How to go to God's place? || Acharya Prashant (2019)
Questioner: Dear Acharya Ji, Pranaam! So far I have asked so many questions, and patiently you have answered all. I have made sincere efforts to walk in the direction shown by you as much as possible. Now no question bugs me, except the same, old one – what do I do to go to God’s place?
Whatever I do seems to increase the restlessness and thirst. I feel as if I am somewhere hanging between the Earth and the Sky. Please guide me.
With love and Gratitude!
Acharya Prashant: You are asking Parmeshwari (the questioner), “What do I do to go to God’s place?” God does not have any place. You have a place, God has no place, right? When the Saints talk of God’s abode, or God’s country, they don’t literally mean it. Do they?
So, God has no place specifically. God has no particular place, which means that these places that you see around you, are all God’s places, potentially. Potentially, every place is God’s place, provided the one living in that place, the one at the center of that place, is Godly.
You will have to work in this Earth, upon this Earth, with Godliness in your heart, and then this Earth itself will be God’s place.
With godliness in your heart, work on this Earth, and then you will find that God’s territory is here. But work you must. Otherwise, the potentiality will remain just a potentiality. Earth will just remain potentially God’s place, not actually.
A lot of hard work is needed. Not so much to change the earth, but first of all to change yourself. If you are changing, then parallelly, concurrently you will start seeing a change in Earth. The more your inner self becomes Godly, the more this earth will appear Godly, like God’s place.
Work!
You must know what the characteristics of Godliness are. Right? You know of – ‘Sat , Chit , Anand * ‘ (Truth, Consciousness, Bliss). So you see around you, when I say, “Around you,” I mean in the physical territory around you whether there is * sat , whether there is chit , whether there is anand . And if it is not – work. Work hard to bring these about.
You know of characteristics of Godliness. You know of Freedom, you know of Truth, you know of Simplicity, you know of Love, you know of Non-violence. Look at the world around you. Do you find these prevailing? If not, then work. Work very hard to bring them to Earth.
This very Earth, I said, can be hell, or potentially God’s place – heaven.
Depends on you.
But then, don’t be confused. When I say, “Change the Earth,” I repeat, that the change that you see in the Earth would always be commensurate with the change that is happening inside you.
Work! Wherever you see filth, wherever you see darkness, that’s where ‘work’ lies. Fight it! Dispel it! There is no other way. Darkness is, what is shrouding the Light.
Man believes so much in his own places, that he is missing God’s place. You cannot reach God’s place by avoiding the Earth or escaping the Earth. There is no vehicle to launch you into the outer space.
God does not live elsewhere. Either he would be ‘here’, or nowhere.
And you will have to dig Him out, here. You will have to carve him out, here. Work is needed. God, potentially, exists here. It’s like stones potentially exist here, but the deity has to be carved out.
Work is needed.
Cleanliness potentially exists, even in the filthiest of places. Isn’t it? But the filth has to be broomed out. So, work is needed.
Q2: Acharya Ji, I was reading Ashtavakra Gita. On the same page, two verses were written. One verse said, “Sadhana (spiritual practice) needs to be done.” Another verse said, “You have already arrived.” I am confused.
AP:
Sadhana needs to be done to reach a stage, where you can see that you have already arrived. Without sadhana, you will never know that you have already arrived.
Without sadhana, are you ever in rest?
The common man undertakes no sadhana. How is he? Restless. Does he ever believe that he has finally, ultimately, irrevocably arrived? So the faith, that one has arrived, is not really common among human beings.
What is usual and common? That we have not arrived – this belief.
What do you usually find among human beings? The belief that one has not arrived, and that there is a fair distance to go.
Sadhana is needed to rid oneself of this misplaced, and painful belief.
