How I reach God, a spiritually inclined person may ask. There are many ways of realizing Him. The quest is not arduous or difficult. A sincere devotee can attain his goal by a closer affinity with preceptors and a deep study of devotional literature. More significant is the company of the Lord’s messengers and torch bearers who have no other aim in life than to proceed to His kingdom and be engaged in divine service. Pious and upright, these visionaries have shown the path for others to follow.
Hinduism, the world’s oldest living religion, is not just a faith, but a way of life, one that is shared by about eight hundred million people, or one-sixth the world’s population. While its knowledge is believed to be eternal, scholars have estimated the religion’s roots to be at least several thousand years old. Philosophically, the faith advocates selfless devotion to God, within the disciplines of righteousness and under the guidance of a pure and divine guru, or spiritual teacher, as a means of reaching God.
The guidelines are simple and the approach easy. A devotee should abhor evil deeds of all types and seek only what is good and virtuous. Nothing will be more detestable than attachment to worldly goods and sensory pleasures. The other vital need is to repose absolute faith in His protection. The Almighty is not an entity, which can be bought. He can be sought through piety expressing one’s inability to protect himself from the day-to-day turmoil.
Meditation is one best way to reach to God, the spiritual energy. Through this, we can contact God and your faith is a matter of concern to talk and to believe his presence. Blind faith like a child have on his parents, like a son have on his father and mother, like a devotee have on his guru. Faith should not be 50 - 50, you should have either 100 percent or not, but if you have then believe him he is always with you; watching you, teaching you, playing with you, showing the way to live, testing you and giving you everything you want without asking for that but reasonably.
Finding God to attain authentic spiritual happiness is the essence of all Hindu teachings. In a world where there is unlimited variation and variety, Hinduism teaches there are only three paths or means to attain God. With so many developments that are taking place in material science, you might wonder how spiritual science could produce only three paths for finding God. Still, no matter what the human mind creates through any kind of science, science can’t be contrary to our fundamental nature.
Fortunately, the knowledge for how to find God remains the same in every age, because not only our own spiritual nature, but also God’s nature is unchanging. From time to time, true saints and sages appear in this world to re-invigorate and re-establish the knowledge of these paths in their original form. By following their guidelines, we can follow the path to God in its original form and successfully fulfill our ultimate spiritual aim.
Religion has a very important role in the world. Unfortunately, it forgets that role, and the different religions fight with one another. We have enough money, enough land, enough food to feed, clothe and house everyone. Poverty and hunger are not due to lack of resources. The reason is that we are not caring and sharing. We have to open and change the hearts of the people. That can be done only through religions understanding; to help them see that we are all children of that One Absolute God, one global, divine family.
There is only one God who is our Lord, who is the life in us. Like rain in the river going back to the ocean, every drop of water that wants to go back to its source is a religious seeker. God above is like completely distilled water. When it falls down on one side of the river, it is called Heavenly Father. We may call this One God: Brahma, Father, Mother, Cosmic Consciousness, Divine Essence, etc. but we mean the same thing. God is pleased with any name we give Him. He doesn’t care what we call Him, but rather how we feel about Him.
The soul is your original spiritual self. As an eternal but infinitesimal fraction of God the soul also has these three kinds of natures: Karma (Action), Gnana (Knowledge) and Ananda (Bliss). Thus, the three paths of how to find God or Divine attainment correspond to these three natures - the Path of Karma (Karma Yoga); the Path of Gnana (Gnana Yoga); and the Path of Bhakti (Bhakti Yoga). God does not possess a fourth nature - all of His powers, forms, names, abodes, aspects, qualities and so on are within these three. These paths were originally revealed in the Vedas. To know we could learn how to find God so easily is an extremely elegant and simple solution.
This article is an ‘Ashirvachana’ given by His Holiness Sri Balagangadaranatha Mahaswamiji, 71st Pontiff of Sri Adichunchanagiri Mahas stana Math