In Search of God - But Where Was Krishna?

Did anyone here listen to the recent three-part series In Search of God on BBC Radio 4? News-presenter John Humphrys met with a leader from each of the Christian, Jewish and Islamic traditions and asked them to help him with his enquiries into the nature of God. Although I didn't hear the actual conversations which ensued, I caught this series being discussed on the Feedback programme afterwards.

It seems it was a roaring success! Mr Humphrys described himself as 'gobsmacked' at the response the series has received - almost all of it positive. As well as thousands of letters, there were e-mails and telephone messages from listeners all over the world who had appreciated or been inspired by these talks. It was good to hear that the topic of God is still of such interest to so many people, and that listeners were open-minded enough to appreciate the view-points of all three speakers, regardless of their faith. Theists, atheists and agnostics - all were among those who found food for thought here.

But although this is very encouraging, can we be surprised that Mr Humphrys failed to find God? After all, where was the representative from the most ancient monotheistic tradition of all - Hinduism?! Why did he choose three leaders from the Abrahamic religions, which are so similar in their understanding of God, and completely ignore the Eastern tradition with its very different perspectives and clearly defined philosophy of the soul, the difference between matter and spirit, the concepts of reincarnation and karma, of a God who is not a 'creator' but from whom everything emanates, who is 'ever fresh and youthful' and what's more plays a flute? Humph, Mr Humphrys!

It would have been wonderful to have had a representative of the Gaudiya-Vaishnava tradition on his programme to explain these points, especially a follower of Srila Prabhupada - who so expertly and thoroughly taught and wrote about them for a Western audience. Of course our pool of erudite Gaudiya representatives may not yet be as full as we would like. But I hope that in the future we can look forward to hearing articulate Gaudiya spokespersons on programmes such as this.

Some of us have written to the BBC to express our dissatisfaction about this. If you would like to do the same, you can write to them here and also listen to the series: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/feedback.shtml

Picture: God taking measurements for His creation - medieval.