Does God Test Humans?

We read the Biblical story about how humans planned to climb up to heaven and started building a huge tower. Even as the tower, called the tower of Babel, was being built, God saw that man was becoming too ambitious. Till then all humans spoke one language, but now God made them speak different languages and made them into different groups. Every group started claiming supremacy and thus the cooperative effort failed.

Is God divisive in nature? It cannot be so. The story is symbolic. The symbolism, probably, is that it is not a physical path but an inward, meditative path.

In contrast to the Biblical situation, we have now undone God’s idea and have almost developed a common language. The globe is a village with all the satellites connecting every speck on earth. We speak, communicate, and cooperate on many aspects but fight on a larger scale on abstract issues like nationality, religion, or ideology. We are aware that the destiny of man is mostly in his own hands, and we rarely see the role of God in this scheme. Ironically, most of our fights are about things which no one has seen, or no one can ever see. It is religion. One wonders whether we are using God as a useful idea for our imperialistic ambitions. Each group says its belief is the only truth and there can be no agreement on this. The same nations which intermingle, do also conflict with each other, and pull each other down. Each one wants to control the whole resources of earth. That is what Hiranyakashipu or Ravana tried. These are the civilizational wars we see all over the world, trying for world domination. History shows that it is a continuous drama. Each civilization tries to build its own tower, and each pulls down the tower of others.

We seem to be so wired, predestined to be greedy, and fighting. This again poses the question whether the old man in Heaven has contrived it to be so. We may think that human nature is making us fight. But the word nature is only a synonym for God.

Why are we manipulated by nature? Can we not resist? This is what all saints in all religions questioned. There is more of such questioning and inner quest in all the Indic religions. They may differ in their theology but the inner engineering, the inner purification is the same. Hindus have their teachings in the Gita and such other texts, the Buddhists have elaborate texts such as ‘Visuddhi Magga’ (The Path of Purification) and so do others. The yoga tradition of Patanjali gives practical steps about how to control the impulses of fight, envy, jealousy, and such other obstacles for social harmony. Resisting the manipulative nature is our endeavor to understand God. Probably the inner journey takes all the competing people to the same destination.

Vedanta says that God has thrown a veil in front of our eyes, whereby we see the achievements of the world and are stuck with them. Saint Tyagaraja prayed to Rama, ‘Oh lord! Remove that veil, that inner veil which is enveloping my mind’. The ‘Isavasya Upanishad’ uses another metaphor and says that the face of truth is hidden by a golden bowl. This golden bowl is a world full of glittering objects which bind our senses and mind. God seems to be a persistent examiner. He puts several attractions in front of the mind and expects us to withdraw from them and turn inwards in order to know Him. Great sages like Vishwamitra could not withstand the allurements, but Indra was a strict invigilator. He did not certify him till he conquered the two enemies – desire and anger. All our senses and mind are so oriented outwards, and a person who can turn them inwards is called the real valorous one. The battle is within, with the mind and the senses. In this battle too we need the grace of the same invigilator, God. All texts assure us that He will provide a helping hand if only we anchor our mind on Him.

(The writer is a former DGP, Andhra Pradesh)