Sunday, 10 April 2011
Knowing God
In this world, many beliefs exist about God. As a result, people understand God in their own way and often in their own imagination. But what is required is the understanding God as He is, what He is and how He is. The correct understanding about God has to be given by God Himself! There are some who don’t believe in the existence of God, often the reason being His existence cannot be proved like that of human beings. But
because we cannot see God with the gross eyes, it doesn’t mean that God doesn’t exist. Just like wind, which cannot be seen but can be very much felt, it is possible to experience God’s presence through Godly knowledge and meditation.
Who is God and what is His form and name?
We shall now try to understand who God or the Supreme Soul is. The term
‘Supreme Soul’ means He is supreme among all souls. It implies that, He is
also ‘a soul’, though He is the Highest of all. He is above birth and death. God is the Supreme Father-
Mother, Supreme teacher and Supreme Preceptor to all the human beings and He himself has no
father-mother, teacher and preceptor.
God is a subtle, infinitesimal point of Light. He is not visible to the naked eye but it is very much
possible to experience His presence and proximity in meditation. He is incorporeal in the sense that he
does not have a body of his own. He is not a human being nor does He have a human form. He is
immune to pleasure and pain unlike human beings.
Names are a means of identification of human beings after they are born. They do not speak of
qualities and actions of the person; they are simply proper nouns and are not attributive names. But the
name of the supreme soul or God is based on His qualities and actions. His self-revealed name is
‘Shiva’. ‘Shiva’ means doer of good or benefactor. God does good to all and therefore He is called Shiva.
All souls ask for salvation and beatitude i.e. peace and happiness from Him. People remember Him by
many other expressive names.
His Virtues
God is the Supreme Father of all. He is called the creator. He is oceanic in his virtues – the ocean of
peace, the ocean of love, the ocean of bliss, the ocean of knowledge, the ocean of happiness, the ocean
of mercy, etc. He is the truth. He is the Almighty and Authority. He is reputed to be the preserver or
sustainer of virtues and the destroyer of all evils. He is also the liberator, the guide, and the bestower of
salvation, therefore the sadguru. He dispels sorrow, bestows joy. God is perfect in all ways and
absolutely detached and loving. He is very benevolent and helpful and so souls ask all things of him.
When in sorrow and losing all hope, souls turn to him intuitively and inevitably.
Many are the religions and paths that souls take in their quest for reaching God. Many wars have been
waged in his name. However, he does not exclusively belong to anyone. He belongs to everyone equally.
The Supreme Father of all Souls
God is the father of all souls in this world. It is observed that all religions have images, idols or
memorials bearing one name or another to represent the form of Light that God is. All over India, the
images of the form that Shiva has is found installed; these images are without any human form, in the
form of linga, which is the symbol of an incorporeal Being. At Mecca, in the holy place of Kaaba, a
stone image with oval form is called “Sang-e-Aswad”. The devotees who go for Haj kiss this holy stone.
Jesus Christ said, “God is Light”. Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism also sang the praise of Him who is
‘All-Light’ ( ek Omkar) and is incorporeal. In olden days, the Jews held a stone of this shape in their
hands while taking a solemn oath and it is believed that Moses had vision of this form of God when he
saw a flame behind the bush. The Zoroastrians worship God as fire. The ancient Egyptians worshipped
the sun as god. A Buddhist sect in Japan focuses the mind on a small oval shape. They call it Karni, the
peace giver.It seems therefore that human beings, without realizing, have all been worshipping and trying to
discover the same God. There is only one God and His form is a point of light. He is called by different
names in different religions.
The Divine Abode of God
Where does God live? Is there somewhere one can go to see Him, to be with Him? God is a subtle point
of light, and He does not pervade the physical universe. Nor does he live in the heart of any human
being or in any matter. Neither is He omnipresent; nor is He having a human form. His home is the
incorporeal world, an infinite expanse of golden-red light, which is beyond this physical world we live.
It is the original abode of all souls as well. The incorporeal world is known as Paramdham or Brahmlok.
Knowing where the Supreme Father is, we can establish connection with Him through thoughts during
meditation.
The Divine Descent of God
God descends into this world when it is under the spell of extreme darkness of ignorance,
unrighteousness, moral turpitude, spiritual lassitude and religious decrepitude. This is described in
scriptures as “Dharma Glani”. Looking at the state of affairs today, it should not be difficult for us to
conclude that the time the world is undergoing at present is indeed the Dharma Glani. This is the
period of darkness when sins and crimes of all kinds usually take place; when man gropes around for
want of clear vision. It is at this time that God intervenes in the affairs of mankind. The divine
intervention takes place at the darkest hour of human history when the human soul is groping in the
darkness of ignorance about the self, the creator and the creation; when the souls are blinded by the
vices of lust, arrogance, anger, greed and attachment.
It is in this time that God descends in the body of an ordinary man to reveal the Godly Knowledge,
which paves way to victory over vices and cultivate divine qualities in life. This enables human beings to
transform into divine beings again.
Lord krishna
Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. How is that? Because He conforms in exact detail to
descriptions of the Supreme Being, the Godhead. In other words, Krishna is the Godhead because He is all-attractive. Outside the principle of allattraction, there is no meaning to the word Godhead. How is it one can
be all-attractive? First of all, if one is very wealthy, if he has great riches, he becomes attractive to the people in general. Similarly, if someone is very powerful, he also becomes attractive, and if someone is very famous,
he also becomes attractive, and if someone is very beautiful or wise or unattached to all kinds of possessions, he also becomes attractive. So from practical experience we can observe that one is attractive due to (1) wealth, (2) power, (3) fame, (4) beauty, (5) wisdom and (6) renunciation.
Since Krishna is all-attractive, one should know that all his desires should be focused on Kåñëa. In the Bhagavad-gétä it is said that the individual person is the proprietor or master of his own body but that Kåñëa, who is the Supersoul present in everyone’s heart, is the supreme proprietor and supreme master of each and every individual body. As such, if we concentrate our loving propensities upon Krishna only, then immediately
universal love, unity and tranquillity will be automatically realized. When one waters the root of a tree, he automatically waters the branches, twigs, leaves and flowers; when one supplies food to the stomach through the mouth, he satisfies all the various parts of the body. The art of focusing one’s attention on the Supreme and giving one’s love to Him is called Kåñëa consciousness. We have inaugurated the Krishna consciousness movement so that everyone can satisfy his propensity for loving others simply by directing his love towards Krishna. The whole world is very anxious to satisfy the dormant propensity of love for others, but the various invented methods like socialism, communism, altruism, humanitarianism and nationalism, along with whatever else may be manufactured for the peace and prosperity of the world, are all useless and frustrating because of our gross ignorance of the art of loving Krishna. Generally people think that by advancing the cause of moral
principles and religious rites they will be happy. Others may think that happiness can be achieved by economic development, and yet others think that simply by sense gratification they will be happy. But the real
fact is that people can be happy only by loving Krishna.
descriptions of the Supreme Being, the Godhead. In other words, Krishna is the Godhead because He is all-attractive. Outside the principle of allattraction, there is no meaning to the word Godhead. How is it one can
be all-attractive? First of all, if one is very wealthy, if he has great riches, he becomes attractive to the people in general. Similarly, if someone is very powerful, he also becomes attractive, and if someone is very famous,
he also becomes attractive, and if someone is very beautiful or wise or unattached to all kinds of possessions, he also becomes attractive. So from practical experience we can observe that one is attractive due to (1) wealth, (2) power, (3) fame, (4) beauty, (5) wisdom and (6) renunciation.
Since Krishna is all-attractive, one should know that all his desires should be focused on Kåñëa. In the Bhagavad-gétä it is said that the individual person is the proprietor or master of his own body but that Kåñëa, who is the Supersoul present in everyone’s heart, is the supreme proprietor and supreme master of each and every individual body. As such, if we concentrate our loving propensities upon Krishna only, then immediately
universal love, unity and tranquillity will be automatically realized. When one waters the root of a tree, he automatically waters the branches, twigs, leaves and flowers; when one supplies food to the stomach through the mouth, he satisfies all the various parts of the body. The art of focusing one’s attention on the Supreme and giving one’s love to Him is called Kåñëa consciousness. We have inaugurated the Krishna consciousness movement so that everyone can satisfy his propensity for loving others simply by directing his love towards Krishna. The whole world is very anxious to satisfy the dormant propensity of love for others, but the various invented methods like socialism, communism, altruism, humanitarianism and nationalism, along with whatever else may be manufactured for the peace and prosperity of the world, are all useless and frustrating because of our gross ignorance of the art of loving Krishna. Generally people think that by advancing the cause of moral
principles and religious rites they will be happy. Others may think that happiness can be achieved by economic development, and yet others think that simply by sense gratification they will be happy. But the real
fact is that people can be happy only by loving Krishna.
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