IMAGINARY CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD

         

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Devotee – Swami, the whole of this week I have been thinking about what you said last Thursday. The more I think about it, the more wonderful it appears.

Swami – What appears to you as wonderful?

D -  This idea of being in contact with You all the time.

S -  What is so wonderful about the idea?

D - Swami, if I can remain in contact with You all the time….I mean if I can feel your love in my heart all the time…..what could be more joyful than this!

S -  Why if? Do you doubt the possibility? Do you think you can’t do so? Do you think it is too difficult a task?

D -  I have no doubt about the elevating experience it would give me, but I doubt my own ability.

S -  Why doubt yourself? That is man’s greatest enemy.

D -  Yes Swami, that is so. But I still do not know how to achieve it. To feel Your love all the time in my heart….that is a tremendous possibility. At times I feel it, but very soon lose it. I cannot hold on to it even for a few hours, and here I am expecting it to be with me without a break! I must confess my weakness, so that You can guide me.

S -  It is good you confess it, but even without your confession, I know it, for I

      am in your heart. But don’t talk of it as an achievement.

D -  Swami?  

S -  My boy, Bhakti is not an achievement, for it is not gaining anything , but losing everything. When you love me, you don’t gain me, but lose yourself in me. And when you lose yourself in me, in fact, you gain yourself, for then I manifest in you; I think in your thoughts, work in your work, live through your life. That is what you really are.

D -  Ah!......Swami, the grandness of the vision thrills me….

S -  Then let this grand vision guide you.

D -   Swami, You just now said, you are always in my heart. Then where is the

        problem? Why is this talk of Your flowing into my heart? You are already there, then how can you flow into a place you have already occupied?

S - I know I am in your heart, but do you know? Since you do not know, you have some problem in recognizing it. Therefore I am using a language you can understand.

D – Sorry Swami, I put it wrongly. I wanted to say that since You are already there in my heart, where is the need of Your coming into it? And why don’t I experience Your presence within myself?

S - Because you do not recognise my presence within yourself. Experiencing God is not a static but a dynamic experience, so I mentioned the image of flowing.

D -  Swami, you are getting more and more difficult !

S - I will make it easier for you. You keep foodstuffs in your fridge. But only when you are hungry you remember to open it. If not hungry, you keep your fridge shut, and almost forget about food-in-the-fridge.

D -  Which means, we remember you when we need you.

S - And your need for me is so limited that you do not feel the need to remember me all the time. Suppose someone has a chronic stomach ache. He may be doing a hundred things throughout the day, but he is always aware of his pain. It will be almost visible on his face. If you are waiting for an all important interview in two days for a very lucrative job, whatever you may be doing, wherever you may be going, the thought of the interview shall predominate. But I do not occupy such an important place in

       your life. You need me once in a while; so you remember me once in a while.

D - Swami, we always pray that you make only good things happen in our lives, protect us from dangers and difficulties, make everybody happy, we always succeed in all our good ventures….

S - That I stand as a watchdog to your property, your health, your position; that I continue to push you up and up until where you want to reach I do not know !

D -  Swami !

 S - There is no end to your need for me; You need me because you need so many other things that you believe I could give you without any tag in exchange for a bhajan, a little charity, a new food or dress habit, and a few pictures of mine on your walls! How cheap I am in your account!

D -  Swami, I shall be a great sinner if I think so.

S - You have strange notions about me. You want to please me by singing a song, by showing me a piece of designed thermocol, by making a speech with borrowed ideas, by showing me a O grade in exams, which I gave you, and in many other funny ways, while you remain the same! You always forget that I am sitting in your heart, and can see your motives even before you are fully aware of them.

D - Then how can we please You, Swami?

S -  My child, I am not interested in what you claim to do for me, but in you. I have come for you, to love you, to be loved by you, to take you home. I need you, not your antics. The work I give you is only a communication channel to contact you. You must need me in such a manner that I will always need you.

D - But Swami, You have no needs; You are Purnam itself, how can we make You need us?

S - Surely I don’t need you for my sake. I am complete in all aspects; I do not lack anything – so what can you give me that I don’t have? I have all powers

      at my command – so what can you do for me that they can’t? Then why do you still tell me you make so many sacrifices for me, as if I need all that you give me, or give up for me? I have come to fulfill you, therefore I shall be satisfied if, and only if, you need me because you love me.

D -Please forgive me Swami, I am not able to understand the difference between needing You for something, and needing You only.

S - I will tell you; but this is not the first time that I shall have shown you the way to light. There is nothing that I haven’t said several times to persuade you to walk on the highway to God. But you have a tendency to dismiss all that as ‘all this philosophy’! You take what pleases you, not what is good for you.

       D - Swami, I humbly confess we do not always try to understand what You say.

S - And far less willing to practise them! Most people need God only in an

       emergency. A terminal disease, a financial crisis, a bereavement, a threat – and they call upon God for help. The emergency is passed, and God is shelved! Then there are people who need God for success, whatever they take it to be; for a child, for a job, for a house, a good spouse etc.

D -  Swami, is it wrong to pray for such things?

S - May not be wrong, but it is making very limited use of God. In that case, your love and adoration increases or decrease according to whether God fulfills them, or not.

D -  Yes Swami, sometimes this happens.

S -  Then there are people who need God for enlightenment, for understanding the meaning of life. They know that even after most physical and mental needs are satisfied, one can still be denied peace, contentment, and joy, for God alone is the source of the juice of life.

D - But still that is needing God for something, isn’t so?

S - Yes it is; but that is closest to God’s heart, closest to your own nature. In that case you need God for what He would like to give you gladly. Thus your need for Him and His need for you synchronise. This man rates God as the highest need in his life; not an occasional, or alternative need, or one among many other needs. That person is very dear to God.

D -  Are there any other types, Swami? 

S -  Yes. The fourth type just loves God. Their relationship with God is not need based. They don’t need God for something. They develop such closeness with God that He would be eager to do something for them. For them God is the only reality, the rest of the world is only a shadow. They are forever in communion with God, and forever in peace, in contentment, in unspeakable joy. They are the most powerful people on earth.

D -  Most powerful, Swami! How?

S -  Because my power can flow through them freely. I can use them whatever way I want to. So I protect them, I make them achieve the impossible. They are my instruments.

       D -  How do You use them swami?

       S – Not to win kingdoms, but to establish my kingdom on earth, to bring peace,

       contentment, joy into the hearts of people. They are my invincible soldiers on earth, but sadly very few people choose to be my soldiers. Hanuman was one, Jesus another.

D -  Swami, I would like to be another.

S -  My child, how I wish you understand why you and I are here today!

                - To Continue                  
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