CHAPTER SEVEN

GOD

1.   "Is it possible to have a vision of God?" Bhagavan answers: "Yes, certainly; you see this and that — why not also
God? All are always seeing God, but they do not know it. Find out what God is; people see, yet see not, because they know not God."
Talk 31

Note: That's just it: "They have eyes but do not see, ears but do not hear, noses but do not smell," sings the Psalmist in another context. Because God cannot be seen, tasted, smelt, heard or touched — the only means by which men cognise an object — He, though always present, is not cognised. And if we do not know what God is, what shape, colour or size is
He to assume in our vision to convince us that He is God? It poses a terrible dilemma to God when a devotee, who does not have an anthropomorphic pet God of his own, appeals to Him to show His true Self, for whatever shape He would assume the devotee would not be convinced. Moreover, it would certainly not be that of God, Who is formless.

We have previously seen that the world appears to the
Jnani ^[?] as Divine, and some teachers go so far as to preach it loudly, thinking they would thereby please their listeners.
But the louder they preach it, the less the thoughtful listener is convinced. The latter would argue: If the world is God, then why are we so starved after the vision of God, as the present questioner shows himself to be. If the world is God, there would be complete satisfaction — Ananda, Elysium,
heavenly joy — everywhere. It is only because the world is not God that we hanker after God, so that we may have peace from the ungodly world. The scriptures are more rational in that they equate the world with the not-self (Neti-
Neti), with the gunas, with the disturbed equilibrium in our consciousness. It is therefore for the ajnani (unrealised) the other way round: the world is not only not God, but the reverse of God, so that to go Godward, we have to turn our backs on the world.

Page 77
Thus he who pins his faith to the five senses can never expect to have the vision of God as God is in Himself, but only as a spurious entity which plays the role of God. It will be an imitation, a symbolic representation of the God the worshipper has in mind or understands best. A Krishna worshipper sees Him as Baby Krishna, a Rama devotee sees
Him as Rama, a Christian sees Him as one of the Christian
Saints, but the true devotee knows that God has no form of any kind, He being the seer of all sights, hearer of all sounds, smeller of all smells, knower of all knowledge, and thus ever present in a world which consists of nothing but sights, sounds, smells, etc. Bhagavan asks us to know Him thus, when we can say that we have truly known God. This is the highest and only true vision of God.

2.   "Does not Advaita aim at becoming one with God?"
Bhagavan: "Where is becoming one with God? The thinker is himself ever the Real, a fact which he ultimately realises."
Talk 31

Note: Bhagavan here, as always, definitely eliminates the distinction between the individual and God, supporting the
Srutis by experience. Becoming implies the present non-
Being, which is absurd. Being means eternal existence, which is God or eternal truth. And as we admit only one existence,
namely, our own, of which alone we are irrefutably sure, it follows that we are Being — we are now and for ever God
Himself or Itself. Advaitins like us are not rattled by dualists who consider the identification of man with God heretical.
These have not the foggiest notion of what God is, but make
Him in their own image and worship Him as a personality owning, both human weaknesses — partiality, jealousy, injustice, cruelty, petty-mindedness, callousness, and what not — as well as omnipotence. And because their senses are all out, they can understand nothing which is not in terms of solid and liquid, of eyes, ears and noses, and of their peculiar communal beliefs and customs. In the last note we have discussed what in Advaita we mean by God, and if the questioner gets used to that view, Bhagavan's answer will be clear to him.

Page 78

3.   "Do we not see God in concrete form? "The Master: "Yes,
God is seen in the mind. The form and appearance of
God-manifestation are determined by the mind of the devotee. But it is not the finality. There is the sense of duality. It is like a dream-vision. After God is perceived, vichara commences. That ends in the Realisation of the
Self. Vichara ^[?] is the ultimate path. Of course a few find vichara practicable. Others find bhakti ^[?] easier."
Talk 251

Note: This amplifies the first text of this chapter and bears out the reflections thereon, namely, that the sense-bound person sees visions of Gods and saints as forms — the forms in which he expects them to be, or comprehends them best, for God is pure spirit, pure consciousness, which can be apprehended by the pure light of our personal consciousness, because it is the one and the same consciousness which underlies and witnesses all the appearances. Bhagavan is very explicit on this point, namely, "the form and appearance of
Page 79
God's manifestation are determined by the mind of the devotee, but it is not the finality," because it is the sankalpa of the devotee which manifests the duality of the worshipper and the worshipped. Therefore this external form has to be transcended through the internal vichara, which will reveal the individual consciousness to be identically the same as the pure Consciousness we call Brahman or absolute Self.
For if they were not one and the same Consciousness, the attainment of the latter by the former would be impossible, entirely out of the question.

4.   "How is all-immanent God said to reside in the Ether of the Heart?"
Bhagavan: "Do we not reside in one place? Do you not say that you are in your body? Similarly God is said to reside in the Heart-lotus. The Heart-lotus is not a place.
Some place is mentioned as the place of God, because we think we are in the body. This kind of teaching is meant for those who can appreciate only relative knowledge.
Being immanent everywhere, there is no particular place for God. The instruction means `look within'."
Talk 269

Note: That the Almighty God, who is infinite and boundless, can squeeze Himself in such a small and uncomfortable hole as the human heart, poses a tremendous problem to the sense-bound person. Bhagavan explains that the heart-lotus is not a physical place, but an apt simile made for the sake of those who "appreciate only relative knowledge", that is, sensuous experience. But the designation of Heart for God is not without foundation: the experience of absolute Being is felt in samadhi as pure consciousness in one's inmost being, rather, to be precise, in the heart of one's being, because it is blissful as well as being. We are all agreed that joy or any emotion is only felt in the heart — not the muscular heart,
but somewhere in our being, which we locate in the chest, though not in the flesh and ribs of the chest. It is in this heart, this subtle emotional centre, that the bliss of the pure consciousness — or God is felt in samadhi. This is the meaning of the saying that God is bliss and resides in the ether of the heart. If the whole universe resides in this consciousness, it follows that consciousness pervades the universe. God is thus immanent and resides in the Heart as well. And if you wish to verify it, Bhagavan exhorts you to "look within".

Page 80