In this connection the reference sanskrit words are nitya-baddha (eternally conditioned) and anadi (beginningless). Firstly, our experience of life here makes it difficult to think outside the box of cause and effect – where everything has a beginning and end in time. However that is precisely the eternal arena that the words nitya-baddha and anadi are dealing with. This difficulty is perhaps the reason that even sanskrit scholars and/or dharma-tradition religionists who accept the situation…

Maybe sin is not an actual thing. More a way of explaining why we are here, and at the same time not blaming God for the suffering of the world. Needed by those who doubt good reason for God’s creation. An attempt to distance God from what appears to be unworthy … incompatible with an all-beautiful, all-perfect, all-powerful God. Personally, given (my) conviction that not a blade of grass moves without the sanction of the…

So long as a believer characterises this world as primarily a place of ignorance and suffering they have a problem in connecting it closely with God. Especially if they also embrace the idea that not a blade of grass moves without the sanction of the lord. And God is all powerful and all loving. I believe it is for this reason that the majority of religions seek, through various means, to separate God from the…

No disrespect intended, but I am not a fan of comebacks like ‘Don’t worry about why you are here … just worry about how you are going to get out’ or ‘You don’t need to know why you are here, you should simply focus on how you are going to get out’. The main problem with these types of non-answers, these deflections, is the presumption that we are not here for good reason(s). Inferred is…

I propose that the jiva (individual soul) is never at odds with God but is always functioning exactly as intended. It cannot be otherwise. It is a perfect arrangement befitting a Perfect God. That we are fallen souls, or for that matter identify ourselves in any other way whatsoever, is simply a construct which facilitates, provides a stage for, a particular flavour of our joint lila. Thus contributing the experiential completeness of God’s self-knowing. Just…

I’d argue it’s not religion It’s lust for certainty where problems begin. Faith is belief in something unknown. Something you choose to believe. Denying you don’t really know, and surrounding yourself only with like-minded people, doesn’t make something known. Why should it? How can it? That self-deception may be cosy for a while. But it easily leads to demonising of anyone does not embrace the party line. And banishment of those who dare to question.…