Q What are your experiences with God? What did you do to realise him?

            My experience is that I am God. God cannot be explained; It is an experience. It is neither an object nor a subject. It is an experience of subjectivity. As long as you distinguish yourself from It, It seems like a stone.

          You can become It. That is the Ultimate.

          As far as Siva Shankar Baba is concerned, his experiences have guided him to realize that he is God. Since he knows that his experiences are true, he accepts you also as God.

          What was unknown became known. You do not know it today. You will sooner or later know it. Just because you don’t know it, is no reason why you should deny Its Existence. I too was not aware of God within, till I completed 36 years of age. Only when I comprehended God’s Presence within, did I know what  I had not known all along.

          I realized I am Muruga, I am Venkatachalapathy. When I comprehended this, there was nothing else to be known. I know because I know. You are also God. You need not accept me as God, but I am ready to accept you as God.

          It is difficult for you to believe me when I say you are seated on water. But dig the ground and you will find water at some depth; continue digging, you will hit oil, and if you dig further, you may strike gold. I state that you are right now seated on water. And I am right, because I know by experience.

            Seek and you will attain. Knock and the doors shall open. I have dug till the end, and now I have become a gold Pillaiyar. I have dug deep within me, and I have become a gold Pillaiyar. Let us assume that you are not able to put in as much effort as I did. Dig till you hit at least clay. I will then be able to mould a clay Pillaiyar of you. And you will be worshipped on Vinayaka Chathurthi day! It does not really matter if you are not yet able to become a gold Pillaiyar. If you nurture the drive to become at least a clay Pillaiyar, you will become a Pillaiyar. And you know that Pillaiyar is the principal deity; all prayers are directed to Him first. So it will be worth your while.

            So you too are God; but a God that does not know the Divinity within. The reason you are unable to understand this is because you perceive the external world through the sense organs God has given you. You have not yet started looking within yourself. You are seeing the external world. You are not even aware that there is a universe within, waiting for your discovery.

            As long as a room is in darkness, you will not be aware of its contents. Light a candle, and you will be able to see all the objects, including yourself. If you throw open a window, your external surroundings, the lawn, the river nearby, the sky, all these become visible. Just because you had not seen them earlier does not mean they did not exist. You have made an attempt only now.

          God is always present. It is only when you start perceiving Him that you know He is, always.

          I have often repeated: (holds an object in hand and explains) assume this object is God. If the veil was on God, since Jesus had removed the veil, it must have been visible to you. Gautama, the Buddha, lifted the veil. Mohammed Nabi raised the veil.  So, why is God not yet visible to you? It is because the veil was on Jesus only and never on God. Jesus removed the veil of illusion, and was able to perceive God. The veil was on Gautama; he removed it and perceived God. The veil was on Mohammed Nabi; he removed it and hence perceived God. The veil was on me; I removed it and am perceiving God. The veil is on you, and I will guide you in the process of understanding.

          You must make the necessary efforts. The veil is on you, not on God. God is Omnipresent, Omnipotent and Omniscient. He is everywhere, as Light, as Sound, as every single tiny thing in this world. Remove the veil on yourself and you can perceive Him as I am doing.

            All those who have comprehended God, realized Him within themselves and not externally in statues or pictures or portraits. The world is unable to understand this language.

          You purchased some dresses at a textile shop, and the shop owner gave you a New year calendar with a portrait of some divine form. The calendar has the name of the person who painted it and the press that printed it. You are well aware that it is a calendar given to you at the textile shop. Yet, you frame the picture and offer prayers to it, burn camphor and incense and offer neivedyam (food offering) to it. Persons revere a portrait of a divine form as God. But if Siva Shankar Baba addresses himself as Muruga, they start questioning that claim. Am I not at a higher level of creation than paper? When you are able to visualize Muruga in paper, why are you unable to visualize God in me? You are the one who is confused.

          You purchased a stone idol at Mahabalipuram. You cleansed it well, performed Abhishekam to it, burnt camphor and incense. You were the one who purchased it off a shop and yet you believe it to be God. But you are unable to accept this speaking, listening, breathing, smelling, walking, living human form as God.

          Who is wise, you or I? If you ponder over this, you will realize what is what.

          Man has a conceited ego that there is nothing in the world that he is not aware of. He will never believe any Mahaan. All Mahaans who have come hitherto, were aware of the Truth, and they came to earth to guide human beings to the Truth. But since persons refused to acknowledge that this was something beyond their comprehension, the Gnaanis could not succeed.

          Herod sarcastically tells Jesus, ‘I heard you revived dead persons. I have arthritis, let us see if you can cure me.’ Jesus was such a great soul who has been able to influence more than half of the world’s population; and a good-for-nothing tyrant who had massacred so many innocent babies, was mocking at Jesus.

            Judas was one of the chosen ‘apostles’ of Jesus. His greed for money enticed him to expose Jesus. Even before dawn, Peter, another apostle, denied any knowledge of Jesus! No Mahaan has ever been accepted in his lifetime. All ‘disciples’ have been agnaanis to the very end; they did not realize the treasure-chest of knowledge that had come their way. In fact, disciples are more dangerous than the outside society. The general public just passes you by. Disciples are inclined to look for some loophole in their master using which they can induce him into showing some favouritism. That is why I do not entertain anyone personally. I have no personal attendant.

          All Mahaans have met with the same fate. That is why Baba has not become a Mahaan! This statement startles you! Well! You did not accept me when I revealed myself as a Mahaan. So now I state that I am not a Mahaan. You cannot question me, and I am just not concerned about whether you accept me or not. What do I gain or lose by convincing you? It suffices that I know my worth. (thannenjarivadhu poyyarka).

                You might condemn me even if I am good. You might praise me even if I am bad. Both these are false. Everything in the world is false. There is nothing true in this world. You are the sole judge of your true nature.

            You pass judgment about a person, whether to believe him or not. And then you invent justifications to support your belief. You are searching for evidences to validate your verdict.

          Even for ordinary matters, you would have two alternatives, write them down on a piece of paper and shuffle them, till you get the alternative of your liking. Why do you deceive yourself thus? Why are you unable to accept yourself for what you are?

          For instance, as long as you like Sathya Sai Baba, you will keep praising him to the skies, unmindful of what others say about him. I do not have any personal opinion, I am just critical of the way mortals are. You will laud him for treating everyone equally, for his not showing any discrimination on the basis of religion etc. The moment someone in your family questions you, in a bid to save your face, you will project him as a Hindu saint; the same is true of Christian and Muslim saints; you will start condemning him as upholding that particular religion.

          This is true of every human being. No one is exempted from this. You support those whom you like and condemn those who do not appeal to you. Otherwise, how could so many political parties have cropped up in this country? Everyone has his own prejudices and twists the truth to suit his convenience.

          There is good and there is bad in everyone. A person who is your friend may be someone else’s foe. You are good for a certain time and bad for a certain other time. There is no one who is totally bad and there is no one who is totally good. The underground hooligan may seem evil to you, but the families of his associates look to him as a godfather, because he is taking care of them.

          So ‘good’ or ‘bad’ is a matter of attitude. Ask someone who has committed a crime and he will state reasons that seem logically right to him. Everything depends on how you visualize it.                                                                               

( continues next week....)

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