Excerpt from THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GOD AND MAN
GURURAJ ANANDA YOGI: The cause of man seeming to be separated from God is a total misconception that has been fostered by so‐called church organizations. There has never been any separation between man and God. If God is regarded to be omnipresent, then where is the separation? It is that he is present within you all the time. But what makes a man feel that he is separated from God is an undeveloped consciousness or awareness, so that he does not seem to realize his real self. He finds himself separated from his real Self because of all of the problems he goes through, all the anxieties he has, and all the troubles he might suffer. Then he says, “Is there really a God?” He questions this. He asks, if there is a God that the theologians say is a kind and compassionate Father, then why is He so unkind to people and makes them suffer? People do not seem to realize that divinity is a neutral energy, an all pervading, all permeating neutral energy and that it is you, yourself, that brings suffering upon yourself. The suffering comes about by the various mental conflicts which you, yourself, have created, so divinity is not to be blamed.
How many times a day do you ever think there is divinity? You don’t. You would rather think of the dinner you are going to cook or the clothes you are going to wear or the work you are going to do at your job. You don’t think of divinity at all. The only time you think of God is when you are in trouble. You say, “Oh, God, please help me.” He won’t, that’s for sure! He will tell you, “help yourself.” And therefore the old saying goes, God only helps those that help themselves. What this really means is that you are activating that divine energy to help yourself bring calmness into your mind, and by bringing calmness into your mind your anxieties disappear. People do have an analytical mind, but they do not analyze their thought processes in a proper way. They always analyze their thoughts in a negative way. And ninety-nine percent of the world’s people like to think of the dark side of things and not about the silver lining behind every cloud. They do not see the opportunity that lies in every adversity.
The adversity that you are going through makes you feel that you are separate from God, where in reality no separation has ever occurred. Divinity is said to be infinite and eternal and so are you; infinite and eternal. Dropping one body and picking up the next body is like changing from one suit to the other. Yet, that inner self forever remains in its own stillness. It is said in theology, “Be still and know that I am God.” Who is to be still? You are to be still and know that I am God within myself. God does not need to be still; He is stillness. This cognition must come from you. This can be very easily achieved by a systematic process of meditation. You lead the conscious mind through the subconscious layers and then to the superconscious mind, where you make contact with divinity.
I do not believe in God. I know God! That is what everyone must strive for; to know God. By knowing God, you will find the living God and not an abstract conception of some old man sitting on his throne somewhere up there. So, the separation is not really a separation, but is based upon your own personal ignorance. Through the process of evolution from the primal atom, one goes through many different experiences. All of these experiences go into the memory bank which is in your mind. Unpleasant experiences have a habit of clinging more to you than good experiences. When these unpleasant experiences cling to you, your faith in divinity diminishes; it clouds up everything. The sun may be shining up there all the time, but is covered by the clouds. And who created the clouds? The sun itself. It drew up the water vapor, which condensed itself to become a cloud and obscured the sun; yet the sun is untouched. So we are living in obscurity and ignorance by denying the universality and eternity of that which is. Through spiritual practices you develop the sense of Is‐ ness. I am that I am; Yahweh. You develop the sense of Is‐ness. And the more you develop the sense of Is‐ness the more you will live a life of here and now and not a life in the past or a life projected into the future.
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