October 27

God Is Neutral

Question: You have said that God is neutral. You have also said God can approve or disapprove of our plans and intentions. Please explain how both can be true.

Sri Gurudev: When I said that God is neutral, that was true. And when I said that God approves and disapproves, that was also true. The sun’s rays don’t have any color, it’s true. But when those same rays pass through a prism, you see all the seven colors; isn’t that also true? So you see things in a different light depending upon whether you are looking from this side of the prism or that side of the prism. Either one could be true, because absolute Truth is totally different. The mind can never grasp the absolute Truth because the mind itself is limited. If the mind wants to grasp something, it colors it according to its own state. So you can see God as someone who is supervising everything, or as someone who is approving and disapproving, like your conscience.

Your conscience is that part of God that is within you. It doesn’t approve of everything that you want to do. God would disapprove just as your conscience does, but God won’t stop you if you still want to do it. In that way, God is neutral. The light from the sun is there. In that light, you might see a big ditch in the road. If, after seeing the ditch, you close your eyes and walk, will the sun come and stop you? No. The sun showed you the ditch, but it won’t stop you from falling in. What you do about the ditch is your business. In that way God is neutral. God just presents the facts and allows you to listen or to not listen. Then you face whatever comes. In the absolute sense, God is not doing anything; but that can be experienced only when you transcend the mind and get beyond its limitations. Until then, we just have to understand it as “my will,” and “God’s Will.”