God in Everything

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Who enjoys the picture, the seller or the seer? The seller is busy

with his accounts, computing what his gain will be, how much profit

he will realise on the picture. His brain is full of that. He is

looking at the hammer, and watching the bids. He is intent on hearing

how fast the bids are rising. That man is enjoying the picture who

has gone there without any intention of buying or selling. He looks

at the picture and enjoys it. So this whole universe is a picture,

and when these desires have vanished, men will enjoy the world, and

then this buying and selling and these foolish ideas of possession

will be ended. The money-lender gone, the buyer gone, the seller

gone, this world remains the picture, a beautiful painting. I never

read of any more beautiful conception of God than the following: " He

is the Great Poet, the Ancient Poet; the whole universe is His poem,

coming in verses and rhymes and rhythms, written in infinite bliss. "

When we have given up desires, then alone shall we be able to read

and enjoy this universe of God. Then everything will become deified.

Nooks and corners, by-ways and shady places, which we thought dark

and unholy, will be all deified. They will all reveal their true

nature, and we shall smile at ourselves and think that all this

weeping and crying has been but child's play, and we were only

standing by, watching.

 

So do your work, says the Vedanta. It first advises us how to work--

by giving up the apparent, illusive world. What is meant by that?

Seeing God everywhere. Thus do you work. Desire to live a hundred

years, have all earthly desires, if you wish, only deify them,

convert them into heaven. Have the desire to live a long life of

helpfulness, of blissfulness and activity on this earth. Thus

working, you will find the way out. There is no other way. If a man

plunges headlong into foolish luxuries of the world without knowing

the truth, he has missed his footing, he cannot reach the goal. And

if a man curses the world, goes into a forest, mortifies his flesh,

and kills himself little by little by starvation, makes his heart a

barren waste, kills out all feelings, and becomes harsh, stern, and

dried-up, that man also has missed the way. These are the two

extremes, the two mistakes at either end. Both have lost the way,

both have missed the goal.

 

So work, says the Vedanta, putting God in everything, and knowing Him

to be in everything. Work incessantly, holding life as something

deified, as God Himself, and knowing that this is all we have to do,

this is all we should ask for. God is in everything, where else shall

we go to find Him? He is already in every work, in every thought, in

every feeling. Thus knowing, we must work--this is the only way,

there is no other. Thus the effects of work will not bind us. We have

seen how false desires are the cause of all the misery and evil we

suffer, but when they are thus deified, purified, through God, they

bring no evil, they bring no misery. Those who have not learnt this

secret will have to live in a demoniacal world until they discover

it. Many do not know what an infinite mine of bliss is in them,

around them, everywhere; they have not yet discovered it. What is a

demoniacal world? The Vedanta says, ignorance.

 

- Swami Vivekananda

 

.... to be continued