GOD AND GOD-MEN IN VEDANTA (5)

July 19, 2004

Swami Ashokananda

Let me first define the term God-man as we understand it. You see, in the

Hindu religious tradition we believe that many people have become saints, that

is to say, actual knowers of God. We have also conceived the knowledge of God

to be of different degrees and stages, so that if you have the insight to see

into the mind of a spiritual man, you will at once know what degree or stage of

spiritual growth he has attained. Some have truly seen God, and to see God is no

easy thing. It is said that it takes many lifetimes, many incarnations as human

beings, for the soul to reach a state where it craves for God essentially, and

that state is only the precondition of spiritual experience. When a person feels

within himself that he doesn't want anything of the outside world, when the

greater part of his aspiration is directed towards God, when he is convinced in

his heart of hearts that God is the essential truth, that He is the

abode of all

goodness, and that to find Him is to be fulfilled completely and

everlastingly -

when this condition is reached, one is able to travel towards God. And

it is then,

after having practised meditation and dwelt upon God with all one's

heart and soul, that one comes so close to Him as to actually see Him.

That is the first experience of God we have.

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