Friday 2 April 2021

A SHORT NOTE ON GOD

 

A SHORT NOTE ON GOD

This short note on God reflects the ideas of  the Indian saint philosopher Swami Ramdas.

He was born on 10h April 1884 at Hosdrug, Kerala (India)  and named Vittal Rao. He passed away on 25 July 1963.

Swami Ramdas was the founder of Anandashram, a spiritual retreat , in Kasaragod district of Kerala(India).

Most of his spiritual ideas are contained in several volumes of  Letters of Ramdas published by Anandashram in 1940, though the letters contained in them were written much earlier. The one from which the following ideas have been extracted was written some time in 1928.

God who is love appears to be harsh. Unjust and unkind. No, He is NEVER so. If we take Him to be such, we are simply ignorant.     

God is love, beyond like and dislike. This supreme Love is ever illuminating the hearts of us all. Somehow, a cloud of ignorance covers it and we become unable to see it.  But this cloud can disperse and disappear,  revealing to us the glory and the splendour of God, dwelling in all beings and objects, a God, who is love, forgiveness, compassion, peace and joy, personified as the Supreme Purusha (the cosmic being or self).

Love and peace always go together. The pure mind is  that which has forgotten and forgiven, and is therefore a very home of love and peace. “Blessed are the pure in heart because they shall see God.”

Jesus Christ cried on the cross, “O, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what  they do.” He further says we ought to forgive our enemy  77 times. Truly, the Christ’s greatness as an avatar (incarnation) of God lies here.

God is at once personal and impersonal. He is the highest Truth, in whom are combined the attributes of infinite glory, power and greatness. We want Him and Him alone. We crave not for name, fame, wealth or any other transient bauble. We don’t want world’s laudation or censure. We stand firm on the rock of immortality; the passing storms, however furious cannot shake us. With ineffable exultation, from the depths of our being, comes out the bold declaration, “O God, Thou and I are one.”

 

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Good Friday, 2nd April 2021.                                                               G.R.KANWAL

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