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Jay: Grandma, I can eat and sleep
and think and talk and walk and run
and work and study. How does my
body know how to do all this?
Grandma: The whole world, including our
body, is made of five basic elements or matter.
These elements are: earth, water, fire, air, and
ether or an invisible element. We have eleven
senses: five sense organs (nose, tongue, eye,
skin, and ear); five organs of action (mouth,
hand, leg, anus, and urethra); and a mind. We
smell through our nose, taste through our
tongue, see through the eyes, feel touch
through skin, and hear through our ears. We
also have a sense of feeling by which we feel
pain and pleasure. All these give our body
what it needs to work (Gita 13.05-06). The
Spirit or Atmā inside our bodies is also called
Prāna. It supplies power to the body to do all
work. When Prāna leaves the body, we are
dead.
Jay: You said God is the creator of the
universe. How do we know there is a
creator or God?
Grandma: There has to be a creator behind
any creation, Jay. Somebody or some power
made the car we drive and the house we live
in. Somebody or some power created the sun,
the earth, the moon and the stars. We call that
person or power God or the creator of this
universe.
Jay: If everything has a creator, then
who created God?
Grandma: This is a very good question,
Jay, but there is no answer. God has always
existed and will always exist. God is the origin
of everything, but God has no origin. Good
Lord is the source of everything, but He or She
has no source!
Jay: Then, what is God like,
Grandma? Can you describe Him?
Grandma: It is impossible to describe God
directly. The Supreme Being can only be described
by parables, and in no other way. His
hands, feet, eyes, head, mouth, and ears are
everywhere. He can see, feel, and enjoy without
any physical sense organs. He does not
have a body like us. His body and senses are
out of this world. He walks without legs, hears
without ears, does all works without hands,
smells without a nose, sees without eyes,
speaks without a mouth, and enjoys all tastes
without a tongue. His actions are wonderful.
His greatness is beyond description. God is
present everywhere at all times. He is very
near (living in every cell of our body) as well
as far away in His Supreme Abode. He is the
creator (Brahmā), the sustainer (Vishnu) and
the destroyer (Mahesha), all in one (Gita
13.13-16).
The best way to illustrate why no one
can describe God (Gita 13.12-18). is the story