Book Two
THE POWER BEYOND
by
E. Rohan Amerasekera
I take this opportunity to acknowledge all the help given me by my friend
Dr. V. Satkunanayagam.
E.R.A.
Royal Ceylon Air Force
11th August 1965
INTRODUCTION
Mankind, without exception, has from the beginning looked for a power beyond
that which is known to exist on earth. Is there a Universal Deity, a
Supreme God? What is it that makes man search?
INSTINCT
A newborn baby needs no instruction to suck milk nor does a newly hatched
chicken need guidance to pick grain. Instinctively each knows what to do.
There are several such instincts on which living creatures act rightly,
without teaching or learning. Hence, instinct appears to be knowledge;
knowledge one is born with. In the same way as birds and beasts understand
sex, child and chicken look for food, men and women search for a deity. We
look for a power we cannot see; we appeal and pray to a power we do not
know. We instinctively believe in a Power Beyond and we seek an
understanding of this unknown power.
THE GREAT DIFFICULTY
In this search man is confronted with one great difficulty. One can only
understand anything by comparing it or mentally placing it in relation to
something else. When we talk of a table we immediately create a mental
picture of a flat topped object standing on legs, used for keeping articles
etc. In other words, it is the known through which we can understand
anything new or unknown. We can think of a new dimension in terms of or in
relation to another known dimension, to other known phenomena. The unknown
can be thought of, pictured or conjured up only in relation to the known.
It is this difficulty that creates all the confusion regarding the unknown
power that instinct says exist. There is no acceptable description for a
deity. A deity is said to be sensed and not seen but this only adds to the
confusion.
MAN MADE DEITIES
In the instinctive search for this unknown and what is believed to be a
supernatural or universal power, different peoples, using different
languages, in different parts of the world, give different names. He, She,
or It. What it is called is not important. Call it Nature, Om, Allah, God
or Deviyo. Call it what you please. Man from primitive times worshipped
something. The Sun, Fire, Water and other elements, which affected man's
normal pursuits such as Agriculture and Hunting, came in for a share of his
respect. He had names but could not find a Form for the Power Beyond so he,
naturally enough, made a God in his own image and likeness.
Having created a Form he gave it attributes and qualities he himself
possessed. Man gave God the attributes of Love and Hate. He made him a
Jealous God, a Partisan in our disputes. Having given human qualities we
are disappointed when we offer praise, sacrifices, food and gifts and yet do
not get what we want. The failure to answer prayers, failure to grant
favours in return for praise and promises, failure to react to lavish grants
of money and land to temples and churches built in his honour and failure to
respond even to the agonising cry for some sign to indicate his presence
bring in their wake doubts, grave doubts, as to the existence of a
supernatural being. We then give up our prayers and sacrifices and reject
the idea of a Divine Being who gives no material satisfaction. God as we
made him with the Form and character of a human does not exist and the
rejection of such an idea can harm neither God nor man.
A LOOK AT NATURE
Having denied the existence of a God, created in human form, and with human
attributes, I will now look for another explanation to satisfy the
instinctive search for a supernatural being. To do this I will use language
that can easily be understood through our own daily experiences and in
relation to common knowledge and known phenomena. It will be easier for you
to see my meaning if you will free your minds from doctrines and dogma and
take a good look at Nature with me.
We can do this best by taking nature in its simplest forms. We know that
there is life. Life is not the sole possession of one nor is it one's sole
property. There are millions and billions of human beings, animals,
vegetables, reptiles and fish with life. All life on earth, in our solar
system and all the systems known and unknown make up all life in existence -
Life Infinite. Similarly there is infinite matter and energy.
There are different kinds of rays, their properties may not be fully
understood but they are known to exist. Rays of the sun, X-Rays, Gamma,
Ultra Violet, Infra Red etc..etc,. There are also a large number of other
forces known and unknown, visible and invisible.
There are three known dimensions, some speak of 4th, 5th and 6th dimensions
as well. We have not discovered everything that is to be known about our
own planet earth. We do not even know ourselves fully - there are very many
things yet to be discovered, yet to be known and understood. Our knowledge
is limited, our knowledge is finite.
Nature's laws discovered and undiscovered the laws of Gravity, Inertia,
Causation, attraction and repulsion and all known and yet to be known
phenomena, all known and unknown forces, energy, matter, intelligence are a
part of a universal pattern. To these must be added inventions including
those already invented and those to be invented and so far attributed solely
to man's intelligence and referred to as Man's conquest of nature. We do
not conquer but only fulfil nature. An invention is not some miraculous
creation springing out of the brain of a human but another form of discovery
in keeping with nature's laws. If the potential to create did not exist
there would be no invention. The inventor is merely the instrument of
putting together the components that make the invention. An invention like
everything else, is a part of the plan and pattern of the universe. I have
focussed attention on the fact that there are more things unknown than are
known in order to establish that we should not hasten to reject ideas
because they cannot be explained within the knowledge we possess.
THE UNIVERSE
The universe consists of all existing things, the whole creation and the
creator. Nothing can be added or subtracted from what now exists in the
universe. Everything in the Universe has been and always will be.
The existing matter can take any shape or change shapes many times, but the
total quantity of matter will remain the same. When the matter takes a
shape or form, that form is given a name but when that form decays, its
constituent parts return to the original mass. This is similar to a wave
and the ocean. The form is given the name "wave" but when the wave loses
its form the ocean does not change. Forms appear and disappear but the
ocean remains the same.
THE CREATOR
As nothing can be created nor destroyed, a creator can create only from the
substance that he himself is made of and his creations when they decay must
return to the Creator. There cannot be a creator apart and away from all
existing things. All existing things and the creator, is one in all and all
in one. The different objects we see are only forms and like waves that
merge into the sea, forms in the universe ultimately merge with the
Universal Ocean.
We have instinctively looked for a Creator, we have looked for a Divine
Being. It is this search for a
Divine Being that produced religions. We have changed our image of the
Divine Being many times. We have even
changed his attributes many many times. But now that we see that the
creator and the Universe are one I shall draw
a few new conclusions.
A SHAPE FOR THE CREATOR
We do not know all that exists in the Universe. We do not know all that
exists in our own Solar systems. We are as yet discovering some of nature's
wonders in our little world. We can only describe anything in relation to
something that is already known. Our knowledge and imagination can neither
find words nor pictures to describe something of somebody bigger than all
that is known, bigger than our Solar system itself, and consists of known
and unknown matter, energy, and so on in the whole of the Universe. It is
then foolish to think of a shape. We have tried in the past to give shape
to the unknown and only succeeded in confusing ourselves. We will,
therefore, not attempt to describe or picture a Creator with a shape.
We cannot picture a Creator with a shape nor can we create a God in our
likeness but it is possible to claim that God made us in his likeness
because we know that we have in us the combination of matter, energy, life
and intelligence from the Universe. There may also be in us other unknown
qualities. It is possible that every known and unknown particle of matter
and energy in the Universe is represented in a human being. Therefore, we
can claim that God made us in his likeness. Here I use the word God to mean
Infinite matter, Energy, Life, Intelligence and all other attributes of the
Universe.
THE BEGINNING
Let us assume that at the beginning there was only matter. The law of
Inertia would have kept this matter inactive. It would have continued to
remain where it was, exactly as it was to this date unless it was moved by
some outside energy. But matter did not stay inactive as we know.
Therefore, at the beginning there was not only matter but energy as well.
Similarly Inertia applies to Energy and anything else. Therefore, there
could not have been a time before Energy, Force, Movement was created. They
are all of independent origin.
Intelligence we know is in daily use by humans and even animals. As much as
there is activity in what to the naked eye appears to be inactive, inanimate
objects, it is possible that every microscopic particle of matter in the
universe has intelligence. We may not be able to prove this but we cannot
for that reason deny it. It is possible that intelligence pervades the
Universe, penetrates and surrounds the smallest part of matter or whatever
it is that is smallest in the Universe.
Matter changes and takes on shapes and patterns which human intelligence
cannot match, it moves in a manner showing superior intelligence,
understanding and planning than is possible with the human mind. Fierce
animals, poisonous reptiles, disease and pestilence have all a purpose in
the very intricate pattern of evolution. The Earth, the Solar systems known
and unknown, all come out in a well-planned and well-organised manner. Did
you know that unless a sickly deer is killed and eaten by leopards etc. he
will infect his herd, and the whole herd will perish? There is meaning in
everything. There is a place for the carnivorous animal, the flesh and fish
eating man, the ant, the worm. Nothing is left to chance.
Intelligence in man and animal does not die with the owner but returns to
the source as a wave returns to the ocean. The Pool of Intelligence, the
source of all intelligence remains the same. The planning and pattern of the
Universe came from the Pool of Intelligence, this source of all
intelligence, the Infinite Intelligence. Just as all things in the Universe
that are in motion will continue that movement unless an extraneous force
stops it, Intelligence will always be in motion. Intelligence will always be
active. The Universal intelligence was always active and will continue to be
active without end. Some accept the theory of evolution, accept that there
was intelligence in evolution but also believe that whatever forces
responsible for evolution sank into a deep stupor or went into eternal rest
after the first awakening. I suggest that more thought be given to
evolution in view of these simple truths I recall to memory.
The fount of all intelligence never did rest in the past nor will it ever
rest in the future. The fount of all Intelligence has been active without
beginning and will be active without end. Infinite Intelligence always was
and always will be. Similarly Infinite Life, Infinite Energy, had no
beginning and will have no end.
Matter, energy, life, intelligence for each human or other form in the
Universe is drawn from a Central Pool. It is drawn from an Infinite Source
to which it all returns at death and decay. As it is scientifically accepted
that nothing can be created nor destroyed, I conclude that there always was
an infinite source of Universal Attributes and there always will be.
Everything has and always will spring from and return to this Infinite
Source, return to this Infinite Intelligence, Life and Energy that fills the
Universe and pervades all that is in it.
CONCLUSION
This living, pulsating source of Infinite Energy and Intelligence from which
we come, in which we live, move, have our being and to which we return has
been called by many names. This is the Power Beyond I call God. All that
we are, every particle of Life, Energy, and Intelligence, every atom in our
bodies, every microscopic particle that is in us we inherited from Him. In
whatever part of the Universe we find a temporary home in each birth, we all
come from the same Infinite Source and we remain his offspring until we
return to the same Infinite Source. Mankind, without exception, has from the
beginning looked for a Power beyond that which is known to exist on earth,
without realising the simple truth that God is within us; God is in us and
we in God, now and till the end of time.
F I N I S
