Questioner ‒ How to develop the practice of seeing God by the ‘self’ (swayam) ?
Swamiji ‒ God could never be seen through practices (abhyaas) ! God cannot be beheld through practice, rather He can be seen through inner longing (laalsa). If you reach a state where you cannot live without God, and you will die without Him – then He will be beheld. One cannot behold God, by Divine Name repetition (japa), meditation, loudly chanting the holy name, regular study of scriptures, prayers, visiting holy places, etc. When you reach a state where you cannot live without God (your life-force will end) then surely you will meet God. Besides this, He cannot be realized by any other means, He simply cannot ! This is the absolute truth ! It is not that you can bring God under your sway, by some means ! Don’t even have such notion that by doing vigorous Japa (repeating the Lord’s holy name), by meditating and contemplating on Him, you will behold Him. He can be realized only from deep longing and craving for Him from within. And that craving must also be genuine then only you will behold Him, or else even if you die, you will not meet Him. If the longing is superficial, then even if death comes, God will not care in the least bit !
There can be many detached, very knowledgeable great men, many who have become great souls and saints who have renounced the world, but without an inner longing, they too cannot meet God ! God cannot be bought at any cost. Do not think so even in your dreams !
Questioner ‒ How to awaken that inner longing for God ?
Swamiji ‒ Completely leave all worldly cravings, then longing for God will be awakened. Let there remain no craving whatsoever for the world. Not even the desire to live. While holding on to worldly desires, longing for God will not be awakened.You can know the real nature of things (tatvagya), you can be liberated, but it is not so that you can will attain God ? Attaining God is a different matter ! Even a wise man (jnaani) cannot understand talks of God ! Even the tatvagya, the liberated souls (jeevan mukts) do not have the power to understand God ! But God will appear even on hearing the cry of a cow even though she doesn’t know about God or understands what God is !
From book ‘Not Me, Not Mine’ by Swami Ramsukhdasji
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NEW AUDIO FROM BOOK – FOR SPIRITUAL ASPIRANTS
must listen
For Spiritual Aspirants – Discourse 8 (04/02/2018)
If you haven’t already heard, definitely also listen to this Bhajan during Ramayan nine day Parayana – 2018 at Gita Bhawan, Rishikesh