Like a Thousand Suns by Eknath Easwaran

Author:Eknath Easwaran [Easwaran, Eknath]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nilgiri Press
Published: 2012-01-31T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The Cosmic Vision

ARJUNA:

1. Out of compassion you have taught me the supreme mystery of life. Through your words my delusion is gone.

2. You have explained the origin and end of every creature, O lotus-eyed one, and told me of your own supreme, limitless existence.

3. You have told me about your infinite glory, O Lord. Now I long to see you as the supreme Ruler of all creation.

4. O Krishna, if you think my love is strong enough to absorb the glory of this vision, show me your immortal Self.

Swami Vivekananda, one of the foremost disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, used to say that religion is realization of God; nothing less can satisfy us. As a teenager, then called Narendra, he had struggled with all sorts of doubts. Like many young people today, he was tormented by questions about the meaning of life. He searched the worlds of literature and philosophy, but nowhere could he find an answer that satisfied him. Then he turned to highly regarded spiritual teachers, and to each he posed the same blunt question: “Have you seen God?” Always the reply was no.

Finally he heard of a saint who lived quietly at a little temple of the Divine Mother outside Calcutta. Narendra found his way there and went straight up to this little man to ask the same burning question he had asked all the others: “Have you seen God?” Ramakrishna smiled. “Of course,” he said. “I see God more clearly than I see you now. You I see only with my physical eyes, but God I see with every cell of my being.”

This quiet authority, which can come only from experiential knowledge, is the unmistakable stamp of the vision of God. After becoming established in this vision, the God-conscious person may seem to be quite ordinary, but under this surface appearance he or she is no longer a separate, fragmented creature but part of the irresistible love force that we call God.

After years of enthusiastic effort, the Lord may reveal himself to us too in some small measure. Then we shall see into the very heart of life. This vision may last for only a moment or two, but it leaves behind an unforgettable awareness of the living presence of the Lord. Afterwards, no matter what their color or background or political persuasion, we see everyone as this divine force. It is because we do not have this immense frame of reference that little pleasures get amplified out of all proportion. Once we have tasted the joy of this experience, the ordinary pleasures of life become insipid in comparison. All our desires will be unified around one great desire to recapture this experience, and we will cry, like David, “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O Lord.”

When this great longing comes to us, the Divine Fisherman has got his hook into us forever. Isn’t it Eckhart who says that the more we

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