God - the unknowable essence

One of the points brought up in Steven's talk last week, that I'd like to elaborate on now, is the Baha'i notion of God being an "unknowable essence". I've spoken a little about this in a much earlier post (here) in the context of anthropomorphism, but let's review that once again here and then look at some of the deeper implications of this notion.

Historically speaking, most world religions have developed some picture(s) of God in some form - be it the very human forms of the Greek gods, the multi-headed/armed Gods of Hinduism, or the old, father-like figure of Christianity. My own personal understanding of these images is that they are quite symbolic, and represent the level of maturity and understanding of humanity at different stages of evolution. Some of these images have been formed to personify some attribute of God's, so that the common man has a concrete figurehead to direct his prayers at. Some others have been created, in my opinion, by the clergy of a particular religion, in order to maintain a stronger hold over the people and their beliefs. An image of God can be at most, I believe, a starting point - some sort of placeholder for what we ultimately can never completely comprehend. Unfortunately, these images have ended up becoming much larger than life, and the source of conflict and dissension amongst the peoples of the world.

The Baha'i concept of God begins with the realization that God is unknowable. Whatever God really is like, whatever his form is, whatever his essence is - we, as finite, limited, imperfect beings, can never know it. In theory, this makes a lot of sense to me - after all, if I could completely comprehend what God is, wouldn't that make me greater than Him? Baha'u'llah teaches:

"How wondrous is the unity of the Living, the Ever-Abiding God--a unity which is exalted above all limitations, that transcendeth the comprehension of all created things.... How lofty hath been His incorruptible Essence, how completely independent of the knowledge of all created things, and how immensely exalted will it remain above the praise of all the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth!"

But why can I not know even a part of what God's essence is? What if his essence is limitless - but we could know some of it (never all of it) in our quest for the truth? I've struggled with this question for a while, but I think some of Steven's ideas helped clear the waters a little for me, and made me get at least a glimpse of why this might be the case.

The Baha'i idea of God is of one who is “sanctified above all attributes” - and this includes even concepts taken for granted, such as existence, age, temporality etc. In essence (however hard this might sound), we have to stop thinking of God as a "being" - and this is a theme common to all previous notions of God, where God is considered an omniscient, omnipotent, infinitely powerful being. We have to transcend such a notion of God, and realize that even talking about knowing something about the essence of God, about the nature of his existence is meaningless - for he is really above anything we can ever talk about or comprehend. As Abdu'l Baha says:

"Know that there are two kinds of knowledge: the knowledge of the essence of a thing and the knowledge of its qualities. The essence of a thing is known through its qualities; otherwise, it is unknown and hidden.

As our knowledge of things, even of created and limited things, is knowledge of their qualities and not of their essence, how is it possible to comprehend in its essence the Divine Reality, which is unlimited? ... Knowing God, therefore, means the comprehension and the knowledge of His attributes, and not of His Reality. This knowledge of the attributes is also proportioned to the capacity and power of man; it is not absolute."

If we actually think a little about what it says in the quote above, we realize that even with mundane things, what we largely know is just qualities of things. And the simpler a thing is, the more accurately do its perceivable qualities reflect its essence. At the level of human beings, and even animals, we start seeing a huge discontinuity between what we can know of the being's qualities, and what the being essentially is, thinks and believes. Clearly, therefore, we should not expect to understand God's essence, when we can't even understand that of those closest to us.

Now what are the implications of such a world-view? First, it tells us why we can never really prove the existence of God categorically, and why traditional proofs of God are all incomplete - for they all attempt to prove the existence of God, the being.

Second, it makes quite clear that any image of God - anthropomorphic or otherwise - is only a model, and like all models, is possibly useful in some ways, but essentially incorrect.

Third, it of course begs the question - if we can't ever know God, if he is forever beyond our understanding, why bother with anything? Why bother praying, why bother trying to understand the world, why bother with spiritual growth? The answer to this can be found at the end of the previous quote by Abdu'l Baha - though we cannot have direct knowledge of God's essence, we can have knowledge of the attributes and qualities of God. Bahá'u'lláh wrote that everything in creation is God's handiwork and therefore reflects something of His attributes, albeit to an imperfect degree. The more refined an object, the more completely it is capable of reflecting God's qualities. And the highest degree of perfection that be attained on this mortal realm is that attained by the Manifestations of God, who Baha'u'llah says are "of all men, the most accomplished, the most distinguished, and the most excellent". Therefore it is in the lives and character of these various Prophets, these Manifestations, that we humans can find the closest reflection of the qualities of God. These Prophets therefore are to be revered and exalted above all other humans not because any of them is himself God (as a lot of us tend to believe) - but because they are, to us, the closest we'll ever see anyone to God. It is like looking at the reflection of the sun in a mirror - we all have mirrors that reflect the divine Sun to some extent, but our mirrors are all mostly dusty. The Manifestations of God, on the other hand, have these perfect, clean mirrors, and reflect the Sun in its purest form. And yet they themselves are eternally different from the Sun itself. Baha'u'llah writes:

"The door of the knowledge of the Ancient Being [God] hath ever been, and will continue to be, closed in the face of men. No man's understanding shall ever gain access unto His holy court. As a token of His mercy, however, and as a proof of His loving-kindness, He hath manifested unto men the Day Stars of His divine guidance, the Symbols of His divine unity, and hath ordained the knowledge of these sanctified Beings to be identical with the knowledge of His own Self."

So where does this leave us? First, we need to try and shed our preconceived notions of God as a being, and the nature of His form, and accept, once and for all, that we can never know Him in his essence. Therefore, let's all stop fighting over whether God is Jesus or Vishnu or Allah. Second, let's learn to make the distinction between God and his Manifestations, and understand the essential relationship between them - which is that the Manifestation of God reflects the qualities of God to the maximum degree of perfection achievable and perceivable on the mortal realm. Third, let's learn of our own relationship with these Manifestations - which is that these Manifestations represent, to us, the only way of getting a glimpse of the attributes of God, and a degree of self-perfection to which we need to aspire. Fourth, it would be ideal if we could actually be in the presence of such a Manifestation and study these qualities for ourselves. But as we cannot, the next best thing is to study the teachings and writings of the Manifestation. From our perspective, the word of the Manifestation is the Word of God, and it is to this Word that the individual can turn in his or her daily life in order to grow closer to God and to acquire a deeper knowledge of Him. This process of turning towards God can be likened to the process of polishing our own mirrors so as to be able to reflect that Sun ever so slightly better - and this, I believe, can be achieved through a transformation in our thoughts and actions, prayer, acquiring the ability to love our fellow beings and transcending our lower selves to the extent possible.