I believe in God, just not yours

"Why don't you believe in God?" is a question I keep getting a lot when people somehow find out that I don't believe in God. I think this article will serve as an answer to all those queries. When I say I don't believe in God, I just mean I don't believe in a personal intervening God that most people believe in. The whole concept in which a God is portrayed as a compassionate almighty looking over all of us. As someone who listens to our prayers and has the power to intervene or alter our life. That is the sort of God I don't believe in.

I align myself with the philosophical teachings of Advaita Vedanta, one of the most studied and most influential schools of classical Indian thought. I view God as an impersonal pure consciousness that is all that exists. We are just a mere projection within that consciousness and our goal is to gain self-knowledge and a complete understanding of the nature of that consciousness. Since we are all part of God, when I pray to God, I am knowingly praying to myself. Since I know praying to myself won't help me fix anything, it makes absolute sense to neither pray nor worship.

Figure 1 - Quote by Swami Vivekananda

But, I do understand some people need a personal intervening god because it is a lot easier to believe someone is watching over them and God will help them overcome difficult situations in life. That belief and prayers give them a lot of hope and courage to be good and fight against difficult situations life throws. They are just putting an inaccurate but functional image or mask on God.

My mom is a great example of this, she lost both her parents when she was a child, she went through poverty in her childhood, she got married to my father who hailed from a big extended family with six siblings and took care of all the responsibilities as the first daughter-in-law, my elder sister is an intellectually disabled child who requires constant parental attention hence my mom sacrificed all joys of her life to this day to take care of my sister. My mom's life was full of never-ending struggles and it is the faith in God that gives her hope and courage to face them. She never felt alone because she believes God is looking after her. 

So, I respect the sentiments of people who believe in God. God is their support system. I don't want to preach my philosophy to them when I don't know whether they are strong enough to function without the support system. What is the purpose of proving them the truth if it is going to just make one's life only more miserable and pointless? 

I think the absolute surrender without any ego is only possible for people who have absolute belief in God or for people who are madly in love with someone. So the people who are absolute believers are indeed blessed in a way. I just have my way and you have yours, so let's just agree to disagree.