Sri Maharaj's Pravachan-Oct 12.

To See God in Everything is True Devotion

The five basic elements arose from God. If we analyse miracles we shall find that they are but manipulations of the five fundamental elements with the extraordinary potency of God. Man is endowed with all potentialities of God. The Lord created the universe and is the natural proprietor of it. It is by His will and power that all affairs are conducted. We, all living things, are part of Him. So we should carry out our duties, and leave the result to His scheme and will. A question may be raised here: If everything is happening according to His will, why should I not consider my desire also to be by His will and give it full play? The question would be similar to asking, who causes darkness in the night? The evident answer is, the same sun that brings light during daytime. The catch is that in this case it is the presence of the sun, whereas the darkness at night is owing to his absence. Similarly, one may ascribe his desire to the will of God, only, it is owing to disregard of it. Briefly, then, one may say that my desire arises when I forget God. So one who aspires to realize God should remember Him and dedicate the sensory desire at His feet.
God can be attained as soon as the 'body-am-I' feeling vanishes. Just as a blue-print represents full-size structure, the idol represents the Cosmic Spirit in a concrete form. The construction of an edifice is facilitated by the blue-print. Contemplation should therefore be of a concrete idol, not of the attributeless abstract. Some people object to this. What else, I ask, can one do so long as one has the awareness of one's own body in a material form? To say that one belongs to Rama amounts to saying that one is the Ultimate Reality itself. Saying that the creation is unreal really means that it is not what it seems.
To be able to see the Ultimate Reality in everything is the culmination of devotion. So learn to be aware of the constant presence of God everywhere, all the time. Never think that God is away from you. Treat your body as having the attainment of God as the only purpose of the body. Applying the mind to God causes unconsciousness of the body as a separate entity.

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