GOD- AN EXPLORATION  

One of my earliest writings- written in response to my own questions about God that would haunt me! Of course this understanding has evolved and refined over the years, and yet I share this writing with you, as it expresses the very beginning of my journey and some of you may resonate to it!

Part1/ Different Gods

GOD defies definition. The very process of defining sets boundaries, limiting creativity, and implicit in my understanding of GOD is that which is the very antithesis of this. I have realized over the last few months that in order to express what God feels like within me I can at best try to describe, rather than define, and find even this elucidation ever changing. For now, what works best for me in description of our major domo One-God is: ALL THAT IS! As that’s what our head honcho GOD literally is! It is indeed this all-encompassing essence that best depicts GOD. Paradoxically, inherent in this is even what appears not to be! making GOD indeed the One Supreme Divine Energy.
 
This all-embracive ness of GOD is best revealed (in English) by the word Love. However not merely the love that we normally identify with, that loving and gentle emotion, but a force that is an amalgamation of all qualities, of indeed all that is, making up a more potent Love! The two terms of ‘love’ have become synonymous only because on our human level, the emotion of love as we experience it in its purest form, comes closest to describing what the magnified energy of GOD feels like! The bliss, the feeling of expansion and oneness.

The word God however brings to our minds a pantheon of Gods! Resplendent images of our various mythological ‘Gods and Goddesses’ come to my mind. They of course, simply put, are the innumerable aspects of the same One Supreme Energy! These aspects are not subordinate or separate from the Supreme Energy but indeed inherent in it and infact all the qualities that make up our one GOD. Each God/Goddess only depicts for our human understanding each unique divine quality in its purest form and most un-diluted essence. These Icons are the names and images we have given GOD’S myriad qualities (each with its own energy feel/field) to facilitate our identification. Saraswati may reflect the energy form of knowledge and learning; Shiv represent change and expansion and laxmi perhaps abundance, to identify but a very few. These pure qualities are what GOD Is. Experiencing, expanding, being them is GOD’s way of Being! We can thus also view them as the pure ‘intents’ intrinsic in Supreme Logos that ‘lead’ to creation.

Of course each of these dazzling Gods and Goddesses have their numerous avatars, further showing us the infinite focuses, potentials inherent in every quality/energy. Will and power maybe be symbolized by Kali; whereas its various aspects from fierce to gentle by ‘her’ several avatars like Chamundi or Durga etc. We can also view these avatars as the different ‘selves’ of our above Gods and Goddesses. Moreover they marry, cohabit and align themselves with each other showing us the infinite possibilities natural in the Supreme logos.
 
Too much of a good thing can be wonderful;-)) for then we have our historical Gods, for example Buddha and Christ, amongst many others. These perfected humans are those same divine intents manifested, each pure quality being experienced to its full potential through creation, and the same energy now more fulfilled and expanding back into Being Divine Supreme Logos. These Gods or perfected humans are all at different points of expansion and evolution and we can perhaps refer to these expanded and fulfilled energies ‘on their way back’, as Masters.
 
Mythological Gods and Masters are thus those same divine qualities of All That Is, the former as the pure energy and undiluted forms on the way ‘into’ creation and the latter the same energy now more wholly experienced and on the way ‘back’. Just as each mythological God symbolizes a special quality, each Master is a focus on a certain quality or aspect with all its nuances to experience and expand ‘for’ Supreme Logos. However we must keep in mind, that as Supreme Logos is All That Is, expansion and perfection of any individuation of It implies an amalgamation of all other ‘qualities’ within them too. The pre-dominant energy or focus of a (for example) Christ consciousness may be Love, but will include knowledge, will, abundance, joy… and so forth. Similarly each of us humans have a pre-dominant quality or aspect that we are experiencing ‘for’ GOD through our many ‘lives’ but inherent in our expansion is a merging of all divine qualities. This is why as we evolve we become more joyous, loving, creative, knowing, self-empowered, and abundant!

Which brings us to our starting point: our current selves. Naturally we are the same One Supreme Energy, with each of us being a unique focus through which GOD experiences each of His qualities; experiences Himself! We can thus say we each have our ‘source or purpose’ in one of those ‘qualities’ of All That Is, which is being experienced in all its potentiality by All that Is as ‘me’! Like the Masters, all of us are at different ‘points’ in this cycle of creation and at every ‘point’ we are all just GOD experiencing and being Itself!! GOD is not as we sometimes imagine a separate energy sitting cross-legged in bliss with nothing to do!! GOD is indeed everything, everyone, all happenings, and all experiences. Everything we see (and don’t) around us is GOD, from that stone sitting still to the saint in bliss, including ourselves running around! We cannot differentiate between his ‘perfected’ state and our growing one if we want to truly grasp what GOD in Its entirety means. It is like trying to take apart, say a piece of chocolate, and discriminate between the cocoa, milk and sugar and the process of it being made. All together make the chocolate!! We are thus all GOD doing ‘His’ thing: Being!

Part 2. GOD’S and our  ‘beginning’

However as humans we seek a ‘beginning/ source’ and a goal! Linear thinking is part of our neurological structure and we always want to know whether the egg or the chicken came first. Whilst there is no separate source as such because that would imply a division or be like trying to separate the sticky resin from the web it spins, we may for our better comprehension only, try and ‘track’ the ‘stages’, keeping in mind that in the ultimate sense there is no un-manifest without what it ‘manifests’!

The Unmanifest in our terms is the ‘source’ (and the ‘goal’). It is all that is; it is thus also all potential, possible and probable and their realization! Inherent within It is Consciousness! through which this realization of its potential takes place, in which experience and manifestation occurs. GOD being the un-manifest and (the manifest) consciousness is thus not merely consciousness but more than that. By the same reasoning God isn’t merely the source and goal either! Consciousness is the ‘tool/medium’ through which GOD experiences Itself. Consciousness creates the ‘forms’ (and lets keep in mind that forms are not always physical) through which this experiencing of Itself happens. Somewhat analogous are the relationships and events through which we experience ourselves. We cannot separate that from what we are!

A more simplistic analogy is us using a mirror to ‘see’ the physical self, which we know exists! Similarly, Consciousness is the mirror that Divine Energy uses to enhance its experience of Itself, to perceive better its I Am ness! Through Consciousness, this I AM ness further augments its awareness and knows I AM ALL THAT IS. We can again take the analogy of a mirror in which we now view all parts of our physical selves through which our ‘knowledge/experience’ of it grows. We pirouette around and see our hair and eyes and face and stomach and hips, we try on different ‘forms’ /clothes and makeup and hair styles and experience more in totality what our physical self is and can best be through this reflection. In this analogy too we already are what we are, we have the face and the clothes and the make up etc so the mirror does not add anything to us! It only gives us an experience of our self! (NOTE 3)

In its ‘initial stages’ this Supreme Divine Energy/GOD in order to experience Itself created Itself in the ‘forms’ of individual Wholes of Itself. (keep in mind: by using consciousness to create these forms. Also that forms can be of diverse types and do not refer merely to a physical form.) We can say that at first GOD experienced Itself through the creation of cloned forms of Itself!  Each ‘new’ form/whole whilst individuated and unique remained (part of) the original whole too. This continues through creation! At every stage of GOD’S experience/creation there is individuation and distinctive experience that retains still all its ‘earlier/larger’ Divine Identities/ Experience/Being. Every aspect that is individuated continues to be the Whole, only forgetting perhaps it’s earlier Selves.

 These Wholes then continue (d) to create other ‘forms’ to experience themselves further, to BE all the different qualities inherent in them, which is everything! and all qualities! One may in analogy get a clearer picture by conjuring say a golden paper with outlines of circles within circles each distinct yet sharing and being the same gold base! No matter how many circles we make, they never stop being the gold paper. Lets take one quantum leap now and further conjure each circle further creating forms within themselves, each in their own individuated and unique ways to experience all those golden qualities!

Many different ‘forms’ are thus created to experience GOD by GOD! One of these is physical life. In some other ‘forms’ they retain the awareness of being created thus and of their ‘connection’ to their source in varying degrees. One of these Wholes then was the ‘source’ of our universe! And likewise others created other universes! At this stage we can refer to this pool of divine consciousness that makes up our universe as the Universal Logos. It is GOD a few ‘steps’ into creation or experiencing Itself!  It is one of the individuation's of GOD and those more familiar with mythology may ascribe a ‘God’ to this energy.  Inherent in it again are all GOD’s qualities that can be viewed now as the ‘pure’ intents behind what our universe then further creates/experiences through physicality for/as GOD! Perhaps many of our mythological Gods and Goddesses belong here, with each Divine quality having some form and identity now, and on the way back this realized pool maybe the combined Energy of the Masters who have expanded ‘back’ into this, known in various terms. Just as head honcho God desires to BE or experience Itself so does Universal Logos. In Indian philosophy this desire is ascribed to GOD’s feminine energy Devi. This desire or will to BE all that it is, is inherent in the Supreme Divine Energy and continues into all Gods creations and individuation's, including us!

Part 3/GOD becoming physical
Back to us then! Physical life is one of GOD’s ways of Being! It is one of GOD’s many experiences. It is one of the form’s consciousness creates in fulfillment of GOD’s qualities. Our planet earth and its many species including mankind are thus some of the varying ways in which GOD is experiencing Itself. Each is a distinctive and unique ‘focus’ taking back to its Larger Self: GOD, an inimitable awareness. The Supreme Energy as man then, chose to become a form that would (appear to) be very different from what It really is, towards BEing Itself more wholly!! It is just one of It’s ways of Being Itself!  GOD thus endowed His human forms with a mind, which contained an ego, the portion that would make His human forms think they were separate from what they really Are! However as humans are only this Supreme Energy in another form, they continue to be GOD and this memory resides in their unconscious mind.
 
If we follow mankind’s history as a species then we will understand that even as man GOD experiences Himself in varying ways. At first the human ego was less developed and whilst GOD experienced Himself in new ways as this evolutionary ancestor of ours, He further chose a more complete non-identification for a larger experience! The ego developed more and we, as humans now feel completely separate from our Larger Selves and reality. Moreover, every stage of individuation is bestowed with its own free will, as that is the ‘purpose’ of its individuation: the unique and multifarious ways in which GOD in Its diverse forms, experiences Itself. This awareness, expansion or fulfillment indeed of all that It is, is Gods way of Being Itself! (Note 2)

Part of GOD’s experience as man on planet earth now is to have a conscious mind through which ‘we’ create our own reality. To learn and perfect that consciousness creates form and not vice versa, to discover the ‘power’ of consciousness, to grasp how to handle this inexhaustible energy and become co-creators, thereby evolving (back) and in this re-affirmation so to say, GOD’s awareness of Itself is ever expanding and finding Itself anew! Other forms experience and evolve through different ways; maybe some in what may seem easier ways, as they either retain memory of their source or like animals where the experience is more of the unconscious mind. (However as we have currently chosen this human way, we obviously selected it then in preparation of experiencing other ‘more’ evolved forms and have accomplished understanding certain other forms required for this human experience!)

Part 4/ We as God!
Whilst from all the above it may be clearer that we are each GOD, lets now view it from our human perspective! The Unmanifest in our terms then is the ‘source’ and for our understanding lets imagine this un-manifest ‘filling’ itself with ‘units of consciousness’ with every unit retaining the awareness of the larger ‘I Am All That Is’! Each of us is one of these ‘units’ with its unique focus and identity through the entire ‘process’ (of continual individuation plus the ‘journey’ of merging back) and thereby relaying back to GOD an original feel or essence of Itself. Each of us then, as a ‘unit of consciousness’ with our own ‘evolutionary history’ of different forms, choose willfully at some point to become human and evolve further through this physical experience!
 
Our unit of consciousness self, soul self, or larger self are all stages of individuation of GOD which choose to become our current human self/for example divya. The physical experience is chosen to ‘learn’ many things which once ‘consciously’ absorbed on this plane then becomes inherent unconscious ‘knowing’ in our larger/ ‘future’ selves and helps to expand towards re-aligning with their/our God self! (an interesting aside: the root word of religion is re-ligne which means to tie/connect again).Even now our other evolutionary experiences have given us much knowledge which has become ‘part’ of us unconsciously, like many of our bodily functions!
 
We thus have chosen to experience this human experience in which we will forget that we are All That Is/ GOD. As humans however, many a time we wonder why indeed we choose to forget!!? We may understand it better now if we keep in mind ‘God’s’ and our larger selves perspectives!
 
Lets take the analogy of an actor, who in his role as a beggar, wants to experience in life in a slum for his own growth as an actor!  Remembering he is there for this, will not give him the totality of its experience, as it would have if he had indeed forgotten for the day that he drove there in an air-conditioned car, after a five star meal, and has that comfy bed to go back to in the evening! Or lets say you have won this free trip to be part of a Hollywood studio and live like a millionaire for a day! Some part of you knows it’s an illusion/make-believe so you don’t experience it as thoroughly as you would have if you had forgotten for a day your other reality!
 
We, therefore, choose to forget, in order to experience in totality and hone our experiences in this physical reality! Think of a stock market trader trying to hone his skills. Mock trading, and his remembering he is not really responsible for what happens would not develop his skills as real trading would!

We are in some ways, like those students, who leave their home and country, to go abroad to distant and strange lands for further studies. They choose to do so for self-growth, expansion, and fulfillment. Imagine that once the students were on the flight that takes them there, they lose all memory of their safe haven here: their parents, friends, family and familiar environment.  In that far away place they will then go through what they perceive as trials and tribulation, not knowing that actually they have a home and all the comforts they desire already!
 
Of course the very next question to arise is why do we choose to go through what we term/see as trials and tribulations? Lets think again from the larger perspective! Consider our self, going on an excursion or adventure in which we want to experience all its facets! We go out of our free will to experience, enjoy, add something to our self. We choose too! And This is what physical life is all about: an expedition that GOD in our form is undertaking out of choice, to experience Itself. It is an exploration of all the nuances of this venture so it is wholly experienced.  It is similar to why our children would choose to leave their home ‘comforts’ and go abroad to study: for the experience, expansion, fulfillment that this would give them for their adult or ‘future’ selves!

Hence ‘we’ choose to experience ALL: what we call ‘good’, and ‘not so good’, and the many ‘shades’ in between!! It is through all aspects that we fully experience anything. In the above example of a mock millionaires life in a Hollywood studio, it is when we experience its enjoyable and not so enjoyable aspects will we know what being a millionaire is really about. Then that ‘knowing’ will be truly added to our reservoir of knowledge/experience, not needing a repeat, and we will move on with different experiences.
 
In this way then we create with an increasingly expanded understanding, the forms and experiences we ‘desire’ in fulfillment of our Selves. Like an artist trying the different mediums of oils and pastels and watercolors, fudging some paintings maybe, till he finally understands all the aspects of each and incorporates them more successfully into his creations! The paintings become more beautiful! Similarly through each life we are becoming better co-creators. Of course what we may then choose to create, may not be what we think we want now as expansion removes our many limitations!
Once we have experienced all the aspects of GOD that we can through physical form, we create and further experience through other evolved forms till we are ‘back to re-experiencing” our Divine Energy/Godness! Only thing being, that through this journey we have remained GOD! Remember each form while separate remains GOD. At certain points we choose to forget. So there is no going back as such. We have always remained GOD, yet experienced HIS different forms! We have remained safely at home while having enjoyed many adventures! We indeed have had our cake and eaten it too!!

 July 2002
 

Note 1 Our language often hinders explanation, and the word ‘expansion’ sometimes confuses the issue! We consider it blasphemous infact that our perfect complete GOD would need to expand! We may use the word Fulfillment instead, but no single word truly allows us ‘in’ to what GOD is. We can say perhaps that GOD actually only means All that is Being Itself! It is experiencing everything it already is and in that getting eternally fulfilled! We as humans need to understand a ‘purpose’ for this. We as humans further think all happening must have a destination; that growth implies expansion and increase. We further ascribe value judgments to its myriad experiences.

Note 2 An important point to note, and which I have not included in this article lest it complicate understanding, is that as God there is no linear time and everything is happening simultaneously in the NOW. Thus Future mankind is also GOD’s experience whereby the veils are lifted, and we are increasingly aware of our God self! And of course mankind at all future stages, including us becoming (aware) of being God again.

Note 3 In analogy lets consider GOD as a magical painting. The un-manifest will not be black and lifeless but have a shimmering coat of effervescent paint. Moreover in the undercoat there will be every color and line possible in indeed all the ways: shades, textures and combinations it is possible for color and line to be! Also present will be every design, pattern, idea and form they can combine into.Now as this is our analogy lets stretch it a little more;-)! Imagine the shimmering coat as consciousness and each fleck alive, aware It IS. And each of these units actually creating all those forms inherent in It as a whole:  Trees, birds, men, aliens, gods universes, planets, stones, oh everything possible! All probable combinations are limitlessly feasible naturally. Moreover, the painting as a whole experiences each unit’s creations!
In one sense the final designs /creations were inherent. In another sense there is complete freedom to create what the painting chooses to of Itself! Without this freedom there would be no ‘creation’ but a mechanical pointless exercise surely!