God in Everything

[Guest guest]

We are dying of thirst sitting on the banks of the mightiest river.

We are dying of hunger sitting near heaps of food. Here is the

blissful universe, yet we do not find it. We are in it all the time,

and we are always mistaking it. Religion proposes to find this out

for us.

 

The longing for this blissful universe is in all hearts. It has been

the search of all nations, it is the one goal of religion, and this

ideal is expressed in various languages in different religions. It is

only the difference of language that makes all these apparent

divergences. One expresses a thought in one way, another a little

differently, yet perhaps each is meaning exactly what the other is

expressing in a different language.

 

More questions arise in connection with this. It is very easy to

talk. From my childhood I have heard of seeing God everywhere and in

everything, and then I can really enjoy the world, but as soon as I

mix with the world, and get a few blows from it, the idea vanishes. I

am walking in a street thinking that God is in every man, and a

strong man comes along and gives me a push and I fall flat on the

footpath. Then I rise up quickly with a clenched fist, and the blood

has rushed to my head, and the reflection goes. Immediately I have

become mad. Everything is forgotten; instead of encountering God I

see the devil. Ever since we were born we have been told to see God

in all. Every religion reaches that--see God in everything and

everywhere. Do you not remember in the New Testament how Christ says

so? We have all been taught that; but it is when we come to the

practical side, that the difficulty begins. You all remember how in

Aesop's Fables a fine stag is looking at his form reflected in a

lake and is saying to his young one, " How powerful I am, look at my

splendid head, look at my limbs, how strong and muscular they are;

and how swiftly I can run. " In the meantime he hears the barking of

dogs in the distance, and immediately takes to his heels, and after

he has run several miles, he comes back panting. The young one

says, " You just told me how strong you were, how was it that when the

dog barked, you ran away? " " Yes, my son; but when the dogs bark all

my confidence vanishes. " Such is the case with us. We think highly of

humanity, we feel ourselves strong and valiant, we make grand

resolves; but when the " dogs " of trial and temptation bark, we are

like the stag in the fable. Then, if such is the case, what is the

use of teaching all these things? There is the greatest use. The use

is this, that perseverance will finally conquer. Nothing can be done

in a day.

 

- Swami Vivekananda

 

.... to be continued