The Word was God

The Word and God – the original meaning

Let’s first look at two different translations. I have chosen modern ones which better reflect the original meaning:

An Advaita interpretation of God, Word, Light and Darkness

You’ll need to be familiar with how I use certain spiritual terms in order to understand what I mean here:

• God = The Absolute (or The Ultimate) – prior to all experience
• The Word = Universal Awareness
• Light = Great Consciousness
• Darkness = The Absolute

Using these equivalences my comments on some of the biblical verses, based on the Amplified Bible:

• In the beginning [before all time] was the Word… So “In the beginning” actually means “before all time”, and since time is a function of consciousness, here only The Absolute or Universal Awareness (primeval and non-individuated) could be meant. It continues however with two elements which are “before all time”, thus it becomes clear that “God” means The Absolute, and “The Word” Universal Awareness (whose Witnessing creates manifestation).
• and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself. So Universal Awareness was with The Absolute, and it also was The Absolute. The equating of the two matches (two thirds of) what I call the all-encompassing Trinity (Absolute, Awareness, Consciousness). Indeed John reiterates this point: He was [continually existing] in the beginning [co-eternally] with God. I take the [co-eternally] to actually mean outside of time, which only came into existence with Consciousness (seen spiritually, the cause) or the Big Bang (seen materially, the effect).
• All things were made and came into existence through Him; and without Him not even one thing was made that has come into being. Universal Awareness as the foundation of all manifestation – I quite agree.
• In Him was life [and the power to bestow life], and the life was the Light of men. John states that Universal Awareness is alive and has the power to bestow life (as the Observer in terms of quantum mechanics) – I’m still in full agreement. But the last phrase is a little difficult: In the next verse he refers to Light and Darkness such that Light is clearly Great Consciousness. So in my terms he’s saying that the life (of Universal Awareness) was the Consciousness of men. Let’s just say that John was perhaps not so analytically clean as I try to be – I would say that the consciousness of sapient beings is a product of Universal Awareness, shaped by Universal Consciousness.
• The Light shines on in the darkness, and the darkness did not understand it or overpower it or appropriate it or absorb it [and is unreceptive to it]. Great Consciousness “shines on”; in my terms, it has intention, comprehension and discernment. As candidates for “darkness” we have only The Absolute and Universal Awareness. Neither of them could understand Universal Consciousness, as they both lack any component of comprehension, nor would they be capable of the things which John says they cannot do. I’m happy to leave what John meant here as unknown.

Concept and mind are beams of light from the Contemplator

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Seeds of Consciousness, Page 22

As a final note: The Book of John is visibly a product of its time and a conventionally religious mentality, speaking of “God”, and “Men” and especially “Him” – terms which sadly for many still conjure up images of God as a separate entity to be worshipped, and addressed with a capital letter. I hope I have managed to show here that we can look past this terminology and find deep wisdom and truth in the words of John.

God, Christ and the Church

I was raised in an evangelical christian household and probably still bear the scars of that fact in my personality. This may help to understand my antipathy to the institutions – all the churches, priests, creeds and dogmas – which less enlightened people have created around Christ. To be clear: I find (the energy of) Christ himself absolutely amazing – such an intensity of pure love; and I find pearls of wisdom in the Bible, as can be seen above. However, their true, deep meaning can only be understood from a genuinely spiritual perspective – one based on your own experience, and your own knowledge which springs from reflecting on that experience.