Is There a God?
One day, in the early morning, Gautama Buddha was sitting quietly in a garden with his disciples. A man arrived silently and stood in the shadows. He was a great devotee of Lord Rama. He had built many temples across the country and had devoted many years to the service of Lord Rama. He would always chant Rama’s name and contemplate on Rama’s greatness.
He was old and nearing his final years. Yet, even after decades of dedicated spiritual effort, he had not attained realization. A burning doubt remained: Is there a God?
When he heard about the realized One (Buddha), he came to get his doubt cleared. When he felt nobody would notice him talking to Siddhartha, he approached and asked, “O enlightened one, please tell me the truth, and the truth only. Is there a God?”
Buddha, knowing from his intuition that the man was a devout believer, looked at him with great seriousness and said, “No, my friend. There is no God.”
Buddha’s disciples, who were gathered there, were relieved and joyous to finally know the “truth”—that there was no God. They whispered among themselves, sharing what the master had just said. Whenever a disciple had asked that question before, Buddha had remained silent. So they had never known his stance until now.
The news spread through the town. People celebrated the day the enlightened one revealed the truth of “NO GOD.” They felt free from the ideas of hell, heaven, and judgment.
Later that evening, the disciples gathered around the Buddha again.
A materialist arrived. He had been an atheist all his life. He had convinced thousands of people that there was no God and used to debate priests and scholars, defeating them with his arguments.
He too was getting old, and a small suspicion arose in him. “What if there is a God? Isn’t it a waste of my life to spread the ‘NO GOD’ message if there is one?” The doubt consumed him. He decided he must know the truth.
He slowly approached Buddha and asked, “They say you are enlightened. Please tell me, is there a GOD?”
Buddha, knowing the man to be a staunch atheist, said with a firm voice and conviction, “Yes, there is a God.”
Buddha’s disciples were once again thrown into confusion.
Moral of the story:
The belief that there is a God and the belief that there is no God are both equally useless without personal realization. One must realize the truth for oneself through diligent self-effort. The Enlightened One told each man what he needed to hear to break his attachment to his rigid belief and push him further on his spiritual quest.