I guess my journey began with the book Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. I agreed with the author that someone who has seen God can only tell you about how it felt to see God; they cannot help you see God. I can tell you with firm conviction that if you were to live your life exactly the way Prince Siddhartha lived his, or Emperor Ashoka lived his, you still would not see God. You can bury yourself under a million anthills, but your quest for God will not end like Valmiki’s did.
While the main aim of life is propagation of the species, because we have cognizance we look for more. It is not enough that we bring forth new life. It is not enough that we feed ourselves and our dependents. We need to know.
God was born with the first sunrise. Man could not explain why the sun rose up into the sky with no visible help. So there had to be a God.
It must have been a profound moment for Adam (for simplicity’s sake) when he ascribed the glory of that first dawn to God. He was the first man to encounter that divine moment and it must have thrilled him to the core to know that there was somebody out there watching out for him.
Over time, God has morphed into a complex being who can keep a thousand shrinks busy for entire lifetimes. Surprisingly though, the moment that you meet God in is one of utter simplicity.
There are no rules, no fundamentals. No right, no wrong. No man, no woman. No good, no evil. There just is.
It is a moment when you want to whoop out loud, grab the next guy and shake him violently. You want to ask, “Did you see that?”
It is a moment of pure humility.
At that moment, Einstein could show you the theory of relativity and it would all make sense.
I could go on, but suffice to say it a moment of utmost clarity.
Let me end with an analogy that only the smokers among you will fully understand. The moment is like the first puff you inhaled into your lungs. You can inhale a millions puffs after that and never find that moment again.
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