God-dess refers to the Divine Couple, Radha Krishna, Goddess and God, Energy and Energetic, the Ground of all Being, the Cause of all causes.
They are made known through Sri Krishna Chaitanya and his followers, various other devotional sects, our innate knowing and wisdom, and in fact, they are the subject of the teachings of the ages.
While recognizing the truth in all authentic spiritual paths, we choose to focus on creating an indigenous, Western expression of devotion to God-dess using the teachings of Bhaktivinode Thakur as a basis, along with interfaith studies and post-modern, critical analytical methods of interpretation, as Bhaktivinode did also.
This path is a living, evolving process of God-dess realization rooted in traditional, Indian devotion, yet updated to preserve the essentials and discard unnecessary cultural practices that only serve to alienate practitioners from their contemporary society.
We practice a spontaneous, natural style of devotion that offers a religion of liberty, truth and love. It combines the path of the heart, devotional love, with intellectual honesty and openness. Our faith is not based on a rigid set of beliefs, but rather being open to God-dess’ leading.
We learn to live as spiritual beings here on earth, one with the earth and life, the God-dess in all. While here, we embrace a lifestyle of simple living and high thinking, offering all to God-dess as a living sacrifice of love. We become vessels of divine love bringing reconciliation to all. While we act in accord with eternal spiritual values, we live in the present as fully participating members of global society working for the well-being of all, each according to our capacity.
We work in coalition with those of like mind to address issues of peace, justice and the integrity of the environment. We seek to find common ground rather than differences. May love unite us all as we manifest the rule of God-dess here on earth.
Yet of course, all of this is transitory and involves a good deal of suffering even in the best of times. Therefore, we are just passing through this material plane on the way to an individual, eternal spiritual existence where we end the cycle of repeated birth and death and enter a world beyond time and space. This is the abode of God-dess and their eternally liberated associates.
It is not so much a matter of earning our way there, but rather, being open to the love and grace of God-dess which is freely given. All they ask in return is our love. It is a matter of being in a loving relationship with God-dess. There is no one way this love develops. We are each unique and have our own way to God-dess as God-dess also approaches us.
In this way, our vision of the spiritual world becomes clear, our thoughts and desires are transferred from here to there, and at the inevitable time of death, we will let go our grip on this life and enter into the next as if walking through a doorway.
We are concerned with our ultimate best interests in this life and the next. Eternity is now, and this life naturally flows into the next based on our actions and desires. Our goal is that the next life is the final realization of our true nature in loving relationship to God-dess.
