What God Said Translated by
Author: Neale Donald Walsch
Publisher: Hachette, Rs350
Though the book is repetitive at times, it seems to do what it claims — to offer a new theology. A difficult book to read yet worth reading, says PRAMOD PATHAK
Author Neale Donald Walsch has dedicated the book What God Said to ‘all people who believe in God and who have yearned to know more about this Divine Essence and their relationship to it.’ Incidentally, this one sentence in fact indicates what this entire book is all about. A difficult read, the book is insightful and neatly makes the point when it acknowledges that ‘every word ever written about God has been written by a human being.’ The author believes that all those writings would have been inspired by God. He has also raised a very valid question: ‘Has God ever stopped inspiring human beingsIJ’
It is a kind of a sequel to the author’s earlier works which include the bestselling three volume collection Conversations With God and tends to emphasise on the 25 core messages of those conversations. The present work then discusses those messages emerging from conversations with God backwards, that is, from last to first; the author has dealt with the meaning and application of each of those messages in this book. Beginning with the core message number 25 that says that let there be a New Gospel for all the people of the earth (“We are all one. Ours is not a better way, ours is merely another way”), the author takes us to the first core message that is again a reiteration. The thrust of the author is on the basic fact that man is an individuation of divinity, an expression of God on earth.
Though the book is repetitive at times it seems to do what it claims to offer a new theology. But the author appears unmindful of the fact that this new theology has been given in almost all religions, of course, in a different language. Referring to the Old Testament, one may find in this new theology a reverberation of the essence of creation that God created man in his own image. The concept of man being individuation of divinity has been emphasised time and again. From Saint Aquinas to Saint Paul have all proclaimed, ‘I, yet not I but Christ live within me.’ That is why Saint Paul says that the Gospel preached by him is not of human origin.
The book thus can be said to be a well-intended attempt to reorient the thinking of the world by the new theology. However, it must be reiterated that this new theology is as old as the ocean and the sky. The author’s advocacy for equality and respect of all religions reflects the Vedantic canon that the truth is one, which the wise talk in different veins. His suggestions, though, seem to be useful for anyone who is amenable to reason. Consider some of them. The author says that if you are a religious person never suggest others that your religion is the only way to go to heaven. He further advocates the love of God and not fear of God should be the motivator to encourage others to look at religion as a means of spiritual realisation. He is critical of fear of damnation which many a times is the means to gain converts to any religion. The author has rightly, underscored that the belief that there is only one right way to return to God has caused more death and destruction, and therefore caused more people to run from God, than any other single notion. So in that sense the author is trying to reinvest religion or in his words carrying out a spiritual surgery to detoxify religion. His proclamation appear to be a highly catholic view of the religions aimed at reconciling the differences which are more surreal than real. He thus follow eclectic approach toward religion by giving the message that religion is just a way to reach God and every religion is equally effective provided it is understood and practiced in the right spirit. Thus the reader going through the book would get reflections of Adi Shankara and Vivekananda in author’s words.
A one man’s attempt to change the world with optimistic outlooks the book is an attempt to rationalise religion or replacing ritualism with spiritualism which certainly is a laudable approach. Religions talk about realising God, understanding God but this book is more about acting God or acquiring Godhood with its focus on integral humanism. The author has attempted to tackle dualism of God and man in the same fashion as it is done in the Upanishads. So even without mention explicitly the author encounters the variety of religions with a vedantic outlook suggesting that jiva and brahman are identical. In order to understand the book one certainly needs to read it thoroughly but even by browsing through it one can make out what the author wants to emphasise. And this can be summed up in one sentence in the last chapter of the book wherein the author writes that “we are differentiations of the undifferentiated energy that I call god”. A difficult book to read yet worth reading.
