Brahman vs God
Pure Consciousness vs Responsive Consciousness
I used to make fun of people who believed in God. Not behind the back, not under the breath—full-volume mockery. Because it was always the same story: some trembling soul, down on their luck, looking for divine help like a kid searching for a lost toy. God, for them, was a comfort blanket. A glorified support animal. A nice idea to hide behind.
And I’d sit back, arms folded, thinking: what a convenient crutch. What a perfect excuse to stay soft, lazy, and inert. Believe in a story, outsource responsibility, and hope some invisible being fixes things.
I was very impressed with myself.
Then came the Mandukya Upanishad. And it hit like a brick to the face. No poetry. No miracles. Just pure metaphysics. Just the quiet, terrifying claim that “All this is Brahman. This Self is Brahman.” And suddenly, the floor gave way.
Something in me went still. Not enlightened. Just… silenced.
Since then, I’ve lost the capacity to mock God. Not because I’ve turned into a believer. Not because I’ve grown more spiritually sensitive. I’m not here to hug trees or chant mantras at the moon.
It’s just that I realized: God and I are not two different things.
Sometimes we’re One.
Sometimes She’s my Mother.
Sometimes He’s my mirror.
Sometimes It’s just the silence watching both.
My earlier contempt wasn’t really aimed at God. It was aimed at the people who cried out to God—the ones I saw as weak, desperate, beneath me. But that judgment feels absurd now. Who the worshipper is doesn’t matter at all. What matters is that this very “I”—the one judging—was just a costume hiding something deeper.
I was standing on Brahman to spit at God.
Who exactly was I mocking?
Because if the Self is all there is, then all my clever takedowns, my snide jokes, my intellectual pride—they were just boomerangs. I was never attacking faith. I was attacking something inside myself I hadn’t yet understood.
And now I see it.
All that mocking? Just me shouting at a wall and hearing my own voice echo back.
And now, Ramana Maharshi’s words land differently
Question: What is the nature of the Self?
Maharshi: “What exists in truth is the Self alone. The world, the individual soul and God are appearances in it, like silver in mother-of-pearl. These three appear at the same time and disappear at the same time. The Self is that where there is absolutely no ‘I’-thought. That is called ‘Silence’. The Self itself is the world; the Self itself is ‘I’; the Self itself is God. All is Siva, the Self.”
I used to laugh at God. Now I just listen.
Because even the one laughing—was That.
My opinion about people having belief about anything is like we all are crossing a river on a boat, it is so foggy we can't see anything, but everyone is holding on a rope and pulling it. Everyone assumes their rope is tied to the other side of river and they getting closer to it.
Now they may or may not be right about the rope. Some may claim very boldly about their rope being the right one and all others are holding on the wrong one. While some silently pull on the rope.
Now the best thing one can do isn't to cut the rope declaring they were wrong about the rope. That will just leave them stranded with no radar.
And it is so foggy it is worth to consider a possibility of us being wrong, or the idea that I personally find more fascinating is all being right and none being wrong and yet different.
Absolutely, That's the best thing to do.
But my point is in the incident that you mentioned about your response to people when they expressed their belief about God.
Similar situations at times I found myself in, let's say around my graduation days. Not particularly about faith and religious views but mostly decisions and opinions about things.
I used to come very hard while proving the other person wrong. Thinking I am rather doing a good thing shattering the incorrect or delusional thought of this person.
Only to realise some years later that I might be doing more harm than good to that person.
Even though that person's views or opinion might be wrong, detaching a person all of a sudden from those beliefs can push them to a state of shock and disarray.
So either you call it enlightenment or gain of knowledge or awakening, it should let be driven more by the person itself and lesser from the external means.
So thereafter I stopped preaching people 😀 and the attempt to correct people.
Rather as you are sharing views and opinion here is much better way of sharing knowledge and means to let people themselves discover things.
And the best option as you already mentioned to directly read about the people who we know have crossed the stream 😊😊
And one more time , I appreciate the efforts you are putting writing these articles. Keep the ink flowing 😊👍