Transcription
A seeker once came to Goraknath and asked, "Is this universe created by God?"
Goraknath looked at him for a long time, so long that the seeker became uneasy as if something inside him was being watched rather than his face. Then Goraknath laughed, not a polite laugh, not a comforting one, but the laughter of a man who has seen through centuries of foolishness. He said, "You come with a question that is already old, rotten and borrowed. This question has not arisen from your bones, from your breath, from your blood. It has come from books, priests, parents and fear. Before I answer you, tell me, are you alive enough to hear the answer?"
The seeker said, "I only want to know the truth."
Goraknath replied, "If you truly wanted truth, you would not ask whether the universe was created by God. You would ask why you are asleep while being alive. You would ask why your breath comes and goes without your permission. You would ask why thoughts keep appearing without your invitation. But you ask about God because God is safe. God keeps you away from yourself."
The seeker tried to argue, "But everything has a cause. Surely the universe must have a creator."
Goraknath struck the ground with his staff and said, "This surely is your disease. You are certain about things you have never seen. You say everything has a cause. Have you seen the first cause or are you repeating logic like a parrot repeats mantras? Cause and effect belong to small things. A pot has a potter, yes. A house has a builder, yes. But existence is not a pot. The sky is not built. Space is not manufactured. Awareness is not assembled."
He leaned closer and said, "You are trying to reduce the infinite to the size of your mind. Your mind works with beginnings and endings, with birth and death, with before and after. But existence is not within time. Time is within existence. How will a tool measure what contains the tool itself?"
The seeker said then are you saying there is no god?
Goraknath laughed again. "I am saying your question is childish. First you invent a god then you ask whether he created the universe. This is like dreaming of a tiger and then asking who fed it. Both the tiger and the question are part of the dream."
He said listen carefully. "Religion has trained you to look outward. Philosophy has trained you to think upward. Yoga trains you to look inward. Tantra trains you to look everywhere at once. I am not interested in your beliefs. I am interested in your awakening."
The seeker said, but scriptures say God created the world.
Goraknath replied, "Scriptures are not truth. They are maps and most people worship the map and never walk the land. Scriptures were spoken to particular minds in particular times. You are swallowing words without digestion. Truth is not something you inherit. It is something you die into."
He paused and said slowly, "If God created the universe, then God existed before the universe. If God existed before the universe, then existence is possible without creation. If existence is possible without creation, then your question collapses. You see, one honest look and the whole structure falls."
The seeker felt disturbed and asked then what is this universe?
Goraknath said, "This universe is not a thing. It is an event. It is happening not created. It is like a flame. Where does the flame begin? Where does it end? You can point to wood, to fire, to smoke, but the flame itself is movement."
He said, "You want a creator because you want security. If there's a creator, then there is a controller. If there's a controller, then chaos is manageable. If chaos is manageable, then your fear can sleep. God is your lie."
The seeker protested. Without God, is there no morality?
Goraknath's eyes became fierce. "Morality imposed by fear is hypocrisy. A man who is good because he fears punishment is not good. He is obedient. Awareness does not need commandments. When you see clearly, compassion happens naturally. The way fragrance comes from a flower."
He said, "You speak of God as if God is outside existence watching like a judge. This is the language of kings and prisons. Existence does not punish, it teaches. It does not reward, it reveals."
The seeker said, "But people feel God. They experience God."
Goraknath nodded. "Yes, they experience something, but they name it wrongly. When the ego cracks, when silence descends, when the eye loosens its grip, a vastness is felt. Out of habit, they call it God. The experience is real. The explanation is false."
He continued, "The mind cannot tolerate emptiness. When silence appears, the mind rushes to label it. God is a label pasted on silence by frightened minds."
The seeker asked softly, "Then what should I do?"
Goraknath said, "Stop seeking answers and start destroying the seeker. Sit, watch, breathe. Let thoughts rise and fall without following them. Do not worship them. Do not fight them. When the mind becomes naked, truth stands revealed not as an idea but as being."
He said the real question is not whether God created the universe. The real question is why you keep creating illusions and calling them answers.
The seeker said will I ever know?
Goraknath said, "Knowing is the last obstacle. Drop knowing. In that being the question evaporates."
He added, "For the ignorant, God is a belief. For the intellectual, God is a problem. For the awakened, God is unnecessary."
The seeker bowed, but Goraknath stopped him. "Do not bow to me. Bowing creates hierarchy. Walk beside me, not below me."
He concluded, "Remember this, the universe does not need a creator, but you need courage. The courage to stand without beliefs. The courage to live without borrowed meanings. The courage to dissolve. When you dissolve, what remains is neither God nor universe nor self. Only the silent roaring suchness. And in that suchness, all questions die."
And Goraknath did not stop there. He looked at the seeker as if carving these words directly into his marrow and continued. "You think courage means fighting, conquering, becoming strong in the eyes of others. That is covered eyes dressed as armor. The courage I speak of is far more dangerous. It is the courage to be nobody. It is the courage to let your identity collapse without replacing it with a new costume. Most people change presents and call it freedom. They drop one belief only to grab another. They leave one god and invent a subtler one. This is not courage. This is fear changing masks."
He said standing without beliefs means standing without ground. The mind wants ground, conclusions, answers because ground gives the illusion of safety. But truth is groundless. Existence is a free fall. Only those who dare to fall endlessly discover that there is no bottom to hit.
He continued, "Borrowed meanings are the heaviest chains. Your parents gave you meaning. Society gave you meaning. Religion gave you meaning. Even rebellion gives you meaning. You have never tasted life without interpretation. You see through words, not through eyes. You hear through memory, not through ears. Drop meanings and the world becomes unbearably alive. Colors burn brighter. Silence becomes thunder. Life stops being a concept and becomes a wound and a wonder at once."
Goraknath's voice grew quiet, almost like a whisper, but it cut deeper. "Dissolving does not mean disappearing into nothingness the way you imagine. Dissolving means the false center melts. The 'I' called 'me' is lost. The body remains, breath remains, sounds remain, but the owner is gone. And when the owner is gone, suffering has nowhere to sit."
He said, "You are afraid of dissolution because you think you will lose something precious. But look honestly, what have you really got? A bundle of memories, fears, hopes, borrowed ideas, and postponed living. This is not treasure. This is luggage. Drop it and suddenly you are light enough to dance with existence."
He paused and said, "When I say neither God nor universe remains, I do not mean they vanish. I mean the divisions vanish. God was a projection. The universe was an object and you were the observer. When you dissolve, this triangle collapses. There is no observer here. No observed there. There is only happening."
He smiled slightly and said, "Suchness is not mystical. It is utterly ordinary and that is why you miss it. The sound of wind, the ache in your knees, the breath touching the nostrils, the fading of a thought before it finishes. This is suchness. Silent because it has no commentary. Roaring because it is overflowing with life."
Goraknath added, "Questions die not because answers are found, but because the questioner is gone. A question needs an 'I' to survive. Without an 'I', questions fall like sparks into water."
He looked straight into the seeker's eyes and said, "Do not carry my words as a doctrine. That would be another betrayal. Use them like a thorn to remove a thorn, then throw both away. If my words stay with you too long, they will rot."
He ended by saying, "Remember this finally. Awakening is not an achievement. It is an unburdening. It is not adding light. It is removing walls. Walk without leaning on conclusions. Live without rehearsing meaning. Die every moment to what you think you are. In that continuous dying, life reveals itself. Not as God, not as universe, not as you, but as this naked, boundless, undeniable now."