How many of us have yearned to have a divine vision of God? For many, finding God is a dream that hardly seems possible, but many people have seen God. They have merged with God. They could only do it through inversion, concentration, or meditation.
Observe the life of Christ, Buddha, Mahavira, Guru Nanak and Moses. They all spread the message of love, unity, and nonviolence. They taught us to love our fellow beings and to love God. Most of us have been brought up in one religion or another. If we look at the basic message of the founders of all religions, we find them spreading the message of love and peace. We can develop our spiritual side too by spending some time each day coming in contact with God within ourselves.
In Buddhism, the bodhisattva vows to devote himself to save all beings and accept their sufferings. He is also given a chance to be free from the pain and suffering of the world and to achieve liberation, but he refuses. He says, “I am not afraid of the burden of suffering. I want to rescue all beings from the pain of old age, sickness, disease and death.”
When asked about freeing himself from his own suffering, the bodhisattva says, “With the help of the boat of all-knowledge, I will rescue all living beings from the turbulent stream of illusion and maya.”
When asked why he wants to do that, bodhisattva replies, “It is better that I alone suffer.”
It is hard for us to imagine the depth of love he had for humanity that he chose to come down to this world and suffer for our sake. In life we often see parents making this kind of sacrifice. Apart from parents, fire-fighters, police or people in military service take up job without the fear or losing their job.
But bodhisattva took us this role even after knowing that a part of the duty would be to take that suffering.
Even Srimad Bhagavatam tells us about a king called Rantideva. He would give away whatever wealth he received and was left hungry most of the times.
Once, a great famine swept the land. He and his family starved for forty-eight days. They were left with a glass of water. While he was consuming it, a beggar came to the door, thirsting for water. King Rantideva said, “I do not wish that God gives me great powers or even freedom from rebirth. Rather I pray to understand the hearts of all beings and to take upon myself their suffering so that they can be free of misery.” The gave away water to him, although he himself was thirsty.
Lord of the three worlds came to Rantideva to bless him, but the king refused any material offers. Instead, he merely bowed in gratitude to Lord Krishna.
As illustrated by the example of King Rantideva, the great saints and mystics are sent to us by God to relieve us of suffering do not want anything in return. They merely bow in gratitude to God for the opportunity to serve others.
No matter what we do the Lord loves us, but that does not mean we should do anything we want. The Lord wants us to experience the bliss, the spiritual intoxication, and the joy of being one with God. If the Lord wants that for us, should we not want it for ourselves?
How can we show our gratitude for the miracle of God’s love for us? Firstly, we can bestow our compassion on others by allowing all of God’s creation into our hearts. We should nourish all those we meet with life giving love and compassion.
The second way we can show gratitude for God’s gifts is to put to use the wonderful gift the Lord has given us.
By developing our own spiritual nature, let us come in contact with the Light and Sound of God within us. As we experience the inner bliss and love of God, let us convert that into compassion and forgiveness, and let us start anew to build peaceful, harmonious,
and loving relationships. In this way, we will be building a peaceful, safe world for our children, for posterity, and for ourselves.