Rushdy El-Ghussein, former president of the Islamic Society of Greater Kansas City: As a Muslim and in reverence to God I hope for the sincerity of the questioner in his search for answers.



To the questioner, I state a fact that every creation must have a creator. If the mind created God, then who created the mind? Who created the majestic universe we live in?



The creator of the mind must have a better mind and understanding of our nature. If truly we value the mind, then it will be our vehicle to recognize God in this magnificent universe that we live in. Who controls the sky, which is a giant structure without pillars of support? God guided us to plant beautiful trees bearing and giving colorful and delicious fruits and flowers. Whatever our mind leads us to believe in, we are still vulnerable to wishes of God the creator.



Faith is to believe in something that you do not see but that you honestly and sincerely feel its existence without seeing. Do we see our mind? No, but we believe that it exists. You will say that we can see it in the lab. The whole universe is a lab for our minds to explore and believe in the greatness of God. Even our own bodies are marvelous creations that can be labs in which to witness the greatness and majesty of our creator.



True knowledge lies within us



Arvind Khetia, engineer and a Hindu: In the beginning, the fierceness of natural events caused by sun, rain, wind or fire inspired awe and fear. The forces behind these events were unknowable at that time. Eventually, these forces were personified and worshipped to earn their grace. Thus, this anthropomorphic idea of God was a result of man’s hopes and fears.



Since that time, the human mind has continued to search for the meaning and purpose of human life and its relation to the divine. The pursuit to unfold this mystery has resulted in varying and competing ideas of the divine.



The vision of the sages of ancient India transcended this limited notion of the divine. They pursued their search by looking inward to transcend the limitations of the senses. During deep meditation, they experienced the ecstatic state of mind, which can only be experienced in the spiritual realm, detached from the material universe. In the process, they realized the infinite nature of reality, which is also the inner Self (Atman) in all beings. They concluded that true knowledge of the divine comes from the realization of one’s inner Self.



Swami Vivekananda has said that, “God is the eternal subject of everything. He is one with us; and that which is one with us is neither knowable nor unknowable, but infinitely higher than either, for He is our real Self.”