God is omnipresent but the only place one can connect with God is within one’s own self.
God & Godliness
For time immemorial we human beings seek to better ourselves through knowledge. We respect knowledge, both in ourselves and others. This quest for knowledge extends to God too. We constantly seek to enhance our knowledge ‘about God’. We read various scriptures and listen to discourses and lectures to know more about God. The knowledge about God becomes a source of pride for a person and such a person is revered in society.
Let me give you a profoundly simple metaphor to understand the reality of knowledge. Consider a person is taught about an Orange; it’s benefits for health, that it is a source of Vitamin C, it has a sour-sweet taste, an orange color etc. Now he knows everything about the Orange. This is knowledge, and anyone who wishes can acquire it. A second person is told nothing about an Orange and knows nothing about it, but he has been offered an Orange to eat. Which of the two do you think will have a better experience of the Orange?
You may know all there is to know, but to experience the taste, or rather, the only way to experience the taste of the orange is to have it in you, within you. The orange outside of you is still an orange, with all its benefits, but you will get neither the taste nor the benefits from it. The only way to taste and experience the benefits of the orange is to have it inside you.
And so it goes with God! Anyone can acquire knowledge about God. You can read, discuss and debate about God. You may even accept that there is a God, know everything about God and know that he is omnipresent. But to transcend from ‘knowing about God’ to ‘experiencing Godliness’, like all else, it has to be in you and within you. Knowledge can only give you the imagination of what God can be and ritualistic practices will give you the temporary satisfaction of having done some action for God. However, neither can ever give one the true experience of Godliness.
Reading and knowing about God and Theology can never give the true experience of Godliness. With knowledge, you can only know ‘about’ God but never ‘know’ God.
One should take the effort to look within; this is the only way for a person to experience God. God is omnipresent but the only place one can connect with God is within one’s own self. And Atma-Dhyna is a divine path to experience the Godliness within yourself.
Wishing you a life of peace and Godliness.
Atmayogi Shri Aasaanji
Aham Brahmasmi !
