us.

* One might argue that a statement I am going to movie on Monday doesn't mean that I am not going to movie on any other day than Monday. I say, this analogy wouldn't apply for the statement God is love. Because, many believe that God is love, and only love. In my opinion, all we can say about God is, we don't know, and then just pray for the wisdom. I don't think that we can even say that God is infinite. Wouldn't it be an arrogance on our part to say, if I can't comprehend it, it has to be infinite?

2 comments:

ShastriX said...

Very nice, Gopa; better not to put limits to God :-))

Though one translates "Neti, Neti" ;-) as "Not this, Not this", i think Satya Sai Baba has given the better xlation as "Not Only This, Not Only This". You post is on those lines.

Numero-logically speaking:

Love = Truth = 21 = Good

but they are not equal to God (= 14) ;-)

Gopa said...

Thanks Rama. Interesting Numerology!

Good to know that at least in small part, my thoughts are in line with God's preachings!