This is not my conjecture. Lord Krishna states, “After the efforts of many births, a yogi in the end becomes wise, and he takes My shelter. A great soul, who considers Lord Vasudeva thus as everything, is very rare.” (The Bhagavad Gita 7.19) What message comes through from the next very famous verse translated into English? “You only are my mother and you only are my father. You only are my relative and friend, you only are my knowledge and wealth, you only are my all, my God of Gods.” I scanned the internet about this matter. What did I find? Different religions have the same message. The entire universe is viewed as a manifestation of God. We souls are parts of God. (15.7) Sikhs believe that God is everything. Christians believe in God’s omnipresence. Islam believes that Allah is the sole source of all creation.
My main source of knowledge is the Bhagavad Gita. What have I learnt? Lord Krishna states, “Whatever there is opulent, effulgent or even energetic, all that you should know as produced from a fragment of My splendour.” (10.41) Arjuna describes what he saw in the Vishwaroop of Lord Krishna: “O Lord of the universe, I see Your innumerable forms on all sides, having many hands, bellies, mouths, and eyes; I do not see Your end, nor middle, not even Your beginning.” (11.16) “I see You without beginning, middle or end; of unlimited strength; having numberless hands, having eyes like the moon and the sun; having the mouth burning like fire; and scorching this universe by Your own radiance.” (11.19) Lord Krishna confirms, “Having limbs on all sides; having eyes, head and mouth on all sides; having ears on all sides, God is situated in this world, pervading all.” (13.13) “He only is outside and inside of all living entities, in non-moving and moving too; unknown due to being subtle, and situated far away also, and nearby too; it is He only.” (13.15) I can go on, but will summarise briefly what I have learnt about God. He is omnipotent, i.e., all-powerful; omniscient, i.e., knows past, present and even future, besides all that is knowable; omnipresent, i.e., present everywhere all the time. God is the source of everything; He is, in fact, the essence of all existence. God encompasses everything; we are living within God. God is the Creator and very much involved in its continuation for millions of years.
Believe it or not, God, in spite of what has been described earlier, is waiting for us to turn to Him. Lord Krishna states, “Four kinds of virtuous people worship Me. These are a distressed person, an inquisitive person, a seeker of wealth and a wise person.” (7.16) Surely, we fit in at least one category, if not two or three. Who is not struggling to exist well in this ‘dukhalaya’ (place of misery – 8.15)? Aren’t we all desirous of material objects, mostly money? And some of us are inquisitive about God. Wise persons are few, and they have already taken shelter of God. I will state my experiences about how I benefitted by taking active shelter of God and how I managed it. Long back, I realised that material objects like lots of money and sense enjoyments pleased but did not satisfy. (3.39) Most of all, I needed to be peaceful to be satisfied and happy. Fortunately, my grandfather, grandmother, father and mother were all devotees of God in various ways. I had good saskaras (cultural values) to emulate. I did, and started doing spiritual practices, beginning with chanting mantras and the Lord’s names.
As I began to get a response from God, I took up many more spiritual practices, like praying sincerely. I hung a large photo of Lord Krishna on the right side of my bed in order to have darsana — to see my Lord easily and frequently. This led to namana (offering obeisance). By now I was becoming God-conscious. I started seeking guidance and help in all matters concerning me, and God was responding like I could have never imagined. Obviously, I was very thankful, which I expressed gratefully. My spiritual writing began to flourish. It was some experience with God inspiring me to write, helping me to put the text together, and getting my articles and books printed and uploaded. Life became completely different and, yes, very satisfying. God, who is everything, was proving to me how He could guide and help in all matters. Challenges came, as they do, and I was able to deal with them successfully under God’s micromanagement. Life has progressed from almost nothing to quite something.
(The writer is a spiritual teacher. Views are personal)
