Is God darkness or light?

Question

After reading a lot of articles on different websites and watching videos concerning different philosophies and views, I seek to ask a question here to get an emphatic and most importantly, a true answer.

In the modern world, light is portrayed as the elimination of depression and sadness, and the source of happiness and joy. Many say that God is the most pure, divine and brightest shining light ever while others say that God is complete darkness. And by this they do not mean that God is evil or unholy, they just say that God is darkness because God created light and before light, there was nothing but darkness. And this kind of makes sense.

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So, the exact questions that I need answers to are stated below.

1. Is God light or did God create light? And if He created light, then what is God? Darkness?
2. Scientifically, light is a thing and the absence of light is known as darkness. Darkness is not a thing. Hence, by this explanation, I would assume that there was darkness before light and that God is darkness. Or maybe my assumption is wrong. But regardless of that, if the answer to the first question is "light", then what is your explanation for this scientific fact?

And please present any scriptural verses regarding your explanation. That will be very helpful!

Answer 1

Brahman is the one constant, shining light that is beyond even the darkness that engulfs the universe at pralaya.

Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita said -:

ज्योतिषामपि तज्ज्योतिस्तमसः परमुच्यते।
ज्ञानं ज्ञेयं ज्ञानगम्यं हृदि सर्वस्य विष्ठितम्।। BG 13.18।।

jyOtiSAmapi tat jyOtiH tamasah param ucyatE|
jnyAnam jnyEyam jnyAna gamyam hRdi sarvasyadhiSThitam ||

Translation: It is said to be the light of lights; that which is beyond darkness. It is the knowledge itself, the knowable (i.e. the destination of knowledge) and is reachable through knowledge. It resides in the hearts of all.

There are several upanishad vAkyAs also that mean the same.

Answer 2

God dispels the darkness of ignorance and hence we are sure that at least he is not darkness.

But then is God light?

Now when we think of light, we think of light that is visible to our eyes. And something that is visible to material eyes is also material. But God is Sat-Chit-Anand i.e full of bliss, knowledge and eternal.

hence the answer here would depend on what you call as light .

1. If we are referring to light as perceived by our eyes then No. God is not light.
2. But if I say here light as knowledge then yes God is Knowledge,God is light.

BG 4.37

As a blazing fire turns firewood to ashes, O Arjuna, so does the fire of knowledge burn to ashes all reactions to material activities.

We cannot apply the idea of our limited mind to God. God is beyond the imagination of our mind. Nor we can think of him as something black or white as in we cannot say that if He is not Darkness then He must be light.

So who is God?

vedanta Sutra says

JanmaDyasya yatah (1.1.2)

Meaning:From whom birth etc.

God is He from whom everything emanates i.e. from whom light, darkness etc everything has come.Everything that our mind can possibly think of and not think of emanates from Him only.

What is light?

In very simple terms light is energy of God; Material energy to be specific. And God is energetic. Just like Sun is the Source of Sunshine and Sun Shine is his energy.

But if you call Knowledge of self, Knowledge of God as light then that is God. Knowledge of God and God are non-different.

In Gita Krishna Says

By Me, in My unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them. And yet everything that is created does not rest in Me. Behold My mystic opulence! Although I am the maintainer of all living entities and although I am everywhere, I am not a part of this cosmic manifestation, for My Self is the very source of creation.

So Krishna says that by His energy he pervades the entire universe and yet He is not the part of this material cosmic creation. he is beyond it. He is fully spiritual.

later in Gita Krishna says

That supreme abode of Mine is not illumined by the sun or moon, nor by fire or electricity. Those who reach it never return to this material world.

So to answer your query in Nutshell.

God is neither light nor darkness but the very Source of both. Light or Darkness are just expansion of His energy or one of His unlimited energies.

But Light of Knowledge(Knowledge of self) is God.

Answer 3

This question is one among many which leads to a much deeper discussion about time and eternality. The way I have come to understand this is that both God/Krishna and light exist without beginning. There are several references where it is stated that Krishna is the origin of everything as well as the resting place, including Brahma-samhita (specifically, first verse) and Bhagavad Gita (Ch.10, verse 3 and Ch. 10, verse 8).

It is important to note that Krishna describes Himself as "beginningless", and the same can be said of most things in creation, such as the individual jiva souls (all of us, Gita Ch.2, verse 12), or the spiritual world. So, while light originates in Krishna, this cannot be traced back in time, and therefore the discussion about what existed before light came into being does not fit in with the paradigm of eternality.

Explaining this in another way,

when we say that Krishna or God is the source of light, that's an expression to explain the hierarchical relationship between the two, and does not refer to a specific act of Krishna creating light (which could have a 'timestamp' associated with it.)

Answer 4

The supreme one is comparable to light.

BG 5.16 - But whose ignorance is destroyed by Knowledge of Self (Atma), their Knowledge, like the sun, reveals that supreme Reality. Like Sun, their Knowledge lightens up the Beyond (param)

In fact, the Sun has so much importance that, during the death of a person depending on Sun's position, it's determined if the person may attain Moksha or not.
How can we know that an Aatma got Moksha?

If we consider one Sun to be with stupendous light then, the true self of Brahman is equivalent to several such Suns.

BG 11.12 - Should the effulgence of a thousand suns blaze forth simultaneously in the sky, that might be similar to the radiance of that exalted One.

The light is something "existent". But the supreme one is beyond "existent" and "non existent"; incomprehensible due to non-dual. Hence it can be said as "light beyond light" as well.

BG 13.18 - That is the Light even of the lights; It is spoken of as beyond darkness. It is Knowledge, the Knowable, and the Known. It exists [specifically] in the hearts of all.

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"Scientifically, light is a thing and the absence of light is known as darkness. Darkness is not a thing. Hence, by this explanation, I would assume that there was darkness before light and that God is darkness."

Here is another POV of science:

• The light is said to be made up of photons. But they are weightless & sizeless. They are just name given to a concept. They can't be stopped and since they travel at speed of light, for them the time is permanently stopped. Isn't it more looking like timelessness of Brahman? :-)
• Darkness is believed to be made up of "dark matter" by many scientists; Keeping that in mind, we can also say that in reality everywhere it's light and it was light. Just that dark matter took some place to cover it!

Again both of above points are mere speculations. But from the scriptures it seems that God is equivalent to light. We naturally get cheerful upon seeing light and sometimes depressed when we don't see sun for a long.

Answer 5

God is neither light nor darkness. God can not be compared with any human experience.

" Brahman is without comparison. It is impossible to explain Brahman by analogy. It is between light and darkness. It is light, but not the light we perceive, not material light."

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna