IF WE LOVE OUR GOD,
WE MUST GO ON A QUEST
Those who are reading this book are probably interested in either Religion or Spirituality. But for sure, they are interested in God.
How do we find God? How will we reach God? How will we know God? If we truly seek God, we need to go on a quest, a search. My mentor, my Guru, Dada J. P. Vaswani called it a Talaash, an intense passionate search for God. If we truly love God and we go in search of God, we will eventually realize God.
Do we really love our God?
What do we see in the world today? People achieve that which they are passionate about, be it becoming a world champion in sports or art. The champions work their way to the top. They are obsessed with their passion. So it is with God. If we truly love God, if we shed tears in the love for God, if we seek God over and above everything else in life, there are good chances we will realize God. Of course, God cannot be discovered. God will be realized inside the temple of our heart. But the first condition is that we must truly love God, more than a miser loves gold, more than a lover loves his beloved. We must put God as a priority, above and over everything else in life.
We don’t know who God is, where God is, what God is, but God is
This is true, isn’t it? God exists. You and I are proof of this.
But nobody really knows God. God defined is God denied.
If I ask you to see me with your ears, can you? You will laugh. You will say, “How can I see you with my ears?” Like that, we human beings have been given many senses. But we have not been given the sense to comprehend God. God can be realized, but God is beyond human definition and comprehension. This is the first realization that we must have. If we think that we shall meet God in heaven or in the place where God is supposed to be staying as per our scriptures, we shall live and die with this myth. But we shall never realize the Truth!
When we go on a passionate quest to find God, we realize first what God is not. God is not what all Religions proclaim God to be. God is a Power. This is our first realization that God is a Power that is omnipresent - present everywhere, omnipotent - all-powerful, and omniscient - all-knowing. God can do anything, he is the Creator of the Cosmos, of you and me. God is capable of doing any miracle. This world is His creation. In fact, it is His manifestation. We must realize this Truth that without God, nor would this world exist nor we. We are all just effects. God is the cause. If we remove God, there will be nothing. When we go on a quest, we realize this.
Start your quest
Any journey must be started, we cannot just speak of a journey, and so it is with the journey to seek God. If we want God, if we want to know the Truth about God, if we want to realize God, we must start our quest. We must search for God, be it in the religious scriptures, in the places of worship, in Spiritual books or philosophical books, we need to search for God. We can meet people and talk of God. We must ask Spiritual Masters to guide us.
Here it is important to note that without the help of a Guru, a Spiritual Master, who has himself realized God, it becomes very difficult to find God. Imagine trying to learn a language without a good teacher. This may be possible but to find the Divine without a Spiritual coach is probably impossible. We must realize that all this is preparing for the quest. Finally, the quest must be non-negotiable. We should not leave any possibility to return. Make sure that you burn your ships. If you are truly passionate in your quest for God, you will realize God
Ask relevant questions
When you go on a quest to find God, you need to ask relevant questions. Of course, they may be basic questions to start with, but it’s better to build a foundation and then climb up till we reach God.
So, first of all, does God exist? Sure, you may instantly reply, “of course!” But it’s a good question to start. Then we ask the question - who is God? How many Gods are there? Which God of which Religion is the real God? Where does God live? Is there a heaven or hell? What will happen to me after death? Who dies? Am I body, mind or Soul?
There are several questions that we can ask about God, Religion and Spirituality. We can even browse concepts like Enlightenment, Liberation, Realization and find out what these are. There are many global concepts like Karma or resurrection. We need to enquire about everything related about God. What is God? Is God a Power? What kind of power? We need to ask all these questions until we find the answers.
Realizing God is like working on a giant size jigsaw puzzle. We first put the pieces that we know together to get some picture. Then there are the missing pieces. We put these pieces in place one by one until we finally get that “AHA!”- that moment of realization. But it starts by asking relevant questions. This is followed by deep investigations. We must not stop and take no for an answer when we don’t find an answer. We must know that an answer exists. We must not give up on any question that comes to our mind, even if it is a question that has not been answered since time memorial. Like the question, what came first, the chicken or the egg. The world will say, “Oh! you cannot answer that”. But if we go on a passionate quest, we can find answers to all questions about life and God till we finally realize God.
Study every possible scripture
To find God, study of scriptures is very important. This will lead you to the answers. Not all the scriptures will make sense, but God will come to your rescue. When you are on a passionate quest, each scripture will answer some part of that big giant jigsaw puzzle of God.
The Bible may tell you the kingdom of God is within. The Surah of the Quran may say wherever you are I am. The Upanishads may say ‘Tat Twam Asi’ - Thou Art That. Whatever the scriptures say, we must read, evaluate and pick up pieces of our Spiritual puzzle so that we can eventually realize the Truth.
It is said that there are 3 steps to realizing God. First, we read or listen and take in all the information. The second step is to analyze and evaluate what seems right and what seems wrong using our intellect. The third step is to meditate on the findings. We must go into silence and we will realize the Truth. But how can we do this without reading scriptures? It may be Spiritual books that are written by saints of Religions or it may be books by Spiritual Masters or philosophical books or some blogs on the internet or videos on Youtube by Spiritual Masters. One does not know which piece of Spiritual knowledge will trigger the right answers for us to realize the Truth.
Eliminate what is not tenable
This is very important. As we study all possible information about God and try to realize God, we will find some things that make no sense. We will be able to easily reject certain information that we know is more religious than Spiritual. How do we find out that? The moment there is a selfish objective, we should reject it. A truly Spiritual Master or scripture will be pure without any expectation. We must be able to distinguish this from any fraudsters or fake information that will mislead us from our goal of God. We can achieve God if we take the help of a learned Spiritual Master who is selfless and who has himself been coached by a learned Spiritual Master. This is the best way to eliminate what is not tenable.
We must ask the question, “After we die, will we go to heaven or hell?” If we feel this is ok, then we must pursue it. If we feel it is not tenable, then we must reject the thought. If a scripture says that we will be reborn, then we must ask who will be reborn. Then we must analyze. If somebody says that there are cases of rebirth, then we must probe the theory of Karma or the Law of Cause and Effect and study it. We can also study certain scientific laws that today match Spiritual realizations. But in all this, one thing is very important. We need to eliminate what is not tenable. If we mix what is myth and the Truth, we will be confused and we will not realize God.
Ultimately we will realize the Truth
When we go on a quest, we find small pieces of the puzzle we are trying to solve. Then, our Spiritual Master will help us solve something. Then, scriptures and books will give us a few answers. If we are passionate and we don’t give up, we will ultimately realize the Truth and solve our Spiritual puzzle.
We must realize that less than 1% of humanity goes on a quest to find God. But even from this 1% of humanity, less than 1% finds the Truth about God. So, it is not that everybody who goes on a quest will find the Truth. But those who are sincere, those who love God, those who use the help of a Spiritual Master, those who give up allurements of this world and those who renounce are the ones who finally and ultimately realize God. Sometimes, it seems that God will test our devotion and dedication. We will reach a dead end but we must realize it is not the end, it is just a bend. We must not stop and must continue going on and on, until we realize the Truth.
Evolve from Religion to Spirituality
Once we start our quest and go in search of God, we need to evolve. We need to give up the kindergarten of religion and graduate into Spirituality. If we keep on accepting mythology, rituals, superstitions and myth that come from Religion, we will never be able to progress in our quest. Of course, it all starts with our love for God because that will bring upon us a Divine grace that will help us achieve success in our quest for God.
Those who don't go on a quest will never find God. But even those who go on a quest are not sure to find God unless they follow the process laid down by their Spiritual Master. First of all, we must have the courage to question the dictates of our Religion. We must not blindly believe whatever we have been taught. We need to delete all that which is not tenable and we must find out what is logical and practical. Our passion for God must be so strong that we do not accept no for an answer. If we want God, we will find God anyhow and we will not believe in any myth.
A young Hindu man was told that, “If you want Shiva, the God you believe in, then you must go to Kailash.” He went all the way to China, from where he visited the Manasarovar and Kailash. He had an amazing pilgrimage but he did not meet Lord Shiva. He didn't realize that this was superstition the Religion had laid down on innocent believers who lived and died with the myth. He was lucky that he was on a quest and he realized that all the Gods do not live in the places that Religions talked about. This is a myth but it is considered to be the Truth by most. It is sad but true. God exists everywhere, in everything, but we don’t realize this.
There was once a woman who lost her diamond nose ring. She was searching for it outside her house. But she couldn’t find it. Many neighbours joined the search, until a smart neighbour asked her, “Where exactly did you drop the nose ring? Do you know it?” “Of course!” She replied, “I am absolutely sure I dropped it inside the house.” “Then why are you looking for it outside?” For which her answer was,“You don’t understand, there is no light inside my house!”
We should not be like this old woman looking for God in the wrong place. Our quest must be so deep and so passionate that we must ultimately realize God in the temple of our heart.
Before I end this book, I will share my personal experience, my personal quest and my personal realization. I will share every Truth that I realized. I will expose the myth that I lived with for 48 years until I realized the Truth. I too loved my God beyond everything and my faith started when I was just 8 years old. I have been fasting every Monday for the last 45 years and I continue to do so. Why? This is not necessary! Because now, I don’t pray to my God, but I pray through my God, I am connected to the Divine all the time. I see God everywhere, in everything. Let me share the story of my quest and realization. Maybe it will guide you to realize the Truth, if you sincerely go on a quest.
What happens to those who go on a quest,
those who put every belief, every scripture to test?
Those whose love for God is real and true,
they realize God within, but they are very few.