It is not only natural for us to bond with God; He also wants to help a willing soul, says AJIT KUMAR BISHNOI
It is unless we are very obstinate and refuse to accept this reality and keep on looking for solutions without taking God’s help. I am not ashamed to admit that I also did do so even though I had spirituality drilled into me from my childhood. Being proud of my material knowledge/intelligence, I always tried everything except seeking help from God, half-hearted prayers notwithstanding. My false pride got shattered when I lost my peace of mind and could not regain it in spite of everything conceivable I could do, and I did using all my resources.
Not being entirely foolish, I turned to God and my spiritual journey started. As I mentioned earlier, I prayed more sincerely now, not a casual mention to God. I tried to inject some genuine emotion into my prayers. There was some response from God, not a very noticeable one but just a hint. This was enough for me to go on, desperate as I was.
Now instead of being obsessed with my problems, I began to periodically think that maybe God can help. When a problem surfaced, God also appeared in my mind. This was His mercy on me. It is not only natural for us to bond with God but it is the same with God wanting to help a willing soul. Still, I was far away from gaining peace of mind. I had to now take the next step towards bonding with God. I set up a pooja ghar in my home and began regularly worshiping God in His deity form; I chose laddu Gopal (child Krishna). This practice gave me some more confidence, enough to go on a little more seriously.
The Bhagavad Gita was the next target. I began seriously reading it. Not realising the truths mentioned therein was very frustrating but I kept going. Having read it many times, the verses began to look familiar. As an intellectual exercise, I memorised the whole Gita. Now was the turn of really learning the messages. I took help of a Sanskrit scholar and we came up with an edition like which to our knowledge has never been printed before. We analysed each word and then came up with the translations which matched the word meanings adding a few words due to the difference in brief Sanskrit language and rather elaborate Hindi language.
Chanting came next. I began to spend considerable time chanting Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. This had wonderful effect on me, connecting me to God directly. I have continued this practice ever since and have derived many benefits by doing so. Meanwhile, the Sanskrit scholar became my close friend and we discussed God-related topics regularly, thus benefitting ourselves. These discussions not only enlightened us but also gave a lot of pleasure.
Now the time had come to disseminate God’s messages. I began to write articles based on spirituality. A good percentage of them got printed in various newspapers and magazines. This encouraged me to write books on spiritual topics. One thing led to another and I began to give spiritual discourses. I also found time to hear discourses given by others. In order to make my discourses more interesting, I sang bhajans. I had made the necessary efforts to not only learn to sing but also play the harmonium.
lastly, came mediation, which in my opinion should have come first. Still, nothing is too late in our eternal journey. Now I am really benefitting and feel that my bond with God has become much stronger. In conclusion, I can state that the bonding with God is natural and everyone should take advantage of it. It is so natural to turn to God because we are parts of God.
Bishnoi is a spiritual writer and can be reached at spiritual@ajitbishnoi.com