The way some people see spirituality is as a definition of their goals that justify their methods.

I see it as a limitation on methods, and total freedom in setting your own goals.

Let’s see what this actually means. For starters, it means that I don’t see God as a goal, I see God as a way. To me, God is not on some glorious throne in the heavenly kingdom of far, far away. God is between every two atoms, and yet he is the “hardware” that runs this and all other Universes. God is the layer zero of all reality, the fundamental reality compared to which everything else is some kind of an illusion.

The nature and character of God is sat-cit-ananda, or, in rough translation, reality-consciousness-bliss. In order to be closer to God, you need to be closer to his nature, you need to be closer to sat-cit-ananda, you need to be made of it and you need to manifest it in others. This limits your means, but it doesn’t limit your goals; it’s essentially what St. Augustine meant by “love, and do what you will”. In this understanding, God doesn’t tell you what to do, he is the way you do things. God doesn’t order you to be kind, God is the special type of kindness that you manifest. In some cases, God is the destruction of some things in order for them not to stand in the way, and to allow the better things to grow. God is not necessarily gentle; sometimes God is the wonderful, glorious way of dealing with some cruel evil. God is the path of wisdom, truth, reality and bliss on which great and glorious goals are achieved.

God is not the one to tell you whether to be straight or gay, to have one partner or several. God must be the the way you treat your partners. In the way you live with them, sat-cit-ananda must be manifested. God doesn’t tell you whether to wage war or not, but you must wage war in a way that manifests sat-cit-ananda. What does this mean to your enemies, and to your prisoners? It’s not a rulebook. You must decide what is the most satcitanandamaya (made of satcitananda) thing to do in a certain situation, but in order to do that you must personally, directly feel the living God within your consciousness, and allow this awareness to guide your actions. What will those actions be, it depends on the circumstances. Bhagavata-purana is full of stories about what God would do in a certain situation, but it’s not a rulebook, it’s inspiration. It’s not for stupid people, who only want simple rules to obey. This is a sophisticated, nuanced approach, sometimes called karma-yoga, essentially doing things in such a way that your actions are a form of yoga, unity with God. It’s not a list of things allowed and prohibited, because seemingly evil means can do great good, and seemingly good means can do great evil. But if you surrender your actions to God, whom you first need to feel within, then your actions will be correct and will manifest sat-cit-ananda.

That’s why I love Krishna, partially because how he improvises proper action in astonishing ways, and fucks with people’s established ideas of right and wrong; the purpose of the stories is to gradually get you to understand that Krishna is what is right, that he is the way, the truth and the life, that his improvisations are God in action, that God isn’t static and correct action isn’t a rulebook; it’s a dance to the tune of God, and God is gloriously beautiful and funny and an ocean of intelligence that is wide open. That’s also why I hate Islam so much, because its religion is a rulebook and its god is a stupid evil cunt.