Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says God is the most misunderstood concept in the world. Here in this post I would like to bring in different perspectives about God and get an understanding of what God really is.
Am I the God?
Often Gurudev says "if you want to know about me, first know who you are". And he also mentions God, Guru and Self are one and the same. So let us first explore who I am. We all have different levels of our existence. Body, Breath, Mind, Intellect, Memory, Ego and the Self. If we can become aware of these different levels, naturally one would easily notice that every level of us except for the Self is changing all the time. Our body is changing, Our breath pattern is constantly changing, Mind is always racing between past and future, Our Intellectual understanding and perspectives change all the time. As our experiences change, what gets stored in memory is changing all the time and the Ego that gives us the identity is also changing - sometimes we identify ourselves with what we think and sometimes we identify ourselves with our own emotions like "I am an Angry person". What remains unchanged is our Self. And God is something that is changeless. Hence Self and God are the same and the principle of Guru that reflects one's Self acting as a mirror is also God.
Idea of Negation and Universality
If we want to go beyond an intellectual understanding of God as Me and want to experience God, one of the easiest ways is to look at what is not Me. As one starts with the practice of Meditation, a person becomes more sensitive to realize that "I am not the Body", "I am not the breath", "I am not the Mind", "I am not the Intellect", "I am not the Memory" and "I am not the Ego". One get to a point moving from having a identity as "Somebody" to becoming "Nobody". From here on one starts realizing "I am also this Body, I am also this, I am also that" and one starts realizing the Universality of one's presence. This journey of God realization is moving from "Somebody" to "Nobody" to "Everybody"
Slice and Dice and Know God
If someone is having a predominantly left brain oriented Analytical thinking nature, God realization is not far away if that person is sincere enough. Analysis is always a process of Slicing and Dicing and understanding the universe at every microscopic level. If one gets onto this pedestal, very soon one would realize that beyond atomic level and subatomic level of every matter, it is all space and quantum energy and nothing more than that. At the foundational level this entire universe (or rather multiverse to be aligned with the modern thought) is nothing but a energy wave function and this you may call as God. This energy field controls the variations of its manifestation as different matter and beyond. In fact the process of Analysis which is slicing and dicing invariably goes together with the process of Synthesis or consolidation to enable the Holistic understanding and one easily can come to the conclusion that there is only one Energy field which is in full control of what is happening in the apparent reality.
Gods or Devas - Often confused with One Supreme God
People getting onto a spiritual path often get thoroughly confused by the terms GOD vs Gods. I would squarely blame English as a language used in modern times for this confusion. Everything abstract or subtle has been named as God not distinguishing the subtle levels of this existence.
At the gross level we see this world as a perceived reality using our 5 senses of perception. It seems so childish to try to understand the whole existence just using our 5 senses of perception. First of all the existence is much wider and larger beyond the purview of our perceived reality which is restricted just by the 5 senses. Even with 5 senses, the threshold of perception itself varies so much between different species. Places perceived to be dark by human eye is not a dark place to a cat for example.
Coming to the second level which is a subtle level, there is a subtle world underneath the gross perceived world. Even our own gross body has a corresponding subtle body. It is in this dimension that one can experience the variations of different energies. one can even experience the flow of energy in different patterns. Within the subtle body the energy flows through different channels (termed as nadi) and in fact there are numerous junction points where the channels meet (termed as chakras). The upper movement of energy through these different chakras is very scintillating and the downward movement of the same energy through these chakras is quite draining. As the energy field passes through the chakras one would experience different emotions and feelings, they being positive like joy, gratitude, etc. or negative like grief, greed, etc. based on the direction of the energy movement. When one starts observing this phenomenon, one can easily experience the subtle variations of these energy fields. Some of the energies are more conducive to propel one to get into very creative action. Some energies help in maintaining various body functions. Some energies are transformational in nature. These varied energy fields are commonly referred to as Gods or Devas - Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva respectively. Of course there are even further subtle variations of these energies which amounts to counting of 33 crore Devas according to Hinduism.
The 3rd level which is the causal level or causal dimension is the one where there is no other. One has a gross body, subtle body and the causal body. The causal body is no different from the entire existence itself. One can compare the existence as the Ocean and the causal body to be the wave in that ocean. Is wave any different from the Ocean itself? It is not. It is at this level one realizes the universality of the whole existence that we talked about earlier.
The Act of God - Punishment and Reward - Hell and Heaven
Often there are debates among different religions fighting over the role of God in punishing or rewarding someone based on their deeds and subsequently the question of Hell and Heaven. If one thinks of a place outside where we are, as a Hell or Heaven, there is none. Similarly if one thinks of a God sitting somewhere up there and pointing fingers at people committing sin or doing good and accordingly punishing them or rewarding them, there is nobody like that. But if you ask me if any act of a person be it good or bad don't make a difference, then the answer is no. It surely makes a difference. Not because of a God sitting up there, but because every action has its own effect. Of course the time when the effect occurs varies. If someone sows a tomato seed, it takes 2-3 months to bear a Tomato. If someone sows a mango seed, it takes upto 8 years to bear a mango. Similarly If someone does an act, the effect of that action comes to fruition based on the action itself. It is a natural law. This is what is called as Karma in Hinduism. Some of those effects can be nullified and some can't be nullified. There is always a certain potential effect due to the past action, the running effect which is something that is actually happening and the future effect based on the action one is performing. As long as one is aware of this natural law, the human values naturally blossom and one comes to the easy conclusion - Do only that action that you expect others to do to you and Don't do any action that you don't want others to do to you. This is the basic principle every religion has spelt out in different forms. Jesus has said the same in his Sermon on the Mount - Matthew 7:12-14 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them...". You can find the reference to that even in Mahabharata - "Do nothing unto others which would cause you pain if done to you". - Mahabharata, 5:1517
Paths to find God
Often we see people go on a spiritual journey inwards to find God. No doubt this is the best path. But we also see people prematurely declare that they have found God. Seeing God as an object of perception is the most unfortunate mistake that many people who are seekers of truth do. We often hear people claim that they saw God in meditation or in a dream. And they even claim that God instructed them to do certain actions. Some even claim that they had a great experience of seeing some golden light dawning on them and they claim that is God. These claims are in fact very immature. God is never the object of perception because the perceiver or the experiencer is himself/herself the God. All others are just experiences and Experiences in various forms come and go during meditation. One needs to be very careful not to get stuck in those experiences. The act of getting stuck in such experiences is termed as "Yoga Maya". And this is one of the harshest obstacle for anyone to realize god. This is exactly the reason why a Guru or a Master or a Guide is essential in the path to find God.
There are indeed different paths that are laid out in scriptures to realize god like the path of Action, the path of Knowledge and the path of Devotion. You can start anywhere but all of these meet at a common point. Rather all of them are just a different way to approach the same thing. For example, if you love the Indian sweet "Gulab Jamoon", the love for it is nothing but the aspect of "Devotion" or "Love". If you love it, you would surely find out a way to make it. This is the aspect of "knowledge". Once you know how to make it and you love to eat it, you will also definitely make it, and this is the path of "Action". And all of them come together in order for you to eat and enjoy the Gulab Jamoon. And without a Guru, none of the above said 3 paths would bear any fruit whatsoever however smart you may be. For example the best cardiologist cannot perform an operation on himself/herself. However good a football player is he/she still needs a coach because it is not possible to judge while you are playing and you need the coach to guide you. If you think a gross thing such as learning a game of football needs a coach, don't you think to realize God which is so subtle need a Guru?
As Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says often, it is only the finding of Guru that requires effort and once you find one, the journey is as easy as just settling down in a train. There is no need to run within the train and it will not take you anywhere faster than the train itself! I wish you All the Best in finding your path and the Guru. Before I leave you pondering over this, the only clue I would give you is keep doing what you are doing and be open minded, The Guru will find you!
