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Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #18 – An Original Argument for God Revisited

May 1st, 2023

It was already Tuesday. I still had nothing to write about. Rather than continue to stare at a blank page, I shifted gears and started taking notes on what I was lecturing on at the time. I was teaching the Śrī Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta by Sanātana Gosvāmī, with translation and commentary by Gopīparāṇadhana Dāsa. In the back of my mind, however, I was still searching and praying for a realization to write about.

 

Gopīparāṇadhana Dāsa lived in Vrindavan at the time I resided there, and we were friends. Therefore, while taking notes today, I naturally remembered the difficulty he was having finding a suitable place to live with his family in Vrindavan when he began writing his translation. He was finally offered a place by a god-brother who had become the mahant of an ashram next to Caklesvara Mahādeva in Govardhana, which is where Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī resided and wrote the Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta. What are the chances that the translator of arguably one of the most significant books in his spiritual tradition winds up in the very place where the author wrote the book? An idea suddenly came in mind! For this week’s post I would expand on something I had written before on the phenomenon of synchronicity as an argument for the existence of God.

 

Basically, in that article I argued that when there is an impossibly high improbability of two events coming together, it is far more likely that those events synchronized by forces outside the laws of nature than randomly, which points to the existence of God.

 

As I began meditating on what I was to write, I remembered that my friend was also the person who got me thinking about this argument. Over twenty-five years ago, when I was visiting the Radha Damodara Temple with a pilgrimage group, we unexpectedly ran into him. I naturally asked him to address our group:

 

“The Radha Damodara Temple is in Seva-kuṅjā, the forest (kuṅjā) to expand the intimate service (seva) of Radha and Krishna. In holy places, there is often a synchronicity between the place and what later happens there. For example, the Six Gosvāmīs of Vrindavan had many different residences and temples in Vrindavan, but this is the place, the forest of seva, where they would all meet to discuss their mission to increase the seva of Śrī Śrī Radha Krishna. It was also the place, five hundred years later, where Śrīla Prabhupāda stayed for the same purpose, although he chose to live here mostly because he was in need, and it was available. We can also see this same phenomenon when Śrīla Bhaktivinoda retired to the island of Godrumadvīpa to revive the Nāma-haṭṭa, his organization to spread the holy name to every own and village. It just so happened to be the same island in Śrī Navadvīpa that specifically represents and inspires kirtan and, where hundreds of years before, Śrī Nityānanda originally started the Nāma-haṭṭa.”

 

There are many arguments for the existence of God, but I think the phenomenon of synchronicity is particularly strong and can be developed in many ways. Most importantly, it can be a faith builder, especially when we become just a little mindful and repeatedly observe how what has come to us by destiny was mystically synchronized with the exact lessons needed at the time in order to help us come closer to God.

 

Think deeply. Is there anyone reading this who has not had that experience? And can there be any other answer than God?

 

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