VIEW : The God within — I — Shahid Rafi Ansari
The God Within theology declares that heaven is here on earth and that beatitude or supreme happiness is always there for the taking for the practitioners of this creed
In its most fundamental form, "The God within" is heresy, pure and simple. It is a denial of God's transcendence and a pantheistic blurring of the line between the Creator and His creation, a distinction that is central to all three monotheistic religions. The God within is the search for God (a supreme deity, spirit, or force) within the depths of your inner being, your soul or within this finite and transient world. It is a delusional search for the unbounded within the narrow and fleeting boundaries of this world. It is a quest for a direct experience with God, often though not always, outside of the moralistic and ritualistic constraints of religion. It recognises neither mediation nor any other prescribed method to attain its objective of experiencing God in a rapturous epiphany. The God within essentially is a folly that seeks not to know God as He, in His Wisdom, makes Himself manifest to His creatures through His attributes and revelations to chosen individuals (Prophet Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad (PBUH), and several more, but to know Him in a manner that satisfies one's own spiritual needs by creating a personal god out of one's pathos and delusions, one that serves one's emotional needs. Unlike the pray and grow rich creed, it is not the worship of Mammon at the altar of wealth but the worship of self at the altar of desire; the fecundity of the human mind in creating false gods is always amazing.
The search for God within is a popular phenomenon amongst more educated Americans. It arises out of the US's spiritual rootlessness, which in some respects is not so different from that of some of the more intelligent Arabs just before the advent of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Having grown sceptical of their gods and having discarded their traditional belief in idol worship for a vague monotheism, the Arabs used to circumambulate endlessly the Holy House of God in Mecca seeking God. Tired with exertion, they would finally sit down and cry in anguish from the depths of their souls: O Allah, we would worship you in the proper manner if we only knew how. There is a similar quandary for contemporary Americans. Sceptical that secularised Christianity with all its irregularities, inconsistencies, and just-believe-it insistence has the answer to their search for truth, they look for alternatives for spiritual fulfilment and find a number of foreign religions and some homegrown philosophies available. Sceptical again of any particular choice but willing to worship and pray without knowing to whom, where, or how, they take the easy way out. They bless every alternative with the sceptre of pluralism, declaring that all religious traditions lead to God and choose a loose spirituality, which best fits their spiritual needs. The truth, however, is that not all paths are the straight or even the not so straight paths to God, and the absolute truth is really the victim here, when the good, the bad, and the ugly are all put in the same relativistic basket and blessed with equanimity.
The God within creed is sometimes described as "spiritual but not religious" because "some of its proponents are uncomfortable with the word God...and all are critical of institutional religion." They claim that "their spiritual vision is bigger than any particular church or creed or faith." Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey are two of the more prominent exponents of the God within faith.
The creed's principle belief is that the path to God is through feeling rather than through reason, experience, or revelation, and that traditional faiths can only provide flashes of truth but not the ultimate experience to a spiritual seeker. That feelings can deceive and the mush that one concocts for oneself might lead to reproachable behaviour is not a factor to consider for the God within gurus and practitioners.
Its second tenet is the heretical belief that God exists everywhere and within everything, which is nothing but pantheism. In earlier, more intolerant ages, heretics with such beliefs were often sent to the gallows.
Its third most significant belief is the denial of heaven and hell. According to the creed's practitioners, the only heaven or hell is the one that one makes for oneself here on earth, and that "God's all-encompassing nature means that sin...and evil...will ultimately be reconciled rather than defeated." This is a prime example of fashioning beliefs and the concept of God according to one's preferences and predilections. Overwhelmingly (though by no means all), adherents of the God within are children of the age of the sexual revolution, for whom sexual morality, as it is known in the traditional faiths, is a cipher. A Deity that judges behaviour is not consonant with their purposes for that Deity. Theirs is a consolatory Deity, which provides comfort from grief and sorrow, not one that condemns and punishes immoral behaviour. Hence, their theology debases God to the level of a shrink who comforts and consoles but does not condemn.
Lastly, the God within theology declares that heaven is here on earth and that beatitude or supreme happiness is always there for the taking for the practitioners of this creed. "...eternity can be entered any moment, by any person who understands how to let go, let God, and let themselves be washed away in love."
(To be continued)
The writer is a freelance writer and an electrical engineer. He can be reached at shahid.rafi@yahoo.com
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