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. ----- 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 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism