God Resides in Our Heart
A subordinate merely obeys his superior and is absolved of all personal responsibility of doership. This freedom everyone can enjoy by putting his faith in the sadguru. The profit and loss due to any action are left to God, and are the responsibility of the sadguru. Since he prompts us in everything: including the sadhana, whatever comes brings credit or discredit to him. Whatever the disciple does then becomes service to the sadguru. The important thing is that there must be the firm faith that God resides in our heart, that we, too, are part of Him, that we and He, indeed, are identical. As an intermediate stage, we may cultivate the idea that God is present everywhere, at all times, and is watching us and all our activities. This may not destroy pride totally, but will at least prevent us from doing undesirable things.
A sacred place owes its sanctity to our own feeling regarding it; else, it has only ordinary water and a sculptured stone, the idol. 'Kashi,' 'Ganga,' and such other words raise holy thoughts in our minds, but many local residents look upon them as just ordinary streams of water, and do not take a dip for years on end. They therefore seem to hold no special regard for it.
A holy place is thus holy only because we think it so. If, after all, it is a matter of our sentiment, can we not create it, imagine it, even in the home? Of course, it demands a forceful conviction. If we do not have such convictions, and also lack the means to go to a place known as holy, we should at least repeat the pious wish to visit such a place, so that holy thoughts occupy the mind.
Similarly, though God is omnipresent, we have to realize Him by strength of sentiment. Prahlad and Draupadi did have that conviction in their heart, so God had to manifest Himself in concrete form for them. Similarly, if you have the conviction that your sadguru does exist and help you, he will have to run to your help. It is entirely upto you to have proof of this.
To be free of all doubt of the existence of God is true knowledge; this knowledge is easily obtained by one who lives in constant consciousness of Him.
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