Ever Remembering God Makes Prapancha Proper
Narada once asked Lord Krishna ,'Where can you be found with certainty?' 'O Narada,' He replied, 'I may not be found in Vaikuntha, my traditional residence, nor even with beloved Rukmini, but, most positively, with my devotee.' Where else, indeed, can God be found but with the devotees? For they live in Him. And who gave Him divinity but devotees? If there are no devotees there can be no God. The omnipresence of God can only be realized by those who have faith in Him. There is no God for the atheist, the disbeliever. If he is asked, 'Who or what in this world is yours?', he will answer, 'Why, my brothers, sisters, wife, children, relatives, all this that I see and feel, all things required for my life – all these are mine'. But, then, will it be correct to accept the existence of all these and yet deny their very Maker, to accept the creation and deny the Creator? First believe in God from whom this universe has sprung, and open the doors of your heart to Him; you will find that He is by you all the time. We must make God our own through faith and feeling. You need never fear anything if you carry Rama ,about with you in your heart. The disbeliever will, of course, ridicule the idea, and we should just disregard him.
Some people say that the worldly life of one who takes to devotion of God becomes vitiated thereby. But how can life be led properly if one ignores its very Creator? It is utterly inconceivable; on the other hand, those who live in the unbroken remembrance of God will find their worldly lives to be well-ordered. It is true that giving up worldly life is neither indispensable nor necessarily conducive to spiritual life. What must be given up is attachment to worldly life. The story of Jada Bharata is well-known, how he quit normal life and retired into solitude in a forest, and how, even there, he conceived attachment for an orphaned foal of a deer. Attachment has the same effect, be it for a deer or for anything else. You cannot earnestly devote yourself to God so long as you remain attached to one worldly thing or another. So practise diligently to free yourself of all attachment, and have the firm faith that Rama is ever with you.
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