Does God Exist or Not?

Great Saint Eknath, a very beautiful master and poet, lived in a Shiva temple. He was a very independent individual. The king was an atheist, and he was really rational and argumentative.
All his scholars and wise people have become tired trying to convince him that God exists. There seemed to be no way… So finally they said. ”You go to Eknath. That is the only man… perhaps he can manage.”
The king went there in disguise. He went in the morning; it was nine o’clock and Eknath was fast asleep. The king said, ”My God! Is he going to be my teacher?” – because the theists and particularly the saints wake up before sunrise, and he is fast asleep at nine o’clock! Not only that, his legs are resting on Shivalinga, the phallic statue of Shiva. The king thought in his mind, ”Even I cannot touch Shivalinga with my feet. Although rationally I think there is no God, deep down I am afraid: who knows? – he may be. This man seems to be far gone, and those idiots of my court have sent me to this man!”
He waited. Eknath woke up. He asked, ”So for what have you come here?”
The king said, ”I have come here to understand whether God exists or not, because to all my reasoning it seems he does not exist. But my people, friends, family, all believe in God and they wanted me to see you.”
Eknath said, ”Just show me your hand.”
The king thought: This man seems to be really mad! – because what has my hand to do with God?
Eknath looked at the hand and he said, ”About God we can discuss later on… but within seven days you are going to die. I have to tell you that first because my memory is not very good, I may forget.
Your lifeline is finished – just at the most seven days. Now we can discuss.” But now the king was not ready to discuss; he was afraid of his death. He was already going down the steps of the temple. Eknath asked, ”Where are you going?”
The king said, ”Now there is no need of any discussion; I don’t have time. Just seven days! I cannot waste them in discussion.” Just a few moments before he had looked so strong, and now he was trembling as he was going down the steps – just seven days!
He reached his home and he said, ”I don’t know what kind of man that is but he is a great palmist, that much is certain. He has declared that in seven days I will die. He has shown me that my lifeline is finishing – just a small fragment is there.”

And because he was going to die, he started preparing for death. He wouldn’t work. He lay down, and he became weak and pale. All his relatives came. Many royal families were connected so it was a big gathering. He was becoming weaker and weaker every day: his voice was sinking, his eyes were sinking. And Eknath had said, ”On the seventh day as the sun sets – finished! That is your end.” And before sunset the whole family was crying, the relatives were crying.
Eknath came. He asked, ”What is the matter? Why is so much crying going on?”
They said, ”Our king is dying.”
Eknath said, ”I would like to see him.” He went to the king and shook him and said, ”Just wake up and look at me. That was just a joke – I don’t know anything about palmistry! Even the line that I showed you is not the lifeline. I enquired of palmists and they said, ‘You should at least know the exact lines!’ You are not going to die. Now wake up, sit with me, and we can discuss the question that you had come to see me about.”
The king said, ”Now there is no need to discuss. God does not matter. But in these seven days I have realized that what matters – death being so near I could not remain asleep – is that I had to be awake. I could not waste my time in unnecessary thoughts. I had to watch my thoughts so they could disappear, and they have disappeared. ”You were right: with the sunset – the sun was just setting – the man who had come to ask you is really dead; I am a totally new man. God or no God… that is no longer my concern. Now I have a totally new dimension to my being. I know my immortality, I know my godliness; now what do I care about any God? The whole existence is divine. ”Your joke really worked, but you have strange ways of working. You might have really killed me. If I had not been alert enough, exactly at sunset I would have been dead. It was so certain to me that it could not have been otherwise. But in a metaphorical way it is true: the old man is dead and I am a new man. And I have no concern with God this way or that.”
Eknath said, ”That’s right, that is true religiousness.”
And the king said, ”Now I can understand a man like you sleeping late, up to nine, and resting his feet on the head of Shiva. Now there is no problem; I can understand. If you feel your own divineness then that statue is only a stone. Then the question of waking up before sunrise does not arise. Whenever you wake up, that is sunrise. One becomes spontaneous.”