We can feel God’s presence next to us; he’s close to us, we just don’t realise this fact and live in ignorance, explains AJIT KUMAR BISHNOI
Most of us have difficulty in conceiving God. Try this, it may help. let me take help from the Bhagavad Gita for this purpose. lord Krishna states in verse 9.4, “This entire world is spread by me by my unmanifest form. All living entities are situated in me.” “Having eyes and ears on all sides, God is situated in this world pervading all.” (13.13) “God, unknown due to being subtle, is situated far away and nearby too.” (13.15) “Whatever there is opulent, effulgent or even energetic, all that one should know as produced from a fragment of God’s splendour.” (10.41) “God pervades this entire creation, supporting it with a faction of himself.” (10.42) From the above description of God, it should be obvious that God is everything; he is the entire system; he is the source of all energies; and everything is linked to him or should be linked to him.
After God comes the material nature — a creation of God. lord Krishna states, “Under God’s superintendence, the material nature gives birth to the world along with moving and stationary things. And on account of this, the world cycle goes on.” (9.10) The material nature is overseen by gods and goddesses. “Pleased by sacrifices of living entities, they provide all the desired enjoyment.” (3.12) All the necessary rules have been set by God and these gods and goddesses are responsible for implementing them. They work independently of God until God decides to intervene; God retains the right to supersede decisions of these gods and goddesses. However, this is very rare because God does so only on behalf of his devotees and there aren’t many. lord Krishna states, “Out of thousands of men, hardly anyone strives for perfection (becomes a devotee of God). Out of these striving yogis (devotees) also, hardly anyone knows God is essence.” (7.3) Therefore, God is not required to intercede on behalf of many. This material nature, supervised by gods and goddesses, is the secondary system.
Now come souls, which are innumerable. lord Krishna states, “These eternal souls are God’s fragments only.” This fact can be understood by the simile of the Sun and its rays. God is the sun and we, living entities, are its rays, ie we emanate from God but have our independent existence also. As can be understood from this simile, a ray will have only a minor amount of heat and light. Similarly, souls enjoy very limited powers, and these are to desire, decide and enjoy or suffer the consequences. This phenomenon is called free will, which God never takes away. These souls can get everything material by following the rules of the material nature. And if they link with God, they can get empowered by God to act as his mediums.
So what ideally should we doIJ God has given us free will as confirmed by lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita: “After reflecting on the knowledge given by me, do the way you wish.” (18.63) As mentioned earlier, God never forces anyone to become his devotee. He has given us the liberty to ignore him, though this is not very sensible; we can get almost anything from God — the repository of everything. We may foolishly ignore God, but he always responds when we seek him. What then, prevents us from worshipping GodIJ We don’t either have faith in his existence or feel that it will be too difficult.
This attempt is to make the readers understand the whole system; get good comprehension of it, which can help in relating to God, developing faith in him. One can, then, align oneself with the system and benefit immensely. By doing so, we can benefit from other souls, from material nature and, consequently from gods and goddesses too. However, if we believe in the chance theory, ie anything can happen any time, there being no cause and effect, then we negate God and become anarchical. And we have to struggle on our own with no help and that is quite painful, as is experienced by the faithless.
What, therefore, is the conclusionIJ It is a soul-based system. Everything is there for the soul. It is up to us, souls, to benefit from the system or suffer in spite of it. Those who fit in the system can go higher and higher because we always live; there is no limit to the progress we can make. We can even feel the presence of the Almighty next to us, who in fact is very close to us, we just don’t realise this fact and live in ignorance and suffer.
Bishnoi is a spiritual writer and can be reached at spiritual@ajitbishnoi.com