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Main Index
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| | | Book Name: The Dhammapada - The Way of the Buddha, Vol 2 | Previous Next | |
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be seen by you. My seeing the light is not going to help. I may see the light, I may even describe it, but it is not going to give you any idea of what it is."
In fact there is no possible way to explain to the blind man what light is. Light is an experience, something existential, unexplainable. And God is the ultimate light, the light of all the lights, the light behind all the lights, the source of all lights. How can God be explained to you if you are blind?
Hence Buddha never talked about God. And the pundits and the brahmins would go back to their places spreading rumors and saying that "This man does not answer the question because he does not know; otherwise, why can't he say simply yes or no? We asked a very simple question, 'Do you believe in God?' He could have said yes or no -- if he knows then the answer is simple. But he talks in a roundabout way; we ask about God and he talks in parables. He says, 'How can it be said? How can it be explained?' The real fact is he does not know. The real fact is that he is an atheist in disguise; he is deceiving people, corrupting people."
Hindus have invented a very cunning story about Buddha. They say that God created the world, and at the same time he created hell and heaven -- hell for those who were to be punished and heaven for those who were to be rewarded for their virtues. But it happened that thousands of years passed and nobody entered hell, because nobody committed a sin. Of course, the Devil was very tired of waiting and waiting and waiting -- with no work, with no business! Not even a single soul had turned up!
Tremendously angry, he approached God and said, "Why have you made this hell, for what? And why have you put me there in charge? We are tired, my whole staff is tired. Nobody ever turns up. We open the shop and we sit the whole day and not a single customer! We keep the doors open -- not a single soul ever enters. What is the point? Please make us free from this job."
God said, "Why didn't you come earlier? I had completely forgotten about it. I will make arrangements. Soon I will be born in the world as Gautama the Buddha, and I will corrupt people's minds. I
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