Why God leaves us alone

And why, according to Deepak Chopra, that’s a very good thing

I’m sure that in their heart of hearts, most people wish God would stop interfering in everyday life. This is a concern that reaches far beyond religion. The U.S. president and other born-again Christians refer to God’s helping hand in making war in the Middle East. Our Western society couldn’t be more different from traditional Muslim society, but we have one thing in common: People in both places believe God is on their side. This means they know what God thinks—a remarkable assumption given that God is infinitely present and infinitely transcendent; cosmic and personal at the same time; invisible and unable to be located in time and space.

People continue to be nagged by ancient documents called scriptures that claim to transmit what it is that God exactly wants. The great Indian poet Kabir wrote that he had read all the scriptures, bathed in all the sacred pools, visited all the holy shrines, and found God in none of them. Most people would consider that a sign of despair when in fact it’s the key to freedom. In Vedanta, the purest spiritual doctrine of Hindu India, God doesn’t want anything of us. He doesn’t want to be found; he has no laws that we should obey; he never judges, punishes or puts forth expectations.

The truth is that God left us alone a long time ago. This wasn’t an act of abuse or abandonment. It was an opportunity for us to find our own freedom, and in that freedom to realize something simple yet profound: God is existence itself.

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It’s true that evangelical Christians are making gains, even in the most traditional places. (A country like Ecuador, once a bastion of orthodox Catholicism, is estimated to be up to 25 percent Protestant, due to inroads made by missionaries from the U.S.) The future of God, however, lies in spiritual evolution. The next step of growth is for people to start to awaken one by one, just as Jesus, Buddha and Muhammad did.
Judging by grassroots activity, the following trends will continue to shape spiritual life:

• Meditation will become mainstream.
• Elements of the miraculous and paranormal will be widely acknowledged.
• Alternative forms of healing, both physical and psychological, will become commonplace.
• Prayer will be seen as real and efficacious.
• Manifestation of desires will be talked about as a real phenomenon.
• People will regain a connection to their souls.
• Individuals will find answers inwardly to their deepest spiritual questions. They will believe in their private answers and live accordingly.
• New communities of belief will arise.
• Gurus and other spiritual authorities will wane in influence.
• Wisdom traditions will grow to embrace the great spiritual teachings at the heart of organized religion.
• Faith will no longer be seen as an irrational departure from reason and science.
• Wars will decline as peace becomes a social reality.
• Nature will regain its sacred value.

Millions of people already embody these trends in their own lives. They abide by the values of the new spirituality. Events may mask this widespread revolution in spiritual values, but outward events have always been a poor guide to what is happening at the soul level.