Our own relationship with God

“Sir, do you know God?”, asked a curious seeker to a Saint.

With a pleasant smile on his face, the master replied, “Son, which God are you talking about? The God that lives in heaven up there or the God which is inside you or the God which is omnipresent or one of the God out of 360 Million Gods that our culture believes in or the God that other cultures believe in?”

With a confused face, the seeker raised his eyebrows in curiosity and gave a blank face. With a heart filled with compassion, the Saint continued,” Son, the word God doesn’t refer to something that can be easily conceived by any one of the five human senses. Hence, unlike other words that we use during communication, word God has its own meaning for each one of us. The meaning is subjective in nature and is dependent on the subject who is using this word.”

“There are two kinds of people in this world – the believers and the seekers. The first kind, just believe on the description given by a prophet or a messenger of God or by the parents or by the priests or by the society. With those set of preconceived notions and assumptions, such believers keep on strengthening those assumptions on the name of sect or religion. They form their own beliefs about God, in fact, I would say they borrow their beliefs from others and then keep on building upon it. Most of the people fall into this category. In the past, so many saints realized the great relationship with the Supreme being and attempted to describe to others. Believers totally believed those Saints and thought that we just have to follow them, imitate them and their words are the only way to realize the God.”

“Then there are those, who approach the meaning of God with an open mind. They don’t want to just believe, in fact they want to find out on their own. Such seekers want to realize or experience the God within themselves. They are always curious to know more and are filled with deep spiritual questions like – is this world real? What is the secret of finding supreme peace and a long lasting happiness? What is the goal of my life? In fact, the goal of whose life? Who am I? Such people fall into the category of seekers.”

“Each one of us have their own notions about the word “God” based on our upbringing. Step one is to dissolve all of those preconceived notions and then approach the word God with an open and logical mind. God is infinite, omnipresent and ever blissful Divine. Just like there are millions of ways to reach the center of a circle from the periphery, similarly it depends on our position on the periphery of the circle about our own path to reach the center. Someone might go towards south to reach the center, while other might traverse towards north to reach the center. Appreciate all the paths, but always strive to find your own path without imitating anyone. Each one of us have to build our own relationship with God.”

After saying these words, the master left the scene and the seeker sat there with closed eyes for hours contemplating on the deep wisdom showered by the master.