Dwell in God-thought

This article is a chapter from the book "Seek The Beyond".


Dwell in God-thought

By Sri Swami Chidananda

Revered and beloved Holy Master Gurudev Swami Sivanandaji, among his numerous teachings, stressed the necessity of being constantly aware that God is omnipresent, that God is also the indwelling reality in each and every one of us: "Thou art satchidananda. Thou art omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient. Thou art the indweller of all beings." He wished us to recite this every day so as to freshly evoke within us the awareness of His presence within and without—of His presence everywhere as well as right at the very centre of our being.

For the more constantly we dwell in God-thought, the more constantly God dwells close to us. The more constantly we hold on to God-thought, the more continuously we keep moving towards Him; we move in His direction—ultimately towards God-experience.

The more we dwell upon Him as the one and only eternal Reality unchanging, beginningless and endless, everywhere present—the more we dwell upon Him as the one constant unchanging eternal Reality, the more we are able to turn our gaze towards the outer world of changing names and forms and begin to perceive them for what they are, namely, temporary unrealities, temporary appearances, whose existence is also temporary. Not only are their name and form and state of existence at any given moment in time temporary and subject to change, their very existence itself is also temporary. We begin to see that everything is headed towards dissolution, and one day they will all cease to exist.

Thus it is that the reality of the Absolute Being enables us to overcome the demand of the passing appearance upon our attention as well as their mysterious ability to delude us into thinking that they are to be taken as real. Every day, when we wake up from sleep, we behold them. Yesterday we beheld them, today we behold them, tomorrow we will also behold them. For days, months and years we have been beholding them, and, therefore, we think that they must be real.

Thus, repetition of an experience on our part becomes their claim to be recognised as permanent realities on their part. But if you turn this process around and subject them to a test by the measuring rod of that selfsame strictly subjective consciousness and experience, then, due to the same reason that they claim recognition as permanent realities, that very reason itself calls their bluff and that very reason proves that they are unrealities.

If they say, "Do you not see that we are before you every time you wake up? All your life, since birth, you have been experiencing us every day from the moment you wake up throughout the day," you can retort, "Be gone! For every day, each 24 hours, the moment I go to sleep, you are no more. So, all my life, from the moment of my birth till today, you have been proved to be non-existent every night when I retire and go to sleep. So I know on the basis of my own subjective experience of the sleep state of consciousness that you really do not exist. So, when you appear to exist for some time, and then disappear and cease to exist another time, your existence cannot be called real for it is momentary. It is contradicted every day. You are, therefore, only a temporary reality. You have no claim to be recognised as permanent realities. Impermanence is your nature; changefulness is your nature."

Thus it is that we have to subject the outer world experience to a keen scrutiny upon the basis of our own deep subjective consciousness, our subjective experience day after day. That is why it is said that that Being alone exists, that Being alone is real. It is eternal, unchanging, permanent and indestructible. And when you enter into an experience of That, you become eternal. You cease to be a temporary phenomenon. You partake of that same glorious nature of the ultimate Reality.

And as we said, to achieve this end, the more continuously and constantly we keep ourselves in a state of God-thought, the more continuously and constantly God is close to us. And the more you keep up this practice of continuous, unbroken God-thought, the more you begin to move in the direction of that Reality.

This is the essence of sadhana. This is the heart of yoga. This is the purpose of meditation. This is the reason why constant remembrance of God, repetition of God’s name, has always been prescribed and advised by the great spiritual masters. May we dwell upon this fact of our inner spiritual life and become benefited and blessed by it. May divine grace and Holy Master’s blessings enable us to constantly dwell upon this fact and become supremely blessed. God bless us all!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------