It’s not less than a wonder that a desire originates in human beings. After putting in great efforts, when the person obtains the desired matter, he experiences a sense contentment. For instance, when human beings came to know about diamond, gold or coal for that matter, they immediately went in search and acquired satisfaction.
If we talk about the present scenario, we see that people go after materialistic things and other sources to satisfy themselves. But inspite of achieving all the wealth, they still remain unhappy. Do you know why? The mere reason is that they are working hard and doing everything in order to achieve happiness and peace but they can never attain it in the absence of listening to the preach of Vedas. People are slowly moving away from tranquillity. Humans have forgot that it is god, who is the creator of the universe and he is the one who is nursing the world.
The Vedas and rishi-munis have clearly taught us that salvation cannot be attained in the absence of worship of god. Therefore, like previous yugas, it is important that people start taking interest in following the divine Vedas, wherein the definition of god and process of his worship is explained by god himself. Do you know that no one has ever claimed the authorship of the Vedas and every great name in the history of Indian culture has accepted the validity of the Vedas. So for a devotee to start worshiping the ultimate power, he must first understand who is god and how his worship can be performed.
In one of the Yajurved mantras, it is said that god resides within this world as well as within every soul. Many people have questioned as to where does the god reside? In this connection, Rigved mantra throws light that the god is connected to the knowledge of Vedas, yogis and rishi-munis. He resides in their intellect. The Vedas place before us the knowledge which is beyond sense-perception and limited intellect and experience.
Rishi Yagyavalkya states in Shatpath Brahmin Granth about the residence of almighty god, stating, YasyaAtmaShareeram i.e. that the soul is the residence of god. So the aspirants, who follows the Vedic path and worships god must realise that god is within their souls. In this connection, Yog Shastra Sutra educates us that Yogaschittavrittinirodhaha i.e. by doing hard practice of Ashtang Yog, an aspirant must control all the five vrittis and stop them from going outside.
In view of the above, though the god is omnipresent but he manifests in the heart of the human beings, who follow the Vedic path, perform daily agnihotra, seek shelter of acharyas who have knowledge of the Vedas and perform Ashtang Yog. So god neither has any image nor he resides in any particular idol or statue but within us.
(The author, Swami Ram Swarup, is the chief editor of Ved Ishvareeya Vani, a bi-annual magazine.)