Message from the Gospel – 21. God Can Be Known

NEIGHBOUR: "You ask us, sir, to live in the world after knowing God.  Can God really be known?"

MASTER: "God cannot be known by the sense-organs or by this mind; but He can be known by the pure mind, the mind that is free from worldiy desires."

NEIGHBOUR: "Who can know God?"

MASTER: "Right.  Who can really know Him? But as for us, it is enough to know as much of Him as we need.  What need have I of a whole well of water? One jar is more than enough for me.  An ant went to a sugar hill.  Did it need the entire hill? A grain or two of sugar was more than enough."

NEIGHBOUR: "Sir, we are like typhoid patients.  How can we be satisfied with one jar of water? We feel like knowing, the whole of God."

MASTER: "That's true.  But there is also medicine for typhoid."

NEIGHBOUR: "What is that medicine, sir?"

MASTER: "The company of holy men, repeating the name of God and singing His glories, and unceasing prayer.  I prayed to the Divine Mother: 'Mother, I don't seek knowledge.  Here, take Thy knowledge, take Thy ignorance.  Give me only pure love for Thy Lotus Feet.' I didn't ask for anything else.”

"As is the disease, so must the remedy be.  The Lord says in the Gitā: 'O Arjuna, take refuge in Me.  I shall deliver you from all sins.' Take shelter at His feet: He will give you right understanding.  He will take entire responsibility for you.  Then you will get rid of the typhoid.  Can one ever know God with such a mind as this? Can one pour four seers of milk into a one-seer pot? Can we ever know God unless He lets us know Him? Therefore I say, take shelter in God.  Let Him do whatever He likes.  He is self-willed.  What power is there in a man?"

"There is another way: earnestly praying to God. God is our very own. We should say to Him: 'O God, what is Thy nature? Reveal Thyself to me. Thou must show Thyself to me; for why else hast Thou created me?' Some Sikh devotees once said to me, 'God is full of compassion.' I said: 'But why should we call Him compassionate? He is our Creator. What is there to be wondered at if He is kind to us? Parents bring up their children. Do you call that an act of kindness? They must act that way.' Therefore we should force our demands on God. He is our Father and Mother, isn't He? If the son demands his patrimony and gives up food and drink in order to enforce his demand, then the parents hand his share over to him three years before the legal time. Or when the child demands some pice from his mother, and says over and over again: 'Mother, give me a couple of pice. I beg you on my knees!' - then the mother, seeing his earnestness, and unable to bear it any more, tosses the money to him.”

Let us yearn for God and we can earn Him.