Have you ever wondered if GOD can be seen? How? And Where?

Most of us think, God is “Up above the world so high”. Beyond and over in the heavenly abode is where HE would be and would come down once in a while from heavens to Earth, to kill the demons and re-establish the world! He would then go back to His abode and bless us all from above.

This is what we learnt for several years. And then to please God, we go to temples which we think are the only places HE exists on the Earth.  Our idea of God is stuck in just temples or somewhere above in the sky! so much – that we look ‘up’ to talk to HIM ! or walk ‘down’ to a religious shrine to offer our prayers.

While this is not wrong, there is more to it to complete one’s understanding of God

We must realize that God is with us all the time and we are actually seeing HIM every day in HIS various forms! Swamiji enlightens us in His discourse, how that is true.

When we are asked to tell: Is God visible to us? Have we ever seen God?
Our spontaneous answer is NO.

But God ‘is’ visible to us.! HE  is visible to us in the form of Vigraham.

This is the essence of Goda Devi’s message to us while performing Dhanurma:sam vratham (a devotional service to God, practiced every year from December 16 – Jan 15). In earlier days, this knowledge was well known to all the people. But now, we have forgotten about this and we are somewhat very confused about our ve:dic samprada:yam.

But the truth is, our sages and Acharyas have never left us confused. It is we who never consulted them and asked about our samprada:yam. Goda De:vi has dedicated the first five Pa:surams(compositions) to this very concept about how we all can perceive God every day, everywhere.

The deities we worship at home and in temples are not mere statues and framed drawings. We must realize and believe that it is God that we are seeing in all these places and objects. We must feel truly, that He always accepts our services, prayers and offerings when we worship Him. Most of us think that worshipping God as a Vigraham is only a primary step towards a more advanced God-Realization! But that concept is not correct. We just need to understand how God is the same at home, temple and everywhere including all Avataras.  We need to connect to HIM to feel HIS presence all the time.

And to connect to HIM, we must realize two important aspects of GOD.

GOD is ONE

GOD is OMNIPRESENT

Let’s look at it logically…

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When we believe that GOD is everywhere (Omnipresent), HE is automatically present in the small vigraham (what we nonchalantly call as idols) in our puja room as well.

Now we also know that our Ve:dic faith proclaims only about ONE God and not many.

kshara:tma:na:m vi:shathe de:va e:kaha – says our Vedas

There are many de:vathas, but only ONE God. All the 33 crores de:vathas are different limbs of that ONE God. Just like we never say “airs”, “skies” likewise, there is only one God but several De:vathas. We should not refer to the Supreme Being as Gods/Demi Gods, but just God and only ONE God. HE is present everywhere. That ONE God is now in a vigraha form in our house! So, if we can connect to that form at our place, it means we have developed a connection to GOD HIMSELF.

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This is a very simple straight forward thing. But we remain confused due to our past associations and beliefs. Just like nothing gets dissolved in frozen water, our minds too, have become frozen and we are unable to grasp this simple truth.

So let’s develop a true understanding of God and His nature. Lets realize that God resides in all HIS splendor, power, compassion and completeness even in our homes and we can connect to Him right there.

-From the discourse of Sri Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji