I find joy in speaking of God, a deep contentment; the reason is that each time I undertake this task, I must first conduct a thorough dialogue with the 'I' within myself. I write this piece chiefly for the young—for those who, having heard various opinions about God from different people, find themselves seized again and again by countless questions and doubts.
Begin, then, by accepting this: God exists. If you cannot grant yourself this acceptance, it would be best to stop reading now. There is little point in pondering over what does not exist. As for myself, I say this: God exists, and He dwells within us. Holding fast to this truth, I now step forward with you into what lies ahead.
In joy and sorrow alike, we must always call upon God; if we call to Him with genuine yearning, all things grow well. We have received such counsel countless times over. You have surely read and heard the tales of Dhruva, of Prahlad, and the many utterances of saints. From reading and hearing these tales, in your tender hearts must have arisen, more than once, the wish to call upon God as they did. In childhood, all wish to become great, and there is no shame in this. If you preserved that wish even as you grew, life would become far more beautiful.
But here lies the crux: merely reading or hearing the words of saints, and then calling to God once, or wishing to draw near to Him—this alone will not suffice. You must come to know Him truly, and knowing Him, you must call upon Him in all your undertakings always. Only then will He draw near to you, only then can you become as the devoted and the saints. How can you call upon Him if you do not know Him? An unworthy call will never reach Him. The heart of the devotee is the dwelling place of God.
So understand this first: you must come to know God. But before you can know Him, you must grasp that He exists. Through a particular method, in a particular way, you will be able to perceive Him, even to see Him. You may not see Him with your eyes, true, but if you attend carefully to my words, you will come to understand that God exists. I speak as simply as I can.
Consider this: in this world, we cannot know all things through all our senses. The manifold colors that appear in trees and sky, in fruits and flowers, in beasts and birds—to see such colors, we must keep our eyes open. Close your eyes and you see no color; your ears cannot see color. Just so, the ear hears song, yet the eye cannot hear any sound. The hand can touch, can feel, but it cannot hear sound or see color.
Each organ is fashioned for its particular function, and it is through that organ alone that its work is accomplished. One organ cannot perform the work of another. To know God, you cannot do so through this body of skin and flesh. It is through the intelligence and understanding you possess that you must walk the path to knowing Him. Intelligence, understanding—these are the instruments through which God is to be known. The physical body has no part in this endeavor.
Pause a moment and reflect carefully: the very intelligence within you will declare that God exists. Imagine a vessel containing salt. Some water spills upon it. Now you cannot see the salt anymore. But does that mean the salt is no longer in the vessel simply because you cannot see it? Of course it remains. If you place a drop of that salt-water upon your tongue, at once you will know that salt dwells within it.
Yet if you wish the eye of flesh to behold that salt, you must employ the proper method. Place the vessel in the sun and let the water evaporate; then your eyes of flesh will see the salt. In precisely the same way, your intelligence will testify that God exists. But should you wish to perceive God with utmost clarity through that intelligence, a special discipline becomes necessary. From the external world alone, God's existence cannot be discerned—just as the salt's presence was not apparent from without.
Consider: you possess a house. Though you may not be there, your servants and attendants continue their appointed labors according to your will. Were I to visit that house and observe each servant diligently performing their designated task, I would surely comprehend through reason that this household has a master whose commands set all these servants in orderly motion. When we see a train or a tram moving, it appears as though it moves of its own accord. But is this truly what occurs? A driver propels it; without the driver, nothing moves. Perhaps you cannot see the driver with your eyes, but does that mean there is no driver? If you wish to know the truth, you need only think.
When we observe how everything in this world unfolds with such perfect order, intelligence itself proclaims: there exists a Driver, a Controller, who has set all things in motion according to law. See how the sun rises at its appointed hour, how it sets, and the moon appears in turn. Observe how the seasons—summer, monsoon, winter, spring—arrive in their proper time, in harmony with the waxing and waning of the moon, bestowing such peace and happiness upon the world. When the rains come in their season, the plants grow and flourish. When autumn's cool arrives, rice and the various crops begin to ripen. When spring's wind caresses the trees, they burst forth in joyous abundance with fresh green leaves. All the work of the world continues unbroken, without transgression of order. Without a Lord and Governor, could all these labors proceed so flawlessly?
You have read that the stars and celestial bodies scattered across the sky like fragments of diamond are each as vast as the earth itself—some even greater. The stars visible to the naked eye cannot be counted. Yet beyond these, there exist countless other stars we have yet to perceive. They dwell so far away that their light has not yet reached the earth. What emits no light to the eye cannot be seen.
On this earth and among these innumerable worlds and stars, all things move according to law. The Great Being through whose ordinance law operates within them—He is God. He surely exists; for if He did not, what else could there be? Because He exists, law operates; because law operates, we exist; because we exist, we live. His existence must be realized within one's own heart.
Because God's presence is most profoundly felt within us, one of His names is Truth. You exist, I exist, these plants exist, these dwellings exist—and for this reason all are true. What exists is truth. Yet when you and I die, do we remain here? When trees burn, do the trees persist? When earthquakes level these houses, do the houses endure? No, they do not. Therefore, you, I, plants, and dwellings—as long as we or they remain where we are or shall be, all of this is true in that place. Remember this: God exists far more truly than we do; indeed, He exists equally in all times and all places, and therefore He is the highest truth—a truth that never passes away. This is called Consciousness, Soul, or Brahman.
If God did not exist equally throughout all times and all places, how could the sun, the moon, and all the way down to the dust of this earth continue their work eternally? Who else could sustain them with perfect uniformity? Because God exists as eternal truth, He alone perpetually maintains them in their courses. Thus we may say: God is the great and imperishable truth, while all else is fleeting or temporary truth. By the existence of that great truth, we too have become true. In the shadow of that great truth, we are awake and real.
All that occurs or exists, bearing the imprint of God's being as supreme truth, we call truth; and whatever can be spoken of such things, we call truthful speech. When we speak of what has not occurred as if it had, we call this falsehood. When we act falsely or speak falsehood, we distance ourselves from God and thus from our own soul. In the human heart where God dwells, there is no place for falsehood.
By now, I trust you have come to understand: God is Truth itself. And if you wish to approach Him, if you desire to behold Him, then in every moment and in every circumstance you must act truthfully and speak truthfully. What is Truth? That which your conscience forbids you to do—that is God's own prohibition. Therefore, to refrain from such speech and action is to live in Truth. Walk the path of Truth, and your life itself becomes true.