At every training camp, youth ask many different kinds of questions regarding God. For example: Is God male or female? Does God look like some animal or man? Why does God not get old and die? Gurbani tells us that God is inside everybody, then why can’t we describe God?
This time my answer was simple and unusual. It did not involve the routine terms used in religion. That was precisely what the youth wanted. The camp was held in a gurdwara in Montreal, Canada. The dialogue which took place can be briefly written as below:
Teacher : Where is Canada?
Youth : This is Canada. Montreal is in Canada.
Teacher : Is this Canada ( I pointed towards the walls of the gurdwara)?
Youth : No, the whole country is Canada.
Teacher : Please show me Canada?
Youth : (One youth found a map on the wall and traced the boundary of the Canada) This is Canada.
Teacher : Yes. Now I understand that the few inch portion of the paper marked by the young man is Canada.
Youth : Sir, you know Canada. Why do you ask such questions? You know this is a map of Canada.
Teacher : I know you have not seen Canada and cannot tell me what Canada is. Has anyone seen Montreal. Please tell me where it is?
The youth did not answer my question but they started talking among themselves. I continued:
Friends, forget about Canada, none of you can even explain what Montreal is. It is a continuously changing picture of landscape, roads, buildings and details of the buildings, people, their many cultures, etc.
When you say, "This is Montreal", you mean a place in Montreal, not the whole city. You can never ‘show’ the complete Montreal to any person by speaking about it. You know that Montreal is only a tiny part of Canada. Let us go beyond Canada - imagine North America, the whole earth, the solar system, our galaxy and millions of galaxies, which we cannot count. Even then it is not the end of the universe, it only defines the limit of our knowledge, and you know that we have been increasing this limit with the passage of time.
Even by 'knowing' that Montreal is a part of Canada, one cannot imagine the whole of Canada without actually seeing it. Similarly, even by knowing the physical creation (the limit of which we can never know) made by God, one cannot know Him. Whatever we know is not the limit of God, but God is there in it everywhere. Nothing is without Him. The way Canada is there in every street of Montreal, rather in every house but no place in Montreal can be accepted as the whole Canada.
God is inside of us but we do not care to realize it. You can now understand why God is beyond description. Actually we observe Him but we do not know Him. Have you seen anger? Where does it live? Any answers please.
Youth : It is in all of us.
Teacher : If it is in all of us, please show me anger in anyone of you. Agreed, it is in all of us but it remains invisible. However, when we become angry, our face and our words express it. Anger cannot be found in the body by any surgeon, yet it is always there.
God is love. It is in all of us but cannot be found or seen in our body. It is only when a person is drenched in the love of God, that his words and his behavior change and we can 'see' God in that person. The virtuous life of the holy people, free from vices, anger, lust etc. reveals Him.
You know that when more than two scientists verify a fact, it becomes accepted. In this manner, dozens of holy scientists, the Bhagats, have found God and proved Him to be the Truth. I narrated some Bhagat Bani hymns from Guru Granth Sahib to explain that people of different religions and born at different times realized God and found Him in every human being. Many Bhagat scientists, if you want me to use this term, of different faiths, independently found God vibrating in every person. Is this not scientific proof of God? Hymns of such holy persons are included in the Guru Granth Sahib.
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