Time for God

I've spent the past twenty-five years shuttling back and forth between two universes: India and the west. My friends from India live on the same planet I do, yet in some respects we're from completely different worlds.

Here in the west we see things as either true or false, black or white, animate or inanimate-you're either logged off. But when I ask one of my Hindu companions a straightforward question, and she shakes her head in that characteristic way that means both yes and no, my western mind shrugs in defeat. For Hindus, life is multidimensional, and to nail things down to yea or may is to miss the bigger picture.

For us in the west , the universe is a material entity, made up of atoms starting with hydrogen and helium. We are physical beings in a material cosmos that evolved out of random combinations of nuclear particles. For the Hindu. though, the universe is rooted not in matter but in consciousness. Nothing is random-there is life every-where and meaning in everything. Divine Consciousnesses is quite  literally  present in all things. The universe is held together by God's constant, loving attention.