Does God play favoritism?

Most people tend to think of God (i.e. Ishwara) has having volition or with the hidden intention/motivation that secretly plays favoritism to some and not all. This is the wrong understanding of who Ishwara is.  There is no Ishwara that has any intention or motivation, simply because there is no doer behind Ishwara's overall role and capacity to create, sustain and dissolve all of reality at once. From Ishwara’s perspective, Ishwara is already liberated. We only speak of Ishwara from our own vantage point to help explain concepts such as karma, reincarnation, etc. because we are attached to a doer who remains subject to these concepts/laws.

 

When one is strongly identified with the ego, there is a high degree of separation perceived. And so it is here we feel inferior and insistingly believe in there being a superior power that upholds the universe and everything contained with it including our limited selves. As such, we ask questions like: “Why is God punishing me?”, “How can there be a God, if there is so much evil in this world?”, “Is it necessary for God to hurt us?” “What good can bad things possibly serve?” etc. etc. etc. The list is endless.

 

Now, it is not wrong to ask these questions, because they will be asked regardless by many who are attached to the ego. In fact, it is okay to ask these questions because either way, you are already being led to liberation (i.e. removing ignorance/mind), whether you’re conscious of it or not —since it is your very birth right.  And so, let us give mildly satisfactory answers to seekers who fall in this category. The answer in this case is: It is just an experience. All experiences are exactly what they are: Experiences. And whether you interpret these experiences to be good or bad, the one thing they all have in common is that they are temporary. From the perspective of the ego, it is just a play of consciousness that supports the eventual and inevitable revealing of its true self - something that would have been impossible without the power of Maya.

 

Now, Iet me step forward and give you a more deeper answer. The answer is that nothing is really happening. Of course, many will not agree with this claim, because when separation is perceived, things appear to be happening. In fact, not only do they appear that way, it feels like it IS that way. And the more involved you are with this happening, the more you take the happening to be real. Thus, the more questions will be asked. But once you realize experientially (not conceptually), that all is just an appearance, you will see that everything is unfolding naturally without any motive. There was never any intention behind anything. It occurred naturally and spontaneously.

 

So how can Ishwara be satisfied with anything if there is no motive behind anything?

 

Consider this: Is a tree satisfied when it provides you shade? Ishwara is performing a true selfless service, but ONLY from our perspective. In other words, we only say thank you to the tree when we receive shade. Ishwara simply lends you agency and the ability to comprehend the experience so that you can be a doer and enjoyer. Nonetheless, the tree is still there whenever you identify with a false self to experience the shade. And it will keep giving you its fruits according to its own autonomous and self-governing laws that it knows absolutely NOTHING about. Because it is already liberated! What can it possibly know? Again, does the tree know it’s providing you shade? Or is it simply ‘being’?

 

When the ego is permanently negated, Ishwara automatically disappears. The two cannot exist without the other as both appear at once and disappear the same time. Ishwara no longer serves you, because who is there for it to serve? You remain as what you always were.

 

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