On God

It is very easy to talk about God - its existence or non-existence. Its very easy to go on lengthy homilies on the importance of believing in god. Believers can easily be tormented with fears of hell or seduced with visions of heaven. In fact, any nonsense can be said as no proof is needed to be produced.

Its also very easy to deny gods existence. Lengthy arguments can be given on why it is not proven without ever looking into the nature of the heart. The cold dryness of the mind can easily mask the warmth of the heart, even ones own heart. Its very easy to ignore the 'subject', who is giving the arguments, and go on big lectures about the absence of external proof of something for which no external proof can be given.

Sadly, neither group ever wants to talk about themselves and look at the so many ugly aspects of ones own lives. When one is willing and committed to eliminate all the ugliness in oneselves at every level, then an individual actually begins to evolve. Then, self righteousness and anger will subside and they will be replaced by humility and compassion. Then, this mad desire to accomplish something in this world for ones own sake will end and one will start to invest ones energies into things that are constructive and are useful for the society. Then, humans will stop forming teams of us vs them (based on any classification) and then we can perceive the whole world to be our family. Then, one will stop flirting with psychological time in terms of ambition, future plans, past regret etc and will be rooted in timelessness of the eternal present moment. Then, one may start questioning all the ugliness around us in terms of mindless destruction of wars, needless greed of our economic systems, desperate sadness of poverty, cruelty towards animals, environmental poisoning etc. Then, one will consciously attempt to step out of as many of them as is feasible, given ones social and economic context.

Only such an individual will be able to sense that part of every human which is eternally pure and free. Only then can the space of pure awareness within be realized. Without individual evolution all this will be non-understandable gibberish. But, when one sees that at least some of those who have propounded this in the past are people of the greatest integrity and are those who have contributed fantastically to human well being, one may at least be willing to explore this. When self inquiry is undertaken with this faith, the space of purity can be discovered for sure. Then, the individual starts living as the space of purity and over a course of time nothing is left in the individual except for that purity. This space of purity does not carry baggage from past. Awareness is always fresh and new and is never contaminated by the past. Any action that the individual performs is in the past and since awareness is always fresh, awareness is never touched by the consequences of actions. Thus, the purity called pure awareness is free of past actions. And that purity, my dear, is God. This state of purity, the state of pure awareness, cannot be known by the intellect. Anything that knows awareness is already awareness. Hence, to know pure awareness, only way is to be in the natural state of choiceless awareness as often as possible. And, this process is Yoga!

Puruṣa-viśesa

kleśa-karma-vipākāśayair aparāmṛṣṭaḥ puruṣa-viśesa īśvaraḥ (samādhi padaḥ, sutra 24)

That which is untouched by consequences of actions and is eternally free of impurities is God.

tapaḥ-svādhyāyeśvara-praṇidhānāni kriyā-yogaḥ (sādhana pādaḥ, sutra 1)

Self cleansing, self introspection and surrendering to the space of divinity within are the three components of Yoga.

samādhi-siddhir īśvara-praṇidhānāt (sādhana pādaḥ, sutra 45)

Higher states of consciousness, collectively called as samādhi in Yoga, is attained when surrenders to the state of divinity within.

This space of purity within is the grounding or the foundation on which ones life should be constructed. Sadly, most people do not recognize this, and instead, use their wealth, intellect, beauty, fame, family or something else as the grounding. Unfortunately, none of those is eternal and have the potential to one day collapse leading to utter desperation for the individual concerned. This space of awareness or God, is like the grounding of electrical devices. Any excess voltage can safely be discharged into the ground. When such a grounding is absent, all excess voltages will be retained and anyone who comes near gets a shock.

Many of our life situations are similar. When there is an emotional conflict with another individual, we tend to accumulate the negativity within us. The other individual also does the same. Together, the two people get into a negative spiral of continously hurting each other. But, if at least one person is firmly grounded, then all negativity can be safely discharged. Within a short period of time, the other individual will also notice this and will also find their grounding. Thus, even if one individual is grounded firmly, it may help to cleanse all other individuals who come in the vicinity of this person. Like how a single seed has the capacity to make this entire planet green, a single human being who is thoroughly grounded on God, has the capacity to transform all of humanity.