________________ Shrimad Rajchandra Letter 530 113 Answer: (1) You and I are souls living in the midst of karmic bondage. The pure soul, unblemished by karma, whose true nature is consciousness, is God. That in which the glory of conscious awareness resides, that is God, and that Godliness is the soul's very nature. While bonded by karma, the soul cannot recognise its true nature; but when it recognises itself to be distinct from karma and karma's influence, then it has attained self-realisation. That state is unparalleled in its glory and perfection, and nothing in the materialistic world can come even remotely close to it. God is a name used to refer to the purest manifestation of the soul and I have a firm conviction that there is no other element superior to this pure soul that can be called God. (2) He is not the creator of this universe, for the fundamental substances that make up this universe such as space, ether, atomic subparticles, etc. are eternal; they cannot be created out of anything. If one assumes, for the sake of argument, that these fundamental substances were created by God, then there is an inconsistency, for how could God whose nature is that of consciousness alone, have created material objects such as atomic subparticles, ether, etc.? Never can insentient matter be created out of a sentient being. If God is considered insentient with a physical existence, then all his glory is lost, and similarly, no sentient being could be created by him either. If God is considered to be both as sentient and insentient, then this very universe which consists of sentient beings and insentient objects shall have to be called God and accept the explanation of God being the creator, but I feel it is more appropriate to address the universe as the universe. Perhaps one could consider the fundamental substances as eternal, and God as a superior being that imparts justice to living beings according to their actions, but this logic is