Above is the link to a world renowned book of spiritual wisdom, for everyone, every person in the world. When I mean everyone, I mean everyone. It contains the words of one true God himself. One who is free from all things material. God doesn't look like a human, he is formless. Our soul resembles him as we as souls come from him. He is eternal. The one true existential figure, everything else is temporary. Even the universe which exists for billions of years will collapse some day. We, the souls being children of the supreme Godhead have traits of him within us. Souls are eternal too, and not only that souls even desire and admire, and encompass his divine traits like truthfulness, compassion, kindness, humility, fearlessness, patience, forgiveness, fortitude and traquility. A person with these traits are always admired by others. It is because of our innate desire to be like our creator, be like God.
The goal of this book, the reason why God(who is named 'krsna' in Bhagvad Gita) came on to earth was to condition the souls and pave a way back to Godham, the place where we originally came from. Godham is situated at the feet of God, which is metaphor for 'with God himself'. It is written in the vedas that a universe lasts for one yuga, which is also a day for God, as he visits every planet in the universe once every day to bring all lost souls back to him. Imagine it as a place where we and other souls and God live in a bliss for eternity. It is a bliss that is non-existent in the material universe, and once we can get the taste of it, we reach stage called 'krsna consciousness'. You can read about how to be 'krsna conscious' from the Bhagavad Gita. The question which arises is that if God misses the souls, why doesn't he just call the souls back to him.
Why did God create the universe?
God created this universe by realeasing his divine form of energy to create a reminiscent of him known as 'Maya'. Maya took the form of the universe we see today. In every yuga the universe is created and destroyed once and then all the souls are then once again brought into the material world.
But why, why are we so separated from God if our final destination, our purpose is to reach to God. Why did he create this world to keep us away from him? The answer can be understood with the help of a story. Imagine a scenario, initially souls were born from the divine energy of God and we were blissful with our God for eternity. But the souls grew arrogant, they didn't want to serve God. They thought if they were like him, then they too possess great power and divine energy. While that may be true, souls did not understand their relationship to God, their creator. You see we can never truly be happy, be in that state of that bliss till we are away from him. The souls were lost at that moment, with no way back in their arrogance. So, the merciful God unleashed his divine energy to create the universe all the souls live in today. Then he created a cell, first living organism to house a soul within it. Then on he created complex, more complex beings, through what we know as evolution process. Every being houses one soul within it. Then he created humans, the first organisms with will power, logical reasoning, and ability to understand the way and process of how they can condition their soul. He even created three levels of planetary systems. The hellish, heavenly planets, and planets similar to earth. We can never know where heaven and hell are as they are part of God's justice system. Heavenly beings are who we know as 'devas' or demi-gods. They possess certain powers and can live for thousands and thousands of years. Heavenly beings can travel to earth and other planets with their powers, but they have to follow guidelines of God. Once a being completes a life in the heaven, he is sent back into cycle of material live and roaming these planetary systems. So, the heaven is not the ultimate place you want to be, although in heaven you will be much closer to God and could even talk to him. Hell is worse than earthly planets. The beings known as 'asura' are powerful, but they couldn't be more furthur away from God and indulged in materiality, they have no scope of coming out of their materiality and being 'krsna concious'. That is why the story of Prahlada is so inspiring. He was a saintly boy born of an asura father who despite his father's abusive nature and acts towards him, which included trying to kill him by sending assassins to kill him. Lord Vishnu(other name of God) himself came to save him from his father Hiranyakashyapu, such was his devotion to God, such was his bhakti.
If we think about it everything we do in our life is to search for that satisfaction, that happiness, the enjoyment, the ultimate bliss. We work hard in school, then we work hard in our job, we work hard on our realtionships because ultimately we want to feel that ananda, that enjoyment or blissful feeling. Why do we never seek pain? Why do we never seek anger, or greed or hate? This is the reason why, because God himself is bliss, it is the feeling we experience when we come under his blissful emanating rays.
All the religions of the world tell us only to do one thing, "service of the lord", "serve to the will of the God", "obey Allah's all commands". But only a few know what his will actually is, his will is only to be with all his children who in their arrogance left him but God being merciful gave them a way back. To find out the way back you have to read Bhagvad Gita, which contains the words said by Lord Krsna himself to Arjuna, his favourite disciple at the time who he thought could deliver his teachings to the world. Arrogance is what got us here in the first place so everyone must stop being arrogant and only then can you truly understand God and his will.
Essential Tip:
- To get started on your spiritual journey, start meditation everyday. Sit straight, relax your shoulders and take 2-3 deep breaths. Rest your hands either on your knees and a relaxed way, so that it just touches the surface you are sitting upon or you can also place them one over each other on your lap in a relaxed way and palm of your hand facing sky.
- Then slowly start imagining, try to separate your body from your soul in your mind. Envision yourself separate from your body. Then slowly imagine your rising out into the universe to the place of God. Picture God clearly, anyway you like. I always imagine his form and our soul's form to be similar to that of a star, rays emanating from him and those rays carry his blessings with them in form of his divine energy which fills us with a bliss and it does.
- Form a relationship with God, any form you like, father/mother, son/daughter, mentor(guru), lover or simply a friend. These are the relationships our brains can comprehend and by associating God with them we can form a meaningful and deeper relationship with him.
Feel free to leave questions and your views. I am still only 20 years old and still learning but I will surely tell you what I know with conviction. You can download 'Bhagvad Gita' from link given here, it is free to download:
"Bhagvad Gita As It Is" by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
