Avadhoot Dandekar

I heard that Buddha refused to answer questions relating to God. I heard that one day a person came to Buddha in the morning and asked, “Is there no God?”. The person was a theist. A theist is a person who believes in the existence of God. A theist only believes and does not try to know anything. He is just a believer. Buddha said, “Yes, there is no God”. The person got angry. He became violent. He went nuts. He became crazy. He actually came to Buddha to get a confirmation of his own belief. Buddha knew that this guy was a believer, and needed confirmation of his belief. Buddha took him to the other extreme. The person believed in “yes” and Buddha showed him the power of “no”. The person was holding on to one bank of the river and Buddha showed him the existence of the other bank of the river. It is a great psychological insight that a person is always searching for a confirmation of his belief from others.

By now news has spread to all the disciples that Buddha has said there is no God. Some disciples were very happy and some were unhappy. The disciples who were just believers in the non-existence of God were very happy. The atheists in the camp were very happy. And they all got confirmation from Buddha now that there exists no God.

The same day in the afternoon another person came and asked Buddha, “Is there a God?”. The person was an atheist. An atheist is a person who believes in the non-existence of God. An atheist also only believes and does not try to know anything. He is also just a believer. Buddha said, “Yes, there is a God”. The person was very angry. He also got a confirmation that went against his own belief. And this confirmation he got from none other than Buddha himself. The person believed in “no” and Buddha showed him the power of “yes”. We all know, yes and no have their own power and strength. A belief binds you, it blinds you.

Again breaking news spread in the camp of the disciples that Buddha said there is a God. The theists felt at ease. They were very happy at Buddha’s confirmation. Now the atheists were feeling uneasy at the new disclosure. A small number of agnostics in the camp were unperturbed. The camp of the agnostics thought that Buddha was only playing a practical joke and they all knew the truth.

There are three kinds of believers - a theist, an atheist, and an agnostic. A theist believes in the existence of God. An atheist believes in the non-existence of God. An agnostic believes that the existence or non-existence of God can neither be proved nor disproved. An agnostic is a person who disbelieves in the belief of a theist and an atheist. He is a person who does not believe in the “yes” and the “no”. He looks more like a quantum physicist.

In the evening another person came to meet the Buddha. This person didn’t ask Buddha any questions. He did not ask whether God exists or does not exist. He sat with Buddha for a while. He looked into the eyes of the Buddha. He closed his eyes and went deeper into meditation. He felt the silence within him and outside of him. In the presence of Buddha, the chatter of his mind stopped and he felt his own silence within. He opened his eyes, touched Buddha’s feet, and left. He did not ask Buddha any questions. And Buddha did not give him any answer. It was very clear from the attitude of the person that he was not a believer. He was an adventurer. He was an enquirer. He had no prior notions about God or no God. He had a quest. He was a seeker. He was a Mumukshu. Mumukshu is a person who is in search of Mukti or Moksha. He would say, “I don’t know” and would like to inquire and discover. He wanted to feel the experience on his own. He wanted to do something on his own. He wanted to know on his own. He was not a closed door. He was not a dead-end. He was an opening of infinite possibilities. He did not want a conceptual God. He wanted to see the living reality on his own. He wanted to experience the existential reality on his own.

When Buddha used the word “Nirvana”, he simply meant that one should not be a slave to the belief of “yes” or “no”. He also meant that one should not be a slave to the belief of neither. Some believe in the illusion that neither existence exists nor they exist. According to these people, nothing really exists. They are there, and they may say they are not there. And this could be their illusion and delusion. Physicist Alan Lightman in the book, The Accidental Universe: The World You Thought You Knew explores the idea that the universe may be accidental and mysterious, rather than orderly and predictable. I finally agree with Alan Lightman that we are living in a universe uncalculable by science.

The river of life has two banks - yes and no. One should not jump to the conclusion that the other bank of the river does not exist. And for some, the other bank of the river exists and it looks greener. The other bank gives a new perspective which could be looked into. To go to the other bank one has to go through the waters. One has to travel from this end to that end. And in the process, one has to travel through the river. And without traveling through the waters one wouldn’t know that the river has two banks opposing each other. Are these two banks opposing each other? Or, Are they complementing each other to allow the river to flow? In my understanding, everything is designed in such a way that the river of life can flow.

I think it is the same thing with the river of the mind. I think the mind has two streams of thoughts. One thought says “yes” and the other says “no”. And without these two divisions, the mind can not flow. And without these two divisions, the mind can not move. And we all need a mind to move in life. And we all need a mind to flow in life. The chatter of the mind is because of the collision of these two thought waves. They are not opposing each other. They may complement and compensate each other. The mind should be trained to ask existential questions. The mind should be trained to seek existential answers. We can rise above these thought waves and bring in observation. And when we become mindful of the waves of thoughts of the river of the mind, they disperse and dissolve in the ocean of consciousness. And in the process of mindfulness, we experience the unification of the thought waves of the river of the mind with the ocean of consciousness. This gives us the experience of tranquility and oneness, and the barriers of the mind of “yes” and “no” are frozen. This gives us the illumination of going beyond the dark corners of the mind. Now the mind is bestowed with a unique experience of crossing the barriers of the mind. And this experience is out of the box. It is not boxed in the walls of “yes” and “no”. The mind is now filled with the experience of Nirvana. The mind can now flow in the river of life with tranquility and stillness. God is not a question of belief. It is a quest. It is a spiritual thirst. Nirvana is a quenching of this spiritual thirst.

When we become mindful of the waves of thoughts in the river of the mind, they disperse and dissolve in the ocean of consciousness. And in the process of mindfulness, we experience the unification of the thought waves with the ocean of consciousness. This gives us the experience of tranquillity and oneness, and the barriers of the mind of “yes” and “no” are frozen. This gives us the illumination of going beyond the mind. Now the mind is bestowed with a unique experience of crossing the barriers of the mind. And this experience is out of the box. It is not boxed in the walls of “yes” and “no.” The mind is now filled with the experience of Nirvana. This mind can now flow in the river of life with tranquillity and stillness.