His Presence

The Creator is said to be omnipresent, found in every atom and molecule of the creation, yet he is not perceivable to the eye, nor detectable by any of the other senses, no matter how much we may search for him without. He has created the universe but, to the unredeemed human being, he cannot actually be found within it, much as we might look for him in the deepest forests or the highest mountaintops. Deep within us, we know he exists; instinctively, profoundly, innately we know he is somehow the source of all, and yet he does not appear to us or make himself known and so he remains a mystery – beyond our comprehension, our knowledge, our experience.

Or is this really the case? Can we attain actual knowledge of God, while in the flesh, at the human level? As Saint Matthew claims in the Bible, “Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” But whom should we ask; where should we look and on whose door should we knock?

All the scriptures and holy books give us clues that help us in our search, and invariably they point to one vital truth, one crucial aspect that is often missing from our search. To the truth seeker, this missing component in his or her quest gradually becomes clear and unmistakable – it is that special one, that dispenser of truth who must be sought.

As a child, I remember reading stories from the illustrated Bible and, on asking where Jesus lived, feeling quite forsaken that Jesus was, in fact, no longer on earth; how then could he help those who, like me, had come after him? How could that be right and just? When my mother offered to take me to Sunday school to learn more about the Bible, I asked her if Jesus would be there, in the church. “He’ll be there in spirit” she replied, to which I apparently said, “If he isn’t there in person, I’m not interested!” This does not say very much about my own application, but it speaks volumes about the importance to us of the living teacher. We are all like that small boy in that we need the connection with a true Master – here on earth when we are on earth. There must be a living Christ, the Lord in human form, who comes to collect his ‘marked sheep’; those ordained by the Lord to return to him. The call of the Lord, in anyone’s life, occurs apparently spontaneously, but actually when he wills it, and this calling makes the soul responsive to its Master when he finally does appear.

A thoughtful disciple, given a little introspection, can sometimes see how the Master prepares the ground and brings us closer to him: he can perhaps feel the presence of the Master’s hand behind certain events, actions and decisions that have come to pass. In those moments of reflection, we recognize a part of our life through which we had to pass in order to move on and for certain karmic chains to be undone. We may perceive the ways in which our lives have developed and how our thoughts evolved from the tiresome process of sense-gratification and self-justification. These are important moments in which the mind takes stock of where one stands in the scheme of things. The mind has the opportunity to consider its actions and decide on how it might improve its own performance. Yet we come undone: we cannot truly live in the moment until we learn to meditate, till the Lord has given us the means to know him. It is when we find him within ourselves that we then see him outside, in the creation, as well. Then we begin to dwell at the eye centre and whatever we do in this physical world, we are anchored there at that point. Otherwise, life is but a succession of moments which quickly pass by, leaving us eventually realizing how little has been learned or lived. Meditation, under the loving guidance of a true Master, is the key that awakes us to both life and spiritual enlightenment..