When i was a kid (or when i was in Nepal), i used to believe in God. I did however have reservations on religion but i still believed in God. Its been a year in US now and having met people from other cultures, the existence of a supreme being doesnt make sense anymore. 

I think that believeing in GOd instills in a person faith, confidence and positivity to get through good times and be appreciative of the bad ones. I want my children to have these qualities so i dont want to tell them that GOd doesnt exist. Moreover, i cant imagine what my parents/relatives will make of me when i talk to them about this. It isnt going to be pretty. 

It does give me great discomfort to think about all this. I must admit i feel less confident and more pessimistic these days. I want to believe in God but my logic doesnt give in anymore. In fact, i get irritated when i hear things like "God COMMANDED you to.." "GOd will PUNISH you if..", "We are SERVANTS in from of Him" "(on Christianity): "Jesus died on the cross for you"(THere are many who have made a similar magnitude of sacrifice). 

I think that God and religion are ancient theories that havent been discarded yet. And it hasnt due to the fear in people of what might happen if they didnt. One of my teachers once said "if there is no god and you believe in god, there is no harm but if there is god and you dont believe in god, there is harm". i feel this and cultural and social stigmas lead people to be religious and not question their beliefs. 

I wanna know what you guys make of this.

sun is god moon is god but what really is god in hinduism then? hindu scriptures indicate that the SUN is a living creature....then why doesn't he fkin answer our prayers? why doesn't he relay the message to a higher authority? maybe his elder gods like brahma bishnu and maheshwor?? why do we have so many people suffering and dying with famine? why do we have cancer victims and or other diseased individuals screaming in pain? why does he let molestation and rape continue to happen? why the FK did he create a flawed being that is cruel to each other and they don't do shit about it? FK  your GOD turning a blind eye...there is no GOD ....if God is supposedly real then they should have protected and given people who believe in him better life.

The mind of man plays games with himself.

Those people who believe in God put a substantial amount of faith on the existence of life. According to them the breath of life is provided by god. It does seem glamorous to feel like each one of us were presented with life by God.

But the glamor fails to be glamorous when we do a paradigm shift and focus on minature living things. There are millions and billions of single cellular living things and other microscopic living things whose 'life force' is not that glamorous and you would pause to think how busy this god would be to be breathing life into these billions of microscopic and other minute life forms that germinated on earth every second!

After human beings discovered and invented complex language, there was a constant need to discover new things so they had to invent God to explain the creation. In addition, human beings ego became inflated as the supreme specy on planet earth.

The side effect of language and the ability to communicate became the overly inflated human ego.

Ego makes the man feel more important than others.

In discovering one's own ego, a person can experience many important discoveries of oneself. One important discovery is that of the Supreme Ego which classifies oneself as the chosen one. Small things add up to develop this Supreme Ego. When everything you do goes right. You start feeling infallible. You start feeling like you have been specially favored by God.

Everyone wants to feel important and part of the bigger picture. In desiring this importance, one's own psychosomatic transformation occurs whereby one attributes general incidents to be more glamorous and ego fulfilling series of events commandeered by a divine objective.

You can see this kind of psychosomatic desire when you go watch sports or gambling events. When outcomes are governed by luck, the participants feel as if their divine connection lets them change the outcome due to their special Supre Ego.

The brain is a very powerful combination of synapses capable of running hundreds of parallel processes and it can come up with hallucinations and imaginary events that are out of this world. One important factor to support this is the DREAM. A dream opens up a lot of doors to things impossible in reality. So when someone enters a highly meditative state and expresses feelings of euphoria and or other feelings then it may so be that they have mastered or discovered a way to enter the sleep state where the DREAM is sort of governed by their own personal desire of achieving such a state.

I love your comment. ..Its very thoughtful. ...I find myself in a similar dilemma as you explained in ur post. I myself have experienced Jesus in my life. I know Him to be true. He is as real to me as sun and the moon. The day i invited Him inside my heart was the day when i was born again.He has completely changed my life around. I am a whole new being. But when i try to talk to people about Him i just end up looking like a fool . i get so confused as to why people don't wanna listen . and why is there so much haterated around. I figured its not upto me to convince people as to who God really is its really upto them. People have to be ready to listen first. And God prepares each in a unique way until they are ready to hear Him nothing can convince them if.they are not ready yet. Its funny how people think that they are doing some kind of favor to God by trying to know who he is . Its not for Him its for us. Humanbeing simply needs God. cause we are created in His image.Without Him life is empty. There will always be that void in you that one might try to fill with money love or whatever but that void is only filled by one true God... In time everyone would know and everyone will have to make a choice. Mean while its important to have an open mind... and to explore and to reason with each other... and most importantly to love .. cause love is the greatest commandment of all.. regardless of what religion.. God knows our heart, If our conscience is clear before him thats the most important thing.

" Humanbeing simply needs God" ...i beg to differ, i can do everything that you do plus more without GOD figure being there....the problem with your statement is you are trying to assert your blind faith on to me by saying EVERYONE needs god which is simply not TRUE. Why do we need god ???? Mozarella what happens if i don't believe in GOD? will god punish me and send me to hell? isn't that what your christian belief says about people who do not accept jesus christ?

 @ mazarella 
    what drug are you taking. (Jesus juice ???). You must be joking with me.
     Also, why do you keep refering to god as "him" ??   If there is some "so called god" it  couldn't possiblly be a man. 
  

 Mazzarella,

How have you experienced God in your life? and how do you know him to be true? and how has he changed your life?

Im listening.

Homey Ji,

please share your experiences further. Many of us would love to hear stories of actual experiences such as yours.

I think that sajha is the wrong place for these discussions. People here are not civilized, open-minded enough or respectful enough to have discussions about experiences that take place beyond the narrow confines of their reality.

You don't have to agree with everything or anything that someone is saying. But at least just listen and let people finish their story before interrupting.

Mero desh. I agree with you. There are many of us who want to hear. I wish there was a better forum for discussions like this. Do you have any suggestions of a different place where Nepalese go to talk about topics like this?

Sajha is clearly not the place.

The problem is that not enough people raise their voice to have discussions like this in a civilized way here. And so only the rowdy noise is the only thing that is heard. Maybe that is why us Nepalese cannot advance our own life or our nations.

Our politicians are a reflection of the mentallity of the people. And the nation is a reflection of the mentallity of the politicians. So next time any of us raise our tongue to criticise Nepal or Nepali politicians, let us first go and look in the mirror at our own faces. 

When we can only act rowdy like un-educated YCL members, even in sajha, then what hope is there for the nation? 

Maybe there is some truth to it when Indians say that Nepalese will never evolve in mentallity beyond being kanchas, kanchis, bahudurs and prostitutes. 

Is it any wonder we can't write a national consitution? We don't even know how to listen to a point of view that is different from our own without feeling threatened and needing to shut the other person up before they have completed their sentence. 
 

Mero_desh:

I want you to be able to relate to what I am saying. Can you or anyone answer any of these questions:
The more of these questions you can answer, the better I will be able to explain:

What is the closest any of you have come to experiencing life in an ashram? Have you ever lived in Osho's ashram in Nagargun?

Have you ever visited any ashrams in India?
Have you ever had a guru? Do you know the deadly politics that takes place in a temple or in religious institutions?
 
Are you familiar with any gurus like Kripalu Maharaj, Ram Dev, or anyone like that?
 

 Homeyji,

Besides a few quotes from Osho and few yoga moves from Ramdev, I am not familiar with the gurus nor ashrams. So go ahead and elaborate as much as you like.

@ Babal Khate: I won't necessarily believe whatever you write here but at least I will read it and won't say you are wrong simply because I don't agree with you. So Sajha is the place and one of the best among its kind where you can share whatever you want with some respect to others.

 Personal experiences and claims:
a) I prayed to god so that I would win the lottery, and I won. Hence, god exists.
b) I prayed to god to pass me SLC, I failed in 4 subjects. God doesn't exist.
c) I had a dream last night where god appeared to me. Hence, god exists

Can't you find the flaw in the logic above? YOU CAN'T GENERALIZE SOMETHING OUT OF YOUR PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. The fact that you can feel god doesn't prove the existence of it. You have to come up with hardcore evidence and irrefutable reasonings if you want others to believe in it. 

And babal khate, I don't see what you have found inappropriate in this discussion thread. People have different opinions and so far in this thread they have advocated for things that they believe in. If you find a better place than sajha, and if atheists are welcome there, please let me know, I would really appreciate that. And the way you brought politics and nationalism (the Indian's example) was as much out of context as homey ji bringing in the instance of Prithvi Narayan Shah. 

so far there has been no proof provided for the claim of existence of GOD , people are dodging the bullet by posting personal opinion as claims of proof.

i feel i was abducted by an alien is not a proof that aliens exist.

This age old question in itself is wrong.
Wrong because there is no universal definition for God. For hindus, it is one (or million) thing(s), for Christian it is another thing and so on. Even within a religion we have our own definition of God.
Mahakavi Devkota’s God was different from Kavi Shiromani Poudyal’s God. For some it could just be that feeling of inner peace; for other it could be a material existence that created us all and is the ultimate super power.
Buddha went in a quest to find the answer to his question and he must have narrowed it down to actually finding God; as that could be the ultimate quest. After over a decade of not finding God he realized that the answer lied within himself. Peace was his answer and he achieved this answer through inner peace within himself. He went to preach this knowledge, possibly without knowing that people will eventually take him as the incarnation of God later…contrasting the very theory that he concluded himself.

Coming back to the question, religion is a belief. Some people believe it others don’t. It is best to respect the beliefs of others and not force your own belief onto them. You can argue about the existence, or lack there of, forever and you will never reach a conclusion. I can easily offer an answer to somebody who claims there has to be a God and I can do so for the atheist as well. I will continue to respect the beliefs that my folks have and continue with my own.

Babaal,

I don't think being open-minded about all things all the time is necessarily the solution. You don't want to be open to disease and germs and things that could harm you. Being open to all things all the time is as bad as being closed-minded to all things all of the time. The difference between the educated and the uneducated is that educated people know what they are open to and why. The uneducated is either open to everything. Or he goes the other extreme in trying to protect himself and is closed to everything.

Very few have struck the healthy balance. Very few people know what they are open to and why. Very few people know what they are closed to and why.

But you are right. If we understood these things, we Nepalese would come one step closer to being able to talk around the table as brothers and sisters instead of fighting like dogs on the streets.

I realize I believe in "God" at moments of extreme ecstacy or in times of deep despair. Yo naughty ladies in here! you know what I am talking about  with the first one?

Or when I am in mood for some funny stuff like this.

That's good, TM. You feel that secularism has all the answers that you will ever need for life. At least you are not confused...in the middle...not knowing whether to believe in spirituality or secularism. You are in a better position than so many others. You should be proud of yourself.

You are fully convinced in the religious dogma of secularism.  It seems you subscribe to bhajans from MTV and your scriptural stories must come from Hollywood and Bollywood? 

And,  I'm imagining your God is...umm...Dr Evil?

Homey Ji, 
                 Here is my attempt to answer your questions. I know many people here may mock my story and label it mere imagination; rest assured, these are my genuine life events:

I had a framed image of "kali ma" that I had brough with me when i came here to the US in fall 2004. All my meditation, crying, laughing, self-talking, etc used to occur before her. I'm not going to share any spiritual experiences with Kali ma here, as it will just make my writing lengthy.
Around a year later, I had a dream: an old man was dictating to some youths, and i was hearing his dictation/orders from a distance. The old man started walking, and the crowd was following him wherever he went. I was also following the crowd.

Next day, as usual i sat for meditation, and had some deep experiences. I attributed my experiences to the dream that i had that night; i thought may be, the man who i saw in my dream, had blessed me or something.

After coming from school, i was listening to a lecture on samadhi in youtube from some guru. In one of the related videos, i was surprised to see the video about the same man i had seen in the dream earlier. I was surprised, because i had not expected that the man i saw in dream actually physically existed. He is since then my idol, and i follow him.

About ashram, yes. On december 2007, i went to Nepal and took even my mother to his Ashram in Haridwar, India. Though i had already found out that he had left his physical body long time back in 1990 AD when i was mere 6 years old.

"Aatmavat Sarva Bhuteshu"- meaning you and everything else are the same, or everything else besides the physical you is the same as you yourself.

Stated in terms of quantum physics- "Matter and waves are the same, as evidenced by the dual nature of light (both particle and wave nature). You and I, though seemingly matter, are waves at the same time. Also, everything that you see is waves. Waves are nothing, but propogations of energy, which agains implies, that you and everything around you is nothing but energy"

Personal opinion : Each statement mentioned in the Vedas are fit to be considered in a PhD physics research thesis.

Of course, i believe in God. Everything that i see around, including myself, are manifestations of that Supreme Energy. Only thing lacking is a solid self-experience of thee.

 @ risalsa
   Another funny comment. Vedas are same thing as Phd in physics. You either don't know Vedas or you have know clue of contemporary research in Physics. And quit cherry picking one vague line out of nowhere to mean this big unifying theory. If Vedas were so enlightning then why don't hindu's develop or invent anything ??  


If Hindu's knew all this they should have made Ipad 1000000 years ago !!!!