In Memory of Late Shri Bharam Umamaheswararao

What is God? who is God? How are we to see God?

Life is made up of so many items or bits of thought, faith, emotion etc., and if one's life is completely occupied by appreciation of beauty, order etc., that life is life merged in God, whatever the line of advance that leads to the consumption. It is impossible to distinguish between the aesthetic approach to God and the intellectual or moral approach.

God is itself a very indefinitely grasped term though many people think that God is an object somewhere in space with certain definite properties and qualities. Whatever lifts us from the dull and miseries of day-to-day existence is a pull Heavenward and reaching God means achieving a goal which may appear to be the very upper most end whence a person kicks off the lower rungs of his ladder to Heaven. These are essential and finally indistinguishable from the rest of life. Life is morality, life is Beauty, life is the finest refinement of thought, and life is everything that we consider divine.

Life, moral life, healthy life, vigorous, life, life on the higher levels and like illuminated by the loftiest ideals enabling one to soar into Divinity and penetrating the lowest strata diffusing purity, wisdom and joy everywhere- that in what is see God.

a)What is God?

God is love and our hearts should abound in this Supreme Love. Complete surrender to God is the only way to realise the fullness and grandeur of this Love. Through all our activities, let us make him the mark and goal of life, for He is the only Reality, the only Truth.

Pujya Sri Narasimha Swamiji of A.I.S.S., Chennai, says: What is God? Is there any one who does not know about God?. These questions appear to be very childish." He explained elaborately on these two points then.

"The truth is that the God idea is as widely prevalent as air in the world. But, when one tries to grasp it, and set it forth either in the mind or heart or in words, with some definiteness the task proves impossible. The truth isthat God is a peripheral idea and not a central idea. God is we find it, quite easy to pray to God and ask some one to pray to God or God's activity with perfect clearness in our minds. But when all things stated about God are put together and analyzed, then we discover that God is a mere peripheral idea. When we question a Saint about God, he will give answers which will puzzle us. When we ask him, 'Have you seen God?" The answer given is often dependent upon the mood of the answers.

Sri Swamiji further said: "When Swami Vivekananda

questioned Sri Ramakrishna Parahmansa: "Have you seen God?' He replied 'YES'. 1 have seen God.' He also promised Swami Vivekananda to make him see God. There are certain things seen which give one the impression that one has seen God. There are hundreds of persons who have this experience and to tell them that God cannot be seen is to horrify them and make them mollify themselves. Swamiji also said that Konopanishad says that God cannot be sensed, that He is not seen, heard or felt or even thought of.

1. "Yat Chakshusha na pasyati yena chakshumsi pasyati; Tadeva Brahma tvam viddhi na idam yad idam upasate"

2. "Yat manasa na manute yena ahur manomatam tadeva Brahma tvarn viddhi na idam yad idam upasana"

The first stanza means: "What one does not see with the eye but that by which the eyes see, know that alone is Brahman- not this which people worship as God."

The second stanza means: "What the mind cannot form a conception of, but what is said to be that by which the mind is conceived- that alone is Brahman not what people here worship as God."

This forms the Neti-Net portion, that is the negative or rather the chiefly negative portion of the description of Brahman or God. There is also a very small particle in the above two which sets the positive aspect of Brahman. But it is better to take it up after we come to explain the more popular concern of God. 'GOD' and 'BRAHMAN'are bynonymas.

Ever immersed in the worldly pleasures and impure in heart having no faith in Scriptures or Saints, they do not get to God. Those who are immersed in the worldly affairs do not know or observe the difference between right and wrong, or what God is?.

The Mumukshus, disgusted with the worldly pleasures, begin VICHARA and VIVEKA and thirst for the sight of God. They are devoted to God, and observe moral law. They become sadhakas by adopting sadhanas like repetition of God's name, doing Japa and meditation on God in solitude, withdrawing their minds from sense objects.

When they become perfect, they are called Siddhas. At that stage, God becomes the same as man. They have no desires. They are past the notion that the body is their home or their self to be identical with God. To know God, see how God is viewed by each of these at each stage. The ultimately God is seen as manifested in all movable and immovable forms. God is everywhere. Thereisnoplacewhereheisabsent. Butbeholdthe power of Maya that does not allow God to be seen and recognized. We are all parts of God. Therefore none should hate other. Forget not that God is in every place. Thereby non-hatred is essential. When that springs up every thing is achieved.

Many people have got a doubt and ask what is God? For this Baba explained "without non-attachment to riches, honours, sensual pleasures, without discrimination between the real and the unreal, no one can know what is God. Very few people attempt to attain Divine wisdom." Baba also says: "The more attachment to the world, the less is the chance to attain Divine wisdom. Love leads the devotee to God. Discrimination of the real, from the unreal and non-attachment to the world are the steps to know what God is:

To see God, love is a prerequisite God is love itself; the ignorant feel that God and Love are separate. We must know that God and Love are one. When this is known, we will realise that God is Love. Service of the poor is worship of God. Work is worship. See God in the sweat of the brow. That, Baba said was how we are to see God.

Rabindranath Tagore says: To know God, there are threefold margas. They are:

1.The Jnana Marga: It is not easily accessable to all.' It is the privilege of a rare few.

2. The Karma Marga : It is equally difficult to tread the path of action; one must renounce all desires, for fruits of actions.

3. The Bhakti Marga: It is the easiest of all niargas. Bhakti, Faith or Love can draw man to God.

Baba says

There are six steps to realize God. They are

1. Mix in good company

2. Admire spiritual things

3. Single-minded devotion

4. Always speak about God

5. When the devotion reaches the highest point, he will laugh, weep, lose control over his body

6. Forgetfulness of the Self which includes one's own body".

Sri Sai Baba says: "The time element is an important factor in all these matters and spiritual awakening is very much a question of time. A great deal of all this depend upon one's Karma in one's previous birth.

Maharshi Suddhananda Bharati says:

"God is impersonal, pure, Reality, Splendour, Bliss. He is beyond names and forms; transcending name and form and attribute. One Supreme exists, pay Him tribute; Whose temple is the boundless Universe; His moving is temple, every being is to be pure in heart and know that God as Bliss, creates, protects and uncreates all this. Behold God, His unique Grace plays as the Universe. Regard the Heaven and earth as God and see His play in even the humblest clod; all living beings evolve to attain true oneness. ]

He also says: "God-hood is the reality of man. The soul evolves through cycles of birth and death towards this consummate Godhood. Freedom in Godhood is its birthright. Man is born to be reborn in Divinity."

The manifestation of God as love and the experience of the highest is Bliss by attaining God as the Supreme Being. Souls that have reached this world and have become united with the Supreme Being are never again separated from God. The knower who goes by the path of God attains not only the state of Brahman but the Supreme Brahman also.

The Brahma Sutras say: 'The soul on attaining Brahman gets a special kind of body, through which it enjoys pleasures'. The enjoyment in the company of the God- blessed people is free from the functions of the body, speech etc. Those who attain release whether through Flusti Marga, or through the Maryada Marga do not return again to this mundane world. The ultimate reality is the one non-dual Brahman. It exists in the pure consciousness only. The word God denotes that Supreme person who is the abode of all auspicious qualities to an infinite degree and is free from all worldly taints. The Supreme person is God."

c) How to see God?

Cry unto the God with a yearning heart, and then you shall see Him. People would shed ajugful of tears for the sake of God. Whoever cries out for God, cry to Him only and not to make a show, but with a longing and yearning heart. The rosy light of the dawn comes before the rising sun. Likewise is a longing and yearning heart, the sign of God-Vision can be seen. We may see God if our love for Him is as strong as the two attachments put together. They are the attachment of a mother to her child, attachment of a chaste and deyoted wife to her husband. In order to see God, one must love Him, heart and soul. One must offer one's prayer so that they may reach God.

Sri Narasimha Swamiji explains: 'The mind is turbulent. Effort must be made to make it steady. Just as a fly flies and sits

on all objects but turns back when it approaches fire, so the mind longs after sense objects, rejoices in them and merges in them. When thus the unruly mind does not merge in God, rebirth is inevitable. Till the mind is conquered, one is to be born again. But among births the human birth is most precious. Therefore do worship God to make the mind steady and concentrated. Even the idol is God. Do not reject it. When the idol is worshipped with deep devotion, the mind attains concentration, without which there is no steadiness of mind. Then practice recollection of Spiritual works read by you. Try to practise what is mentioned in them. ATMA VIDHYA the science of the SELF is the highest wisdom. If that is mastered, salvation can be achieved. Then we can get knowledge, how to realize God."

When Nana Chandorkar asked Baba how to reach God?

Baba explained: "If you act upon what 1 have said, you will attain SUDDHA CHATUSHTAYA. When Chandorkar asked what are they?

Baba said the first is 'NITYA NITYA VASTUVIVEKA (i.e discrimination between Real and Unreal); the second is VAIRAGYA., the third is 'SAMX (i.e. preventing the mind from going into the objects of the senses); the fourth is DAMA (i.e the withdrawal of the mind by controlling external activity); then TITIKSH i.e., putting up with pain that results from Prarabdha Karma; the sixth is 'UPARATI'(i.e. looking upon wealth, women, children etc as unreal; the seventh is Sraddha (Faith); next is SAMADHANX in pleasure and pain ; 'SAMADHANX is 'MUMKSI-IATA- i.e. strong desire for Moksha.

These are SUDDHA CHATUSTAYA."

Then Chandorkar asked Baba- 'What SUDDHA CHAITANYA- is? Biba explained 'SUDDHA CHAITANYM is the origin, the essence, the foundation and the permitter of the Universe and also it is the end of it. Suddha Chaityana exists in every moment of your existence. There is no place without it, but it has no form or name. It is just like colourless air. Suddha Chaityana is Brahman. It is the original cause of all appearances, perceptions and knowledge. It can be defined as SAT CHIT as existence and consciousness, Ananda or Bliss and Ekatva. All of you are not distinct from it."

On this Chandorkar, questioned Baba:- 'You said that Brahman is Bliss. At the same time you say the same Brahman is everything in the world. Then wherein there is no multiplicity but also suffering. Then how can Bliss appear as the unreal?. In case if we consider all of us as Brahman, there must be many Brahmans but not one because we are so many. If all of us must feel like that because our bodies and souls are different.

Baba clarified on this doubt by explaining: 'Red, black, white, blue, yellow etc., are different colours. Add water to it. Is not water still one and the same? You will see by separating the colours from the water and the result is that you get water in each case. Just like that the Brahman or Atman is one and the same. It is one and the same Atman that runs through all our hearts. Regarding pain and pleasure, these are not the functions of Atman, but only of hearts. To make the heart perfect and pure, it is the function of the Atman."

"Baba further explained:- "Chaitanya appears through three gunas as'PARAMARTICA-SATYA, VYAVAHA.RIKA- Satya and PRATIBHASIKASatya. Itisjustlikeasonebodyhastbreestages i.e., Childhood, manhood, and old age.

So a person in the PARAMARTHIKA stage is the sage who sees only Truth. The person in the VYAVARIKHA STAGE tries to follow Sastras. If one in PRATIBHASIKATA STAGE does not see truth, he sees good as evil and evil as good. But Atman is common to all these three stages."

Nana Saheb Chandorkar further expressed a doubt. "How can 'Reality' be one and indivisible when there be division of Reality in the above three Gunas just like the Brahman appears in different forms. It is the union of Brahman with MAYA that causes Brahrnananda.

" Chandorkar further questioned- "We often pray to God to grant some favour or other. Is such a prayer necessary?

Sai Baba explained: 'Does God not know what is good for you? It would be better to leave it to Hini to take care of you all by assuming an attitude of humility and devotion. You do not know what is good for you and what is bad, but God knows. It is therefore better to leave it to His sweet will to get you whatever is good for you. Therefore, after a sincere prayer, leave everything to Him only. Suppose your child pesters you to give sweets which you know are bad for health, W@at do you do?. You refuse it and may even beat the child. Similarly, although you may pray for something, God may not grant it. Gqd knows what is good and what is bad for you."

Nana further questioned-: 'How to surrender to God and what does it mean?'

Baba clarified 'It means by surrendering yourself you will go to God so that you do, or not do a particular thing or say, even think without seeking God's guidance. This means that you are constantly thinking of God, so that His guidance is always available to you and you do not do anything unless you feel in your hearts, this is what God wants.

' Nana further questioned.- 'How is it possible to think constantly on God while at the same time, attending to many other things in daily life?.

Baba said: 'Prayer is the answer. Sincere prayer is always answered. Detach and know that the world is temporal and an illusion and that the Self alone is real. Through the expansion of Quintessence of Sri Sai Baba's Philosophy 93 the self, you develop Universal Love and Universal Consciousness. This leads you to service and sacrifice. The fact of surrender merely means that you do not think about the fruits of actions. God likes the person, who does his Swadharma. It is in this sense that work is worship.

What is the easiest way to achieve God's RF-LIZATION?" asked Chandorkar.

Sri Sai Baba said :- "The easiest way to GOD REALIZATION is to repeat constantly God's name and make it pure. Then happiness will surely follow. God will certainly come and dwell in your heart. You must possess intense desire and longing to realize Him. Meditate on God's name through the form of God that bears the name. While uttering the name of God feel always that He is before you. There are always difficulties which come your way of Realizing God. These will be overcome by the power of your devotion. God's name is the boat that ultimately carries every one across the ocean of life.

' Baba further said:- 'REALIZATION does not consist in running away from home life, leaving one's devotion by the performance of worship without having any real devotion or sincere aspiration. The Realization of Truth or the vision of Reality can be achieved only by one who perform his allotted work in life. in a silent way, without losing sight of his own ideal in view, offering everything and every act of his to the Divine without caring for the results thereof, always thinking and singing the glory of the Lord even though he may be engaged eternally. Thus Realization depends purely on the development of the inner being rather the external one. For the attainment of real happiness and infinite peace, it is necessary that the clamour of '1' and 'MINE' and the individual egoistic consciousness should be merged in the ocean of Universal Consciousness since out of that will arise the infinite Bliss and joys of the etemal The source from where

we have come you must go back to the same source. Only those who have gone beyond the Trigunas can be merged in God. You must rouse the higher consciousness in you. That will make the higher self gradually manifested itself within you. It is that inner self that guides you and protects you. Good emotional ways like Bhakti, affection or zeal, help one to acquire Realization of God's vision and this will in turn give rise to good and to help others and to expand.

You must strive for SELF-REALIZATION before trying to achieve for GOD's -REALIZATION. We must know how to get SELF-REALIZATION?.

Sri Sai Baba always advises us to enquire into our ownself thus -WHOAM 1'?. Generally we understand this'l'as the body, constituted by the Pancha Bbootas. But, in a subtle sense, one understands that this '1' as not this mere body, which perishes, in due course, but, as that very Atman, which enlivens consciousness, the Pranas, Manas, etc., and that Atrnan is Self-Effulgent.

"dehee nityam avadhyoyam dehe saryasya Bharata'.

It means: '1" in every body there exists as the Sareeri (Soul- Atrnan) as nonperishable one. It is said here that Atman is not perishable giving the resultant truth, that the body is sure to perish.

Through the path of enquiry by gradual negation of the body, Indriyas, Pranas and Buddhi as is said in Sastras 'Net!, Neti, Neti" All these Viz. Body. Indriyas, Pranas, Buddhi, etc are perishable but not '1', which is distinct and giv es light to all of us and this '1' is Supreme in Nature. Atrnan is imperishable and ancient one. Our main aim is to achieve GOD- REALIZATION has been called 'MOKSHA PARAYNAH'. As God pervades everywhere all the time, all of us can attain Him. But He is not quickly attained because we have not a firm resolve. As soon as we have a firm i resolve, God will be realized. )n fact the aim we have been bestowed upon is to attain God. When we realize this aim, we become MOKSHA PARAYANAH, so that we may realize that our aim is God-Realization. How can we attain perfection or God-Realization, if we have not a firm aim to attain God. So we must have firm aim to get God-Realization in the path of meditation.

God-Realization is eximatic and is beyond the reach of the senses but we are covered by the curtain of pleasures and thus we cannot realize God. As soon as we renounce our affinity to the worldly pleasures, God will be revealed. When we like a tortoise, which draws in its limbs from all directions withdraw our senses from sense objects, our wisdom becomes stable. If we got the least affinity for the senses, we cannot get stable wisdom. The reason is that when the senses are withdrawn from our-sense objects, we can realize the SELF substance. Even if we cease our contact with the sense objects and do not enjoy them, the taste for thern still persists. When this tastes also disappears, then our mind will be stabilized.

Who ever follows the spiritual path, but is not dispassionate, can restrain his body and senses by thinking of the adverse consequences of sense, enjoynlents though his taste persists.

A striver has taste for his egoism Viz. '1-ness'. This taste changes itself into attachment. Therefore, a striver should have determination and have no attachment or no desire. This sort of determination frees him from relish and after realizing God, this relish disappears completely.

These turbulent senses, forcibly carry away the mind of even a wish of man who is practically, set to realize God. The reason for this is so long as mind is permanently established in God, the past influences.of the enjoyment of pleasures attract the senses and the mind towards pleasures forcibly. So we must never believe our senses and should be always on our guard. Then only we can get God-Realization.

When we are free from egoism, individuality is completely wiped out and then we will automatically be established in God. Individuality persisted only due to affinity with the world. With renunciation of affinity, individuality completely goes. In the state of eternal union with God, no individuality remains.

The various means of visualizing God, the most efficacious one is true Love. True Love of God is generated through association of Saints and Holy men and through purity of heart, dispassion, indifference to the world, intense longing to see God and pining for Him. When by constantly repeating the name of the God we.begin to experience a thrilling sensation every moment, absolves us from all sins and then we lose interest in everything except God. Being afflicted by pangs of separation, we begin to '@ stream, kick the wealth of the world and shed tears in a ceaseles run like a mad man after the God. The moment we begin to pine in love for the God and feel like a fish taken out of water, the blissful God rnanifests Himself in His Divine enrapturing form.

True love is the best means of obtaining a vision of God. God will appear in a visible form before one who is prepared to suffer all sorts of persecutions and cheerfully offer his head to the sharp edge of the sword,for the sake of Divine name. The God will appear before us if we cry for Him from the bottom of our heart. The Divine name should be repeated at all times and in all conditions. It should never be allowed to slip out of the mind. Ibis is the easiest method to get God's vision.

Place an image or a picture of the God in front of you and fix your eyes on the image or picture. Meditate on the form of God in this way and while doing so firmly believe that God will reveal Himself through the image or the picture. Such meditation practised in full faith will lead to the Realisation of God.

Mentally bow to every object of the world that comes before your eyes, believe that God Himself has appeared before you in that form. This practice of seeing the infinite forms of the world as so many manifestations of the God may also lead to see the vision of God. Knowing that all that exists is God, one will begin to look upon every thing with an equal eye. This simple faith if deligently pursued will bring him salvation.

To sum up, these are some of the methods to develop pure and exclusive love for God and to see God directly:

a) Listen to ponder over, read and recite the sweet, honey- like anecdotes illustrating the qualities, loving nature and greatness of God;

b) Associate with those persons who have faith in God and love Him without any earthly gain;

c) Repeat and recite loudly God's epithets with love, fixing one's mind at the same time upon His Divine nature;

d) Obey the Divine Laws and remain cheerful under all circumstances, whether favourable or adverse, taking it as Divine dispensation;

e) Strive for the good of all creatures knowing them to be His fragments;

f) Be eager to grasp His true nature and to get His vision;

g) Pray to God in seclusion in a piteous tone;

h) By practising nonviolence, one becomes free from enemity and is fearless;

i)Practising truthfulness, one attains God who is an embodiment of truth;

j) By refraining from unlawful possession of other's properties;

k) One earns the confidence of others;

1) By controlling one's sexual appetites, one gathers physical and moral stamina;

m) By refusing to accumulate possessions, increases the stock of one's wisdom;

n) By performing sacrifices and practicing austerity one acquires mastery over one's senses and purifies one's inner-self;

o) By practicing self-denial, doing service and carffing.out the behests of Holy men; eradicably weaknesses of the mind and control of the senses; Thereby we can obtain the vision of- GOD.

The signs of one who has seen God are these:

His conduct is like that of a child. He sometimes looks like a an unclean spirit. He does not care for his body. He seems to make no distinction between purity and impurity because he sees God in and through everything. Such a person looks like a mad man, laughs, weeps and the next moment talking to himself, sometimes dressed like a gentleman, and sometimes naked like a child. Sometimes, he appears like one who is brought to the state of lifeless, material body.

Such a man is called AVADHLTTA. The name Avadhuta itself indicates the implied meaning:

'A - means : who has no destruction

'VA - means - the greatest among men

'Dhu - means he who has renounced the attachment to Vasanas of Samsara

'Tha'- means Tatwamasi.

A person who is directly aware of the above, the implied meaning is called AVADHOOTA. Man is the compounded from of Brahman and soul. He who is aware that he is a seperate entity,witnessing the body senses and their activities not involving himself in them, who is distinctly vibrant with all wisdom, who is the embedment of bliss With self-illurnining power of the Supreme Soul is AVADHOOTA.HE will not be afraid of th'e axternal effects of the hot sun, the violent and the lashing rain, unmindfull of the dust,smeared all over his body, one who immersed always in meditarion; rid off bodily cofort, who keeps his mind unaffected by the changes of moods like happiness and pain etc; he who stands on a firm foundation beyond the clutches of ignorance and arrogance and who is fully aware that 'PARAMATMN is immutable and 'unaffected by the forces of destruction,he who considers that the senses of sound, touch, form taste and smell are only illusions; he who knows that he is beyond the life is ultimate realities; who has conquered.all his five senses; who has fortified his immutable foundation, he who harmonizes perfectly all the aspects of thoughts, word and action and who has a detached mind; he who finds solace and bliss in his own soul by meditation on the self; he who has no desire to consume tasty dishes like sweet milk and products.' who has detached himself with sense desire, venomous feeling of revenge, unbounded pride of wealth and strengh and arrogance; he who has attained indivisibility of Brahman by constant meditation and who is contended with supreme knowledge is called AVADHOOTA.

Baba said to become Avadhoota, one need not renouna the material resposibilities of family life and become a Sanyasi, Even if any one of the above qualities of absorbed to and adopt with the firm faith, one can be Avadhoota.