Your Inner Existence Is God

The field of your experience is not only this material universe but the world of reality, the world of the Divine, which is here and everywhere - in your existence, in your being, at the heart of your life. Let us see, what this centre of your life, the ground of your existence, is. We shall touch that now in your Self. Close your eyes: What do you see? Are thoughts arising? Are feelings arising? Do you observe these thoughts and feelings? Stand back from the thoughts. Stand back from the feelings. You can see them. You can describe their nature. You are other than your thoughts and feelings. As such you are the master of what you are experiencing. You can reject some thoughts if you don't want them. You can take adequate distance from every thought and disown it. You are other than your thoughts and feelings. You are a witness of your thoughts and feelings.

What else do you see? You are above everything that you can see. You are other than what you see. There is the psychological being with all its thoughts and feelings. There is the psychic being, there is an unconscious nature. You can observe this unconscious nature. You are other than and above the unconscious nature. You can conquer it. You can transform it. What is at the centre of your experience? What is absorbing everything? Reflect upon it.

Close your eyes and reflect upon the inner nature. Look at that which is looking at your thoughts. You go deeper into yourself. You become the observer of everything inside you. Try to observe the observer. You will touch the pure existence, which is the image of God, which has all the perfections of God. Be God-minded. Think of this being at the centre of your being, this being at the centre of all beings. Reflect upon the being in space, the being in all nature, the existence in all nature, in the whole cosmos.

There is a transcendental capacity in you, a transcendental being which is above everything you know, above everything that you are, above everything that you have experienced, above everything that you possess. It is other than all these. This pure being you are. It is your soul. It is your heart. There are no impurities in it, no darkness in it, no problems in it. In it there is boundless happiness, boundless knowledge, boundless peace, boundless beauty and music. There is everything valuable in it. It is the source of supreme values.

It is the shrine of God. It is the sanctum sanctorum of the Divine. It is the supreme Reality in us. This reality is also in others, in everything, everywhere, at all times. A boundless existence is everywhere. The presence of God is everywhere. It is all-knowing. It is all-observing,. It is all consciousness. It is all beauty. it is all freedom. It is all light. It is all harmony. It is all wealth. It is all power - real power. It is all freedom - real freedom, eternal freedom, indestructible freedom, everlasting freedom. That you are. That reality, that God, that you are at the centre of your being. That has to be known and experienced.

The more you reflect upon this central reality, the greater and stronger your knowledge of that central reality becomes. Thus you transcend human nature. Thus you solve all problems of life. You arrive at that which is the source of endless happiness, endless life, endless knowledge, endless freedom. When you have attained this, where are the problems of life? The problems of life are dissolved. You have transcended the limitations of life by the experience of the all transcendental principle in you.

God has to be contacted. Contact Him in the centre of your soul, in that pure, transcendental being, which is the same in all, in everything. If you experience the Divine there in your central being, automatically you experience the Divine in everyone and in everything, for the existence in everyone and everything is the same as existence in you.

Existence everywhere is one. It is God. It is reality. It is that which sustains our life, sustains all our experiences, all our knowing and feeling. Without that existence we are nothing. Without God we are nothing.

The real source of our happiness is not amidst our thoughts, not amidst our possessions, not in the senses of the body. It is there in the existence which is all pure. Thoughts come and go. Even if they cause some kind of happiness, it is a temporary happiness, something which quickly disappears. What disappears causes unhappiness. That which disappears is finite, has limitations and therefore cannot be the source of real happiness, the source of real strength. That which does not disappear, that which always is, that which always was and will be, that is the source or real happiness.

The existence at the centre of your being is always there. Your thoughts have come and gone. Your dreams have arisen and have disappeared. Experiences have come and gone. You have had pain and pleasure. You have experienced good and bad. All your experiences have come and gone. You have observed the changes in your body year after year. All these have come and gone. but since you were born there has always been the existence which has been observing everything, but which has not changed. It is unchanging, it is ever the same. It observes all changes. It is other than all changes. That central existence, which is above everything, which is other than everything, other than all that you can possess, all that you know, all that you can feel, is ever pure. It is the reality in you. Without that reality you cannot exist.

This existence which is the centre of your being is your basis for observing everything subjective and objective. This existence is pure being. There are no thoughts in it, no feelings. Thoughts and feelings are outside. From your existence you observe everything. Your existence is above thoughts and feelings, above the conditions of your life, above good and bad, above light and darkness. It is above everything. It is not touched by anything. It cannot be rendered impure.

Thoughts can be made impure, the psychological nature can be made impure, but not existence. it is above everything and other than everything. It is pure being. Into this pure being your personality sinks in sleep state and experiences peace and happiness.

Sages train themselves through meditation, through self-analysis, through reflection, through grace of God, to experience this central being, to sink into this existence while being awake. With eyes open, in full consciousness, in the waking state, they sink into existence and find therein boundless peace and happiness. They experience peace and happiness consciously, whereas the sleeping man experiences them unconsciously. Such a happiness enjoyed unconsciously is devoid of value.

Our nature is infinite happiness, infinite peace, infinite harmony. How do we know it? Experience shows it. Knowledge reveals it. Hundreds of sages have experienced it. Saints have experienced it. Prophets have experienced it. Philosophers have grasped it and have stated it in their works. Simple persons with love for the Divine have been touched by the grace and have experienced it.

Existence is not a vague reality, it is not devoid of colour and richness. It is richest in its content. It is riches in values. There is everything in it. You become a philosopher, a great thinker, a reflective person when you think upon this more and more. And when this knowledge sinks into your experience and conduct you become a sage, no matter what you are and what functions in life you execute.

To reflect upon this central existence, to analyse its real nature, and to know that that central existence we are in reality, is a great grace, a wondrous possibility of man. He can know himself to be God as pure existence. He can experience himself to be such. This is a great wonder, a great blessing. One who experiences this attains endless life, eternal life. He becomes immortal. He becomes indestructible. He becomes an embodiment of boundless peace and happiness. He becomes a personification of infinite love. Endless love is there in the existence. Endless light is there in the existence. It is the centre of your being.

- Swami Omkarananda