How To Search for God By Premansu Chand

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How To Search for God

By Premansu Chand

 

The ancient Indian saints and sages were most advanced in their

spiritual pursuit. They composed voluminous texts named 'Vedas' in

order to describe their spiritual findings and realizations. The

cream of Indian spiritualism is found in the Upanishads, which are

the last volumes of Vedas. It is believed that Vedas were composed

from 1500 BC onwards and Upanishads were composed from 700 BC

onwards. Upanishads are not only for Hindus, but for the whole of

mankind.

 

Out of eleven principal Upanishads, it is accepted that Isha

Upanishad is the oldest of all. Let us see what this Upanishad

describes in order to search for God.

 

God resides in living beings. Isha Upanishad begins by describing

that whatever living beings inhabit the world here, God resides in

all of them. There are two things in the world -- on one hand is life

and consciousness and on the other, inert matter. God does not reside

in the inert and unconscious matter or material world. The material

world appears to exist for God or a divine truth exists. But God

resides in the living beings in the form of life and consciousness.

The essence of a being is its life and consciousness. The source of

life and consciousness in living beings is called self, soul or

Atman. At death when Atman departs from the body, it remains behind

as dead matter. Nothing can give new lease of life. So Atman is

everything of a being and the home of God is Atman.

 

A self-slayer is one who does not realize Atman. Isha Upanishad

describes self-slayers as those who do not try to realize Atman as

the home of God. As a consequence after their death, they enter into

a world of blind darkness. So without spending time, men should try

to realize God within.

 

Turn away mind from outside. The consciousness of Atman is expressed

and felt in the mind. The nature of mind is to move fast. Sometimes

it moves, sometimes it is static; sometimes it is far away, sometimes

it is very close. This mind is the heart of all. So in order to

realize Atman, one has to turn away one's mind from the outside world

and concentrate it on Atman.

 

All souls are one. One who sees all beings in oneself and oneself in

other beings comes to know everything. Nothing remains undisclosed

for him. He becomes omniscient. All souls are one and the same. One

should not see differences between beings or between self and God.

Strike a balance between spiritualism and materialism - Isha

Upanishad describes that those who worship false-knowledge (avidya)

enter into darkness. In spiritual language, knowledge (vidya) means

know-how about things which exist. In the world, only life and

consciousness exist. So knowledge means know-how about life,

consciousness, soul and God. Conversely false-knowledge is the know-

how about things which do not exist. Material world and worldly

objects in reality do not exist. Knowledge indicates spiritualism,

and false-knowledge indicates material science.

 

Upanishad further describes that by knowing the futility of false-

knowledge, you can overcomes death, and by realizing knowledge, you

get immortality. Death is equal to matter. So by turning away from

the material world, you overcome death and get immortality. Since you

have material body, you cannot turn away from the material world

completely. So you have to strike a balance between the material

world and life or between science and spiritualism. Progress on

science and spiritualism should go hand in hand. Otherwise

civilization shall be destroyed.

 

How To Search for God By Premansu Chand