Section II- chr6 Towards building a relationship with God

Section-II

Chapter 6
Towards building a relationship with God


Mere understanding of God is definitely insufficient. It should only be the forerunner to building the relationship with God, and so this book is incomplete without a consideration in that regard.

I have read somewhere that one can choose to be religious but one is spiritual whether one chooses or not. This statement expresses everything very simply for the seekers of the experience of the true self. It points out very clearly that the experience of the spirit is just a matter of being willing to experience it!

Religion helps discover one’s spirituality. It is the aid to realize one’s true nature as more than a mere body. When one is aroused to one’s Christ like self, the next step is to maintain the awareness. To make this awareness of the spirit or in other words the true self more prominent, one does need to practice. All ways suggested by the scriptures or by the realized souls be it meditation or simply prayer are therefore not aids to become spiritual, but aids to help the realization of being the spirit gain so much prominence as to be perpetually present

My personal quest has been for a way that might suit me and therefore which could also be a synthesis of all the seemingly very different ways suggested by different religions. This requirement is again to also reaffirm my faith that all religions are basically speaking of the one way through different or seemingly different approaches.

Before the quest to the way to experience God, one does need an idea of what the Goal, that is the ‘experience of God' could be like. Why have so many seekers given up all pleasures of the world for that one experience? God has put into man a leaning towards the pleasurable and therefore I have been led to a conclusion that the ‘ultimate’ experience of oneness with Him has to be something similar to the pleasurable experiences of the world. In fact some pleasure even greater than all pleasures or maybe even the peak or even confluence of all pleasures. It could therefore be an experience that can be achieved by maintaining in oneself a constant state of joy, peace, love, happiness etc which are already understood by every man of this world. It is possible therefore that all of these be it joy, peace, love are the little streams that lead to the sea, that is the ultimate experience, the peak.

For those who have experienced the bliss produced in the love union of man woman, it is possible to compare it to as being nearer to the bliss that union with the spirit would generate (as an aid to understand what has not been experienced)because a union engaged in out of love for the other person thinking the other person as higher and desirable, is a union of two souls or spirits. Mankind is made in the image of God and the bliss of their union could be taken as the closest similee to the bliss of the experience of the union with God. But of course the ultimate experience of oneness with God can be understood totally only when it is actually experienced but we now have at least enough reasons to look for it!

For starters, it is sufficient to begin with the understanding of what a person tuned in to the spirit will possess. This is made clear in Galatians verse 22,23; ‘..The spirit produces love, joy, peace patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control.’

This section is an effort to start with what we basically understand and slowly through it to be led to what we may not really be sure of now. I read a book recently which to my surprise showed me that I am in a way (totally unknowingly) the adherent of ‘new age spirituality’ with probably the only difference that I am not only celebrating pluralism but have also been looking for an inherent unity that I have believed to be present in even contradicting teachings and techniques. Within this section are considered certain approaches to the experience of oneness with God. As already said, I am presenting these not only to clarify the approaches as per my understanding and study but also so that the unity in these approaches may become evident.