What is the greatest miracle of them all???

[krsna]

 

The Greatest Miracle

BY: GOKULANANDA DASA

 

 

Apr 11, VANCOUVER, CANADA (SUN) Do you believe in miracles? It is most natural and desirable to believe in miracles (defined as "divine intervention in human affairs"). Such belief is the natural result of believing in God; one follows the other. The perfection of our human form of life is to achieve the constant vision of God's loving miracles that sustain all beings. For this, we need His help. Out of envy of God, we have fallen since time immemorial into the deep well of ignorance of this temporary world. Having forgotten our eternal connection with God, we require His merciful intercession to cure our present ignorance.

 

Our spiritual blindness obscures our true vision of the One Reality: that only God exists, at play with all of His variegated energies. Miracles are His unseen touch to alter the workings of His amazing creation, and are meant to educate us about His immanent or unseen presence in all of His works. By such demonstrations of His constant control, we become inspired to deepen our understanding of His inconceivable nature and to seek out our own connection to our divine Source. To expand this spiritual awareness is the real goal of our higher human intelligence.

 

Reality is neither random nor disconnected; a perfect universal harmony sustains all existence. When we choose to focus our consciousness to better understand the unseen Conductor of the universal symphony, He helps us by enlightening us from within our hearts. Enacting a great miracle, He helps us to reawaken our dormant faith in Him, our innate capacity to see that everything is connected to Him. Proportionate to our faith in God, that spiritual vision increases, bringing back into focus the unity and harmony pervading His creation.

 

To further help our spiritual awakening, God provides us with His perfect knowledge, the sacred Sastras or revealed scriptures. By hearing these scriptural truths from the lips of His true servants, we are blessed with "sastra caksu, jnana caksu", seeing through the eyes of higher knowledge. Such God-given knowledge allows us to gradually rise above our fragmented perception of reality, and begin to contemplate the beautiful unity of God's ever-present touch. Lord Sri Krishna describes this higher spiritual vision in His Gita: "A true yogi observes Me in all beings and also sees every being in Me. Indeed, the self-realized person sees Me, the same Supreme lord, everywhere. For one who sees Me everywhere and everything in Me, I am never lost to him, nor is he ever lost to Me"B.g.6:29-30. Those whose eyes are smeared with the salve of pure love can truly see God's miracles everywhere present.

 

One great lover of Krishna, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur, has described the material world as "the dictionary of the spiritual realm", whatever is below comes from above: that the potencies manifested in all of nature help us define something about their Creator. Our sense of awe before nature's myriad wonders is but an intimation of the Supreme Person's inconceivable excellence, a mere glimpse into His personal divine splendor and opulence, which is beautifully, although minutely, reflected in all of His works. Lord Krishna similarly describes how His creation is only a small reflection of Him: "Know that all opulent, beautiful and glorious creation spring from but a spark of My splendor" (B.g.10.41).

 

Those fortunate souls imbued with unflinching faith and devotion can truly appreciate the Supreme Artist in all of His manifestations. In that trance of pure devotion, the soul forever bathes in the unlimited beauty of the Supreme Beloved. Such spiritual perfection is demonstrated by the pure soul's constant desire to glorify God with their whole being, through every thought, word and deed. This glorious reciprocation of love between God and His true servants is the greatest of miracles.

Among many such "madmen of God", the great Christian Saint Francis of Assisi also manifested many of the sublime sentiments of divine love. His humble mood of constant gratitude for God's infinite kindness has been beautifully expressed in his famous prayer glorifying God's all-pervasive miracles: "O my Lord, may You always be glorified...for our brother sun and our sister moon...for all things by which You give us life, for the fire's light and the earth's fruits...for all good souls who forgive and bear all misery in love and peace,...and for our sister, bodily death, which none can escape, happy are those she surprises doing your will, all glories to You my Lord, for they will never die again". By cultivating such humble gratitude for all of God's miraculous mercy, we can attract His loving grace and become blessed to be again promoted into His eternal service. Jai Sri Krishna.