God’S Illusion Machine: The Vedic Alternative to Richard Dawkins’S God Delusion

Copyright © 2014 by Mäyeçvara däsa.

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1: Atheism and the Master of Illusion

Chapter 2: In Bed with Mäyä

Chapter 3: Hare Krishna and the Dementor of Oxford

Chapter 4: Changing Body, Same Soul

Chapter 5: The Soul and the Brain

Chapter 6: A Splat of Green: The Failure of Science to Explain Life from Chemicals

Chapter 7: Reincarnation or Evolution?

Chapter 8: The Difference between Matter and Spirit is Consciousness

Chapter 9: The Soul inside the Machine of Illusion

Chapter 10: Can the Existence of God and the Soul Be Proven?

Chapter 11: Atheism, Impersonalism, and the Death of Love

Chapter 12: Birth, Old Age, Disease, and Death: Why It’s in Our Interest to Understand the Soul

Chapter 13: ‘All the World’s a Stage’: How Shakespeare Saw Mäyä

Chapter 14: The Prison of Illusion

End Piece: On Arguing with Atheists

Notes

éçvaraù sarva-bhütänäà håd-deçe ‘rjuna tiñöhati

bhrämayan sarva-bhütäni yanträrüòhäni mäyayä

The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy. (Bhagavad-gétä As It Is, 18.61)

CHAPTER 1

Atheism and the Master of Illusion

THE LORD OF ILLUSION

THE GOD DELUSION IS a 2006 best-selling book by British evolutionist Richard Dawkins. In The God Delusion, Dawkins contends that belief in a personal God qualifies as a delusion, which the dictionary defines as ‘a persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence, especially as a symptom of psychiatric disorder’. He is sympathetic to Robert Pirsig’s observation in Lila that ‘when one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion, it is called religion.’¹

In an intellectual debate that has largely been contended between atheists and Christians and with the world’s scientists undecided in their opinion, we thought it opportune to provide a Vedic alternative to the concept popularised by Richard Dawkins that belief in God is a delusion of people’s minds. Vedic refers to the original and eternal spiritual culture that primarily has union (yoga) with God (Krishna) as its ultimate goal. As stated by Krishna Himself in the Bhagavad-gétä:

vedaiç ca sarvair aham eva vedyo

vedänta-kåd veda-vid eva cäham

By all the Vedas, I am to be known. Indeed, I am the compiler of Vedänta, and I am the knower of the Vedas. (Bhagavad-gétä As It Is, 15.15)²

Vedic literature comprises a huge body of knowledge that deals with both material and spiritual subject matters. In this book, we shall be quoting mainly from the Bhagavad-gétä As It Is, the main Vedic text spoken by Krishna Himself. We shall be presenting the teachings and message of Krishna as we have learnt it from His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupäda, the founder-äcärya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, and from our own teachers who follow in disciplic succession.

Although the Vedas were preserved and mostly taught in India, the Vedic history (Mahäbhärata) itself states that the Earth planet was at one time sharing a common Vedic culture. Approximately 5,000 years ago, the Vedic culture began to break apart as we entered the Age of Kali—a materialistic age characterised by quarrel and hypocrisy. The Vedas, as mentioned, were preserved and safeguarded in India, but now the world is undergoing a resurgence in Vedic culture, just as Europe underwent a Renaissance from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century. As the sun rises and sets in a perpetual cycle, so the eternal Vedas periodically manifests to and disappears from the vision of the world. We hope in our present work to bring the sunlight of Vedic knowledge to illuminate the spiritual darkness into which Western religion, philosophy, and science has plunged.

The main title of our book God’s Illusion Machine is taken from a verse in the Bhagavad-gétä wherein Krishna makes the following amazing statement:

éçvaraù sarva-bhütänäà håd-deçe ‘rjuna tiñöhati

bhrämayan sarva-bhütäni yanträrüòhäni mäyayä

The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy. (Bhagavad-gétä As It Is, 18.61)

Here, Krishna uses the word yantra, which means ‘machine’, and mäyayä, which means ‘of mäyä’ (illusion). Krishna says here that the soul is situated within the body, which is a machine of illusion. Please take note, Krishna spoke these words 5,000 years before the age of sci-fi movies. This is an incredible concept that does not appear in Western philosophical or religious traditions, and only recently does the concept appear in sci-fi movies depicting virtual reality worlds. Certainly, the Western traditions spoke of a duality of body and soul, but to claim that the soul is residing within a machine of illusion is an incredibly sophisticated idea presented to us by Krishna during a conversation with the soldier Arjuna on a battlefield in India in the year 3067 BC. This historical date is calculated from the Vedic literature itself and was confirmed in 2004 by astrophysicist Dr Narhari Achar, from the University of Memphis, Tennessee, who, using his sky map software, showed that all astronomical references mentioned in the Mahäbhärata converge in the year 3067 BC. In any case, by any standard of calculation, the Mahäbhärata (which includes the text of the Bhagavad-gétä spoken by Krishna) is an extremely ancient text. How did such a concept appear in the ancient world and what exactly does it mean to twenty-first-century man glued to his computer? An explanation of God’s Illusion Machine will be the subject of our book, and the reader is warned: The search for fantasy and illusion doesn’t get any more fantastic than the discovery of the colossal hoax we are now living in.

The names Mäyeça and Mäyeçvara are names which glorify Krishna as the Lord of Illusion (mäyä means ‘illusion’ and Éçvara means the ‘Lord’ or ‘Controller’). Why glorify God for creating illusion in people’s mind is an interesting concept that we hope to explain as the discussion unfolds, but in any case, we thought a reply to Richard Dawkins’s conception of The God Delusion would be an interesting way to introduce the contrary concept of mäyä or God’s Illusion. Interestingly, the Sanskrit word mäyä can mean ‘mercy’ as well as ‘illusion’, and so Krishna is simultaneously the Lord of Mercy as well as the Lord of Illusion. We pray therefore that the reader will be inspired to take His mercy rather than continue in His illusion.

True to the rather quirky manner of the Vedic world view, a follower of the teachings of Krishna would be of the unusual opinion that the intelligence required to write Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion, a book which actively promotes atheism, was actually given by none other than God Himself. The Bhagavad-gétä teaches that God, far from being a ‘delusion’ in people’s minds, has on the contrary created His own wonderful illusion in the form of the material universes where we presently reside for the purpose of facilitating all those eternal souls who prefer a self-centred, rather than a God-centred existence. The ancient Sanskrit texts refer to this illusion as mäyä (that which is not).

In the following lecture, Çréla Prabhupäda explains how God Himself supplies the intelligence to dictate volumes of atheistic literature:

Kåñëa says in the Bhagavad-gétä, in the fifteenth chapter, sarvasya ca ahaà hådi sanniviñöaù: ‘I am sitting in everyone’s heart.’ Mattaù småtir jïänam apohanaà ca: [Bg. 15.15] ‘From Me, one remembers and one forgets also.’ Forgets also. If you want to forget Kåñëa, so Kåñëa will give you such intelligence that you will forget Him forever. Ye yathä mäà prapadyante täàs tathaiva bhajämy aham [Bg. 4.11]. So the atheist class, demon class, they want to forget Kåñëa. So Kåñëa gives him such intelligence that he can speak of atheism in so many volumes. But he is getting that intelligence from Kåñëa. Kåñëa gives everyone the chance that: ‘Whatever you want to do, you can do. I will give you intelligence. So if you want to become an atheist, then I will give you intelligence how to become a first-class atheist, like Hiraëyakaçipu, Rävaëa, Kaàsa. And if you want to become a devotee, then I will give you intelligence also in that way.’

teṣäḿ satata-yuktänäḿ bhajatäḿ préti-pürvakam

dadämi buddhi-yogaḿ taḿ yena mäm upayänti te

To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me. (Bg. 10.10)³

The Krishna devotee, after due consideration that it is Krishna himself who is actually inspiring the intelligence of the atheist who wishes to forget Him, has therefore a rather cool response to the oftentimes overheated debates that go on between theists and atheists. One enters into debate with a spirit of mild amusement at how Krishna Himself bewilders the avowed atheist, for whom he provides so many clever arguments to disprove His own existence. As Prabhupada points out, the arguments against the existence of God come from God Himself:

So if you want to know God sincerely, seriously, then God is within yourself. He’ll give you intelligence, how you can know Him. But if you want to forget God, challenge God: ‘There is no God. God is dead.’ Then, He’ll give you such intelligence that you’ll always think that there is no God, that God is dead, like that. He’ll give some arguments. There are so many atheists. They are also presenting their arguments. So from where does the argument come? It comes from God, that ‘You take this argument and forget God forever.’⁴

In the Çrémad-Bhägavatam, an ancient Vedic text detailing the science of Krishna consciousness, we find the following prayer of glorification to Krishna:

Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto the all-pervading Supreme Personality of Godhead, who possesses unlimited transcendental qualities. Acting from within the cores of the hearts of all philosophers, who propagate various views, He causes them to forget their own souls while sometimes agreeing and sometimes disagreeing among themselves. Thus, He creates within this material world a situation in which they are unable to come to a conclusion. I offer my obeisances unto Him. (Çrémad Bhägavatam, 6.4.31)⁵

Conversely, Krishna says:

By interaction of My energies, different opinions arise. But for those who have fixed their intelligence on Me and who have controlled their senses, differences of perception disappear, and consequently, the very cause for argument is removed. (Çrémad Bhägavatam, 11.22.6)

There is no sense therefore in a theist getting ‘worked up’ into a heated debate with an atheist, because so long as the person is inimical to God, Krishna from within the heart will inspire that person with all kinds of arguments by which he becomes convinced that indeed there is no God. It is therefore impossible to win the argument for the existence of God on a strictly intellectual basis, because Krishna Himself is providing the arguments and the conviction in the heart of the atheist that He really does not exist. One would be only getting upset with Krishna’s arrangement if he allowed himself to get upset or angry at the atheists’ intransigence; after all, playful Krishna Himself is providing all their atheistic arguments in the first place. One must learn to see the humorous side of Krishna, who sits in the heart of all living entities, directing them into illusion or back to reality as they so please. Unless, therefore, a change of heart takes place in the atheist, it is impossible for the atheist to understand or appreciate the presence of Krishna. Since the intellectual arguments on both sides of the religion-versus-atheist debate are coming from the Lord Himself, we are not simply interested to engage in a battle of egos to see who has the best argument; rather, we wish to win the argument by winning the heart of the atheists towards Krishna without whom all the material world is simply a vain pursuit of illusory pleasure that terminates in old age, disease, and death. We should note that not only are atheists bewildered by Krishna’s mäyä, everyone—religious as well as non-religious—are under the influence of illusion. It is a question of degrees only. Thus, this book is not a straight religion-versus-atheism debate; it is meant to awaken ‘the Lord’s own’ out of their spiritual delirium and attachment to the material energy as much as the atheists themselves.

A devotee of Krishna will certainly engage in philosophical debates to counteract atheistic propaganda, but he is not bewildered or overwhelmed by the spread and influence of atheism or materialism throughout the world (even within those who claim to be religious) because he sees it as being under the influence and absolute control of Krishna’s own mäyä potency. For reasons that we hope to make clear, Krishna allows it! A religious person’s attachment to simply winning the argument against atheists or feeling the need to totally convince another person of the truth of one’s beliefs may therefore hint at a kind of insecurity whereby one seems more convinced by gaining strength of numbers than by any deep realisation or experience of how God’s deluding energy (mäyä) is acting, not only on the atheist, but on the religious believer as well. In other words, although one may profess a belief in God; in terms of one’s own lifestyle and philosophical understanding, one can think and behave like a practical atheist or materialist. The religious adherents must also be self-aware and willing to hear the true degree of their involvement in mäyä. As explained by Çréla Prabhupäda in chapter 14, everyone within the material world is a criminal within the prison of illusion. It is a question of degrees only.

In the Bhagavad-gétä As It Is, Krishna tells us:

I am also the gambling of cheats; and of the splendid, I am the splendor. I am victory; I am adventure, and I am the good quality in all superior men. (Bhagavad-gétä As It Is, 10.36)

In his commentary to this enigmatic verse, Çréla Prabhupäda writes:

There are many kinds of cheaters all over the universe. Of all cheating processes, gambling stands supreme, and therefore represents Krishna. As the Supreme, Krishna can be more deceitful than any mere man. If Krishna chooses to deceive a person, no one can surpass Him in deceit. His greatness is not simply one-sided—it is all-sided. (Bhagavad-gétä As It Is, 10.36 purport)

Krishna’s cheating and deceiving of the atheists does not compromise His transcendental impartiality and love towards that particular soul; it is simply a characteristic of His detached personality that he allows them the pleasure of feeling that they have disposed of Him by clever argumentation, when in fact, He is the one providing the arguments for His own non-existence. In this way, although Krishna deceives the atheist, that deception is simply a reciprocation with that particular soul’s wish to be deceived about the actual reality of God. There is nothing malicious or evil in Krishna’s action. When the soul desires to come back to spiritual reality, Krishna will kindly remind them of the way.

Although, the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic saints and prophets also refer to God’s illusion, the concept is generally missed, since these teachers do not explain the idea as elaborately as the Vedic sages. For example, the Jewish prophet Isaiah says:

For the Lord has poured over you a spirit of deep sleep. He has covered your eyes, the prophets; and he has covered your heads, the seers. (Isa. 29: 10)

Paul also alludes to the passage from Isaiah:

As it is written: ‘God give them a spirit of stupor; eyes so that could not see and ears so that they could not hear.’ (Rom. 11: 8)

Isaiah also refers to a veil of darkness and ignorance that enfolds all people and covers all nations (Isa. 25: 7) which the Lord would remove for his faithful servants.

Paul likewise states:

But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Cor. 3: 16-18)

Paul comes closest to explaining the Vedic concept of mäyä in his letter to the Thessalonians:

And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. (2 Thess. 2: 8-12)

The prophet Muhammad compares the illusory nature of the material world to a mirage in the desert:

But the actions of those who do not believe are like a mirage in the desert. A thirsty man thinks it is water. But when he reaches it, he finds it to be nothing at all. (Surat al-Nur: 39)

Know that the life of this world is merely a game and a diversion and ostentation and a cause of boasting among yourselves and trying to outdo one another in wealth and children: like the plant growth after rain which delights the cultivators, but then it withers and you see it turning yellow, and then it becomes broken stubble . . . The life of this world is nothing but the enjoyment of delusion. (Surat al-Hadid, 20)

Muhammad also alludes to how God hoodwinks the faithless:

Anyone misguided by Allah has no guide. (Surat ar-Ra’d, 33-34)

In a similar manner, Çréla Prabhupäda explained how Krishna reciprocates differently with those who sincerely wish to know God and those who are merely cheating themselves:

Çréla Prabhupäda: Yes. Guru-kåñëa-prasäde päya bhakti-latä-béja [Cc. Madhya 19.151]. Kåñëa is within you, and as soon as He sees that you are sincere, He will send you to the right person.

Student: And if you are not completely sincere, you will get a cheater for a teacher?

Çréla Prabhupäda: Yes. If you want to be cheated, Kåñëa will send you to a cheater. Kåñëa is super-intelligent. If you are a cheater, He will cheat you perfectly. But if you are actually sincere, then He will give you the right guidance. In Bhagavad-gétä (15.15), Kåñëa says, sarvasya cähaà hådi sanniviñöo mattaù småtir jïänam apohanaà ca: ‘I am seated in everyone’s heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge, and forgetfulness.’ Kåñëa speaks of both remembrance and forgetfulness. If you are a cheater, Kåñëa will give you the intelligence to forget Him forever.⁶

THINKING ABOUT GOD AND THE SOUL

From the Vedic perspective, there is a good reason why Krishna inspired and insured the big splash success of The God Delusion, a book which the cover tells us is a must read for everyone, from atheist to monk. The reason is that Richard Dawkins, to his credit, got the public thinking again—thinking about God! He kicked sand in the face of a skinny, theological weakling, who, feeling insulted and abused, then decided to build up his spiritual muscles. Ironically, we find theology, particularly Christian theology (the intended target of The God Delusion) in a much stronger and confident position after The God Delusion than before it. The God Delusion required answering and the counter-attack was unprecedented. Books with titles such as The Dawkins Delusion by Alistair Mc Garth, The Godless Delusion by Patrick Madrid and Kenneth Hensley, The Dawkins Confusion by Alvin Planting, The Devil’s Delusion by David Berlinski, and scores of similar-sounding titles came flying off the printing press, adding to the intellectual debate.

Dawkins’s fiery sermons ignited the atheists around the world and roused the sleepy Christian congregation, forcing them to think deeply about a subject they had probably never thought deeply about before. Just as smelly compost breaks down under heat and acts as fertiliser to produce the fragrant rose, so the smelly compost of ideas in Dawkins’s God Delusion broke down under the heat of theistic scrutiny to reveal the fragrant truth of God’s presence (at least for those who wanted it). For this and many other reasons, Dawkins is an unwitting agent in the hands of Krishna, who creates both remembrance and forgetfulness of Himself within the hearts of all living beings according to their desire. Krishna kills two birds with one stone by fulfilling the desire of Dawkins to promote atheism as well as providing an intellectual backlash by which the same arguments are dismantled. The bystanders are free to choose which side they want to follow.

According to the Vedic perspective, the reason why Richard Dawkins appears practically undefeatable is not because his words are true, but because he (for a certain duration of time) is empowered by the Lord’s own mäyä-shakti (potency of illusion) to spread atheism in the world. In course of time, his term of empowerment will run out and Dawkins will be toppled like so many before him. What did Dawkins do to become empowered by mäyä to spread atheism? How did Dawkins get to occupy such a prominent position? Although an atheist, Dawkins, in previous lives, had performed sufficient meritorious acts (or good karma) that facilitated him with the good education, handsome features, wealth, fame, academic prestige, etc., as well as the golden opportunity to wage an impressively dressed war on God Almighty with a worldwide audience looking on, gripped in suspense by the gory spectacle and unsure whether God has breathed His last or is just playing dead. In other words, Richard Dawkins, due to his previous good karma mixed with an inimical attitude to God, has his desire fulfilled by Krishna to propagate atheism in the world. Krishna reciprocates with the soul’s desire to be in either illusion or reality by creating philosophies of life that enable the soul to remember or forget his eternal relationship with Krishna. As a father engages in a play fight with his son and falls down pretending to be dead, so Krishna allows the atheist all the fun of having killed and silenced God. Krishna is detached. Unlike someone suffering from false ego, Krishna does not have to prove His existence to anyone. If you don’t want God, He disappears from view.

PERCEPTION OF GOD

In order to facilitate our illusion, Krishna has designed the material world in such a way that according to our orientation, one either sees God present everywhere or else one will be unable to see God in anything.

An interesting illusion by W. E. Hill shows an image in which one can either see a young lady looking sideways and wearing a feather in her hat or the side profile of an old woman with a scarf wrapped around her head. The one image contains two different possibilities of perception. The young lady wearing a hat and turning her head sideways is easy to see; the old lady is not at all obvious but becomes apparent as soon as one is directed where to look. Within the material world, Krishna allows us the choice of perception whether to see Him in all things or not to see Him at all. When the atheistic scientist sees the machinery of the universe operating without any sense of a personal Creator, Maintainer, and Destroyer, it is because mäyä deliberately presents it to his vision and intelligence in that way. Mäyä presents the atheist a version of reality which convinces him that only soulless matter exists. The nature of an illusionist is to deceive another’s senses into believing that something false is actually real and true. Mäyä pulls a veil of illusion before the eyes of the atheists, which prevents them from seeing things as they are. To see Krishna in everything is reality. To be blind to Krishna is mäyä (illusion).

Perception is influenced by at least two important factors: desire and knowledge.

(1) Perception According to Desire:

As we walk through a busy city street, we may make a general survey of the scene, although there are so many observable things that generally escape our attention. It is only when we feel the need or begin to desire a particular thing that we begin to notice it. For example, if one desperately needs to go to the toilet, then we suddenly start to notice the directions to a toilet. Ordinarily, the same sign would have escaped our attention. Similarly, if one is hungry, we start to notice all the different restaurants. If one is sexually agitated, the only things we practically see are the members of the opposite sex. If one is driving in a car and running out of fuel, one suddenly starts to look out for the petrol station with great anxiety. If one needs a cab, then one starts to notice all the taxis on the road that would otherwise just be a blur in the background. In a similar way, it our initial desire to see or understand Krishna, which is one of the contributing factors in the process of bhakti-yoga (loving devotional service to the Lord), that enables us to perceive Him.

In the Bhagavad-gétä, Krishna says:

A true yogé observes Me in all beings and also sees every being in Me. Indeed, the self-realised person sees Me, the same Supreme Lord, everywhere.

For one who sees Me everywhere and sees everything in Me, I am never lost, nor is he ever lost to Me. (Bhagavad-gétä 6.29-30)

Conversely, Krishna says:

I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them, I am covered by My internal potency, and therefore, they do not know that I am unborn and infallible. (Bhagavad-gétä 7.25)

Deluded by the three modes (goodness, passion, and ignorance), the whole world does not know Me, who am above the modes and inexhaustible. (Bhagavad-gétä 7: 13)

Like a person hidden behind a curtain, mäyä covers our vision of Krishna by the curtain of illusion.

(2) Perception by Knowledge

The ability to ‘see’ something also requires knowledge. For example, a trained scientist looking through a microscope is able to tell what he is looking at because of his training and acquired knowledge. To anyone else, the same image simply appears as some blobs and squiggles. Consider also in the event of a car breaking down, how a person without a working knowledge of engines will not know what to look for, whilst a trained mechanic, on the other hand, is able to ‘see’ what is wrong and thus able to fix the machine. In a similar way, we require transcendental knowledge so that we can ‘see’ what is going wrong in our lives from a spiritual perspective. Likewise, we require training in transcendental knowledge so that we can perceive Krishna in all things. Since one can only properly see things according to the level of desire and according to the level of knowledge, if one has no desire to see Krishna and no knowledge of Krishna, what results can one expect to achieve in their demand to see God? In chapter 10, ‘Can the Existence of God and the Soul be Proven?’, we shall explain how one can indeed perceive Krishna by the appropriate devotional attitude.

KRISHNA, THE SUPREME MAGICIAN

There have been many great illusions created by master magicians in which they can make things disappear from view. One of the most notable was David Copperfield’s disappearance of the Statue of Liberty on live television (in 1983). In the illusion, Copperfield raised a giant curtain on Liberty Island before lowering it again a few seconds later to reveal an empty space where the statue once stood. A helicopter hovered overhead to give an aerial view of the illusion, and indeed, the statue appeared to have vanished completely. To prove that it was gone, Copperfield then passed two searchlights through the space where the statue stood to show there was no longer anything of substance left to block the beams of light. Of course, the Statue of Liberty did not go anywhere, but Copperfield created an illusion by which the statue disappeared before a spellbound audience. We can raise the question that if an ordinary human has the inclination and ability to create such a marvelous disappearing act, should we necessarily rule out the same inclination and ability in God? Is He not capable of being present whilst simultaneously remaining invisible to our perception? Since a definition of God would include the attribute of being Supreme, Krishna must also rank as the Supreme Illusionist. He can make Himself disappear if He wishes. He can bewilder everyone with His magic. In a Vedic text called the Garga Samhita, the Lord’s magical genius is glorified in the following verse:

yathä naöaù sva-léläyäà mohito na paras tathä

anye dåñövä ca tan-mäyäà mumuhus te muhur muhuù

As a magician is not bewildered by His own magic tricks, although others may be bewildered, so the Supreme Personality of Godhead is not bewildered by the magic tricks He does with His illusory potency, although others who see them are bewildered again and again. (Garga Samhita, 1.14)

The point of our David Copperfield example is simply to show that the atheists’ objection to the non-perception of God does not prove His non-existence—it merely tells us that they cannot perceive His existence. Of course, one could argue that all of us have already seen the Statue of Liberty, and then we can watch Copperfield make it disappear, which is not the same in the case of God, because no one has ever seen God and then witnessed Him disappear from our vision. However, according to the Krishna consciousness philosophy, all of us have indeed seen God; in fact, the relationship is eternal, and our present state of forgetfulness of Krishna is merely an illusion created by Krishna’s mäyä potency. Krishna removes Himself from our perception when we opt for a self-centred rather than a God-centred existence. Krishna consciousness is the process to overcome the illusion and experience the reality of once again seeing God face to face and being re-established in our eternal happy relationship. We shall explain in later chapters the process of bhakti-yoga, by which one can have a direct experience of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

STEREOGRAMS

Stereograms, or what are sometimes called magic eye illusions, are an interesting piece of popular art entertainment that may serve as an analogy to illustrate the hidden presence of Krishna within all time, place, and circumstance. When we look at the material world, we may assume that we ‘know’ what we are looking at. Stereograms serve as an example of why we should not simply take the surface or apparent perception as the only one—especially when someone is trying to explain that there is another way to perceive it. A stereogram is a multicoloured kaleidoscope of colours which contain within it a hidden three-dimensional picture. By focusing on the image in a particular way, the hidden image reveals itself. For example, hidden underneath a random visage of coloured dots one may find to his surprise a fish swimming in the ocean. The Krishna conscious philosophy teaches likewise that the world of matter that we perceive is only the surface level of reality, beneath which lies Krishna presence in all things. As stated in the Bhagavad-gétä:

The Supreme Truth exists outside and inside of all living beings, the moving and the nonmoving. Because He is subtle, He is beyond the power of the material senses to see or to know. Although far, far away, He is also near to all. (Bhagavad-gétä As It Is, 13.16)

What is interesting about stereograms is the frustration they may cause to someone who is unable to focus in the particular way by which the image is revealed. One may have serious cause for doubting that there is any image within the picture at all. Likewise, atheists may continue in their disbelief of the existence of God because they are unable to focus spiritually and in the particular way that would please Krishna to reveal or manifest Himself to their vision. That particular focus is known as bhakti or ‘loving devotional service’ as explained by Krishna Himself in the Bhagavad-gétä:

One can understand Me as I am, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, only by devotional service. And when one is in full consciousness of Me by such devotion, he can enter into the kingdom of God. (Bhagavad-gétä As It Is, 18.55)

In the Çrémad Bhägavatam, an interesting analogy is employed:

yathä hy avahito vahnir

däruṣv ekaḥ sva-yoniṣu

näneva bhäti viçvätmä

bhüteṣu ca tathä pumän

The Lord, as Super-soul, pervades all things, just as fire permeates wood, and so He appears to be of many varieties, though He is the absolute one without a second. (Çrémad Bhägavatam, 1.2.32)

In his purport to this verse, Çréla Prabhupäda explains the analogy as follows:

Lord Väsudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, by one of His plenary parts expands Himself all over the material world, and His existence can be perceived even within the atomic energy. Matter, antimatter, proton, neutron, etc., are all different effects of the Paramätmä feature of the Lord. As from wood, fire can be manifested, or as butter can be churned out of milk, so also the presence of the Lord as Paramätmä can be felt by the process of legitimate hearing and chanting of the transcendental subjects which are especially treated in the Vedic literatures, like the Upaniṣads and Vedänta. Çrémad-Bhägavatam is the bona fide explanation of these Vedic literatures. The Lord can be realised through the aural reception of the transcendental message, and that is the only way to experience the transcendental subject. As fire is kindled from wood by another fire, the divine consciousness of man can similarly be kindled by another divine grace. With His Divine Grace, the spiritual Master can kindle the spiritual fire from the wood-like living entity by imparting proper spiritual messages injected through the receptive ear. Therefore, one is required to approach the proper spiritual master with receptive ears only, and thus divine existence is gradually realised. The difference between animality and humanity lies in this process only. A human being can hear properly, whereas an animal cannot. (Çrémad Bhägavatam, 1.2.32 purport)

In other words, in order to see Krishna, one must learn the process from an expert spiritual master—one must learn how to do it. What’s more, one must have a desire to do it. One must have a desire to see Krishna; and the way to see Krishna is to please Him. As the saying goes, ‘Don’t act in such a way as to see God, but act in such a way that God will want to see you.’

The analogy given above regarding the churning of milk into butter is quite interesting because although butter is nothing but milk, one is not able to perceive the presence of butter within milk until it is churned. It is not obvious on a surface level that the butter is within the milk, but the adroit milkmaid can ‘bring it out,’ so to speak, due to the churning process. Likewise, the presence of God within the material world is not immediately obvious but can be felt as Çréla Prabhupäda explains by ‘the process of legitimate hearing and chanting of the transcendental subjects, which are especially treated in the Vedic literatures like the Upaniṣads and Vedänta.’ In other words, by hearing how to do it, one will be able to perceive Krishna’s presence in all aspects of life.

Çréla Prabhupäda also gave the following helpful analogy:

As fire is kindled from wood by another fire, the divine consciousness of man can similarly be kindled by another divine grace. His Divine Grace, the spiritual master can kindle the spiritual fire from the wood-like living entity by imparting proper spiritual messages injected through the receptive ear.

In other words, by submissively hearing and taking instruction from a self-realised soul, one can awaken to their own spiritual identity. Çréla Prabhupäda taught that Krishna consciousness is the original and eternal consciousness of every living being. It is not something that one has to gain—like trying to raise money that one does not have—but rather, Krishna consciousness is something that one has only to revive or reawaken. Krishna consciousness is dormant within every living being, and one awakens to this consciousness by hearing transcendental sound vibration. As a sleeping person awakens from a dream by an alarm clock or a call, the soul similarly awakens to its original consciousness by hearing spiritual sound vibration from a self-realised devotee of the Lord. An example of spiritual vibration would be the Hare Krishna mantra:

Hare Kåñëa Hare Kåñëa, Kåñëa Kåñëa Hare Hare

Hare Räma Hare Räma, Räma Räma Hare Hare

(Pronounced Ha-ray, Krishna, Ra-ma)

The sound vibration of a spiritually realised person—a spiritual scientist—has the cool, dispassionate, friendly, sincere, authoritative, and convincing manner of a person who knows what they are talking about, so that one is left with little doubt about the truth of what they are speaking. For example, think of a tourist visiting London for the first time, and having lost their way to Saint Paul’s Cathedral, they proceed to stop different people to ask for directions. One person may confess directly that they haven’t a clue how to get to that particular place. Another person may try to be helpful, but after a few minutes, it becomes clear that they do not actually know the direction and are simply speculating different possibilities. Eventually, when the tourist stops a police officer or a traffic warden, it becomes clear from the authoritative manner in which he speaks and his sense of familiarity with the location that, at last, here is someone who knows what they are talking about, enabling the tourist to proceed confidently by following their direction. Moreover, by passing certain landmarks and street names along the way that the police officer indicated, the tourist’s faith gradually increases that they are indeed on the right track, until eventually, they arrive at Saint Paul’s Cathedral by the directed route.

Of course, this analogy is only appropriate if one is actually looking for Saint Paul’s Cathedral. If our tourist has other things on his mind, such as trying to get directions to the nearest prostitute or drug dealer, it would not be a wise idea to approach a police officer for directions. In fact, such a tourist does not even want to see a police officer, any more than a typical atheist wants to see a guru.

Like the authorised police officer giving friendly direction, it is the realisation inherent within the sound vibration of a perfected soul that separates the true guru from the speculator. The quality of sound vibration causes the sincere seeker to marvel as the truth of one’s own spiritual nature and the reality of Krishna become apparent. One no longer feels the will to question in the usual combative, defiant, quarrelsome, confrontational, challenging, and antagonistic spirit that usually spoils such discussions. One now feels the willingness to question with a humble attitude simply to find out more. The Jewish Prophet Isaiah describes the effects of meeting an empowered representative of God:

Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high . . . So shall he cleanse many nations; Kings will shut their mouths because of him. They will see things that they had never been told. They will understand things that they had never heard. (Isa. 52: 13-15)

In the Bhagavad-gétä, Krishna advises us to approach a spiritual master and learn the science by which we can understand and perceive Him in all things:

Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realised souls can impart knowledge unto you because they have seen the truth.

Having obtained real knowledge from a self-realised soul, you will never fall again into such illusion, for by this knowledge, you will see that all living beings are but part of the Supreme, or, in other words, that they are Mine. (Bhagavad-gétä As It Is, 4.34-35)

The atheist could argue that the analogy of a tourist searching for Saint Paul’s Cathedral is inappropriate, because we have evidence that Saint Paul’s Cathedral exists, whereas we have no evidence that God exists, and that there is no point in asking directions to a fictional Being. Such an argument is most unscientific. If we go back to our stereogram analogy again, one could just as easily argue that there is no evidence of a hidden picture within the stereogram. If one refused to follow the procedure by which the evidence is revealed, or if for some other reason, he is unable to focus in the necessary way, then his insistence that there is no evidence of a hidden picture is simply foolish. In chapter 10, we discuss at greater length the subject of providing proof of God and the soul. Before arriving at chapter 10, we would like in the opening chapters to expose the reader to the idea that our own material identity, which we take very much for granted, is not as real as we presume it to be. Indeed, the main focus of this book is simply to break down some strongly held misconceptions about our material existence so that the reader will gain—if nothing else—at least a slight suspicion that all is not what it seems in the otherwise impenetrable illusion of our everyday humdrum existence. As Leonard Cohen sings:

There is a crack, a crack in everything.

That’s how the light gets in.⁷

The false identification with the material body is an incredible illusion, and we pray to Mäyädevi, who has the thankless task of keeping souls bound in such illusion, that you (the reader) may also come to appreciate the futility of the materialistic conception of life and be inspired instead to begin a journey of self-discovery to the true beauty of your spiritual body and your eternal relationship with Krishna.

We hope also to substantiate our meagre attempt at introducing the concept of God’s Illusion (mäyä) with a follow-up book providing a more detailed explanation of mäyä based exclusively on quotations from the books of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupäda. By way of introduction to this extraordinary personality and his profound explanation of mäyä, we have quoted extensively from his lectures and conversations throughout the book and also included a chapter at the end entitled the Prison of Illusion consisting solely of quotations from his books and lectures. Please bear in mind that English was not Çréla Prabhupäda’s first language, and although the transcriptions from unedited lectures and conversations included throughout this book are sometimes difficult to follow, we preferred to leave the texts unedited rather than change the original speech.

RESPECT

We should note at the outset that although Richard Dawkins may be against God, God (at least the God of the Bhagavad-gétä As It Is) is not against Richard Dawkins. We hear Richard’s inimical disposition presented in the following tirade:

I am not attacking any particular version of God or gods. I am attacking God, all gods, anything and everything supernatural, wherever and whenever they have been or will be invented.⁸

Whether Richard Dawkins thinks Krishna is invented or not, Krishna remains (at least on paper) quite cool in the face of His rather aggressive opponent. For example, we read in the Bhagavad-gétä As It Is, the following words spoken by Krishna:

I envy no one, nor am I partial to anyone. I am equal to all. But whoever renders service unto Me in devotion is a friend, is in Me, and I am also a friend to him. (Bhagavad-gétä As It Is, 9.29)

Krishna, in other words, remains equally disposed even to the atheists.

Because you are the well-wishing friend and supreme Soul of the whole universe, You regard all with unbiased vision. Therefore, although You reciprocate Your devotees’ loving worship, You always remain equally disposed toward all living beings. (Çrémad Bhägavatam, 10.41.47)

In other words, although Krishna loves His devotees, this is not to say that He does not love those who are not actively engaged in His devotional service or even vehemently opposed to it, as in the case of atheists. Just as a father can reciprocate with one child who is awake, it does not mean that he ceases to love the other child who is asleep; similarly, Krishna is simply patiently waiting for the sleeping souls to wake up out of their mäyä (illusion) so that they can reciprocate their eternal affection once again.

Krishna, who is ever-blissful, is never in the angry mood of a jealous God who is very much upset at atheists like Richard Dawkins for not believing in Him or even actively opposing people’s devotion to Him; on the contrary, should they ever meet for a tête-à-tête, Richard might be pleasantly surprised to discover his great adversary was not only youthful, playful, beautiful, and blue, but actually disarmingly cultured:

For Him there is no one especially dear or despicable, superior or inferior, and yet He is not indifferent to anyone. He is free from all desire for respect and yet gives respect to all others. (Çrémad Bhägavatam, 10.38.22)

Should such an eventful meeting ever take place, a startled Richard Dawkins might justifiably ask, ‘But, Krishna, why did you allow all this horrible suffering in the world?’ To which, the smiling Krishna may reply, ‘Well, do you have a few hours to spare, Richard? This is going to take time . . .’

Of course, for Richard Dawkins, such a description of an impartial, loving God doesn’t match with the reality of suffering in a world which that so-called ‘merciful’ God purportedly created; but as we stated earlier, at least, this God—Krishna—is not going to send poor Richard to hell for eternal damnation simply because he doesn’t ‘believe’ in Him. According to the Vedic conception, whatever Richard Dawkins enjoys or suffers in this life or the next will be a reaction to his own thoughts, words, and deeds performed in this life and in previous lifetimes; it is not due to any malice on Krishna’s part.

Just as Krishna keeps an equal and respectful disposition to all living beings, so must His followers. While exposing the falsity of atheism, the servant of God must not lose respect for the atheist. The loving nature of God towards all living beings is important to understand; otherwise, if one is under the impression that God’s nature is to burn the heretics and infidels in eternal hell fires, then a blind follower of such a concept may feel no hesitation in starting the fires here on Earth first, happily killing the infidels and heretics for mere theological deprivations or deviations. The world has seen enough of such fanaticism.

In the great transcendental literature Çrémad Bhägavatam, it is stated that:

Krishna consciousness means constantly associating with the supreme personality of Godhead in such a mental state that the devotee can observe the cosmic manifestation exactly as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. (Çrémad Bhägavatam, 4.29.69)

The Çrémad Bhägavatam again describes Krishna’s mentality as follows:

The Supreme Lord has no favourite and no dearmost friend, nor does He consider anyone undesirable, despicable, or fit to be neglected. All the same, He lovingly reciprocates with His devotees in whatever manner they worship Him, just as the trees of heaven fulfill the desires of whoever approaches them. (Çrémad Bhägavatam, 10.38.22)

So just as Krishna does not consider anyone undesirable (na ca apriyaù) despicable (dveñyaù) or fit to be neglected (upekñyaù), so too must His devotee be conscious of not projecting hatred or animosity towards anyone, including atheists. The feeling of hatred towards anyone for whatever reason is a symptom of one’s own illusion and a failure to see things in a proper spiritual perspective. As stated in Çré Éçopaniñad:

He who sees systematically everything in relation to the Supreme Lord, who sees all living entities as His parts and parcels, and who sees the Supreme Lord within everything, never hates anything or any being. (Çré Éçopaniñad, Mantra Six)⁹

Respect for the atheist is shown not by liberally consenting to their materialistic lifestyle and philosophy or by some sentimental religious idea of being ‘nice’ to everyone, but rather on the knowledge that all living beings are eternally related to the Supreme Lord Krishna. To help explain this connection, a useful analogy is employed comparing Krishna to the sun and the innumerable living entities to the emanations of sunshine. Since the sunshine is nothing but the sun ‘shining’, it can be said to be one with the sun. However, the sun ‘shine’ can never claim to be equal to the sun itself. The sun is the origin of the sunshine, not the other way around. The sunshine shares the qualities of the sun in terms of heat and light, but it is different in degree of quantity to the sun itself. The sun and sunshine can therefore said to be simultaneously ‘one but different’ from each other. In the same way, we are also inconceivably simultaneously ‘one’ but ‘different’ in relation to Krishna Himself. The living entities share the same spiritual qualities of the Supreme Lord, but they differ in their attributes and capacity. This concept of inconceivable simultaneous oneness and difference is found in Vedic philosophy and is called acintya-bhedäbheda-tattva.

The Vedas teach that we are all eternal individual persons but Krishna is unique in that He is the central pivot of attraction for all the other souls. Krishna is all-attractive and supreme due to being unequalled or unsurpassed in (1) opulence, (2) power, (3) fame, (4) beauty, (5) knowledge, and (6) renunciation. Krishna is like a magnet that attracts all the other souls due to His unsurpassed character and attributes. When the individual soul wishes to imitate the central position of Krishna, he becomes covered in false ego and falls from his original position as an eternal associate of Krishna into the realm of mäyä—the plane of self-centredness rather than God-centredness. Mäyä or the material world exists