Today, most of us have desires and aspirations. We wish for things to happen in a certain manner. Due to our past life karma, this doesn’t always happen. This makes us adamant. Adamancy makes us demand, “I want it this way only, or else I will not accept it.” All carry this attitude within them. For some, it crops up frequently and for others, occasionally. What we must understand is that God resides in us all the time. When we nurture adamancy, He evaporates at the same time. That is why when we are very adamant, we don’t accomplish our task. We end up being disappointed and our efficiency decreases. Remember, God can manifest and unmanifest Himself within nano seconds. He returns when we are released from the quagmire of any negative attitude or emotion.
The seven higher worlds and the seven netherworlds are under divine control. He controls the seasons and the five elements of nature. Every devotee should know this truth. Some of us experience His presence only partly when we are under the shelter of the Guru. The great Shri Sai Baba of Shirdi has in many instances shown his leela or divine sport of control over the Pancha Bhootas (five elements of nature.) He once invited a devotee Chand Patil to have a smoke and rest. The chillum was ready. Fire was needed to light the pipe and water to wet the piece of cloth through which the smoke is drawn in (chhapi). Baba dashed the satka (stick) on the ground and water began to ooze from it. He took a prong and thrust it forcibly into the ground and out came a burning coal that he put in the pipe. Then he smoked the chillum once and gave it to Chand Patil also to smoke! In the same manner, there are instances where Sai Baba has turned water into oil. Therefore, we can understand that God can convert matter into energy and vice versa.
God has the power to manifest and unmanifest (become adrishya) within us. This is because he holds the world in his hand! He is omnipresent. This means that He is there as well as here, but at the same time is absent when we display adamancy. So, how do we comprehend this statement? Our inner world is different and the outer world we see today with our physical eyes are different. In that case how do we define that God exists in both worlds? Or does He exist?
Take the example of Shri Krishna and the 16,000 Gopis in Vrindavan. The gopis always enjoyed Krishna’s presence all the time whether he was physically present or not. They used to play the Raas Leela—the divine sport of love—with Him. One day, Radha and they got the feeling that “Lord Krishna is mine. He should be mine alone”. This feeling of ego nurtured their adamancy. The moment they entertained such thoughts, Krishna disappeared. Only after they realised that they shouldn’t have claimed ownership of the universal Krishna did He manifest once again before them. Wherever we have had experiences, God has manifested Himself to us as the experience itself—pratyaksha. Where we have not experienced God, we have fully exercised the ego and adamancy which is its offshoot. Therefore, God unmanifested himself as paroksha. God exists in a vacuum too. Where there is no air there is a vacuum. In the same manner, where there is light there cannot be darkness. Just, like both light and darkness cannot be together, air and vacuum cannot be together. However, God exists in both. When we develop subtlety and complete faith, we become open-minded to receiving and learning. This leads us towards earning God’s grace through various divine experiences of his presence. Thereby with our own experiences a reference point emerges from within us as the ultimate inference to the Divine presence.
ashram-india @shrinimishamba.org