God-Part II

God is indeed the one supreme governing principle behind the functioning of this whole universe. He is everywhere, He is everything. His particular manifestations as Sri Rama or Sri Krishna appear to the devotees to be at one place or at one time. For the convenience of worship again, He is looked at as though limited to a form. Really He is infinite and beyond forms.

When the teacher Vyasaraya asked the disciples to eat the bananas given to them at a place where no one was watching, everybody except Kanaka found some place to hide and eat the fruit., But Kanaka ended up not eating at all. When Vyasaraya asked him, his reply was, 'Is there any place where God is not watching us?' Saint Namdev was also directly told by the Lord of his heart, Sri Vitthal, not to limit Him to a form in the temple. Subsequently, Namdev realised the omnipresence of God.

God Himself is really the universe, the Upanishads assert.

'As a spider - brings forth its web, and withdraws again into itself, ...So does the imperishable create this world.' (Mundaka I.i.7)

When a potter makes a pot, he uses mud which is other than himself. But the spider does not use anything from outside to make the web. The Upanishad gives this illustration and thus points out that God made the world out of Himself: He himself appears as the universe, the Vedanta explains.

But in the created world, from the point of view of the individual' souls, God appears as the Ruler, as though different from the ruled. The question of 'Is there a Ruler at all?' cannot be valid if only we see how orderly every phenomenon in the world is. of course, at first analysis, the world appears to be a great confusion.

Pujya Swamiji Chinmayananda used to say, 'the world is not a chaos, it is a cosmos'. On deeper analysis, we find there is a perfect 'cause and effect' relationship in all that happens in the world . Nothing is really random. Our limited intellect considers many a thing as random or arbitrary. Really, everything is an effect and every effect has a cause. Even Einstein remarked, observing how everything was as per certain laws, “What is most incomprehensible to me is that everything is comprehensible!"

Now, where there is order, there has to be an 'intelligence' behind that order. For example behind a very orderly hotel serving a thousand guests daily, there is the intelligence of the planners, constructors and the present management. Going by the same logic. This (really) orderly universe has an 'intelligence' behind its operation and that supreme intelligence is God.

Thus what is aimed at in all true spirituality is the discovery of this oneness of God with all of us and with the manifest world. By selfless service, devotional practices, control of mind and study of sacred knowledge, one rids oneself of one's foolish extroversion which is born of ignorance alone and in the quiet state of egolessness, one comes to experience God as the ever present bliss within. When the worries and concerns of 'I and my' drop off, the ego is erased.

One's false sense of separateness from God or the world is wiped off. Of course, with this, all other negativities like anger, fear etc find no room in one's bosom. This most mature understanding of life is itself the 'enlightenment,' the peace that passeth all understanding,' 'Moksha' and so on. When man knows God, he no more remains as the old, separate individual. God alone was, is and will be!

About the author

Swami Chidananda

Swami Chidananda has been a spiritual teacher, speaker, and writer for two decades. He is presently the Joint Secretary of Rajghat Education Centre, Varanasi, which is a chapter of Krishnamurti Foundation India (KFI). His deeper calling took him to the study of the Vedanta under the world-renowned teacher Swami Chinmayananda. He served the Chinmaya Mission for sixteen years. He now lives on the banks of Ganga in Varanasi, working for the cause of right education as well as rural service.