Nature of God
This is the hardest and most baffling matter to grasp and even more difficult to put on paper. Even to translate the most authentic clear words of the Gītā is rather difficult. But through more careful contemplation confusion can be avoided.
For example, when we read “Whenever . . . . I manifest (4-7)” it does not mean that all should idly wait for God to manifest for solving his problems. It may refer to those who are working to strengthen the foundational, essential operating principles and who have special divine qualities and abilities as ‘I’. More clear great manifestations may be occurring once in yuge yuge - millions of years (4-8)
paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṃ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām |
dharmasaṃsthāpanārthāya saṃbhavāmi yuge yuge ||4-8||
We may note in Gītā “God is inside all” (10-20). This does not mean that one could think of himself as the all-powerful God and that God is dependent on him! This may only mean that all have been created by God out of His own energy and the indestructible souls have emanated from God and God’s vitality is in all, or that God’s reflection can be seen in all. Of course, “seeing” God in all you instantly create and experience an active spiritual zone around you which is immensely useful socially as well as spiritually. When He says “See everything is inside My body” (11-7) it may mean that God is an “active space or entity” creating, nourishing or transforming everything and that God is a much bigger hyperspace. When we note “All beings are in Me and I am not inside them” (9-4) it may mean that God is independent and unaffected by the transformations in anyone and is much bigger in every sense. When we note “those beings are not in Me” (9-5) it may appear to be contradicting the earlier statements (11-7, 9-4). It may mean that while things are transient, God is eternal and constant. Things and lives may be undergoing the effects of the three gunas but God is unaffected. When we note “I (God), am the sun, moon, Himalayas …” (10.21 to 10.28) (not included in this selections of 47 verses) even though all these are out of a small fraction of God’s divinity, the intention may be to facilitate everyone to get out of oneself and reach an elevated state in order to take off further on a meditative sojourn of the far greater, magnificent, blissful, powerful, knowledgeable state of God. In 18.66 when God says “leave every concern and come to Me, I will free you from all sins or constraints” it only means “first leave every personal concern” (which is part of Yoga) and then I will free you but ignorant ones are made to conveniently forget the first part and claim the second.
In 5.14 and 5.15 two important aspects have been brought out. Unfortunately, nearly half the religious world wrongly thinks in a fatalistic way that everything has been and will be done by God and another half rather cleverly thinks that God will accept and clear all sins both of which have wreaked havoc in society. Disgusted with all these a growing group does not believe in God and does whatever it likes, creating worse havoc.
Each individual should develop his own feeling for God as he evolves spiritually. God usually supports devotees in His ways. There is really no substitute for devotion, and purity and strength of mind for knowing the “Thing” which is so close yet so far. While it is necessary and possible to know about prakriti (nature) and atma (soul) to some extent, it is neither necessary nor ordinarily possible to really know God. It is enough if one can make and maintain a contact with God, be with Him, feel Him and feel that God is with him and that he is with God. All these are possible for any one, and Gītā-way is one clear way in which everyone is fully self-sufficient and independent.
A way to activate, make and maintain contact with God can be as follows. Take a deep, slow breath in, hold as long as you can and then slowly breathe out. While inhaling place and move your attention starting from the tip of the toes to the top of the head and along with this collect all the 70 trillion souls in all the cells of your body and move out of the body and travel across the entire universe and three times farther in the divine space. As you hold the breath, feel, see, meet, greet, thank, worship, and offer all of yourself and your actions to the supreme Lord.
As you breathe out return and re-enter your body. On the way, up or down, if you meet sages, Gods, angels or any divinity, you may greet, salute, worship or thank them. Maintain unbroken full attention on the process all along.
This spiritual breathing - pranayama plus meditation - can be practiced at any time in any place in any position, any number of times during the day. It is a highly relaxing, elevating, brief meditation. It is a part rehearsal of the step you may wish happens at the end of your life too. It is a brief play of the process in which Lord absorbs the universe as he breathes in and recreates it as he breathes out in a massive cosmic cycle taking more than 300 trillion years.
It is a way of practicing detachment from the body and expressing devotional surrender. It is an elevating brief pilgrimage across and out of the universe into the spiritual universe. It is a process of leaving your body alone and for a short while experiencing a spiritual existence and your real self with full intensity in the company of the Great.
In a more relaxed setting, breathing process can