The Quest for God

The Quest for God

1991 2 February 17 The Quest for God (350) There was once a very intelligent man who remained preoccupied with the thought that he could never attain his true position in life. Finally, he resolved this problem by committing suicide. In his suicide note he wrote:

“I am putting an end to my life, because I feel I have probably wandered into a world for which I was not created.”

This feeling of there being something lacking is usually found in those people who are born with great intelligence. They either live out lives of disappointment and lack of fulfillment, which only come to an end when they die a natural death, or else they cut the whole process short by committing suicide. It is common, on the other hand, to find people of lesser intelligence leading thoroughly contented lives. But among people of higher intelligence, one will rarely come across anyone who has succeeded in leading a life of contentment.

The reason for this is man’s innate idealism. Everyone by his very nature, is in search of an ideal. But, in this world, it has proved so difficult to find this ideal that the saying, ‘The ideal is unattainable’ has gained currency. Often, the mediocre person will imagine that he has found the ideal, but that is because his sensitivity is so under-developed that he cannot discern the difference between the ideal and the non-ideal, and this leaves him happily preoccupied with the latter. But those of sharper intelligence immediately sense the difference, that is why they are not willing to accept anything which falls short of the highest standards.

Man’s ideal can only be one, and that is his Creator and Sustainer. What people of higher intelligence are seeking, could they but realize it, is nothing but the divine mission. Only God’s existence is ideal. And only by becoming engrossed in God’s mission can we find that moral zenith which will satisfy the whole of our being, and which will conform in every detail to our intellectual perception of the ideal.

Man’s ideal is his God, but he ceaselessly attempts to discover this ideal in a non-God.