God and the Control of Fate
God is often constructed by the human mind as a master controller or a projection used to outsource the control of fate when we confront our own limitations and anxieties. The true understanding does not come from defining, debating, or naming. It comes from accepting the silent reality that simply is, without translating it into an entity we can control or blame. Let me explain.
Mundane Versus Miracle
Do I need God? Why would I need God? Would I need God to make my coffee? Would I need God to do something else that I should do myself?
Actually, people do not expect mundane things from God. They do not ask for help with daily labor. Instead, they want miracles. They want God to change their lives. They want fate to be more palatable. They want to change their life without changing themselves.
This is what the movie Good Fortune was all about and this is why it was criticized.
What God Wants?
What would God want? Would God want us to fight and kill in the name of God? Would God want starving or well-fed people to adopt a particular designation? Or would God want them to identify with a symbol or flag we created? Or would God want one of us to lead the human race?
What God wants is a trillion-dollar question. Consider the combined GDP of the world. Then compare it to the massive budgets of temples, churches, and Gurus. This is a massive industry of faith.
Let us use our rationality to examine this. God is presumed to be omniscient. Surely, God knows that millions of humans sleep with only one meal or no meal at all. Would a creator who made the universe need to use one human to coerce others?
Why would God prefer one over billions? If a powerful God operates in this way, it makes no logical sense. Each of us wants to feel special. If we do not feel special, we fall into despair.
So we look over our shoulders and choose the religion we are comfortable with. This is usually the one we were taught in childhood. It might also be the one that was there when we transitioned from bad times to good times.
But we rarely question it in its entirety. We only do what we are trained to do. We behave like domestic pets. To be born human is an accident. But to remain human is a courageous struggle. This struggle is not made easy by religious teachings.
Outsourcing Fate Control
This desire to make fate palatable reveals a core human habit. We seek to outsource the control of our fate, just as we find someone to blame for our failures.
As discussed in Chapter 8, the modern mind is obsessed with control. But we eventually confront the limits of our control. We cannot control disease, financial collapse, or the actions of others. Faced with these limits, the mind experiences anxiety. Instead of accepting uncertainty, we invent a master controller. We name this controller God.
We then attempt to negotiate with this controller through ritual and prayer. This negotiation is another version of the politics of control.
We offer obedience, rituals, and praise. In return, we expect favorable outcomes and altered circumstances. We want our fate reshaped to suit our desires.
Value of the Name
Swami Vivekananda presented a beautiful reasoning about the word “God”. He was asked why he used that old word. He replied that it is the best word for our purpose. All the hopes, aspirations, and happiness of humanity are centered in it.
The word has been associated with cosmic intelligence and holiness. Great saints realized its import and understood its meaning. But as it became current, ignorant people took over the word. As a result, it lost its spirit and glory. We must cleanse it of superstition and realize its true meaning.
A phrase begins life as a literary expression. Its beauty leads to lazy repetition. Soon, repetition establishes it as a formula. It is then used to express contradictory ideas. The same thing happens to the word “God”. It is repeated as a formula, losing its living truth.
But Vivekananda was not presenting God as a miracle cure for human problems. He was telling people to ‘find’ God. There is a world of difference.
The Escape from Responsibility
Outsourcing fate control is an escape from responsibility. It allows us to avoid the reality of our choices. If things go well, we thank divine favor. If things go poorly, we blame divine will or bad karma.
In both cases, we avoid looking directly at ourselves. We avoid observing our own habits and simulations. This is why people prefer a demanding God over a silent reality. A demanding God can be appeased, negotiated with, or blamed.
A silent reality offers no handles for control. It simply is.
The Rooted Alternative
The rooted personality does not need this projection. They do not look for miracles to soften fate. They accept reality as it is, without translation. They do not ask God to do what they should do themselves.
They make their own coffee. They face their own confusion. They understand that life is not a transaction with the divine. They do not seek to control the ride. They simply inhabit it. They stay near the body and maintain distance from the mind.
For them, the search for God is replaced by direct observation, which we discussed in Chapter 11. But the observation becomes too hazy to work if God operates as a consortium.
The Dangerous Consortium
Never mix sex, religion, and money in one relationship or community. If done, it will lead to disaster. The three together are highly convincing. It often works like a magic spell on a person. All faculties are put to sleep.
Sex frames our relationships, identity, and family. Religion deals with the anxieties of death and the afterlife. Money is the only practical God we know. But it is full of limitations and difficult to manage.
A religious leader handling followers’ money creates obvious corruption risks. Mixing sex with financial transactions raises exploitation concerns. Cults control all three domains to enable extraordinary abuse.
Politicians love religion more than the clergy. Politicians show it even more than the clergy do. Religion pulls voters out in hordes. Good roads are forgotten in a few days. Fear of God, or worse, the rush to be on the side of God, needs no other coercion.
History shows that mixing spiritual authority with financial power and sexual regulation causes brutal wars. When one institution controls all three, abuse becomes inevitable. To live peacefully, we must keep these domains separate.
Be silent and know.
Reading through these 14 chapters may seem gloomy. It is, if we look at life from the standards set by our own reality. This is the reality discussed in the past fourteen chapters. The reality that exists in our minds.
Is there no Joy at all? We shall discuss joy in the next chapter.