Abiding in God

The title “Abiding in God” given by Swami ji made me close my eyes and sense the feeling coming from it. Yes, immediately I felt protected and safe within myself.

Master gave us this meaningful poem:
Thou and I are One
Thy Cosmic life and I are one.
Thou art the Ocean, I am the wave; We are one.
Thou art the Flame, I am the spark; We are one.
Thou art the Flower, I am the fragrance; We are one.
Thou art the Father, I am thy child; We are one……

Reading these beautiful words I felt, If we abide in God, we need no other protection as God himself is that.

This we have to experience and here it is said that it is not to be understood from outside, it is to be perceived from within. And it can be perceived when we meditate every day without fail. Guru given meditation brings his blessing and when we follow it, we abide in him. That is the easiest way to abide in him.

Our beloved Guru Paramhansa Yogananda has described in his beautiful book “Autobiography of a Yogi” that all saints abide in God and attract His power within themselves. When we abide in Him we become his son. Jesus Christ never claimed that I am God but he always said I am the Son of God and being the Son of God he had all the powers that his father has.

Then how can we relate ourselves with abiding in God?
Master said, I am Aum. Guru is God and if he is Aum then we have to abide in Aum. In the Aum technique, our consciousness slowly merges with that Aum vibration. We feel that consciousness of Aum vibrating throughout our body.

When we start feeling Aum within ourselves and gradually everywhere around us, beyond us, in our room, in our premises, beyond that and eventually in all Brahmand, the universe; then we become one with Aum vibration which is a creative aspect of God. When we experience Aum resonating within and around us, we are in Aum samadhi, and then we start really abiding in God.

When we are not abiding in God, we naturally are abide in the world. And attract the gifts that dualistic world offers us: feeling of happiness followed by sorrow, pain followed by pleasure, success followed by failure; which is way opposite to the feeling of protection, safety, bliss, all happiness we feel in God. The choice is ours!

Master said that some people enjoy painful experiences; even after many years of that experience they recollect the memories of their painful years and enjoy sharing them with others so God had to give them more of such experiences. If we start not giving energy to our past bad and sad experiences, he will stop giving us those again as we are not interested in them anymore.

Krishna says in Bhagavad-Gita (12.9) “O Dhananjaya, if thou are not able to keep thy mind wholly on me, seek to attain me through repeated yoga practice”.

We can use the Kriya yoga techniques given by Master and afterwards sitting in silence we will enjoy the feeling of abiding in God. Master said I do few kriyas and dump my body in the super consciousness. He said this not to glorify himself but to teach us something which will keep us always in blissful state.

In the Autobiography of a Yogi in the chapter on Anandamoyi Ma, Master tells us that she was the one who was in this world but not of this world. Now and then she would withdraw her consciousness from the outward activities and take a dip into the infinite, refresh herself and then come out again to mix with the world. Wherever she was, whether in the market, among people, alone; whatever it was, she was always immersed in God, she was carrying a portable paradise within herself.

That is abiding in God: Carrying a portable paradise within ourselves. And when we are able to do it, we will eventually stop looking outside for happiness as we have it within ourselves.

Master gave us eight qualities as the Aspects of God and the highest one is bliss. When we are in God we are in bliss. The moment we come out of that state of bliss immediately all the thoughts of worldly engagements, attachments cling to us and drag us down. But trying it again and again, whenever we have time, we will develop a habit of abiding in God.

Abiding in God is our destiny.
Master said that if you want to feel God’s consciousness within you, always feel that you are with him or you already have him in you. And whenever you fall down from that state, rise again saying that any other thought which is not of God is maya and I don’t want it. By practicing this repeatedly, you stop loving worldly experiences and you strengthen the feeling that you don’t want these experiences anymore. God is always with you holding your hand.

God says in Bhagavad-Gita (10.8) “I am the source of everything; from Me all creation emerges. Blessed with this realization the wise, awestricken, adore me “.

Here he is explaining what happens to the one who gets into HIS consciousness. He gets realization, he becomes wise, he is awestruck with the experiences in his meditations and then he starts adoring HIM. When you adore someone, you don’t want to leave him. If you love someone from the core of your heart you are always thinking of him. First, we have to start loving Him by meditating every day. And once we start loving Him, we won’t leave Him as all scriptures say, “He is the most relishing!”

Jai Guru