Proof of God’s Existence

By Paramahansa Yogananda

Written in 1940

Someone once asked me, “Can you give me an explanation that will help me to believe in the existence of God?”

“Yes,” I replied. “How else can you account for the obvious intelligence that underlies all creation, from the single atom to complex man?” Then I further expained to him in this way;

Here is a table; on it is a pitcher of water; throughout this room there is air to breathe; outside there is a tree, the sky, the warm sun. Each of these things is disperate in appearance. But they are all the result of a differentiation of one universal vibration.

How is it that this one vibratory cosmic energy becomes solids, liquids, or gases?

By what mysterious process are these varying rates of vibration so coordinated as to make human life possible?

Behind all manifestation there must be a guiding Intelligent Force that is the prime cause of all creation.

For instance, we are here on our little earth, somewhere in space orbiting the far distant sun of our universe. Without the cooperation of the sun’s light and warnth, life on earth could not exist.

We have the sensation of hunger, and nature supplies our need for food; when digested, some unknown Power transforms that food into energy and tissues for the body. All the miracles of life that we take for granted are proof of the existence of an omnipresent divine Intelligence behind the processes of nature.

Beholding the blossoms of the earth and the starry flowers in the Infinite fields of the sky, how can one not wonder, “Is there a hidden Beauty behind these finite patterns? Is there an Intelligence behind mans intellect?”

The blossoms of life in the garden of earthy existence are enchanting to behold. But somewhere there is a fount of Beauty and Intelligence, even more enthralling, from which we have come and into which we shall merge again.

Everything in the universe is related. And through the right use of our God given human intelligence we begin to see that all life is linked to one Supreme Intelligence.

We may sometimes think we are puppets of destiny; but when we project our intelligence beyond limited delusive forms and examine the extent of our consciousness and mental perception, we realize that within us there is a spark of the Divine Power. That which is creating and sustaining all life, just waiting to be kindled.

In the scriptures of every true religion we read that God is all-powerful, infinite and eternal.

Through the windows of the scriptures we glimpse the divine Power in which all things are rooted.

But our minds with their finite understanding, conditioned by the laws of causation, cannot encompass eternity, so we live within the limited circle of our mental capacity. Almighty God is both within and beyond that circle.

In the Bhagavad Gita it is said, “Some behold the Self in amazement; others describe the Self as marvelous; others listen about the Self as wondrous, and others, even after hearing (about the Self) do not comprehend it at all.”

In countless ways, human reasoning shows us that God is the cause of all things. But proof of the existence of God cannot be had by intellectusl deduction alone.

If we are to realize God, which is the sole purpose of our existence, we must learn to go beyond ordinary thought processes, for He is beyond the measure of human reason.

He cannot be fully grasped by a mind always occupied with objects of desire and with emotional disturbances of pleasure and pain.

To attain a higher state of consciousness and divine perception, it is necessary through meditation to withdraw the mind from its continual restless activity.

In that interiorized state, spiritual sensitivity, or intuition, awakens. Intuition is that power of Spirit inherited by the Soul by which truth is perceived directly, without the medium of any other faculty.

As the vastness of the ocean cannot be contained in a small cup, so it is impossible to receive infinite wisdom in the finite cup of human intelligence. Man’s consciousness must be expanded if it is to hold the illimitable ocean of truth.