My conversations with Supreme Intelligence began a few years ago when I met ‘Mahesh’ at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. We were discussing the possibility of collaborating on what would become The Hindu Way To Wealth.
While I can’t go into the circumstances or processes involved, for obvious reasons–everybody would want to access God and God is, you know, busy–I can provide a general summary from a recent conversation I had, here in Paris, this morning.
I initiated this conversation originally to address a couple of concerns I had about what role belief and ‘God’s will’ play in the everyday affairs of men, and how much responsibility humans have in their life outcomes. I’d had extended conversations with a couple of Christians who shared with me how God had ‘led’ them to certain conclusions and ‘shown them the way’ through certain difficulties.
Endeavoring as always to be non-judgmental, I listened patiently, but still tried to separate faith and inspired wisdom from the rationalization and convenience. To me, the faith and inspired wisdom are priceless in life: knowing that the ‘right answer’ is out there and having the tranquility to recognize it when it arrives is a great thing. I am concerned that we, as hopeful but often too human beings, may rationalize unpleasant outcomes or outright failures as the divine will of a more intelligent deity with a grander plan. That can be more convenient that facing the hard reality of a situation.
One of these particular situations involved a long time friend who had been laboring at an unpleasant job for a couple of years. He was laid off recently after stellar job performance: he had implemented a program that had saved the company he worked for millions of dollars. It was abrupt and traumatic, not to mention ungrateful, but the disappointment as short-lived. 48 hours after his dismissal, a vendor he’d worked with contacted him and offered him a job as vice-president of their start up.
In my conversation with him and his wife, she alluded to the ‘perfection of the Universe’ inherent in the sequence of events. I concurred, as they had been praying and seeking a way out of this less-than-perfect employment situation for almost a year. I do believe that thought, attention, prayer, and meditation influence outcomes in the material world.
I also know that my friend’s stellar, world-class, kick-ass performance at the company he was working for influenced the vendor to immediately reach out to him the moment he became available. Talent is talent and the work ethic is the work ethic, and neither will ever be in a surplus of supply. I said as much to him and his wife. They agreed, appreciated the compliment, and we scheduled a celebration for the next time we’re in the U.S.
The other conversation found the participants in question leaving everything up to God. It was His Plan, His Will, and He was holding them back or sending them in a different direction, and little was in their control. This is the part where I just kept my mouth shut. Rather than disagree with someone’s belief–which is a fool’s errand–I decided to take it up with the Supreme Being directly.
“I am not a dictator,” She replied, initiating the conversation. Of course, in Her infinite wisdom, She knew what I was going to ask about. “Nor am I impressed or upset with the implication of male gender as a characteristic of my being.”
I was glad to know that God didn’t take things personally, and I was glad to know that my inclination to discount the blanket rationalization of something being ‘God’s will’ was somewhat accurate. “I created the world and all in it in order to see Full Potential, which includes the possibility of the greatest good and the greatest evil, to see my work at play, to offer human beings the chance to discover, grow, evolve, and eventually, with effort and understanding, return to their divine natures, origins, sources, and resources in order to create more humanity and more divinity, all at once.”
Kind of a run-on sentence, I thought to myself, but profound. ‘Mahesh’ had told me that God was not Room Service, someone to ask for this, ask for that, or the One to be blamed if, like a child at Christmas, you didn’t get what you asked for. This conversation provided a fuller picture.
“The bad decisions of men and women cannot be filed away in the ‘God’s Will’ basket,” she said. “Rationale is a human exercise. It is not something that I do. I am a source of creation. I am a source of love, which people can embrace and funnel to any extent they wish. I provide peace in any time or space that human beings can allot for it. All it needs is the absence of fear.”
“So is ‘being blessed’ really working your butt off first and then leaving the outcome in the hands of the Universe?” “Pretty much. I do provide Grace at certain moments, but, you know, faith without works is dead.”
Quite clever of Her, quoting the Bible. I felt better about my own situation, leaning over the keyboard for long stretches, until I was dry-eyed and stiff-fingered, brain-drained from extended bouts of ‘creativity’.
“Do you have any requests?” She asked me.
“No, I’m going to just keep my head down, keep working, and let Karma take care of the rest.”
“How very Hindu of you,” She replied without sarcasm or malice. “You will be blessed beyond your wildest dreams. Just remember to step forward when you are asked to sacrifice and serve.”
Crap, I thought to myself, forgetting that She could, of course, read my mind. At that very moment, I was transported with Her to a detention facility on the Texas/Mexico border. We were inside a small, caged holding area with two dozen children from ages 6 to about 15. Some had blankets, some did not. All slept on the concrete floor. A few were crying, their sadness greater than their fatigue.
I stood in a corner as She filled the dimly lit and stale room with fresh air and then a comforting, comprehensive, divine expansion of Pure Love and Complete Peace. It fell like torrential rain and rose like a flood, whooshing in from the four walls like a dam had opened, filling the space in an instant.
The children calmed. The crying stopped. The fitful sleep was, for that period of time, ended. Without opening their eyes or waking up, each child reached out and found another with a gentle touch. A hand, a foot, and arm. The circle was unbroken, and their slumber was complete.
As I stood in a corner and watched this, the same Love and Peace had washed over me as well. My heart swelled and tears filled my eyes. It was like this every time, but each time was still a surprise, still a relief, still a joy.
Her Presence retreated to my side. She had created the galaxies, lit the sun into an eternal blaze as casually as you might fire up the backyard grill, and sent the planets into perfect orbit. But She still had time for this.
We disappeared from that scene and went back into the Void. I asked her if she ever got depressed. “No. It’s not possible. Depression is the absence of Me.”
“Any concerns?”
“Global warming, but the earth will take care of itself. If it gets to hot, the glaciers will melt and the oceans will rise. Violently, if need be.”
“Should I build an ark?”
God laughed. “I know your carpentry skills. Keep writing.”
“Putin?”
“No. His particular brand of evil has a lifespan. I am more wary of the loss of privacy. A person’s inner most thoughts should be between that person and Me. With social media and the internet, I’m afraid a few people are going to have some of the intelligence I have–knowing what people are thinking, what they want, and what they are capable of–without a morsel of the wisdom and none of the compassion.”
“Artificial intelligence?”
“Oxymoron. And dangerous. It’s like having a Bengal tiger as a house pet.”
She was always so precise, and I love that about Her. It was never just a ‘tiger’. It was a Bengal tiger. She really is in the details, I thought to myself.
“Yes, I am,” She replied, smiling a smile that I could not see, only feel.
“I really should write some of this down,” I said.
“People might think you’re crazy. They might lock you up.”
“But it might help for people to know what You’re thinking,” I countered. “If it goes sideways, I can just say it was God’s will.”
“Don’t be too clever. I have created and laid to waste more than you could imagine in 10,000 lifetimes. And it was effortless.”
“You know, you’re right.”
“Why do you even say that to Me?”
Now it was me who was laughing. She was and is the Supreme Being, God, the Universe, the Alpha and the Omega. Of course She was right. I paused. Then just said, “Thank you.”
“You are welcome, Byron,” She said. “The people who read your blog.”
“Excuse me?”
“The people who read your blog. They will read this and understand. They won’t think you’re crazy.”
Now it was me who smiled, and being the wicked sinner I am, I could resist the temptation to say, “You’re right.”
And with that, my conversation with God was over. She’d had enough for now. I returned from the Void, opened my eyes, and found the sun coming up in Paris.
- BGT