Who Is God?: Does God Have Shape or Form?

by Anand, Sudhir

• ISBN13: 9780970092953
• ISBN10: 0970092954
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-03-01
• Publisher: Ask Pubns

Summary

The first half of the book discusses the Attributes of God based on the Vedas the root scriptures of Hindu religion. One would learn that according to the Vedas there is only One God who is addressed as Om and also by many other names. God is Omnipresent as the Universal Spirit but has no shape or form i.e. God is not anthropomorphic. God is eternal and does not incarnate as a human being. God is Omniscient and the Source of all true knowledge. God is always Blissful and the Source of all Bliss. All individuals have the potential to directly (without intermediaries) acquire bliss and true knowledge from God through the practice of spiritual yoga-meditation because God exists inside everyone's soul. God is Omnipotent, however, God's omnipotence does not mean that He can do whatever He pleases. Even God follows rules of the material science He has created. God does not perform miracles such as turning a wooden staff into a serpent or vice versa. The second half of the book compares and contrasts beliefs described in the Vedas with those described in the Abrahamic (Jewish, Christian and Muslim) scriptures as well as in later Hindu scriptures such as the Puranas upon which most of the current beliefs and practices of the Hindu religion are based. The book discusses issues such as: Has God been rightly or wrongly described in different ways by Hindus, Jews, Christians and Muslims, or are there many versions of 'One God' because God keeps changing and evolving to suit the needs of various religions? Does God incarnate as a human being as believed by many Hindus and Christians? Has God sent the last prophet as believed by many Muslims? The aim of this book is to promote understanding of One God and His attributes based upon common sense, logic and what is likely to be true.I believe a book discussing Attributes of God is a timely because the fundamentalists of all religions in the past few years are claiming religious superiority. This book discusses whether these claims have valid reasoning or are they the claims of the autocratic hierarchy of the religion. In recent years, especially in the post 9/11/2001 world, many fundamentalist Muslims have claimed Islam to be the 'only way' and they want to convert the whole world to Islam. On the other hand many Christians, especially evangelical Christians consider Christianity to be the 'only way' and would like to convert the entire world to Christianity. Pope Benedict XVI in 2007 stated that Catholic Church is the only true church, reinforcing his belief that Catholicism is superior to other religions. Such claims of religious superiority, along with the need to convert others to the same or similar beliefs as one's own religion does not promote religious harmony or tolerance among people of the world. This book ends with the suggestion and appeal that in this era of mass and often instant communications, God and His name should be used to unite people of different religions and not used for exploitation or to fight with each other because no organized religion has a monopoly on God or the truth.

Author Biography

Professionally I am Professor of Pediatrics at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles). My qualifications as an author include expertise in the Vedas and previously publishiing a book titled The Esseence of the Hindu Religion (ISBN 0970092946) in year 2000 which is still being distributed by Baker and Taylor