The Concept of An Evolving God in Eastern Metaphysics
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
3 June 2024
"Classical theism, with its emphasis on an
unchanging and distant God, can perpetuate harmful narratives and limit our
understanding of the divine’s engagement with the world."
While Classical Theism and Process
Theology are one
and the same, I quite agree with Professor Adis Duderija's aforementioned
statement.
An average
Muslim or a follower of Semitic faith/s may not be able to fathom the import
and profundity of Professor Adis' statement. There's no flippancy in it. To an
average and rather hardcore Muslim, Christian or a Jew, god is a fixed identity
which remains unchanged. It's not their fault.
All Semitic
faiths suffer from theological status quo and are sickly rigid. That god can
and must change is sacrilegious to a Muslim or a Christian. But the idea of a
changing, rather 'evolving' god has been prevalent in Hinduism and Eastern
metaphysics for ages.
Upanishadic
god is not an entity but pure consciousness (Vishuddh Chetna). Kena
Upanishad, one of the 10 principal Upanishads known as 'Dashopanishad,'
believes that human and divine consciousness grow and evolve together: TattryestuDeva-ManveeyaChetnasyaSadrishParimarjan.
Oriental spiritual ethos are ever-evolving and dynamic whereas the religious
ethos of all three Semitic faiths are static and stagnant.
Mind you, I've used the word 'spiritual' in
the context of Eastern faiths and 'religious' for the Semitic religions.
Eastern metaphysics or spirituality is more about the overall evolution of all;
humans as well as god or gods. Here in the East, Adi Shankar believed that even
god was a part of an illusion: Devam Pratybhute Maya. In his magnum
opus, "Indian Philosophy and Contemporary Issues," the Spalding
Professor at Oxford, Dr Bimal Krishna Matilal opines that, "All faiths
must contemporise their respective gods in order to relate to the evolution
that's taking place in nature all the time. God is not independent of that.
Heaven doesn't have a different set of rules."
The very
concept of a punishing and distant god, esp. in Islam, emerged from god's
perceived unchangeability. The fallacious belief that god is beyond all rules
distances god from humans. Turkish poet Orhan Veli Kanik (1914-1950) aptly
said, "Je JemperTanriBet Phin Omni, Bil Et Sebri" (Change the
god if it doesn't change on its own!). Lastly, remember the telling line penned
by the Irish Nobel laureate in Literature, Seamus Heaney, "God is getting
better with me." It's not a playful or frivolous line. It's pregnant with
profundity and pragmatism.
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A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul
is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He
has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several
languages including Persian.
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/concept-evolving-god-eastern-metaphysics/d/132433
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