GOD-REALIZATION
We all love God. Many of us truly seek God. But unfortunately, we are ignorant of the truth about God. We don't know who God is, where God is and what God is, although we don't doubt that God is. So where do we search? We go to a temple, mosque, and church. We live and die believing in God, having faith and hope, trusting God with enthusiasm, even loving God, but we don't find God.
We believe in a myth that God lives on a distant planet. We believe that God is controlling everything that is happening on earth through micromanagement, which is impossible. We don't go in quest of God to realize that God manages the universe through Universal Laws that are automatic. God is not a person that is controlling everything that happens on earth. God is a Power, a Power beyond human comprehension.
Our biggest problem is that we want to comprehend God. So, we easily believe in Gods with names and forms. As kids, this is understandable because otherwise, we cannot relate to God. But as we grow up, is it still difficult to realize that God is not made of bone and skin? God is the Power that resides within.
The journey to finding God is not easy. We cannot discover God like how Christopher Columbus discovered America. We cannot invent God like how Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. We have to realize God. Realization happens when we are enlightened with the Truth. It happens when we overcome the darkness of ignorance. Realization happens when we open our 'real eyes'. Suppose I am wearing a Nike T-shirt and I ask you what I am wearing. It is such an easy question and you will answer it. Unfortunately, we are only seeing what appears to be – a T-shirt. We are not seeing the hundreds of threads that are knitted together that appear as the T-shirt. Why?
In this world, it is said that 1% of the population is visually blind. They are unable to see with their eyes. What we don't realize is that 99% of the world is spiritually blind. We are unable to see with our 'real eyes'. We see a statue of God and we think it is God. In reality, it is clay, it is mud. The same clay and mud are used to make a pot and a plate. We don't call these as mud. When we look at them, we look at them as a pot, as a plate, and as God. If you remove the mud, there will be nothing. These are just effects of the cause – mud.
Gold is the cause. The ring, the bangle, the bracelet, and the chain are just effects. They look like beautiful pieces of jewellery and we often say, 'What an amazing ring! What a gorgeous bracelet! What a stunning chain!' If we open our 'real eyes' they are none of these. They are all pure gold. If you remove the gold, none of these would exist. Gold is the cause, these are just effects. Because 99% of the world is spiritually blind, we live in darkness, and we are not enlightened with the spiritual truth.
Is there a doubt that God exists? Absolutely not. The only problem is that we are seeing all manifestations of God as all the beauty that surrounds us, but we don't realize that all these are God. A beautiful butterfly, a bird in the sky, a gorgeous flower, and a cute little rabbit are all Divine energy manifesting as these living creatures. We see the beauty in them, but we don't realize the Divinity within. These are just effects. The cause is the Divine – God. When God leaves these beautiful living organisms, they die, and all the beauty disappears. Still, we don't realize that there is Divinity in all the beauty that surrounds us.
What stops us from realizing God? It is our ego. The ego thinks, 'I am ME and God is HE.' This self-identification of the ego makes us continue to be enveloped in the darkness of ignorance. It stops us from realizing the self. It constantly thinks we are the body, mind, and ego that has a Soul. It doesn't realize the truth that we are the Soul. The constant bombardment by the mind with thousands of thoughts makes the ego stronger as it makes us suffer. Then, we go to our worldly God, not realizing that God is within. Because the ego exists, we are unable to open our 'real eyes' and see God within. We keep seeing the skin and identify people as black, white, or brown. When will we go beyond the skin and realize the God within? A little child went to a park and was amazed by different coloured gas balloons fluttering in the sky. The man was filling colourful balloons and tying them to his gas tank with a thread to attract children - red, blue, green, orange, yellow, pink, white. There were all colours. The child went up to the man and asked, 'If you fill gas into a black balloon, would it also fly in the sky?' The balloon man smiled and replied, 'Of course, it will. It is not the colour of the balloon that matters; it is what we put inside that makes it fly in the sky.'
We human beings are unable to see God within each of God's manifestations. God is everywhere. But we can't see God. We must realize God. It is just like the analogy of gold discussed before. We don't see the gold. We only see the ring, the chain, the bracelet, and the bangle.
God is a Power, a power that gives us life. The moment the God-power leaves us, we are dead. Each of our cells, over 30 trillion of them, is empowered by the God energy that is within. Why then are we not able to realize the God that is within? It is because of the ego. The ego is not willing to accept that 'I' don't exist, only God does. The ego is not willing to see the truth – 'I am not, alone God is.' The ego is not willing to contemplate the cause. It wants to believe in the effects. 'It is me; it is I.' Why? Because the moment the ego realizes I am nothing, God is everything, it ceases to exist. So does the mind. Therefore, the ME – Mind and Ego fight hard to stop us from self-realization and God-realization.
What is the connection between self-realization and God- realization? When we realize we are not this body that ultimately dies, and we realize we are not even the mind as we try hard to find it, but we can't, then we realize we are the Soul. That is our true identity. If I am the Soul, and you are the Soul, we are all nothing but Soul energy.
Let us take two balloons, two dead rubber balloons and blow air into them. Suddenly, the two balloons come alive as they bounce. The moment we deflate the two balloons, the air in the balloons merges with the air that is everywhere. So does it happen with our Soul. At death, our Soul merges with the supreme universal Soul that is omnipresent, present everywhere. The Soul is the power that gives us life and makes everything breathe on earth. It’s a fallacy to presume that there are 8 billion Souls in this world giving life to the billions of people. It is one supreme Soul, one single source of life power that gives life to everything that breathes on earth. What is this Supreme Power? It is God Power. A Power beyond human comprehension.
God is a Power that exists everywhere. God is the Power in you and me. God is the Divine Soul. This is God-realization. We can't find God, we have to realize God and as long as the ego says 'I' and 'me', we will remain in ignorance. The moment we let go of our ego, we will realize God in the temple of our heart.