God is just a word, nothing else. In the name of God, so many things have been done, so egregious, so deplorable, so inhuman. The last thing in the world that you want to utter is God. At times it feels like that.

So, you see, the slaughter, the slaughter of life itself is a tragedy of human being. This is what, when you become obsessed with “God”, when that happens, when we as human beings are of no importance, only some figure sitting in some place is important, then you follow the rules of Life by book, by a specific book. And the mayhem that is being created in the name of God is gruesome and grilling to so many other societies in the world which could do something better than talk about God, much more better than knowing about the ‘God’.

And we human beings are the only ones who worship God; there is no ‘any other species’ who actually know anything about God. Would you say to a dog or a cow or a buffalo or a lion or a tiger or a cheetah or giraffe that there is a God? Would you go in front of ‘any other species than human beings’ and deliver ‘talk’ on God? Would anyone do that? Has anyone done that?

Maybe once you are elevated enough even the very chirp of the bird outside would seem like a hymn to the ‘God’. For them, they may spontaneously be chirping or interacting with one another, but if you are elevated enough, who knows ‘all the words’ would seem like, appear to you as, hymns.

The only thing that we humans need to know is not about ‘the God’. God is everywhere. Our scriptures say that everything is replete with God. There is nothing but God, and that God could be very different from when I say bhagavāna or paramātmā or īśvara. So the very connotation of paramātmā and bhagavāna could be very different from God. Just the change of language could depict the ‘God’ or paramātmā in a different direction. That’s the power of ‘word’.

Just say that God is just everywhere:

एको देवः सर्वभूतेषु गूढः सर्वव्यापी सर्वभूतान्तरात्मा।
कर्माध्यक्षः सर्वभूताधिवासः साक्षी चेता केवलो निर्गुणश्च ।।

Eko devaḥ sarvabhūteṣu gūḍhaḥ sarvavyāpī sarvabhūtāntarātmā।
Karmādhyakṣaḥ sarvabhūtādhivāsaḥ sākṣī cetā kevalo nirguṇaśca ।।

He is everywhere, let’s say that. Okay? How does it make a difference to you if It’s just everywhere? Does it make any difference to you, to your life? And you are shouting His name. You are going around and creating all kind of sounds: doing so many other things, engaging yourself into so many rituals, and so many other ways to appease Him, to draw His attention towards you. What are you finally trying to do?

When ‘the God’, when the ‘Lord’, when the ‘Bhagavāna’, ‘Paramātmā’ is just everywhere, why do we have to engage ourself into all these rituals? Someone ‘going to the temple’ and just the ‘recitation’ of so many things, the chanting, the singing, the dancing, someone is shouting the names by different other names. How it is making a difference to your life! And what if God is here, right here, right now?

So God is everywhere, but you are not anywhere. We are not anywhere, that’s the problem. We are lost. Let’s say God is everywhere, but we are not here. This physical body may be here right away, but we are totally lost. We want to manifest anything that is far away from us. We fear manifesting ourselves. Maybe we don’t know anything about ourself. That’s why God is so pleasing.

And it is very important to engage yourself in these rituals; I must tell you that because they actually help you set in a certain mode of life. And you must be in that certain mode of life. And ‘these rituals that you perform’ is of greater significance. My all reverence to these rituals from all religions, for that matter, but that’s not the point.

And then you could say, “Oh, you’re talking about being religious, following a certain level of rituals. But spirit is very different. It has no religion.” And that’s right.

If one has not become so evolved enough to align himself or herself into that higher ascension of life, these rituals will become the most prominent. That’s true. Just like if the light is on right in front of you, you can see the light. But there is a current that has gone through the conduit. The wire carries current that you cannot see, because of which the light is on. So you can feel the energy, and everything is in ‘right order’ because there is some power working behind it. And you cannot see just like the wire that carries the current cannot be seen, but you can see the light on. So you can see everything right in order: the sunrise, the sunset, and the moon, everything just happens in order, in time. It is so magical that all of these planets work so much in cohesion. And we humans are absolutely out of tune.

So, if you see anything around you, all the other species are in tune with ‘the nature’. We are totally out of tune with the nature and everything around us. And that’s magical at the same time because we can tap into something which others cannot. We are blessed being a human, absolutely, because we have that exploratory power within us; we have that exploration that needs that ‘unleashing of’ through dimensions that we are yet to tap into. And unless we do that, unless we become that ‘attentive’ enough to find those discoveries, we would not know this mechanism, this life, as it is. If this life is missed, if we are not attentive enough to know how things are around us, then finding God, and finding anything for that matter, is of no significance. We will have only ‘disappointments.

So the only thing that needs to be found out is you. You are the missing one; we are the missing one; God may be here right now. Maybe once you become so evolved and so elevated that you “merge yourself with the Almighty”—because as we read in our scriptures at times—then only The Supreme Power works, you are the missing one; but that is not for everyone; that happens to one in ‘billion’.

But mostly, 99.90% of the population of human beings, we are ‘the lost’; we have to find ourselves, we don’t need to find God. Otherwise you can see that what is happening in the name of God, in the name of Bhagavāna, Paramātmā and so many other names as It is called, is creating a hell lot of havoc in the world, everywhere around the globe. That is not important.

What is totally missed is something that is fundamental. If the fundamental understanding is not honored, then there’s no point having a very ‘idealistic’—sometimes these idealistic approaches of ‘life’ are too far away from us. That’s why it seems ‘like perfect’. Because the imperfection is felt so much around us, the drawbacks are so much visible around us, that’s why maybe far away, far away from us, there’s something out there which appears to be quite perfect. But it’s not perfect. In fact it is a very reflection of yours. As the world around you appears to be as it is not perfect, as it has got these many drawbacks, as it is like this, as it is like that—it is the only world that is a reflection of your character; that’s the reflection of what is going on ‘in here’. And if this one is relegated, is put down, and something much bigger is created because that seems quite great, that seems like too far away from us because we can never be like that anyway, so we have again escaped through. That, we can never be like that because it’s very far off. It’s too egalitarian, or it’s too good to be true. And we humans are an error. This is like finding escape through again.

So here, what is important: it is not about finding a god, though I would highly encourage people to engage themselves into these rituals, they must. At least these, ‘these are designed’ to put them in a specific mode. But do you have to be so rigid? Because of their rigidity, these patterns were created—these rituals were created.

If you could become conscious of it, you don’t have to engage yourself into these rituals. It’s not important. Because your karma itself will become so great, so pious, it will replace the rituals. Your karma, your doing, shall be of that nature that it replaces your Dharma; it replaces your rituals. That is the significance of a human life. If the very Karma of yours does not, is not replaced by the rituals of your Dharma, then your karma will only be a mere path of existence; which is also all right. But you should know, you must know, all of us must know one thing: no matter what, which religion we come from: if ‘our act’ and ‘the worship’ if these are two different things and they are different things in so many ways and they have to be honored separately and if there is a huge gap between them then reaching God is just an illusion. Then the last thing in the world that we should talk about is God because anyway the very doing of ours is so different from what is most ideal, what is most sacred or significant. That’s why you have a fear in you what I’m doing is not right. So therefore I should worship, I should go to these places of shrines and temples. Maybe I will be cleansed off of my actions or maybe I would like to seek something which I would like to desire, manifest in my life.

So you will see in this world today people have different places to worship. Usually they want to have their wishes fulfilled. But these wishes fulfilling business is a confinement of their potential but they don’t realize it. Mostly I would like to tell you one thing and that is: mostly we end up praying for wrong things in life. At times we realize, and you know at that time anyway, it is not something to be to be regretful of. But at times we do realize; why did I pray for that thing? And at times things did not happen and it’s such a blessing, it’s such a blessing if things do not turn out to be the way we would like them to turn out. Because there is a huge blessing not to have that thing happened! And we realize in due course of time.

So all that you see around you has a energy and message for you. But how receptive we are to receive it is our own business, is our own doing. So most of us are busy having our wishes fulfilled by taking a bow before God or praying to different gods or praying to one specific God and performing so many rituals. But these are all fine but to a evolved souls, to a evolved human beings, these wishes will turn out to be some sort of confinement later. All the worldly wishes will only confine you. All the wishes which are to do with the senses will only and only restrict you. Or it will appease your senses certainly and you may get those desired results. Absolutely all prayers for that it happens to your life too. But that will restrict you in so many ways and these kinds of prayers are not good for you.

So in fact most of us, we pray for wrong things in life which is not designed for us. can you imagine that? We end up praying for wrong things in life. Things that must not happen to us; we pray for that!

So once that realization comes in, we feel oh my God! And when things do not happen, we feel so great, oh my God things did not happen. I prayed for it and things did not happen; that was such a blessing.

So it’s all okay. But finding God shall not be so emphasized upon. There is a long journey before we reach there. There is a long long journey and it can only happen if maybe a Master sees something in you and is ready to hand-hold you through the process and can take you there. There is no any other way to reach there without the guidance of a messenger, a Master.

So you can seek a Master. You can do that because you don’t know the way. you do require navigation but at least my job and our job shall be able to keep this space of ours sanitized enough to be able to imbibe those attributes that will help pave the path for the Master—to come and handhold and take us through the process of God realization, to find the Ultimate, to find the Almighty, the Paramapuruṣa.

So that is one aspect of it but will it happen, will it not happen? That’s the very futuristic thing. That’s not guaranteed. But that’s not important either. What is important is how conscious we are becoming with our lives! How alive we are right now! That is the only thing that you need to work, ask yourself. How alive you are to the situation and the people and especially to your own self? How alive you are! How much do you know about your own self? Why do you behave the way you do? Why do you have those habits? Why do you interact in a specific way? Why do you conduct yourself in a certain way? These are the most important questions. These are the pertinent questions because without all these there is no self-evolution, there is no growth.

So finding yourself is much more important than finding God.