LESSON 2

[Guest guest]

This is a most difficult assignment for me and I have been avoiding it

because I do not really have a clear concept called 'God', it seems to me

that I perceive the word through all the layers of perception added to the

word by common usage. I do not really to any particular concept of

God. But I am aware very often, though I forget it sometimes, of being part

of some continuum about which I 'know' very little. In the following answer

I will try and refer to that unknown something that I only seem to be able

to approach obliquely as 'God'.

 

1. Try to define the role of God in your life.

Something that connects me to everything else that exists. It therefore

really defines my relationship to everyone/everything else.The connection

harmonises me. It is something I can draw upon and to which I contribute. It

removes my limitedness, the 'I' can become a bit of a prison. It is like

learning from everyones experiences as they are also my experiences. It is

an increased awareness. When I lose this connectedness, things just feel

very awkward, and I do not feel at home with myself. Somehow this is also

the motivation that drives our sense of ethics and when we violate our

ethics (dharma) we weaken this connectedness.

 

2. What have you done in the past one year to come closer to God?

Not much. There is not much to do, but perhaps to become is more relevant.

But it is too close to call.

 

3. Which statement is more relevant:

(a) God is all, or

(b) All is God

 

I presume (a) means that God is all in that God is the most important item.

(b) that everything that exists is somehow caught up in this interconnection

that I think of as 'God'.

 

So I will go with (b)

 

4. How is the role of a Jyotish different from a priest?

 

A priest in someway projects his energies into this interconnectedness in a

postive way to change the way his client relates to this environment,

changing both his client and the environment. The jyotish is more like an

observer and interpreter than an intermediary.