Everyone has their own way of seeing God just the way one may see the world in different ways. But there
is a difference. While for seeing the world our sense organs provide a great support they cannot quite
reach God. Yet each may feel that he or she must be right. Many under illusion may insist that only they
are right and all others are wrong. Particularly damaging can be the traps created by leaders and their
organised followers which may lead to horrible clashes. In this context the advice by the Vedas can be
highly beneficial. Rishi Atharva says the following in 11.3:
Unless you see God by the head of the wise Rishis of yore all of the citizens may perish.
Unless you hear God by the ears of the wise as wide as sky and earth you may become deaf.
Unless you eat God by the right truthful mouth your citizens may perish due to your mouth.
Unless you see God by the right eyes of the wise Rishis of yore you may become blind.
Unless you experience God by the right tongue shining like fire your tongue will lose its power.
Unless you eat God with the right teeth you will be toothless.
Unless you experience God with the right breath like the Rishis of yore your breath will leave you.
Unless you experience God with an expansive state like the Rishis of yore you will become incurably ill.
Unless you experience God from the right platform of the expansive space, it is said, you will be struck by
lightning.
Unless you experience God with the right heart of the Rishis of yore as loving as the earth, your crops will
fail.
Unless you eat God with the right stomach with the truthfulness of the Rishis of yore you will die of
stomach diseases.
Unless you eat God with a lower abdomen as stable as the sea like the Rishis of yore you will be drowned.
Unless you experience God by the right thighs, like the teacher and the student, your thighs will die.
Unless you experience God by the right feet of the learned you will be only going round and round.
Unless you experience God by the right toes of the enlightened you will be poisoned.
Unless you experience God at the truthful hands like the Rishis of yore you will be killing Brahmins.
Unless you experience God with the right authority and respect as the Rishis of yore you will have no
shelter or name.
But if you see, feel, experience, preach and so on with the right head, ear, eyes, tongue, breath, mouth,
heart, stomach, lower abdomen, thighs, ankles, legs, feet, toes, hands, humility, expansiveness, authority,
respect and truthfulness, you will surely find Him with all limbs, with all His aspects, with all knots and
joints and He becomes all encompassing, all protective, all nurturing.
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