[Advaita-l] Have you seen God?

[sreenivasa murthy]

 Dear Sri Sadanada,

Here is a writing collected from the book "The moments remembered' :
Quote:
Sri Krishnaprem was a staunch vaishnavite who saw only vAsudEva 
in all the worlds perceived. "Everything is pervaded by Lord Vasudeva". 
Quoting this he asked Sri Bhagavan:" Is this not the highest ideal?".
Sri Bhagavan nodded his head in agreement and said:
"Yes,Yes! It is an exalted state of consciousness.
Yet who is it that thinks 'all that is perceived is vAsudEva?'
Is it not you, yourself?
Do any of the things perceived come forward announcing themselves as vAsudEva?
While seeing the earth, trees, and plants as vAsudEva, 
 don't you wish to see yourself as vAsudEva?
If you who see everything as vAsudEva, learn to see yourself as vAsudEva,
you will become vAsudEva Himself.
After that there will be no need to specially perceive each and every other thing as His Form.
If he who sees is transformed into vAsudEva, then that which is seen 
 automatically becomes vAsudEva!

 [From the book 'Moments remembered' chapter 19]

This article appeared in the magazine "The Mountain Path'" January 1972 issue, 
published from Sri Ramansramam, Tiruvannamalai. 

Unquote.
Bhagavan Ramana says :"If you who see everything as vAsudEva, learn to see yourself 
as vAsudEva, you will become vAsudEva Himself." Here is the key to see God. 
Won't you think that this has to be done first?
As a person, as an entity, one can never see God in his True SvarUpa. 
Bruhadaranyaka upanishad says : 
yEnEdam sarvaM vijAnIti tatkEna vijAnIyAt vijnAtAram arE kEna vijAnIyAt ||
Just my 1$.
With respectful namaskars,
Sreenivasa Murthy

 


     On Sunday, 1 March, 2020, 01:55:26 am GMT, Kuntimaddi Sadananda via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:  
 
 PraNams - just a quick answer.
Yes I have been seeing God and sometimes He plays hide and seek. When He is omnipresent how can you miss seeing Him. We need to open the wisdom I see to see - otherwise, He hides. My first and perhaps only prayer in the morning is Oh! Let me SEE you or recognize your presence in everything and every being I encounter. Otherwise, He will be like upadraShtaa.. Hence Isha Up. says Ishaavaasyam idam sarvam - vaashyam meaning - See that Lord is pervading every idam -that is open your third eye of Shiva to see.Just my 2cHari Om!Sadananda

 

    On Saturday, February 29, 2020, 11:33:17 PM GMT+5:30, Praveen R. Bhat via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:  
 
 Namaste Anand ji,

On Fri, Feb 28, 2020 at 9:36 PM Anand N via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Vedanta teachers also shy away from the question, have you seen God or are
> you a Jnani/Jivanmukta or are you enlightened?
> Usually such questions are met with tangential answers such as how does
> that benefit you or even if i am how will you tell etc.
>
> My questions:
> 1. Isn't it natural that when one meets or studies under a teacher, one
> asks him if he's seen God?
>
It really depends on the student and what is the expectation in seeing God.
There is a different expectation in a student approaching the teacher in
the Upanishads. More in point 3.


> 2. Is the traditional view that such a direct question to the Guru is
> inappropriate?
>
It may not be inappropriate from the perspective of the Guru, but
traditionally, the shiShya has shraddhA towards the Guru who is assumed to
be shrotriya and brahmaniShTha, having learnt in the lineage. The issue is
only these days when the knowledge is thought to be available from books
and then there is the question of shrotriyatA itself, let alone
brahmaniShThA. In any case, the latter cannot be known, whether for a
student now or earlier, so it was driven by shraddhA.


> 3. Are there such exchanges in the Vedanta literature which i possibly
> haven't yet come across so far? Could you please quote such references if
> they are available.
>

A student in the Upanishad has most likely even done upAsana and has a good
level of adhikAritva, the uttama being one who is a kRtopAsti, meaning one
who has done upAsanA to culmination, which would include devatA-darshana,
so this exact question to the Guru becomes irrelevant to the shiShya! What
may be relevant though is whether the guru is brahmaniShTha/ realised. If
that is a doubt, then the Guru is merely a teacher being shrotriya, which
is not an issue at all, since brahmaniShTha cannot be known. For him to be
a Guru, the shraddhA is to such a level that definitions of Guru given by
the shAstra hold, wherein Guru is seen as Ishvara Himself! Where then can
the question of Him seeing God or having niShThA arise! This is why, IMHO,
we don't see such Qs in the Upanishad proper. At least not in first eight
of the dashopaniShad and not in the last two, AFAIK (if Chandogya or Brihad
has it, I am yet to come across as my study is not complete).

The only related story in this context I have heard is about a saint whose
student asked as to His being liberated and the Guru decided not to answer.
Why so? The Guru thought the following: if I say no, it would be a lie. If
I say yes, it would be a lie as well, as liberated has the meaning of being
liberated from bondage, meaning there was bondage earlier. That too is
untrue! So it may surely seem that they shy away from the Q.

gurupAdukAbhyAm,
--Praveen R. Bhat
/* येनेदं सर्वं विजानाति, तं केन विजानीयात्। Through what should one know
That owing to which all this is known! [Br.Up. 4.5.15] */
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