Beyond the Personal Divine: Escaping the Trap of Self-Worship

In the modern quest for spiritual meaning, it is all too easy to succumb to the temptation of perceiving God solely through the lens of personal experience and emotional attachment. When our conception of the Divine is reduced to “my God,” we risk transforming the depth of faith into a reflection of personal desires, attachments, and egocentrism. Such an approach makes it all too simple to forget God as the all-encompassing, universal principle, leading to the loss of true spiritual substance.

At the core of this issue lies a tendency toward self-affirmation, where worshiping God becomes a means of glorifying oneself. Instead of striving to achieve harmony with the infinite and unifying principle, we begin to see in the Divine only a reflection of our own preferences and needs. This diminishes our inner world, leaving us in search of an unstable sense of purpose based on personal ambitions and limited needs.

In conclusion, it is important to note that recognizing God as a great, integrated principle helps us move beyond a narrow, egocentric view of the world. On the contrary, true spiritual awakening requires rethinking one’s own ambitions and attachments, so that in worship we find not a mere reflection of our self, but a path toward the infinite and universal essence of life.

How can an individual conception of God reflect manifestations of personal egoism?

An individual conception of God, when based on a narrow, personal experience and an emotional approach to the Divine, can indeed become a reflection of personal egoism. In such an interpretation, God is seen not as a universal, objective principle, but as something that belongs personally to the individual – “my God.” This leads to the replacement of true, universal existence with a projection of one’s own desires, aspirations, and habits, resulting in the worship of God turning into the worship of oneself.

As noted in one of the sources, “Man only thinks he is worshipping God, but in reality, he worships himself – his desires, his passions, his habits, his attachments. He serves himself; everything is for him: a house for himself, a husband for himself, children, work, books – everything only for himself, just the glorification of himself” (source: 9_44.txt). This clearly demonstrates that an emphasis on the personal in our relationship with God turns into a form of self-affirmation, where the true value of gifts and relationships is distorted by self-love and a narrowly focused need for self-assertion.

Furthermore, if God ceases to be seen as a holistic, all-encompassing principle and instead becomes merely a reflection of personal needs and ambitions, the individual’s own essence suffers: “If there is no God as the all-unifying, complete, and harmonious existence, if God is not my ultimate love, my final goal, the object of all my aspirations, not mine, then there is no personality; it loses its infinite substance, is empty in its aspirations, poor in its solitude” (source: 1291_6450.txt). This statement clearly highlights that replacing a true understanding of God with a personal perception leads to an impoverishment of the inner world, substituting the infinite depth of spiritual experience with a narrow set of self-centered ideas.

Thus, an individual conception of God can become a manifestation of personal egoism if it is rooted in self-affirmation and the desire to exalt one’s own “self” rather than acknowledging and accepting the objective, all-encompassing principle that transcends individual needs and desires.