In God, I Trust

Sometimes I feel I am sitting quietly in the present moment, very localised. Suddenly, I am floating all over. I am both a particle and a wave, just the way the constituents of my mind body.

David Bohm in conversation with Jiddu Krishnamurthy

?God is not the old man with a harp, the Zeus or Indra with a thunderbolt, elements of nature to be afraid of as power centres. God is far more than that. God exists, not as a form or a concept, but as the nourishing, empowering energy that was never not there. It is the energy source from which all else sprang. It is infinite, eternal, all powerful, omniscient, omnipotent and real.?

?Why do religions demean this eternal energy with forms, names, labels and corrupting ideals? God is the energy of nature. We arise from that energy and possess all of its force and power as our potentiality. Our actuality is limited by the conditioned false belief that we are not energy, but matter.??

?When we move from the concept of god as that superior being sitting in judgment of our actions to the concept that we too are divine, we become free and fulfilled. We no longer need to control or be controlled. We are consciousness, we are awareness, we are potentiality.?We are God.

?The truth that we are energy beings is an experiential reality. Cognitively and scientifically, a primary school child knows that the subatomic particles of elemental materials we are made of exist in the dual state of wave and particle, both at the same time. Yet, in our minds we are limited in the belief that we are merely mind and body matter, since that is what we see. The reality that we indeed are both matter and energy requires shedding this limiting belief.?

?Yet, we are afraid to acknowledge our divine potential. As Marianne Williamson said so powerfully, ‘our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure’. What holds us back??

?Religions have always held us back. Religions needed tools to control us. Religious concept of god, as the controlling father, as Sigmund Freud put it, was one such tool. This father had the stick and the carrot, and humans were his load bearing donkeys. The carrot was eternal salvation with the hope of being seated next to the all- powerful father. In some religions this was the pleasure of wine, women and song, all that was denied in life. The stick was the eternal damnation in cruel fires roasted over and over again in greed and guilt.?

?The TV show Lucifer was a brilliant satire, and as all great satires are, an excellent replay of reality of religion’s carrot and stick, heaven and hell, all knowing father and rebellious Lucifer. ‘No matter how bad things get, the true test is how we choose to respond to the pain we suffer, or inflict.’, says a character from this show. Pain or pleasure, greed or fear, heaven and hell, are the consequences of our emotions, thoughts and actions, which religions manipulate us with confessions and rituals, instead of educating us through reflection of the truth.?

?Truth is that we are ignorant of the potentiality of our divine energy. We are not sinners to be punished. We need to be unveiled of our ignorance. Religions has no interest in relieving us of ignorance. Nor did science till recently. Till recently, scientific endeavour was only about the material aspects of life, not its energy aspects. Anyone who dared not to conform was eliminated by religions. For the first time in human history, just over a century ago, Einstein confirmed ‘scientifically’ the Vedic truth that we are more than matter, that we are energy.

?Knowledge may be the antonym of ignorance, but not a good enough response to unveil this ignorance of our true nature. Isa Vasya Upanishad says ‘neither ignorance nor knowledge will redeem you.’ Einstein’s theory may have revolutionised the world of science and technology. It has barely created a ripple in the space of religious beliefs. People wish to believe, against all irrefutable evidence, that the universe was created about 6000 years ago in the garden of Eden, woman from man’s ribs, with a snake playing the eternal joker. With such ignorance being bliss, it is as Gray said, folly to be wise.

?It's easy to fear what we do not see. It’s difficult to believe and hope for what we don’t. This is the advantage religions have in brainwashing us with the fear of the stick, with carrots of hope they offer. The invisible truth requires faith of a different kind; it requires knowledge of a higher level. One needs to experience what Einstein, Bohm and such others experienced in their quest to realise the energy of our matter. As we read in Bohm’s words in the beginning of this piece, ‘we need to experience the wave, and float as energy, while we are localised as a particle of matter’. Is that possible? Yes.

?Reflect

?Inquire as to why we are here, in this world, at this time, in this environment?

Is it an accident with no purpose?

If yes, would anything we do matter?

We don’t need to fear consequences that religions threaten us with. We can immerse ourselves with instant pleasure and pay for the consequences. After all, as Socrates said, ‘how does it matter what happens when you don’t know?’?

?If your reflection reveals that there may be a purpose to your being here, now, in this environment,

Would it make sense to understand what it is?

What would it then mean to fulfil that purpose, or not fulfil it?

Where would that lead us?

What would it require to fulfil it??

?To each of us, this self-inquiry may reveal something different. True, each of us is divine as the holographic fragment of the eternal universal truth. Yet, we are in different forms, and this may mean different purposes, unique to each. This inquiry is like peeling layers off our veils of ignorance.?As we strip them, one by one, we shed limiting false beliefs instilled in us through our faith and culture by those who we mistakenly call as ‘elders’. The ‘fear we may see’?as Williamson said, reduces as darkness lifts and light enters. We gain courage to believe in ourselves as energy beings, rather than obey others to feel secure.?

?Each of us has this divine potential. Each of us has a responsibility to actualise this potential. All that it takes is to be vulnerable of our failings, hopeful of our potential, grateful to our inner compass, and accepting of where the energy leads us. After all, we’re the energy.?Believe in this. Manifest this.

?Please do write in, resonant or dissonant. Let’s have a conversation.

?Ram is co-founder and mentor at Coacharya?https://coacharya.com . Ram's focus is integration of Eastern wisdom with modern science, spiritually, systemically and sustainably.