Who is God (Aandavan)? One who rules us and then converts us into God. People call him by various names. All of them refer to one who is all- powerful basic root. Moreover, He is omnipresent – He is present in the pillar and even in the dust. He is present everywhere!
God is beyond the human minds, speech and body. Then how can we think about Him? How can we explain His nature? Can we feel Him with the help of our body? Can we see him?
Philosophers explain the nature of God depending on their limited knowledge and logical approach. How can we explain the unlimited brilliance of God with the limited knowledge acquired by us?
However, the answer to the question “Can we see God? is: YES, we can.
The great saints have already defined the nature of God. He is beyond our mind, speech and the body. The answer to the question lies in the definition given above.
He is beyond human mind – so we must conquer our mind, that is. our mind must be quiescent. A saint warns that God is not available to one who does not quieten his mind. A saint has aptly beseeched the God, “Bless those who can’t kill their minds”. Secondly, He is beyond speech so we must keep our mouth shut and practise silence. As another saint said, “Silence is the end of wisdom”.
Thirdly, He is beyond the feelings of five senses. Feeling should not affect us. “Live like a dead person” as said by another saint. Now we have got the answer to the question.
The mind should be dead, speechless (silent) and the body must become senseless like dead wood.
If we reach the above mentioned three states, we can see God dwelling within our body.
God is beyond mind, word and senses. If the mind works, mouth speaks and body feels the senses, God goes far away from us because we will not be able to realize him. In short, we can realize God, speak to Him and see Him inside us if we have conquered our mind, word and deed. This is the secret of self-realization, that is, seeing God dwelling in us. This is a succinct truth about God.
Is it possible? Yes, we praise those who have reached this state of mind as saints (Siddharhal) and wise persons (Jnanihal). Those Siddharhal and Jnanihal had a vision of God and enjoyed chatting with Him and attained the state of Sat (truth), Chit (consciousness), and Ananda (bliss); when we put them together as one expression it is “Satchidanandam”. They found that God dwells in a small place, a shrine, which they referred to as “Thiruchitrambalam” .
God dwells in your body. First of all, you realize this by looking within you. The Tamil word (Kadavul) means “travel inside”. As He is omnipresent, He exists everywhere even inside every one of us.
In Tamil, “paar” means the earth when used as a noun, and as a verb it means see. Moreover, the earth as a globe, rotates itself without any axis. Likewise, our eye-ball moves around but it is not attached to any axis. So the saints said: see what is inside you, which resembles the axis-less earth.
The macrocosm (Paramathma) is also present as a minute atom in our soul (Jeevatma) One who realizes this will become the enlightened soul (self-realization). Such a person is, in truth, man, a human being.
Here is an incident which happened in the life of Vallalar Swamigal. Once Vallalar went to Thiruvotriyur temple located at a suburb of Chennai in Tamilnadu, India. In front of the temple a man was sitting naked. He was passing comments on passers-by as “a bullock is going”, “a fox is going” or “a snake is going” and so on. When he saw Vallalar coming along, immediately he commented “A great virtuous man is coming”, felt ashamed and covered his bare body with his hands. The man recognized Vallalar as embodiment of love and pointed out that he was “a man”.
Then who are we? We must have a self-analysis to understand our status.
We must become human beings. Then we will get self-realization. Afterwards, God will bless us unconditionally.
This book is about wisdom. The research is about what is inside us. When God is present everywhere, inside and outside, where can we see him in this far and wide world? We can see Him and feel His presence anywhere in this world. How is it possible? There is a way to reach Him.
A saint aptly said that “you are given human body according to your past actions in the previous birth”. One is born according to his past actions, enjoys, suffers and is frequently troubled. If one wants to escape from the bondage of birth and death cycle, he must get relieved from past actions; and the only way is “Surrender to God” (Saranagathi). It means “God is the only source of solace to get freedom from birth and death cycle”. According to the level of one’s surrendering quality to God, he will get guidance from a true Guru (religious teacher). This self-realized guru alone will deliver him to the God.
Today there are so many people who have started thinking and seeking the help of God. It is a good sign. However, the common man worships human beings as God and prays to various deities without realizing the true nature of God. Instead of following the guidelines given by the self-realized saints, people start worshipping them as God. This is also a sign of foolishness.
There are fans of film actors, who worship the chosen actor as guide and even God. Moreover, we see the followers of a leader of the political party worship the leader as God. Likewise, we find a saint in every town and hermitage (Ashramam), and each one has his blind followers. There is no difference between the followers of such leaders, and the followers of these hermits.
We must realize that the Omniscient and Omnipotent God dwells in us and act accordingly. Instead of following the preaching and guidance offered by those realized souls, we start worshipping them. The great saints are there to guide us in the right path. Follow their teachings, never make them Godheads. Wherever possible, many Gods have been created. What happened to the reasoning capacity of human being? One who preaches about reasoning and atheism, later on becomes God and is worshipped, when he is dead and gone. People build a tomb and start worshipping him as a God. Where is the solution for such ignorant people?
There was a person who regularly attended Vallalar’s preachings, made a small doll which looked like Vallalar, and took it to him thinking that Vallalar will appreciate his art and devotion. Unexpectedly, Vallalar broke it by throwing the idol on the floor. He said, “I am trying to make this perishing body into a brilliant golden form, but you have made it a body of mud.”
Moreover, Vallalar also added: I showed a simple, easy way to realize God and make all people live a glorious everlasting life. You have not listened to me and followed what I told you; instead, you have made me God. Is there any other folly which is more stupid than this? These are the most precious words of Vallalar. This is the most important message we have to learn from his words. Let us take an example. A student will become the best only when he learns the lessons taught by the teacher. Instead, if he praises the teacher without learning the lessons, will he get promoted to the higher class? Likewise, many people join to create new gods today. God alone can save even these ignorant people.
Then why are there so many temples? Only saints ( siddharhal ) and great souls (Mahaangal) caused them to be built and then blessed the people by staying inside the temples. No saint (siddhar) has identified himself as so and so. They built shrines and temples and made them dwelling places of God. They blessed the people with the support of divine guidance.
One who identifies himself as a particular person is egoistic. Ego is one of three impurities which forbid God from manifesting himself to such a person.
Temples are meant for children and even for beginners. When they visit temples and worship God, they become better persons with some true knowledge about God. As a result, they realize that the body is the temple and the soul (seevan) is none other than God (Sivan).
There is no use in saying names of God throughout our lives if we do not realize the true nature of God.
Man is born, grows up to become a man and has a family and earns wealth. When he grows in the material world, his spiritual knowledge is still stagnant as he circum-ambulates the shrines within the temple, with no further progress towards the enlightenment of soul (seevan).
What do we mean by a temple? Who is God? Is it Siva, Parvathi or Murugan? There are so many different names for God. You need not get confused, when the saints have blessed us with so many treatises on spiritualism through the ages, they have already become enlightened souls and started showing the way for our spiritual growth. We must also aim at self-realization and attain the feet of God through total surrender (saranagathi) to Him.
We may start our spiritual journey with any type of worship but we must see that it culminates in the realization that there is only one God who is the supreme spiritual guide, and the end is none other than achievement of self-knowledge.
Pattinathar proclaimed: God is only one. Believe in the omnipresence of Him. This is the main message for human mind.
God dwells in us and the saints have explained how he lives in us. Vallalar Swamigal aptly defined God as “Arut Perum Jyothi” in his epigrammatic style, Ramalinga Swamigal (swamigal – a single person is given respectful plural suffix, as permitted in Tamil grammar). Vallalar briefly says that God is embodiment of divine grace, omnipresent and reveals himself in the form of everlasting light.
Most of the saints have addressed God as “Jyothi” and “Sudar” both of which refer to the brilliant nature of God. Furthermore, Jesus Christ said: God (Devan) is present in the form of light and you can see Him through the path of light.
All religions mention that God is light which leads us from darkness to reach our goal. All religions assert that God is one. Why should people be confused about this concept?
Service to devotees, providing food to the poor, helping the needy are there to make us qualified to realize God. These are only means to make us broad-minded and experience universal love for fellow beings.
These activities will help you relieve you from the sins (papangal) committed in the previous births. These will absolve us from our sins and make us better souls. We will be blessed then.
Sundarar, one of the four saints who sang holy songs (Thevaram) in Tamil, said that he was the humble servant of devotees of God. This is the supreme form of humility. How much devotion he had for Lord Siva and his devotees! Likewise, all saints focused their teachings on the same concept. The nature of saints can be summarised as follows. A saint is one who is filled with unconditional love, pity, refined behaviour, humility, and devotion to God.
People of all nations worship and sing in praise of the same omnipotent God. There cannot be difference in their divine experience and preaching. All saints focused their words and activities on the path of love. “Love all” is the essence of their teaching. They lived in different geographical regions and spoke different languages. But their goal was one – to reach the only God without considering the regional or religious differences. So, ignoring the differences, let us aim at the joyful state of becoming one with God.