Man’s quest with God has continued since time unknown. Thus religion evolved trying to give a concrete shape to an otherwise abstract concept. All people at some point of time in their life have attempted to visualize God in a way most convenient and suitable to them. The easiest way an abstract energy could be converted to a concrete image was to give God human attributes both physical and mental. God thus took the human form with a few extra hands or eyes to make him different from mortal beings. He experienced the same complex human emotions of love, greed, anger ect. Thus for ages man tried to propitiate Gods giving gifts, presents and organizing elaborate rituals – little realizing that this quest for the divine is often a search for ones self.
The realm of existence occupied by God has been the target of most spiritualists and saints who by various means tried to bridge the gap which separated the mortal world from the spiritual. Through strict penance and meditation many found that which they referred to as ‘eternal knowledge’ ‘truth’ and ‘enlightenment’.
Almost all these people in their quest for the Divine found that divinity is not an isolated object which can be achieved externally but it is something which lies within.
All major religions of the world states that God lies within us. Thus according to Hindu customs when our feet accidentally touches someone we do a short ‘Pranam’ as a mark of respect for the Divine energy which resides within us. Our tradition therefore suggests that we give the highest respect to our fellow human beings, as God lies within each of us. We perceive God as omnipotent and all forgiving. Someone as generous, accommodating and benign as God surely cannot believe in concentration of all power in his own hands. So He distributed this power in such a way that each person He created got a bit of His attributes. The human mind thus became the habitat of God with the power to perform miracles.
I am often asked the question whether I have seen or experienced God. It becomes difficult to give an immediate answer. I see in front of me bright young faces, their impressionable minds waiting for an adequate explanation. It takes me back to an incident some years ago when my eight year old brother came home from school, very excited and dying to tell me that there is a boy named Kabir in his class who sits next to him. My brother had recently read about Kabir, the saint and thought that the Kabir in his class was one and the same! He exclaimed “Didivai, Can you believe it? I am actually sitting next to God!” His naive answer struck a chord in me. After all who is God? Someone who is a part of us and from among us. Saints and legendary figures whom we have given the status of God today like Rama, Krishna, Jesus, Prophet Mohammed, Buddha and others have all been people of flesh and blood later raised to a divine status because of their actions or Karma. The right Karma can raise us to a higher level of existence- an enlightened mind often equated with God.
So, now when people ask me whether I have seen God, I smile and answer in the affirmative. God is everywhere – within and without. We don’t need to look far since he may be the person sitting right next to us!
By
Debarati Mukherjee.
www.debaratimukherjee.com 