Our Western notions about “God” emerge through the theological lens of Semitic Monotheism - Judism, Christianity, and Islam. That’s why we so casually pitch forth the term “God” rather than “the gods” – as our Greek and Roman ancestors once did. The Semite god is fundamentally a tyrant in the Greek “polis” (city-state) sense of that term. This means the Semitic “God” is a monarch who at will exercises power in a ruthless, pitiless manner – as an oppressive, harsh, arbitrary person. Apposite this cruel despot steps forth the weeping Jesus – wounded in his “heart” by our iniquitous and malevolent self-will. Won’t you open your darkened, ego-obsessed soul to the bleeding Jesu and put his cross in place of your own wickedly defying “I”? Of course, if you fail to replace You with Him, Jesu, like big God, will likewise send you into the pit and the fire! Then you can count on torment without intermission for as long as eternity lasts – all just because He can. Opposite this parody of a Semitic king, is the concept of Patanjali’s Ishvara. The term Ishvara means ruler, owner, master. Patanjali’s Ishvara is a specific, different (viseša) purusha never possessing afflictions, karmic acts and results or deposits of habitual tendencies. However, this Ishvara is was never a creator in the Semite sense. Apparently, Patanjali included the concept of Ishvara because yogins bent upon samâdhi and liberation had direct experience with a cosmic intelligence that was accessible for receiving teachings and grace. His codification of the sound (shabda) of Ishvara and the means to its realization was Patanjali’s contribution to direct realization through “pranava (omkara) repetition and contemplation of its meaning”. Contrary to this, Buddhists believe in puny “worldly” devas but deny a cosmic creator/ruler. The Dalai Lama calls it “the god concept”. However, in Tantric Buddhism they do indeed use “om” as a cosmic sound and as a conceptual construct for transcendence. All of this should show just how insular and self-involved this Semite-rooted concept of Judeo-Christo-Islamic “Godism” has become and just how widely it has infiltrated both our historical and current thinking.
