What People Think & Say About God

Till now I have been writing my thoughts & views on this blog about God. Today I am presenting below what people think & say about God. I have one "Bhakti Sangeet" video channel on You Tube on which at present 106 devotional videos are uploaded & all those videos are on my this blog also. I have scanned through some of the comments posted on my "Bhakti Sangeet" channel on You Tube which gives a fair idea of views of different persons regarding God. Here below are those comments:

Hindus like to believe in only one God. They glorify and praise his thousands of qualities. For example God is love, he is symbolically represented by Krishna, God is virtue is represented by lord Ram, God is power is represented by Lord Hanuman, God is wisdom represented by Goddess Saraswati etc etc. by these symbols we develop spirituality, purity, to the ultimate one who is endless truth and bliss.

Why do people cry on the basis of religion.
There is one God,
He is called by different names by his lovers in affection.
And he also takes a visible form - like to save Prahalad he came and it is mentioned in Gurbani and also at other places.
Sri Ram, Gobind, Sri Krishn,Waheguru, Allah are all same.
The fight between people because of different names is idiotic and they are simply illiterate.

Its a matter of faith one may believe in any of the god but if he is a real believer he will have wisdom to respect others and not to comment on others faith.

Jai Shri Krishna, Jai Guru Nanak, God of gods, pls give courage to all of us so that we can achieve our final destination, that's your abode above (heaven) and get liberated from sufferings. "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare", Jai Wahe Guru

Chant the Maha-Mantra
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare
and be happy

Krishna consciousness is for everyone.
Krishna is one of the names of God and means all-attractive. Praise the Lord!

Jai Shri Raam Jai Shri Krishna.
God of Gods, Operator of universe, the universal truth. Please bless us all and give us eternal bliss

Antaryami means who can observe every thing of your heart without explaining to him, Thats why God is Antaryami. we don't need to explain any problem to him he is Antaryami, he knows what we want.

Oh Lord of the whole Universe
Mighty Lord of the whole Universe
All Thy devotees' agonies
All Thy devotees' sorrows
Instantly Thou banisheth
Oh Lord of the whole Universe
He who's immersed in devotion
He reaps the fruits of Thy love
Lord, he reaps the fruits of Thy love
Joy, prosperity and health
Enter the homes of those who pray to thee
Oh Lord of the whole Universe...

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All Happens for the Good only

In India, whenever, I go to any grocery shop (baniya ka kiryana shop), I invariably find hanging a calendar of "Gita Saar" or "गीता सार" over there. Same wall hanging or a calendar is found, whenever, I visit barber's shop for haircut. In fact you can find this "Gita Saar" calendar hanging in most of the traditional Hindu shops & houses in India. In this "Gita Saar" is written the brief essence of the Philosophy of "Bhagwat Gita". It is generally written in Hindi language & starts with:

"जो हुआ अच्छा हुआ, जो हो रहा है अच्छा हो रहा है, जो होगा अच्छा होगा। जो बीत गया उस के लिए मत रोवो, जो आने वाला है उस की चिंता मत करो, अपने वर्तमान में धयान लगाओ"

"Whatever happened in the past, it happened for the good; Whatever is happening, is happening for the good; Whatever shall happen in the future, shall happen for the good only. Do not weep for the past, do not worry for the future, concentrate on your present life."

Now basic meaning of these lines is that a supreme power is controlling all this universe on a macro scale & is also controlling the lives of every person on this earth on a micro scale. Whatever good we are doing, Almighty is rewarding us for that & whatever wrong we are doing Almighty is punishing us for that so that we can come back to the right path. In this way Almighty is maintaining the world order in which goodness prevails over evil always & it moves in a positive direction always. Now when something bad happens to us then we think that God is doing something bad for us but in fact He is only doing so in our life for our betterment only. Below story also illustrates that, whatever, happens in our life, always happens for the Good only.

"Once upon the time there was an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically.

“All happens for the Good only,” the farmer replied. On hearing this his neighbors were surprised.

The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. “How wonderful,” the neighbors exclaimed.

“All happens for the Good only,” replied the old man.

The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune.

“All happens for the Good only,” answered the farmer. On hearing this his neighbors were again surprised.

The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son’s leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out.

“All happens for the Good only,” said the farmer. "

Read complete "Gita Saar" over here.........Gita Saar

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Our Understanding or Perception of God

Can anyone tell, how God's Face look like?? May be no one can answer this question properly, as no one has come face to face with God anytime & we all have seen His pictures, idols etc. only in which God's face looks like, whatever, the painter or craftsman imagined it while making that picture or idol. There are others who believe in unmaniifest aspect of God i.e. they believe in faceless, nirakar aspect of God. So we have different perceptions of God as per our thinking & faith.

In general God is the faith of human beings that a Supernatural Power exists in this universe which has created us & all other universal forms. He is having supernatural powers, who is omniscient (knows everything), who is omnipresent (who is present everywhere), omnipotent (who is having all the powers & is all powerful), who is imperishable & indestructible. Faith of humans in such a big & great entity having all the powers is known as God.

When God is someone Superhuman, having Infinite size, knowledge & powers, then it is very difficult for a human being with limited knowledge & power to fully understand & describe the God. In this respect there is an analogy as to how differently we each understand or experience the God. There is this story about four blind men and the elephant:

There are four blind men who discover an elephant. Since the men have never encountered an elephant, they grope about, seeking to understand and describe this new wild being. One gets hold of the trunk and concludes that it is a snake. So for him elephant is like a snake. Another explores one of the elephant's legs and describes it as a tree. So for him elephant is like a tree. A third one finds the elephant's tail and announces that it is a rope. So for him elephant is like a rope. And the fourth blind man, after discovering the large body of the elephant, concludes that it is, after all, a wide mountain.

Each in his blindness is describing the same thing: an elephant. Yet each describes the same thing in a radically different way. We all are like those blind men only in our knowledge of God who describe the God as per our own understanding. Now say a fifth man (who could see) comes to the scene and he were to describe the elephant as an elephant, then he would tell clearly about the elephant as it is. Same is the case that only a true master who has seen God actually can tell how God looks like. Let's seek such a True master, Great soul or Guru who shall tell us about the true nature of God & shall lead us to Him.

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Are You Attached to Your Pile of Dung?

Ancient "Mahabharata" war happened because blind king 'Dhritarashtra' was so much infatuated with his wicked son Duryodhana that he could not see what bad things his son was doing to his younger brother Pandu's sons. In fact the poise Arjuna, the devotee of Lord Krishna too fell a pray to Infatuation on the battle field of Kurukshetra & forgot his duty to fight the justful war. At that time Lord Krishna reminded Arjuna of his duty to fight a lawful, justful war & gave him the teachings of Bhagwad Gita. Arjuna after having been taught in the path of knowledge by Lord Krishna came back to his path of duty & fought a lawful battle against the Kauravas (his enemies) & won the battle with the grace of Lord Krishna.

So Infatuation is something that deludes us in our life & in such a state we get attached to some person or our family badly. Due to such Infatuation to our family, our mind always wanders about that only & forgets other important things in life. Same applies to other material things like your home, your car, money etc. etc. So if your mind is attached to these things greatly, then also you are infatuated with these things & again are forgetting other important things in life. The most important thing that we forget when we get Infatuated is God. We always remain involved with our family & do not think of God anytime. When we think of God & work for God in this life, then only our next life becomes beautiful, otherwise an infatuated person goes into lower wombs only in the next births. Below is an interesting story regarding that only.

Once there were two great friends. One of them was a monk who lived in a monastery while his friend was a family man who was deeply attached (in fact Infatuated) to his wife & children. Then in the course of time, they died within a few months of one another. Monk got reborn in the heaven realms, while his friend got reborn as a worm in a dung pile. The Monk up in the heaven realms was having a wonderful time, enjoying all the heavenly pleasures. But he started thinking about his friend, "I wonder where my old friend has gone?" So he scanned all of the heaven realms, but could not find a trace of his friend. Then he scanned the realm of human beings, but he could not see any trace of his friend there, so he looked in the realm of animals and then of insects. Finally he found him, reborn as a worm in a dung pile... Wow! He thought: "I am going to help my friend. I am going to go down there to that dung pile and take him up to the heavenly realm so he too can enjoy the heavenly pleasures and bliss of living in these wonderful realms."

So he went down to the dung pile and called his friend. And the little worm wriggled out and said: "Who are you?", "I am your friend. We used to be together in a past life, and I have come up to take you to the heaven realms where life is wonderful and blissful." But the worm said: "Go away, get lost!" "But I am your friend, and I live in the heaven realms," and he described the heaven realms to him. But the worm said: "No thank you, I am quite happy here in my dung pile. Please go away." Then the heavenly being thought: "Well if I could only just grab hold of him and take him up to the heaven realms, he could see for himself." So he grabbed hold of the worm and started tugging at him; and the harder he tugged, the harder that worm clung to his pile of dung.

Do you get the moral of the story? How many of us are attached to our pile of dung?

In fact most of us are deeply involved with our family only & do not care much about God. We do not pray to God, think of God or chant his name or His Glories. Thinking of God & praying Him only can make your this & next lives beautiful. We day in day out are feeding our family & forgetting the God. Pl. remember that all relatives of yours are yours, till the time you are in this physical body. At the death of the physical body all relations too die with the body. Nothing of this World is Yours FOREVER, neither property, nor relatives. All these seem to be yours, only once you are in this physical body.

So we should not attach our mind greatly to any material thing or human being as one day we shall have to leave these or these shall go away from us someday or the other. On that day, if you have a great attachment to these, you shall feel great pain, otherwise it shall be a normal life for you. So let us not allow our mind to be INFATUATED by any material thing or with any person, which can lead our self to sorrow someday. Gita also teaches us to live in this world like that without getting attached to anything or any being. Just live like a drop of water on Lotus, where though water drop is there on it but it is not attached to it.

Read also...........Nothing is Yours

Read also...........Infatuation is the Cause of Most Sorrows

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Divine Grace Of God

God is all merciful. His Divine grace or Blessing or 'Kripa' (कृपा) happens on all creatures. Divine grace is of two types. First one is Normal mercy & second one is Special mercy. Normal mercy is the one which is happening on all creatures, equally by God. Like Sun is shining on all beings equally or God provides for the water, air & food etc. for all the creatures, irrespective of whether these creatures love Him or not. Say there are many people who do not like or believe in God & rather there are many people who abuse the God or say ill of Him but still God never stops providing sunshine, air, water, food etc. to such people. This is called God's Normal mercy.

Other than that is Special mercy of God. This type of mercy happens on God's devotees. Such special Divine grace on devotees in Hinduism is the central tenet of Bhakti Yoga and Bhakti movements. It is a key towards realizing the spiritual path of self-realization in which God embraces His devotee. When Special mercy of God happens on any person then God gives that person, whatever, that person is lacking in life & also protects his/her life & belongings. In fact that person is always protected in life by God. Such type of Special mercy of God only happens on a person who engages his/her mind always in thinking of God, becomes God's devotee, offers obeisance's to God and always worships the God. Being completely absorbed in God, surely that person becomes eligible for God's Special mercy.

That is the reason that Adi Shankaracharya composed his famous verse Bhaja Govindam in 8th century, where he declared:

"bhajagovindam bhajagovindam
govindam bhaja muudhamate
sampraapte sannihite kaale
nahi nahi rakshati dukrijnkarane"

Worship Govinda, Worship Govinda,
Worship Govinda. Oh fool!
Nothing else will save you
at the time of your death.

Similarly below verses of Bhagwat Gita explain that:

"samo ’ham sarva-bhutesu
na me dvesyo ’sti na priyah
ye bhajanti tu mam bhaktya
mayi te tesu chapy aham" (Bhagwat Gita: Chapter Nine verse 29)

"Sri Krishna said: I envy no one, nor am I partial to anyone. I am equal to all. But whoever renders service unto Me in devotion is a friend, is in Me, and I am also a friend to him."

"ananyas cintayanto mam
ye janah paryupasate
tesham nityabhiyuktanam
yoga-ksemam vahamy aham" (Bhagwat Gita: Chapter Nine verse 22)

"Sri Krishna said: But those who always worship Me with exclusive devotion, meditating on My transcendental form—to them I carry what they lack, and I preserve what they have."

"sarva-dharman parityajya
mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo
mokshayisyami ma suchah" (Bhagwat Gita: Chapter Eighteen verse 66)

"Sri Krishna said: O Arjuna, Abandon all varieties of religion or Setting aside all meritorious deeds, just surrender unto Me. I shall liberate you from all sins. Do not fear."

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