This was a question on Quora. Here is my reply:
I assume you mean by God That which is upholding this universe, responsible for it, the highest authority.
So the answer is: God is everywhere, including in us.
This answer is based on the insights of the ancient Indian Rishis and modern science also points to it by claiming that the different objects in the universe are not really ‘there’, when you search deeply. You end up only with one and the same energy. The Rishis however say, this energy is conscious, alive. They call it Brahman or Paramatman or simply Tat. In English it is usually called “God”.
Yet you don’t want philosophy (philo – love, Sophia – wisdom), though love for wisdom (philosophy) is a good start if you want to ‘know’ for sure that God is inside you and everywhere.
I assume by ‘exact’ answer you want an answer which fully convinces you and which shows you God ‘face to face’.
For this you have to shift your focus away from forms and names to the invisible Being inside you. Try to get familiar with that pure consciousness inside you. It’s not so easy, because the senses will pull you out and convince you that it is far more profitable to read a book or chat with friends than to sit still and explore and dive into the inner realm with nothing really to hold on.
But when you get a little taste that this essence in you is actually rather blissful, you may want to explore more and you may automatically stop eating meat (if you did earlier), because you don’t want to be part of this colossal bloodbath any longer, you may stick to speaking the truth, become generous, stop negative emotions before they can settle in your mind, etc.
In this way the conviction that ‘God’ is really inside you grows, but when you really see him ‘face to face’ or rather, when you merge in That Essence, is not in your hands. It cannot be ‘done’ by thoughts or actions. It is granted when the time is ripe. Till then, just do what is right under the given circumstances, knowing fully well that you have immense support from within.
We are like waves on the ocean who see only other waves but don’t see the ocean as long as we do not embark on the discovery of our true being. Once we embark, we come to know that there is tremendous depth and strength in us, and it is so close that it cannot get closer.
The Kena Upanishad says: Brahman is not what the eyes can see but That whereby the eyes can see…. Not what the mind can think but That whereby the mind can think…
Imagine, this wisdom has been there for thousands of years, and most of us in this world don’t know about it.
By Maria Wirth
21 Comments
Very succinct. Excellent
Those are some beautifully woven words that strike the chords that connect the heart and the mind. Thank you for the answer.
Excellent
Dear Maria,
Thank you very much for this very well expressed article . With your permission I would love to share it.
Meena
please share it
Miss.Maria wirth,If you found very early stage of life your version of “God “,then you must be happy.
People worshiped “Different kind of swaroopa, sculptures, pictures in different religion, cast, pantha in their spiritual journey but actually all that things are different version of energy, to to reach ultimate destination of life, Moksha (experiencing ” samadhi avastha in living life “)
So first they try to teach & engage their own body mind, brain,prana,energy & surrounding energy with ” 9 bhakti steps ” & along with sapta chakra purification method & process step by step gradually & try to make their on body & surrounding as much as pure energy resource & hub to experience & transform themselves into part of infinite process & pure universe energy.
Which is only possible to human because they can learn & grow gradually.
Simultanously they can experience themselves part of that,” people called them saint,real saint ” the first pure swaroopa of university energy or as per their individual belif they called it expernicing ” God “,not out side but with in everything existed on sarth.but only human have exceptional qualities learn,listen, practice, comnunicate with different languages, evolve, enlight themselves, became more litrate &
educated through right appropriate practices (compare to other living animals existed on earth ),
Human worshiped god, because they have forgotton they are part of it,so whenua they reach that point or state of mind through differnt spiritual meditation
Practices to understand & experience whole universal & god energy,with in them & with help of that pure energy just try to remove impure surrounding energy also.what real sant always diesel.
मी ची दिप.मी ची धूप
मी ची गंध ,मी ची अक्षता
मी ची माझे देख स्वरूप,
मी ची देव मी ची भक्त,
God, universal energy says in everything, everywhere ” I AM*means his presence* ” but not everyone can became & experience ” I AM * means his presence*,untill & unless they don’t try to improve their intensity to find out , reach & meet that energy as well as that state of mind ”
” Journey of KOHAM to SOHAM, Shivasya Rudayam Vishnu & Vishnusya Rudayam Shiva,”
You are not you but you are nothing but part of me,you are ” ME “,
Only different swaroopa & names, shapes but part of whole one universal energy or individual belief called ” GOD “
Most enlightening.
Keep on writing and sharing the wisdom of the rishis.
Yes we are fortunate to have been born in India, and are this natural to this definition of divine. Much of world is leaning to this understanding. Times do tell us, the conflict we have between thoughts and religions, are a churning where only the sublime will go up. Maria you place thoughts wonderfully. It is such a pleasure. Concise and expanding.
Concise response.
Much appreciated !
The indefinable or non-dual God manifests Himself as a Cosmic Person – the Purusha, Hiranya Garbha who is but the Manu, the Adi Guru, the progenitor of mankind. One can see that Cosmic Person only through vision by the grace of a supreme guru incarnation.
WHERE IS GOD? I WANT AN EXACT ANSWER, NO PHILOSOPHY
It is just like saying I want to be a doctor or scientist now, no books or universities.
Only the wise can speak of God, which means there is not shortcut to wisdom. You want to know where is God, you have to go through the austere process of self-study and practice guided by the correct knowledge. Swami Dayanand showed up after going through that process after 29 years. I’m not even half way of being a rishi, but I’m well qualified to lend authenticity to the Swami’s teachings and it took me 19 years.
So if you need to know where is God, Be ready to instantly reject any ideology you hold and see yourself as a child, inquisitive, honest and innocent, free of prejudice and bigotry, in pursuit of this truth as Albert Einstein rightly explains it:
“I’m not an atheist, and I don’t think I can call myself a pantheist. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws.”
The search for truth begins with a functional intellect (reasoning).
http://www.vjsingh.info/index.html
Dear Maria,
You are excellent you have made it so simple to understand the most difficult question of all.
Where is God? As if God is lost.So he or she goes in search of God.
The Rishi says that you can go for searching if you have lost God but you have not lost God.
God is within you in your heart so just look within yourself you will see Him but you must have purity of heart, purity of mind, purity in what you say and what you do then you will see Parmatan/ Brahman/ tat/ God.
MOHI KAPAT CHAL CHIDRA NA BHAVA,
NIRMAL MAN JAN SO MOHI PAWA.————Sant Tulsidas.
WHERE IS GOD? I WANT AN EXACT ANSWER, NO PHILOSOPHY
Truly – God is manifest in every being of this Universe. Look round, and you shall see Him all round you. We have to train our ‘sthool shareer’ – in which we are, and are asking this question – to a stage of equanimity and then you shall see Him everywhere. Have firm faith in this notion. This is not philosophy but practicality ! समस्त लोकाः सुखिनो भवन्तु ़
A lot of thanks for explaining ‘God’ in such a lucid way. which you do easily as always.
Well, I would also like to add one more point which of course Maria Ji you obviously knew it and few others too here, but for the benefit of those who unaware of it.
If anyone wants to find the meaning of ‘God’, a dictionary would do it, but for the experience of God one really wants it then no need to try ‘Bahirmukham’ which we may call it in English as outward. One needs to check-in ‘internally. Philosophy always insists to give up everything to obtain the Supreme Being. A common people may get this point as to how to give up everything while we indulge in normal domestic life? In fact, it is highly tough but not impossible and again, philosophy cannot be understood at one stroke of listening. One needs to read and listen several times and get the doubts clarified with right Gurus, which is called ‘Satya Anveshana’ (search of ‘eternal truth’). In the process of this search, most of the people will leave this world before they reach their destination. No matter where you left, your subsequent ‘Janmas’ will get commenced from where you left and finally you reach the target.
Fine, having said that one might ask what that ‘inwards’ seeing?
This is possible only if you intentionally detach yourself from worldly things step by step. As long you react with the external world, you cannot develop the habit of detachment. Tough, yet possible with strict practice. Once this is achieved, you will automatically start seeing ‘inwards’ you. The ‘Paramanandam’ is felt now.
God is not seeing but the experience of feeling.
The very moment one experiences the ‘Paramanandam’ would never try to explain to others. In simple words, can you explain the feeling of hungry? Nope, right? So is the experience of God is also.
Maria Ji, keep enlighting us as always.
Jaya Jaya Shankara…. Hara Hara Shankara….
Sarvam Krushnaarpanam!
God is directly experienced all the time when we realize how our thoughts and memory function, I explain in some detail here https://www.facebook.com/notes/pam-ho/how-the-way-our-memory-works-proves-the-existence-of-god/2018957738117393/
Dear Maria, that’s an inspiring answer. And yes, going within is the way. And consciousness is key.
Unfortunately, most people live within a fog of limiting beliefs and concepts, based on ancestral, social and religious conditioning, which rule out the possibility of having a Divine connection with ease and grace. But our connection with God is a normal state of being. That it is seen and sold as something special is a big misguidance.
In addition to that a numbed nervous system due to an unhealthy lifestyle and lifefocus adds to the dilemma of feeling disconnected. And when the ability to perceive Supreme Source is blocked, naturally most people doubt its existence (let alone recognise that God is in everything and everyone!). Apart from not knowing how to re-activate and finetune their inner perception antennae, they do not even consider it.
In view of the bigger picture, it is clear why so called authorities, whether of religious or political nature, have no interest in educating people in matters of self-realisation. Self-empowered people are difficult, if not impossible, to control, enslave and abuse.
Knowing God or perceiving the Divine is an inner awakening into present moment awareness and receptivity. May more and more people allow themselves to experience it.
The Divine is within our reach, directly in us. It is even closer to us than our breath. Because consciousness comes before breathing. Evident for example when our breath is suspended in higher states of meditation, and we nevertheless continue to ‘be’.
The question like “where is God” is asked by two kinds of persons:
– One who is determined to prove there is no god. His mind is closed. No need to explain /answer them. After a number of births they will come to know it.
Ask such people this: Suppose you know where God is, what you will do?
—
– One who really wants to know it, and has open mind. Vivekanand was such a person.
Krishna has said in Gita: न अहम् प्रकाश सर्वस्य् योगमाया समावृतः॥
So, by His will, He does not become visible, or reveal where He is, to most people.
But for the advanced devotees He is visible and such devotees can interact/ communicate with Him anytime.
jaya sri Krishna!
God otherwise called as brahman, concisiousness, capacity to see, hear feel, smell using pancha boodhas (5 natural elements such as water, fire, air.,space,earth is omnipotent omnipresent.
When it is everywhere, and inside you, there can never be another object. How you could see you self
How can the capacity to understand be seen by the capacity to understand
Interesting question! Is there a God? A personification of un- appeared? A whiff of thought? After all, god -concept is only within human consciousness. If at all, it is in other species, well, it is not attempted to be defined. There is no doubt, and no one should have any doubt that there is a force behind birth of a sustained universe. We are all trying to unravel the mystery. God is life and the life energy resides in all animates and in-animates, alike. It infuses intelligent design that keeps universe on its keel, and indeed, the anatomical and physiological intricateness in every living species. Mankind has been fighting over the differences. Conflicts, and wars etc., fought over only the name, and doctrinal differences as we perceive the Almighty. Is He a figure, or is He only figurative? Since human science have not been able to unravel mystery of life mind veered towards the unknown, and many names, shapes and doctrines developed in the past and continues to develop in the travelogue of mankind. What is the universal force that keeps billion of galaxies and stars on its keel? That force to qualify to be labelled ‘universal’ has to have an universal pith. That is what known religions of mankind fails to describe. Mankind tried to construct different religions starting from ‘animism’ to ‘polytheism’ to ‘monotheism’ to ”atheism’ but have failed to reach any rational consensus. Baruch spinoza tried to answer with the doctrine that ‘God is nature’ but fell short to explain what sustains the nature? Obviously it is the universal energy, and therefore energy is God. If we take this concept forward all religious differences become irrelevant. It is spread in whole of the universe, resides in every living and non-living objects, it is self born as energy cannot be created, and is indestructible defying birth and death, it is the cause and effect of universe, and sustains it; and therefore universal energy qualifies to be the Almighty. But human mind is peculiar, it cannot contend with anything which may not be figurative in abstract or gross. Be as it may, one fact comes out clearly that any religion which cares for the whole humanity is closest to the quintessential quest, and that is Hindu Religion or Sanatan Dharma as it is for the whole humanity, and not parochial in doctrine, or approach.
Interesting question! Is there a God? A personification of un- appeared? A whiff of thought? After all, god -concept is only within human consciousness. If at all, it is in other species, well, it is not attempted to be defined. There is no doubt, and no one should have any doubt that there is a force behind birth of a sustained universe. We are all trying to unravel the mystery. God is life and the life energy resides in all animates and in-animates, alike. It infuses intelligent design that keeps universe on its keel, and indeed, the anatomical and physiological intricateness in every living species. Mankind has been fighting over the differences. Conflicts, and wars etc., fought over only the name, and doctrinal differences as we perceive the Almighty. Is He a figure, or is He only figurative? Since human science have not been able to unravel mystery of life mind veered towards the unknown, and many names, shapes and doctrines developed in the past and continues to develop in the travelogue of mankind. What is the universal force that keeps billion of galaxies and stars on its keel? That force to qualify to be labelled ‘universal’ has to have an universal pith. That is what known religions of mankind fails to describe. Mankind tried to construct different religions starting from ‘animism’ to ‘polytheism’ to ‘monotheism’ to” atheism’ but have failed to reach any rational consensus. Baruch Spinoza tried to answer with the doctrine that ‘God is nature’ but fell short to explain what sustains the nature? Obviously, it is the universal energy, and therefore energy is God. If we take this concept forward all religious differences become irrelevant. It is spread in whole of the universe, resides in every living and non-living object, it is self-born as energy cannot be created, and is indestructible defying birth and death, it is the cause and effect of universe, and sustains it; and therefore, universal energy qualifies to be the Almighty. But human mind is peculiar, it cannot contend with anything which may not be figurative in abstract or gross. Be as it may, one fact comes out clearly that any religion which cares for the whole humanity is closest to the quintessential quest, and that is Hindu Religion or Sanatana Dharma as it is for the whole humanity, and not parochial in doctrine, or approach.
You stated — “We are like waves on the ocean who see only other waves but don’t see the ocean as long as we do not embark on the discovery of our true being.”
My response — Waves see the sky, they rarely see anything else.
Just a thought