God is where you see Him

God is where you see Him

K VIJAYARAGHAVAN


INTO the vast, peaceful and picturesque greenery, where the Kalakshetra School of Dance and Music is housed at Chennai, a board reads, God is where you see Him .
Is not God, commonly conceived of as an awe-inspiring supreme force, confined to those places of worship, where the devout congregate to plead for personal favours Does He not need the services of holy persons to communicate to Him If He is where one sees Him, then should He not reside everywhere , in everything and in everyone
Such needling questions are answered by and by, in that quiet search within, as if in response to the Biblical assurance (Psalms: 46, 10), Be still and know that I am God .
The Indian concept of omnipresent divinity is depicted in the parable involving Prahlada and his tormenting father, who on his sons telling that God is everywhere , challenges him, pointing to a pillar, Does He reside here Upon Prahladas affirmative answer , his father breaks the stony structure, whereupon, Narasimha (one of the ten incarnations of Vishnu) emerges. Omnipresence of a divine or controlling force is a debatable issue. Another relevant concept is based on the maxim, God is love or the Tamil adage, Anbey Sivam. Many agnostics too hold that, God , merely connotes love, goodness and understanding . These virtues manifest not merely as bhakti or ecstasy upon a divine force, but also in loving ones fellowmen (as noted by Leigh Hunt in Abou Ben Adhem) and in that joy of living (joie de vivre).
This, verily, is adoration for all manifestations of virtue and for outpourings of human excellence in every field. This adoration is also discovering divinity in all animate and inanimate creations and specifically in the tiller of the soil and the toiling peasant, as conceived of by Tagore, besides in the faces of the forlorn, forsaken and the wretched, which brighten up upon simplest offerings.
It is this love, which also is the greatest healer and purifier. Obtaining thus atmasuddhi , every living moment becomes for this fortunate person a sadhana, a catharsis, ushering in that supreme effectiveness, where work becomes worship and is its own reward. He transcends , in this process, the conventional demands of worship, religion, rituals and doctrines. He comprehends, how in this vast world of infinite promise and potential , true happiness is the earned reward for care and love. Instinctively, he also divines the truth that God indeed is where you see or choose to see Him!