As I mentioned before, the actual truth descends from the Supreme Lord. There are many atheists on the planet today that try to disprove the existence of God. And they have their arguments. But in the end they never win.
I saw a very interesting interview between two top level scientists, modern day scientists. One was a declared atheist and the other one was a declared Christian. And they were debating the existence of God. And that was very interesting but in the end the atheist basically got frustrated. And of course they were using scientific proof as the basis for their argument. But, as I say, in the end the scientist became quite frustrated, even became a little angry. And he lost the argument really. It wasn’t argument, it was a debate. They were very respectable to each other. That was very nice.
So the world today is trying to live without recognizing God. But really it doesn’t work.
So again, before I continue I would like to offer my respects to our great spiritual teachers who not only have faith that God exists, but they know He exists. They have a personal relationship. They are on the transcendental or spiritual plane. They communicate with God and even see God as we are doing now between ourselves. So this is who we go to for knowledge, real knowledge.
Atheism doesn’t agree with the heart. We get a different message from the heart that can’t be denied. Wherever humanity has existed, there’s always been some connection with a Higher Being or a Higher Power. Even in the most primitive civilizations, they had no scriptures, they had no organizational input, but yet they all had the knowledge of a higher relationship.
But as we have progressed materially and concluded that we are making advancement, we have more and more taken the position of God, “I am the creator, I am the doer. Look what I have accomplished.” And God has gradually faded further and further into the background of our lives.
Even though we have our churches, our mosques, our temples, and they may be attended by some people, still it’s not that big part of our life. Maybe we go to church regularly, but it doesn’t control our life, it doesn’t direct our life.
I was in Portugal about three years ago and I went there on an invitation to do some presentations like we do. And Portugal is a very strong Catholic country. But yet when I was there I didn’t observe that it had very much influence on the people. And so I asked someone about this and he said, “Yes, we are all Catholics, but it doesn’t have anything to do with our life.” Of course there are exceptions, but in general. So this is a big problem.
If it doesn’t have anything to do with our life that means we are under the influence of another powerful force which is known as Maya. We, the spirit soul, are very small, very tiny, we are not powerful, we are not in positions of control. True enough we have a little control, we have a little power, but it’s very small. So because of this we are always controlled. And there are only two controlling forces: the Supreme Lord or Maya (which is Illusion).
In the material world the predominating controlling force is Maya. And Maya is one of the servants of God. God has enumerable direct servants who administer His will, and Maya is one of those. It is her service to God to keep us in illusion. So in many theologies or philosophies this is known as the evil force, the Devil.
And so there is always a struggle between the Devil and God. This is what I learnt when I grew up: God creates everything so He created this angel which fell down and became the Devil. And the Devil somehow gained great power.
It is said that he becomes more powerful than God in many cases because here we are, the soul, and there is a competition who is going to get us, God or the Devil. And in many cases the Devil wins. So it means that God is not all-powerful. It’s like the mad scientists who create something in the laboratory, some creature, and somehow it escapes from the laboratory and becomes the one who eats the scientists, it got out of control. So it’s a philosophy like this.
And it’s very confusing. But most people don’t think very deeply on this subject, they just accept: here is the Devil and here is God, and they are always fighting, and the Devil wins. And if someone is obviously sinful or evil, they have committed some great sin, their excuse is, “The Devil made me do it. It wasn’t my fault. I’m a good guy, the Devil made me do it.” It is a perfect scapegoat: blame the other guy. And we like to do that. But, you know, really the picture is not correct.
So in the material world there is this agent of God, the pure servant of God, whose service is keeping us in illusion. And then your question should be: why? Why would God do this? Actually, there is a very good explanation.