I apologize for referring to God as “Him” and assigning a gender, but I must clarify that I am at a loss for a suitable word to assign as the language has not created a word to define something so complex.
Every person has a perception of God and a name for him ranging from God, Father, Spirit, Allah, Khuda, Yahweh, Adonai, HaShem, Parmatma, Ishwar, Malik.......formless, with form, with or without gender, strict, loving....there are as many perceptions as there are people, and yes we must not forget those who deny his existence, and those who are not concerned with the same.
Well, to each his own.
My God is neither strict, nor loving, nor vindictive, nor fatherly or motherly, nor controlling nor dictatorial, neither just nor unjust.....
He just is!
He created the world, and all the other worlds. He created all dimensions and all that is contained in those dimensions - because that is what he does.
He gave each of his creations all the tools, all the strength, all the strategies, all the intellect, all the feelings, all the vices, all the power and most importantly, all the choices!
Wants, needs, expectations- and therefore happiness or disappointments, control - He is beyond all this. He is aware but aware with a total detachment and that is a power he gave to each of his creations. The power to achieve this state and the option or choice with the freedom to ignore it.He is beyond praise for success or punishment for failing.
Two things he gave all his creations - entanglement and consequence, while he remained beyond them,
Each of his creations has an entangled effect on all others, be they in any dimension and therefore each will have to face consequences of his choices for the effect that they have on others.
He is beyond time, space and dimensions because they are our constructs - artificial and based on our perceptions. All things, all situations exist together because space, time, circumstances are not his creations.
He gave us the ultimate freedom - the freedom to choose without any bounds, without constraints, without limits - a freedom without any control or correction - but we shall have to face the consequences of our choices, because all other creations of his will be affected by our choices and will either support us or oppose us with all the power that they perceive themselves to possess.
The full effect of this freedom can only be achieved if we are able to break the shackles of entanglement and that choice is always available to us. In that state we shall be free from all attachments, all pain, all fear, all disappointments, all happiness, all enjoyments and we shall achieve His state of shackle free existence and become one with him.
All this is true for all his infinite creations in the infinite dimensions (as we perceive it), for infinite time (again, as we perceive time) - from the most minuscule particle to all forms of energy, to the “living” and the “non-living”, to that which can be perceived, felt or imagined, to that which cannot.
In that state, we shall , like Him, not be affected by all that is happening in His creation. There will be no anger, no fear, no disappointment, no jealousy, no craving, no happiness, no pride.... nothing!
We will just be! We will be aware of all that will be happening around us, our physical existence or its absence will not affect us.
All the beings - those that are here with us in this dimension or another at this time or in the future or past (in our perception)- have all choices (an infinite number of them) that each one of them can make, all possible consequences of each such choice (an infinite number of them) - all exist simultaneously (again a human construct).
Though we cannot perceive all of them we can only pick an option as per our understanding of the current state though we may be aware of some consequential states that our choice of a particular option may take us to.
This is available to all his creations - each atom, each cell, each animate or inanimate(?) object, each form of energy and all or some of them may or may not choose to react to our action.
To help us make a suitable decision, He embedded in each of us a helper with his characteristics - what we call the conscience but then he gave us the complete freedom to either listen to it or ignore it.
He did not design any rewards or punishments for our actions because he is not judgemental. He is beyond rewards and punishments because he gave us absolute freedom.
The rivers of puss and blood, the eternal burning in hell, the heaven with rivers of wine and angels - they are all our own constructs to convey to us the concept that there are consequences.
Of late, more and more people are questioning these constructs - though many in history have also done it and arrived at similar conclusions. The Thinkers, Philosophers, the Rishis have spent lifetimes pondering over the what and whys. Of late the scientists have also joined them. This is not to say that Rishis and Philosophers were not scientists and vice versa - but we , in our vanity, chose to separate them.
The Rishis earlier and the Scientists now have started accepting that Time, Space, Energy are manifestations of the some thing which we created for our own convenience.
They chose to apply different names to the goals but they have all been seeking the same thing.Most have not reached the level of freedom from vanity that they want to, so as yet they refuse to acknowledge the commonality of their end.
The devout worshipers pray, give offerings, undertake penances and participate in other arduous and rigorous practices, not fully grasping that all this is just a means to justify to themselves that they are bowing to the will of God as they visualize him.
God is unaffected by all this, because neither did he ask his creations to please him, nor to defy him - he gives no commands, no directives. He is neither pleased nor displeased, he is neither joyed nor disappointed, he has neither rewards nor punishments. It is not so because he is not interested but he is in a state where all this does not carry meaning.
He is aware of all emotions, all rights and wrongs, all actions because he created all of them, yet he remains unaffected by them because he provided all of the infinite possible paths and also the freedom to choose our path to us without limits and without apprehension of his intervention.
I am responsible for my choices, there are no right or wrong choices - just that each of the choices have consequences as they affect everything else in some way or the other, and each of the others have the freedom to choose to respond as they deem fit.
So, I pray to God and thank him for giving me the freedom to be and to be able to choose what path I choose to tread. At the same time, I understand that there will be consequences for each of my actions.
I pray to thank him, not to please him or to seek forgiveness or to ask for anything but to acknowledge to myself that there is someone who gave me the ultimate freedom to be me, knowing that my prayers are of no consequence to Him.