The Majesty of God-Consciousness

Divine Life Society Publication:  -Chapter 9- The Teachings of the Bhagavadgita by Sri Swami Krishnananda

The whole universe is envisaged in various facets as adhideva, adhibhuta, adhyatma, adhiyajna etc., all which somehow maintain the position of a transcendent reality. Aksharam brahma paramam – the super-cosmic aspect of the Creator is subtly maintained and that there is a graduated relationship of the individual to all these cosmical.

Inwardization leads to Universalization

The last thought – the total thought, and not one among the many thoughts, decides the future. This complete thought would be the factor that determines the future of the soul. Whatever one aspires for, that one shall attain to. Yadbhavaiti tadbhava. Social conditions and many other factors prevent inward longings from manifesting themselves in outward form, and we live a repressed life. But this repression is something like burying a seed in the ground, which will sprout itself forth one day when there is rainfall and a conducive atmosphere is manifest.

The point that we may bear in mind is that we have to be very cautious in thinking, feeling, and willing. "Whoever contemplates the Supreme Being, God Himself, that soul will enter God."

Nothing is there outside God, nothing is superior to God, nothing external. In the earlier stages it appears that God is far away – infinite is the distance between us and God. But this doubt is dispelled when the religious consciousness deepens, and it realizes that the very being of God is the being of infinitude, eternity, and therefore there is no distance between the soul and God. The language of the Eternal is the voice of our inner conscience, and our Atman is Brahman.

God, the distant being, is also the God who is the soul of the very seeking spirit which feels God as a distant being. Thus the inwardization leads to the universalization of this concept. He is not a secretly hidden light within an individual body, but a large presence which occupies all space and all time so that outside it nothing can be – not the universe, not the individual.

Total Surrender

Timeless is God's existence, and timeless, therefore, is God's action in His operation. Timeless is He because He is also spaceless. Hence, the grace of God is a non-spatial and non-temporal gift. Inasmuch as it is non-temporal, it is instantaneous – just here and now. So when the soul, the seeker, the yogin, the aspirant, the devotee timelessly, spacelessly unites itself with this timeless, spaceless Being, there is a timeless and spaceless consequence that follows. There is an immediate fulfilment of all that is essential. A single thought, which is the total surrender of the whole of one's personality to this God-Being, evokes a response which is eternal and non-spatial, and an abundance .

Everywhere He is present, sometimes more pronounced in His manifestations, sometimes not so manifest. Deluded man, totally oblivious to his glorious goal, foolish in his pursuits, regards himself as all-master in this world. A little bit of long rope is given by God Himself to every one of us, so we may live in our own fool's paradise for the time being and we may rule in the hell that we have created here. But when adharma, which is this egotism of man, goes to heights, to the breaking-point, then God Himself cannot tolerate it anymore and there is a dissolution of the cosmos.

Total Consciousness

An integral vision is necessary to behold this integrality of existence. The superficial, phenomenal eye sees diversity everywhere, but distinction between the seer and the seen is not the tool that you can employ in the vision of the Absolute. The third eye is an integral intuition, the total consciousness, the whole of our being welling up into action – the Atman beholding Brahman.

There cannot be two kingdoms of God. If we establish our own kingdom here, on earth, vying with the eternal kingdom of the Absolute, then we may rule our kingdom well in the way we are having here in it; but this empire of ours cannot reach that divine empire.

God does not require anything from us. Nothing can be offered to God because everything belongs to Him. What can we offer to Him? Perhaps the last thing that we have is our own individuality, our egoism, our personality, our being. God asks that we may be offered to Him, and not anything that we may have. He does not want a temple to be built for Him, a house of brick and mortar, calling it a chapel or a church. He does not want any offering because we are offering to Him what does not belong to us – this is not a charity. But what we consider as our property is ourself only. The last thing that we can part with, the dearest and the nearest of our possessions, that object which we love most, it is our own self – let this love melt into God-love.

The bhakti, this devotion spoken of here, is not a little lip sympathy that we show to God. It is not a bowing of the head, it is not the folding of the hands – it is the melting of ourselves in the menstruum of God-Being.

Ananyashchintayanto mam ye janah paryupasate;

tesham nityabhiyuktanam yogakshemam vahamyaham.

Recite this sloka every day – contemplate its meaning. Nobody can harm us. There is nobody who is not under the subjection of God's rule, and therefore when we are in communion with this Great Master of the World, the whole army of God will protect us, provided we are honestly in fraternal relation with Him and we regard Him as All-in-All. God will offer Himself only when we offer ourselves to Him – not before. Thus it is that the Self-offering of God is an automatic, instantaneous occurrence as a response to the whole-souled offering of ourselves to Him. It is not jnana, it is not bhakti, it is not yoga – it is every blessed thing. To know It, to visualize It and to enter into It, are the duties of man. Finally. God-realization is the goal of life. Thus, yoga is an art of attaining to God-consciousness.

 Excerpts from:

The Majesty of God-Consciousness - Chapter 9- The Teachings of the Bhagavadgita by Sri Swami Krishnananda

The Majesty of God-Consciousness – Bhagavadgita by Swami Krishnananda

The Spiritual (story) message of – The Great Master of the World

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