Finding God

The book Yoga and the Bible begins with the following quotation from Saint Matthew (7: 7–8):

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

These words indicate the deep longing of the soul for a higher and more perfect life. Such a life has been sought by spiritual seekers throughout the many ages of the world’s long history. This search is not new. It simply restates the age-old spiritual quest of man, the never-ending search for the truth of human and eternal life: for an abiding reality above and beyond the triviality of human existence.

We also read in the Bible, in Psalm 33:6:

By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.

This quote tells us there is a Creator – that incomprehensible power that brought the creation into being. It also tells us that he created through the Word – the creative force. This universe did not just come about by itself. When Hazur Maharaj Ji was asked how one could believe there is a God – a Creator – he answered that when you look at a painting you know someone has painted it. Similarly, if you look at the creation around you, you must realize that something or someone made it.

This creation with its endless universes and everything in it is a manifestation of the Creator’s existence – his Will – the result of which is his omnipresence. It all evolved from a totality of One – a super-consciousness which blasted itself from oneness into multiplicity. The spark of this Oneness is present in everything that it created and is ever-present in an evolutionary process which saints, through the ages, have referred to as God’s plan. The Hindus call it his leila – his play.

The Creator himself is unchangeable and eternal, but his creation is constantly undergoing change. Living beings come into this world for a designated period and then die. The vegetable and mineral kingdoms are also subject to change. It is a constant evolutionary process in which the energy or spark of the Creator remains in every particle of the creation. But it is only a human being who has the ability and the privilege to be able to realize the Creator – that divine consciousness that we term God.

The soul, being the eternal essence of God, cannot rest or find peace except in God’s essence. The link between the soul and God is his eternal energy, the Shabd, referred to in the Bible as the Word of God. It is through this power that the soul returns to God’s essence.

But this will only happen when, through the grace of God, he calls an individual soul back to him. At this point the all-consuming search for answers begins to die a natural death. Now slowly and subtly the changes that take place within the individual lead away from confusion as enlightenment begins.

Now comes the understanding that God can be realized only within oneself. He is not to be found outside in nature, idols and places of pilgrimage, nor in scriptures and holy books. Whoever has perceived him, whoever will perceive him, has done so or will do so only within himself. It is only after realizing him within that one begins to see him everywhere.