By Tai Olaniyi
From time immemorial, man had and till date been agitated in wonderment and submission to the plaguing question of who is behind the creation?Furtherance to this is the mystery behind the universe and/ or who exactly is the Creator or God.
“Tani Olorun?” which is the Yorubas plaguing question of ” Who is God?” and the various sociocultural, traditional, and religious attempts at figuring one answer or the other to such but yet an unanswered question to all humankind.
From the beginning to the end of human life in mortal flesh, God shall remain mostly a mystery but sometimes revealing Himself to the worthy in glimpses of His omnipresence,
omnipotence and omniscient forms as the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, therefore the Beginning.
It is from this question of who is God and the human attempts at to answer that, that tradition, culture and religions either coalesce,become complimentary or become diverse divisive and discriminatory in practices and propagations.
I remembered as if it were yesterday, either Idowu Animashaun or Prince Adekunle a Yoruba musician who in his song marveled at who God is by singing : ” Dudu ni Oluwa me mo, pupa ni Oluwa me mo, a mo sa Oju Orun funfun lele o”.
This implies the unknowingness of who God looks like, how He remains unknown as to being black or white but the sky above convincingly projects a glittering white.
Jimmy Cliff in wonders too, alludes in his” I want to know everybody wants to know” by seeking to know in his musical lyrics of old here excerpted:
I want to know (everybody wants to know)
I want to know (everybody wants to know)
I want to know (everybody wants to know)
Oh, I want to know (everybody wants to know, oh)
He asked:
Who made the sun? Who made the moon?
Who made the stars? Who made the earth?
Who made the water? Who made the wind?
Who made the planets in this universe… ?
No matter how fantastic our religious personages may seem to be today especially here in Nigeria, “Who God is” Tani Olorun, and how His Immensity can manifest to man personally in a myriad of ways shall remain on personal and individual basis.
Is it not therefore a truism that ” In holy and pure heart the true mosque is built against the ones built of stones? Think about it.
But it is today so disheartening the pedestrian nature the issue of” Tani Olorun” who God is, how, where, when and the modes of worshipping our one only God has degenerated thus contributing to incessant attacks and killings all over the world today.
Most disheartening is Kwara which was acclaimed and once cherished as a* State of Harmony” now extending geographic space of religious crudity and superiority over and above others for one reason or the other mostly in mere earthly and unspiritual manners.
Is it not a truism the Biblical injunction that .
“God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” as found inJohn 4:24 in the Bible, spoken by Jesus to a Samaritan woman at a well?
I concur with the Yorubas conviction that ” Orun lo mo eniti yo la”, Orunmila, that connotes that it is only when in heaven that the true child of God truly finds salvation.
I usually get excited by a Muslim mystic of Sufi stock when in prayer: God let me not worship You because of the fear of hell because if I worship You because of the fear of hell I will burn in hell.
If I worship You because of the love of Paradise I shall never reach Paradise.
But if I worship You because of who You are I shall know You, be with You, not burn in hell and enjoy the bliss of Heavenly Paradise. “.
The recent religious inferno about the contextual Issue of” Tani Olorun ” who is God by one of the young Yoruba social media activists inclined now to Traditional religion is unnecessarily generating crisis hovering around geographic spaces and social media platforms.
On the other side of the divide it equally seems a good development in this era of” The Age of Aquarius “.
How come? This for me could be likened to what late General Agbazika Inih then a, Colonel and Military Governor of Kwara State and the successor of late Colonel Ibrahim Taiwo of blessed memories. said to us students of Kwara College Technology after our student’s unrest due to poor catering services in the school a at that time.
According to Col George Agbazikah Inih in the presence of the then His Majesty PA Sulu Gambari as the Chairman of the occasion, Inih said to us at the then temporary site hall of Kwara Tech, , “Criticize us but don’t be rude to us” because, ” A man with a big head can as well have nice legs. If you concentrate on the big head you will overlook the nice legs.”. Think about it.
If all of us Nigerian religionists, religious leaders and promoters shall bother to use our thinking caps, our heads that encase our brains and intellects to direct a spiritual mission into our hearts wherein our one and only God resides, we shall in thoughts, words and actions be proven beyond mere believers but personal knowers of God on individual basis.
Further to this and beyond sermons and what we preach about, our characters and the light, life and love of God shall tread more expanse into the realms of spirituality in us all. .
As Master Jesus once affirmed:”In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Jesus was not talking about his physical but the spirit of God and Christ Consciousness in us all that through much more of our spiritual inclinations to find the Kingdom of God within each and everyone of us, we shall like what the Hare Krishna is emphatic about be partakers of the revered heavenly bliss which according to them, ” At the Lotus Foot of God humanity finds unity.*
Through the propagation of the concept that” Tthe Kingdom of God is within” each and everyone who cares to have “A personal and intimate awareness of God within the Domain of Self” against any fellow mortal flesh asking others to kill and maim because of the mundane power accorded them as traditional, religious, and political leaders in particular.
It is obvious that the world has since been degenerating in an enclave and cocoon of religious and political beliefs therein. The world of today since year 2000 is now emitting the strive to know against just being mortuarised in mere beliefs without knowing or gnosis.
The Age of Aquarius is asking us to personally ask the question, “Who is God”? And to personally get induced, excited and convinced about who God is to us on individual basis as, “God of our hearts, God of our realization”. Think about it no matter who you are, be you Onisese, Muslim or Christian including non-religious fundamentalists.
I humbly conclude like a Sufi mystic once advised”. He who is of God of God pursue”.
I equally pray that may our one and only God, the Creator of every living being, everywhere, please open our hearts, our minds’ eyes and ears so we can in heart decipher God of our understanding, think good, speak good and do good. God bless Nigeria.
